San Fran to Vegas Road Trip

cutiepie1

Hi there,

Im sure this thread is probably somewhere else but cant find exactly what Im looking for. We are meeting friends for 5 days in Vegas in September and I would like to do a little travelling before, thinking of the flying from Dublin to San Fran and drive down the Pacific Highway, see some nice areas like Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Malibu and then up to Vegas.

I have about 5/6 days before Vegas and my questions are

- Where is the best places to go
- How many days would you need in each place
- Have I enough days

Thank You,
Sara

iusedtoknow

The pacific coast is best done over 2 days, stopping at Hearst castle and a view view points. I've done Monterey to LA via the pacific highway in one day and it was a long 9 hours.

LA to Vegas can be done in one day, it just a desert highway and not much to see along the way. I'd say 2 days from Sf to LA then a couple of days in the LA area and then go to Las Vegas from there

Idbatterim

have done this trip several times and plan on doing it again! If you have 5-6 days, Id travel down the coast, stop along the way for a night or two, then spend a night or two in Santa Barbara which is gorgeous and a night or two in La, maybe the beach cities like Newport or Huntington, as iusedtoknow said, the drive from LA to Vegas is 4 hours ish in LIGHT traffic, be careful choosing when you drive! A Friday evening for example, would not be recommended. There is very little in Malibu from what I recall...

If you had a few more days, I have flown into LA, then up the coast as high as San Fran, across to lake Tahoe (which is on the cali / nevada border and then down to Yosemite (back in California) both are spectacular and then onto Vegas. Basically it is one big loop, but you would probably want 2 weeks to do it minimum...

cutiepie1

Thanks for the help, much appreciated, so would you think the below is a good plan

Day 1 Fly into San Fran
Day 2 San Fran
Day 3 San Fran
Day 4 Drive to Big Sur etc/ do one night over somewhere
Day 5 Drive to Santa Barbara
Day 6 Santa Barbara
Day 7 Drive to Santa Monica
Day 8 Drive to Vegas

Idbatterim

you will see a lot, but be moving a lot... how long are you spending in vegas, 4 nights? Will you be driving? If so, I would highly recommend a convertible, depending on how many of you will be in the car*

luckily for you the euro has gained a decent bit against the dollar in recent weeks, E1 was to $1.03 when I was in Vegas in March! Its now about $1.14

InTheTrees

cutiepie1 wrote: »

Thanks for the help, much appreciated, so would you think the below is a good plan

Day 1 Fly into San Fran
Day 2 San Fran
Day 3 San Fran
Day 4 Drive to Big Sur etc/ do one night over somewhere
Day 5 Drive to Santa Barbara
Day 6 Santa Barbara
Day 7 Drive to Santa Monica
Day 8 Drive to Vegas

Seems okay. I'd take a night from SB and add it to LA:

Day 6 Drive to Santa Monica
Day 7 Santa Monica