[Closed] US West Coast Trip – What Not to Miss

I've been to Yosemite a couple of times, it is very impressive. Go for a hike up halfome, but go very early to avoid the crowds.
I've also had a lovely romantic, candlelit meal at Tahoe City on the banks of Lake Tahoe......well when I say romantic, what I mean is myself and my Glaswegian workmate getting drunk on wine and port. 🙂

£700 is OK for the west coast. I'd go to Venice Beach and maybe the museums but I'm not a fan of LA (terrible sprawl). San Fran however is a great city - plan to finish with at least 3-4 days. The Coast between LA and San Fran is really great too.

When you are in Vegas book to see Absinthe (in a circus tent of Ceasars Palace). It's like a very rude and funny version of Circ du Soleil.

I'm not too fussed about LA, so when we did similar we flew direct to Las Vegas, which was a good place to adjust to the time difference and catch Blue Man Group.

Then the itinerary was along the lines of: Grand Canyon -> Antelope Canyon -> Monument Valley -> Natural Bridges NP -> Moab (MTB fix on Porcupine Rim)-> Arches NP -> Bryce Canyon NP -> Zion NP -> Death Valley -> Yosemite -> SF.

I'd find it difficult not to recommend any of that, but it means heading more inland from your LA->SF trip. With various stopovers that was just over 2 weeks worth, but Zion and Moab would be my personal highlights of the trip and would have happily spent much longer there - if you're out for 17 days you might be able to get across. We then headed up the coast from SF up to Seattle through Oregon (which is stunning and worth another trip).

This makes a useful guide to the area too: [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Beer-Guide-West-Coast/dp/1852492449 ]West Coast Good Beer Guide[/url]. 🙂

When are you planning on going?

Alcatraz is a good trip, although I'm street the night tour would be much more atmospheric than the day.
If you are planning to see the Golden Gate Bridge then do it later in the day when some of the fog has burnt off, so you can actually see the bloody thing. We did a combined coach and Alcatraz tour that took in most of the sights and was quite informative. Ride the trams as well.
Hoover dam is interesting if you are industrial minded and white water rafting is something else

2nd Alcatraz - amazing. Shark watching from SF looked cool as well. Also, if not too far out your way, I'd look at crater lake in Southern Oregon. Stop for pie at Becky's Union Cafe in the middle of the woods.

The coast up from San Diego to San Francisco is lovely. Lots of little places to stop as you want. Lake Tahoe also really nice.
As others have said LA is a bit of a dump. Also if you are driving expect to waste an entire day to and from the Grand Canyon - if we did it again I would probably get a heli tour.

stinson beach
mt. tamalpais
all of highway 1
yosemite
tahoe's better in winter......
KA at the MGM Grand.
wondrous !

Thanks for the suggestions so far, 2-3 places we hadn't considered.

It's not the first time I've heard that LA isn't worth visiting but hadn't thought about flying into Vegas, it's thrown a spanner in the works but seems like a much better idea.

Thinking about it flying to LA is really just wasting a night of the holiday as there isn't anything either of us want to see there. The flight and car hire only works out at about £100 more expensive than flying to LA. Maybe we won't be booking flights tonight!

Edit: mattstreet, fly out early May.

Now, the LA not being worth visiting thing is a bit of a red herring. I'd heard it was crap and wasn't looking forward to it when me and the wife went but I referred it to Vegas and SF.

There's so much to do in and around LA even more if you venture as far down as Newport. I loved going to the less touristy places like redondo beach and hanging around the shopping centres aimed at the locals. Santa Monica was fantastic though. Try and get on a VIP tour at universal studios if you can, it's a bit more expensive but you get to see much more of the lot, and they gave us some tickets to the tonight show the day after which was great.

In Vegas, try and take a trip out to the Hoover dam, it's quite interesting if you're a bit of a nerd. Also try and find somewhere for a swim in lake Meade, just so you can say you have.

In San Francisco, Alcatraz is a must as is the Golden Gate Bridge but the whole place was too touristy for me, we spent most of our time in Chrissy field and the golden gate park.

Napa is really nice, there's an old faithful geyser up there somewhere, when we went there was no one else at all. It was really peaceful but worth seeing.

As soon as we can afford it again were going back to LA for a fortnight, don't write it off yet.

If you like Chinese food make sure you go to Chinatown with an empty stomach.
We ordered starters and mains, but the starters are far bigger than the average main over here, so we had a rethink halfway through. Great atmosphere in the one we ate at.

Double-up on recommending Santa Monica as a proxy for LA. Great place, got the necessary beach 'vibe', can park the car up and walk in the evening, but close enough to LA to drive in for the day for Hollywood etc. As for San Francisco... Awesome place. If I could get a job there... Have stayed in Fishermans Wharf. Bit touristy, but again,you can leave the car and walk the touristy bits there. We cycled the Golden Gate Bridge with bikes hired for the morning and cycled around the Bay and caught a ferry back. Really worthwhile doing if you're bike minded - not necessarily a given here! - though whilst it's not a great ride by any measure, parts of the trip will give you views and experiences which are unique, and that's the point of travel, right!?

As for the rest, Vegas and Grand Canyon, yes. Maybe combine? We drove to Vegas from LA, then did a day trip to the Canyon with a 10 senate plane, helicopter up/down the canyon and boat trip at the bottom. Was a bit 'ticking the boxes', but price was Ok and it enabled us to do something which otherwise would have taken more time than we had.

Yosemite, again yes. There is better advice here than I can give as we travelled in a 30' RV with a nine month old, which limited our choices a bit.

Can't wait until the next time we are back.

Palm Springs is canny, some good desert montain biking too.

Maybe even fly to San Diego - really nice place to start. Then drive up to Palm Springs and onto Vegas? Although I find Palm springs a bit quiet.

We cycled the Golden Gate Bridge with bikes hired for the morning and cycled around the Bay and caught a ferry back