We’re thinking of going for two weeks in August, either this year or next. Planning on flying to San Francisco, spending a few days there, flying to Las Vegas, spending a few days there (don’t think we’ll enjoy it much with smoking being legal inside but we’ll see), taking the Flixbus to Los Angeles, hiring a car on arrival and spending around a week there and then driving back to San Francisco on the 101, with an overnight stop in Cambria then one more night in San Francisco before flying home (flights are waaay cheaper to return from the same spot - around £600 each rather than £1200 each). Has anyone been before? Any tips on things to do or avoid? We don’t really want to do loads of driving which is why we’re opting for the 1hr flight between SF and Las Vegas and the bus to LA rather than driving the whole thing. We’re doing the drive back as we feel we should do a little bit (still 8 hours+ over the two days) just to say we have really as it’s all part of the experience. We’re definitely going to do a trip to Alcatraz and to Disneyland & Universal Studios. We’d like to see the Grand Canyon but maybe not enough to drive 4 hours there and back from Las Vegas. Not too fussed about the Hollywood stuff but would seem a bit silly to be in LA and not do a bit of it.
Sign up to Jack's Flight Club for alerts for really cheap flights. Have you considered San Diego? If you like beaches I'd say it's worth a trip. Also try to get to a baseball game, both San Francisco and LA have great ballparks, even if you're not really interested in the sport the stadiums are worth visiting just to take it in.
My only tip would be to really watch out for pickpockets in San Francisco. I know two who went there, both lost their wallets. It's a beautiful place though and not worth that putting you off.
We’ve thought about San Diego (mainly for the zoo to be honest as beaches aren’t really our thing) and at only two hours drive it may very well be a trip we take one of the days. I’d not considered a game but that’s a good shout, thanks!
They’d have a job on, I never stop thinking about my possessions for a single second when on holiday, it’s a bit of a paranoia of mine. There’d definitely be easier targets for them.
Rather than a direct flight to the US from Manchester some friends flying from Manchester to Dublin and then a direct flight Dublin to California - good connexion in Dublin and a hefty financial saving (not sure how much.)
Hire a bike in San Franciso and cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and then catch the ferry back into San Francisco. Some beautiful views and parks on the way. Ferry passes Alcatraz on the way back to the wharf.
Never been, but have great musician friends out there. I could ask them, or friend you on FB..? Danielle & I are planning a cross country AmTrack trip, once I get my arse to New York..
We’d kind of ruled out the bridge due to fog levels in August, would it still be possible to do if very foggy?
Been lots of times so happy to offer any advice. My tips would be: - Be careful with (hotel) car parking charges, particular in San Francisco. If you are starting/ending your trip there, it's often best to dump the hire car before you go a hotel. - LA traffic is worse than the M25 at rush hour. Try and time your trips so you aren't fighting with traffic. It has to be seen to be believed. - Personal preference would be to leave Las Vegas for a different trip rather than combine - but obviously won't work if you don't intend to come back after this trip. - Hollywood is an absolute dump. Just do the tourist stuff in half-a-day and get out of there. - Alcatraz works better as a night visit if you can arrange it.
You can still do it because the cycle lanes are very safe. You may well be above the fog once up at height above the bridge so could take some atmospheric pictures of it peering out. Not sure if the ferry runs when it's foggy. You'd have to check.
Thank you, that’s all very helpful! - We’re planning on avoiding a car completely in San Francisco, apart from the very last night. We might just have to eat the charge for that so we can use it to get to the airport the next day, not fully sure yet where we’d be getting it from or returning it to. - We definitely wouldn’t be making a trip purely for Las Vegas as neither of us are particularly looking forward to it per se but both feel like we would like to see it for a couple of days. - That’s the plan for Hollywood. Do the obvious stuff, Walk of Fame, walk up to (near) the sign etc. but not spend all day there. - I saw they did some evening trips now which sound good. All the advice I’ve seen says go in the morning but they never really say why. As you have to book tickets in advance it can’t be to avoid queues.
SF can be changeable weather wise. Went in July once and it was cold and misty. Alcatraz well worth the trip, as is a city bus tour. We spent about 4 days there on the way to Hawaii and had plenty to do. SF to LV is a heck of a drive without breaks, so flying is very convenient, especially if you’re not too bothered about Yellowstone or Death Valley (which would be stupidly hot in August). LV will be hot in August. Possible 40 or more. 4 or 5 days would be plenty there I’d say. Grand Canyon West Rim is about 3-4 hours drive. We did the South Rim on a bus tour and it was a 6am to midnight job. If I did it again, would drive myself. Hoover Dam at the same time as the GC is also worth a visit. I’ve always found LA flights to be cheapest. Horrible airport though, but they are doing a lot of work on it. San Diego is by far the nicest airport, nice and small and very easy to get in and out of. Does tend to be more expensive though. The drive up from SD to LA is wonderful. Amazing scenery and beaches. Some wonderful restaurants in Oceanside. Amazing wineries in the Temecula area. Have a visit to Newport / Huntington beaches. Boat trips from Newport are well worth it. We use SD and LAX when we go to Palm Springs in October. I don’t really like LA, so use it as a landing point rather than big trips. City bus tour is worth it, as is a day in Hollywood (it’s not very nice tbh). Santa Monica beach is lovely and is the end of Route 66 if you’re into that at all. I think Venice is a dump personally, but ok if you like that sort of thing. I suspect you’ll be unimpressed with large parts of LA. Didn’t do Disney or Universal as it’s much better in Florida (was told the whole of Disney in California fits into the car park of Magic Kingdom in FL). Never done the road trip between LA and SF, but it’s on the list. hope this helps.
Understood. If you are not looking forward to Las Vegas then just swerve it - there's enough to do in California to cover a dozen holidays (San Diego, Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey etc.). There's a bulletin board called The Dibb (https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/index.php) which has a board for California Planning and California Trip Reports (near bottom of page). If you can get past all the "darling husband" and "dearest daughter" text then it's actually a good source of information. Look at other travelers trips and get an idea of what you might want to do. Actually, thinking about it, @SFOTyke would probably be the guru here.
Its just all tremendous. We did LA - San Francisco - Yosemite National Park - Death Valley - Las Vegas driving and then flew back from Vegas to LA to go home from there. Things I recommend: Going to the baseball (or NFL if its Autumn) Pismo Beach Monterey Everything about San Francisco but especially Haight-Astbury YosemiteNational Park Zabriskie Point Getting absolutely caned in Vegas All the nature, everywhere, but especially the ocean nature Things i dont recommend: Downtown LA and Hollywood Driving south to north, the scenery is meant to work better the other way rou d.
That’s all great, thank you! We weren’t sold on San Diego but after two recommendations I’m wondering if we should fly from Las Vegas to San Diego and pick up a car from the airport rather than getting the bus. That’s the bit that’s been quite woolly for us as we weren’t sure how to get from the bus stop to the (not yet chosen) hotel with our cases or where to hire the car from (airport is possibly better as they don’t charge one way fees as we’d be dropping off at San Francisco airport). We could do a night there then drive 2hrs up into LA. I know the Disneyland is much smaller but I’ve done Paris 3 times and Florida 4 times so wanted to see the original. It will also be nice to have a bit of familiarity amongst all the moving around which is scaring me a bit as we’ve never done anything like this.
Done it a few times. I'd be tempted to spend less time in LA and more stopping up the coast. There are great things to see in LA but it's all really spread out and the traffic is absolutely bonkers. It can take hours to get across at times. I don't like smoking indoors but it has never bothered me when going to Vegas to be honest. (So much to do there aside from gambling which also doesn't really float my boat any more) Driving up from LA to San Fran. Places to see/stop Big Sur Monteray (good over night stop location) Do the near by 17 mile drive. Stunning. Malibu Places I enjoyed visiting or probably worth the effort: LA Hermosa Beach (stayed their a couple of times. It's a really nice beach town) Beverly Hills/ Rodeo Drive Santa Monica / Santa Monica Pier China Town Venice Beach / Venice Canals - plenty of charachters. Enjoyed Universal Studios. Getty Villa/ Getty Centre (if you like museums) The Original Farmers Market San Francisco Alcatraz Visit to Napa valley (Wine train looked good as well) Open Top Bus Tour Little Italy Golden Gate Bridge Fishermans Wharf I enjoyed San Francisco more than LA although I heard it's got a bit rougher since Covid. Places you will wonder why you went: Hollywood (proper dump) Disneyland (Microsoft hired it out so we had it to ourselves with free food and beer and still thought it was a bit meh. Got bladdered though ) Anaheim Most bizarre place I went in LA: The toilets where George Michael got caught cottaging (Went on a tour around Beverly Hills and that was one of the stops ) On my first trip we also went to San Diego and Yosemite national park. Both well worth a visit! You'll have a great holiday that's for sure!
Thank you! Hollywood has not got good reviews so far We’re pretty wedded to driving South to North, it just fits better with what we plan to do when and we’re intentionally avoiding Highway 1 and the cliff edge. I also kind of like the idea of driving away from LA rather into it. We are going to be avoiding Death Valley like the plague.
