Hey guys,

I’d like some input on a west coast road trip me and two buddies are taking this summer.

Little bit of background info:

• Three guys from Norway 33-35, all single, all in pretty good shape. We’ve all been in the US before.
• Interests: hiking/nature, good food and wine, some partying, some relaxing, some city action, off the beaten path type of things
• Not particularly interested in: architecture, history, museums, gambling (I’m the only poker player of us and I’ll survive without playing for the trip, possibly a bit on my laptop/in Vegas)

We’ve already booked tickets – we arrive in San Francisco June 11th and leave from SF July 9th. You can find a link to our route so far here. 4200 miles in all over 4 weeks.


Things we almost definitely plan to see/do:

• San Francisco (stay for 3-4 days to recover from jet lag (9 hour time difference) and hang out)
• SixFlags Discovery Kingdom outside SF (we’re all semi-adrenaline junkies)
• Driving along the coast on Highway 1/101
• Wine tasting in Napa
• Visit Seattle: one of us was an exchange student 15+ years ago in a little town outside Seattle and wants to see the same area
• Montana: probably sort of an odd choice, but we’re fascinated by the big, open country (so very unlike Norway) and want to experience some of the more rural parts of the US.
• Yellowstone
• Grand Canyon: we’re probably gonna stick with the North Rim since it’s less crowded and stay for 2-3 days
• Las Vegas
• Death Valley
• San Diego: two of us have been there previously and we both loved the city, will probably stay here for 4-5 days and chill out.

Questions for you guys:

• Feedback on the route? Anything you would change?
• Any activities/sights you would recommend?
• Will we have any problems getting into Canada/back into the US with a rented car (FWIW we’re renting a Chevrolet Trailblazer or something similar) ?
• Will we have any problems finding motel rooms along the way? We hadn’t really planned on booking much in advance apart from Grand Canyon, Vegas and San Diego. We just need clean beds and preferrably healthyish food, otherwise we have no requirements.
• Anything to see/do on the Seattle – Grand Canyon part of the trip? Apart from Yellowstone this looks like the ”dullest” part of the trip with a lot of driving and no planned activities.
• Good restaurant tips along the way appreciated - nothing super fancy/expensive - we're not total food freaks!

Would really appreciate any input

if you intend to play poker on this trip do not miss ocean's 11 casino in north san diego! also t.j. can be tons of fun for single guys.

edit: ok i just saw the part about no gambling, def go to mexico while in san diego.

Wow, where to start?

I'm not sure about you geogrpahic knowledge of the US west coast in general, but the city of Portland, Oregon is every bit as nice as Seattle imo. Smaller but more dense, with a good downtown and party atmosphere. Great beer.

Next to Portland (moving upstream on the Columbia River) is the Columbia Gorge, which is very scenic and actually reminds me of Norway somewhat. It is about an hour out of town. My pic:


I don't really understand the need to go out to Montana unless it is specifically en route to Yellowstone. It definitely has tons of mountains and stuff, but that is true of lots of other places in the west. Understand that the west coast as a whole is extremely rural outside of urban areas, and you will not have trouble finding parts of California where there are barely any radio stations or working cell phones. Montana's countryside is more rural than Oregon, Washington, and California, but I think you will have had your fill by then.

And I don't think I would go all the way from the west coast to Yellowstone. That's a hell of a drive, and to make it to Vegas/Grand Canyon afterwards you would have to Utah which is definitely not a very exciting place. There is another, much closer national park called Yosemite which is in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and Yosemite > Yellowstone imo. Yosemite is 4-5 hours from SF, 3-4 hours from Death Valley, and about 3-4 hours from Lake Tahoe. Yellowstone is very very far from all of these palces.
My pic of Yosemite:

You could probably get an equally enjoyable experience with half the driving by making way though eastern Oregon down to Tahoe, then Yosemite, then Death Valley, Vegas, and GC from there. All extremely scenic and rural.


You don't need to book motels in advance. In cities, you're gonna get owned if you just walk into major hotels and ask for a room. You'll do much better using priceline.com and bidding for hotels: my priceline thread--includes winning Vegas and Portland bids. Keep in mind that most downtown hotels in SD, LA, SF, Portland, Seattle, & Vancouver BC tack on a $20+ parking fee on top of your room price (whether you book through priceline or not). This doesn't apply to suburbs or smaller towns generally, and in Vegas this doesn't happen.

First off let me start that obviously my itinerary would be much different considering I'm 20 and a University student in Santa Cruz, CA and therefore likely have a different goal set in mind when I'm going on a road trip with the gents. That being said, I'm a nature junkie as well and think I could offer a good amount of insight to lead you into the right direction for your trip here to Cali and around.

Some changes I would make:

- Take out Yellowstone as suggested and replace it with Yosemite and/or Sequoia National Park. You could also throw in something like Bryce Canyon/Zion National Park in Utah which are relatively close to Grand Canyon and would make a much easier transition in your travel overall. These are all top-notch National Parks and I hope any person visiting America would make an effort to reach them. IMO, Yellowstone and Montana, etc. should be a trip on on its own and shouldn't even be included in a 'West Coast' trip.

- Add more places in California, Oregon, Arizona. I would personally add in Sedona, AZ because its just a ridiculously special/beautiful place that most people visiting America aren't even aware of. Also, I think spending 5 days in SD is completely unnecessary and I have no clue why anyone would possibly want to do that on such a short trip.

Also noteable stops:
-Muir Woods (north of San Francisco)
-Santa Cruz, CA (I'm a bit biased )
- Los Angeles (Not sure if you've ever been, but is definitely worth spending a few days that you planned on being in San Diego for)
- Portland, OR (lots of beautiful places outside of Portland as well in Oregon, I'm not very educated on nature in Oregon though however, so I'll leave that for others)
-Lake Tahoe, CA
- Santa Fe & Albuquerque, New Mexico

I'll put more down as I think about this. Overall, I think that a trip to the West Coast should leave you with the feeling that you were in a very special place which has a lot of infused cultures and beautiful nature to offer. I don't believe that you should be tossing a mish-mosh of Montana and random blah in the middle, because then you won't really be getting an authentic experience. Even so, if you wanted to venture out, I think you'd much more enjoy places such as Denver, CO, Sedona, AZ, Albuquerque, NM, etc. as opposed to Montana and Yellowstone because then you'd get a true feel for the food, beer, architecture, history, etc. that drives culture here.

Sorry for the sporadic thought process, I'm a little bit too stoney for my own good right now.

-Danny

As others said, take out Yellowstone. It's a long ways away and there's better places if you're outdoor people.

If you're looking for more amazing outdoor type stuff, look at the interior of B.C.: Okanagan Valley (wine country), Kootenays, Pemberton valley area (Whistler, etc) etc. All beautiful and, I would personally say, better than Montana as well. Also all very close to the US border and not near as far away as Montana/Yellowstone.

As others have said:

You have to add in Portland. Awesome city.

Wow guys, this is some really incredible input. Much better than I expected

We'll get together this weekend and discuss our route some more and the changes you guys have proposed. Apparently I was a bit quick in dismissing my buddies' interest in art and architecture too, so if someone has some tips there we'd appreciate it!

I'd consider Sonoma wine country in addition to Napa. It's nearby, less prestigious but also seemed much less pretentious and overall nicer.

Death Valley didn't impress me that much for some reason. Yes, it's really hot and dry there. I guess it's OK to see once but not a place I'd return to, considering it's too hot to do hiking or really much more than get out of your car, snap a few pictures, get back into your car and drive away hoping it doesn't break down. We went in summer as will you. It might be different in winter though.

I'd go hiking in Yosemite or other Californian national parks while you're there.

Good luck on your trip. I'm jealous. I'd agree with most of the advice you've gotten so far. I can't recommend Tahoe, Yosemite, Zion and Bryce Canyon highly enough. I put together the route that I would take if I were in your shoes.

Western US Road Trip

I passed through death valley and thought it was pretty cool. I'm from the east coast so that kind of stuff probably impresses me more than it does folks from California. I also went in October, so the weather was quite comfortable.

I want to go back and climb Telescope Peak. I don't normally care about plants and stuff, but seeing an ancient, rare Bristlecone Pine way up on the very top of the mountain would be pretty cool.

Yeah, idk, maybe in October it is much better.

Also, I second the Bryce Canyon suggestion. One of the most impressive places on this planet I've seen.

So you wanna add some artsy-fartsy architectural stops? I'd say Sedona, AZ (also has some out of this world natural environments surrounding), and Santa Fe & Albuquerque, NM are three great stops for you to make. Also, the architecture/artsy feel of a lot of the Coastal cities as you're driving down the 1 in California will definitely hit the spot for you guys in that sense, ie: Half Moon Bay is a petite artsy town just south of San Francisco that a lot of people like to stop for lunch/dinner. My favorite restaurant around is located there and is called Pasta Moon ( a real high quality homemade Italian/Californian modern cuisine). There are just tons of little places like this in Cali on the coast, as well as all around the West Coast. It would be hard to go on this trip and not be overwhelmed by good food, beautiful nature, and well-structured cities and towns. If you have any questions regarding anything suggested please shoot

My suggestion as a life long Californian:
1. SF 3-5 days (wine country, Point Reyes, Mt. Tam, Angel Island)
2. Monterey 2 days (Carmel, Monterey)
3. Drive down highway 1 to San Simeon (hearst castle) 1-2 days
4. Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo 1 day
5. Santa Barbara 1-2 days (beach, bars)
6. LA 2-3 days
7. San Pedro (take ferry to Catalina Island) 2-3 days
8. San Diego 2-3 days
9. Joshua Tree national Monument 1-2 days
10. Drive north inland to Mt. Whitney 1-2 days
11. Continue on highway 395 to Yosemite 3-4 days
12. Through Fresno to Pinnacles Nat'l Monument 1-2 days near Hollister
13. Back to SF for rest of trip

I would go to six flags Magic Mountain instead of Discovery Kingdom. If your any kind of adrenaline junkie, the rides are much better at Magic Mountain.

Thanks again for all the input, it's really appreciated. Googling something like this gives so much useless info, forum input is far superior.

We'll be meeting on Sunday to discuss our route and decide where we want to go. Ultimately we want to experience a wide range of activities and locales, as we probably won't have the chance to make a trip like this again as single guys. I don't doubt we could stay in California all the while and have an amazing trip (I absolutely love Cali myself), but we do want to branch out further.

I'm sure I'll be back to ask more detailed questions

I would recommend NOT removing Yellowstone from your trip. It is the most incredible place with so many unique features that you simply can't find elsewhere. Well worth the drive. Continue NE out of Spokane towards Kalispell, MT and visit Glacier National Park. In Montana, I would recommend stopping overnight in Missoula or Bozeman (NOT Butte). Instead of going through Idaho Falls, continue south out of Yellowstone and visit the Grand Tetons.

I would go to Great America instead of Six Flags. I think the drive is even closer to SF than vallejo. way better rides. not even close.
http://www.pgathrills.com/visit/visit_park_map.cfm

yellowstone is pretty effing far. IDK why you wanna go to montana. I think you will see the same type of land in whyoming; im mainlly thinking about saving time.

motels: ull easily find places to sleep as lon as you are on a road that gets used by alot of trucks.

grand canyon: a little farther east iirc is a plce called bryca canyon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryce_Canyon

iv noticed you skip Los Angeles area. I think that area has alot to offer in terms of beaches and night life. my favorite beaches are: zuma beach and laguna beach. though laguna beach can seem pretty snobby. zuma is pretty laid back despite it being in a wealthy area. huntington beach will have alolt of stuff going on around the downtown, its not snobby at all. they usually have surf competitions etc... plus that place is cracking. tons of bars located on the main street, walking distance form the beach.

oh yeah i forgot: lake tahoe duh!

Hey i done something similar a few years back. But on a shorter time scale. Went to vegas, flew to SF and stayed then drove to LA but had to do the trip in one day and i was only driver and we went the coastal route lol. It was awesome. I definitely would do it again. That coastal route is amazing.

Dont know much bout other areas but my parents went to vegas/yosemite and they thought it was great. I seen photos which looked good also. Im not sure on geography but you could prob stop in Reno on way to vegas as an excuse to be a degen lol

Alright, based mostly on the input in this thread we've changed the route pretty radically. Here's the updated and improved route. We have 27 whole days in all, in addition to landing on June 11th at 1 pm...with a 9 hour time difference.

The biggest change is obviously ditching the Oregon/Washington/Montana part entirely and focus more on Utah national parks in addition to more California stops. For some reason I'm unable to click and drag the last part of the route from Laguna Beach to San Francisco, but we plan to drive along Highway 1 (ldo), spending a couple of days along the way back to SF for the plane home.

Now, this route is still pretty long...but after looking on the national parks in Utah (in particular after being inspired by suzzer99's pics from his Utah++ trip), we were just blown away by them and decided we want to spend more time there. The terrain and climate is just completely different from Norway, while Washington/Montana are somewhat similar. FWIW we’ll be driving a 4-wheel drive SUV so we can navigate some decently rough terrain (and all three of us will be driving). You can also see a more detailed plan with distances, stopovers and dates. Yes I know, I’m pretty anal :/

We still have some questions...

• Ideally, we'd like to not book hotel rooms in advance at all apart from Grand Canyon (only 1 place to sleep on the North Rim), San Diego and for July 4th. We're prepared to pay a bit more for being able to be maximally flexible. In general we don’t really care much about the quality of the hotel as long as it’s average/not dirty. We’re aiming for sharing motel rooms on the road and getting separate hotel rooms in the cities.
  • Will we be totally ripped off if we want a hotel on the center part of the Strip in Vegas if we only book a couple of days in advance? Particularly since the WSOP is in town in that period?
  • How about the national parks where there’s lodging? Is it absolutely necessary to book lodging ahead to be sure of getting rooms?
• We don’t particularly care about beach life at all, but we still would like to chill somewhere along the San Diego – San Francisco coast line. Either 1 or 2 stops. So far I’ve put in Laguna Beach (so we can drive into LA for a day as well while we’re there). Any other particularly good spots? We’re probably mostly interested in chilling and partying some here, so not something completely deserted. Also good if there are good architectural/art spots close by.
• Is Tahoe worth spending a whole day in? Or is it good enough to arrive there, spend the night and drive on to Vegas?
• Death Valley: originally we had planned to spend the night there – is this worth it? In particular for sunsets/sunrise over the salt flats? Or is just driving right through better?
• Utah national parks: we’ve set aside 1 day each for Zion, Bryce and Canyonlands. Arches and Mesa Verda more like half a day each. For those of you who’s been there, anything you’d change?
• We’ve planned to drive the entire way from the North Rim of Grand Canyon – San Diego in one loooong day. Is this doable if we’re willing to drive like 15 hours? This is 600 miles, mostly by highway.

We're also going to Great America outside of SF and Muir Woods, thanks for those tips.

Any more input would be appreciated, thanks a bunch for the help so far!

I travelled California last spring and it was fantastic. It was me and the GF and we rented a car.
We started at LA which i didnt think too much of to be honest, very dirty and intimidating, did the touresty stuff there.
Then went down to Huntington, Lauguna and Newport beach. Newport beach was exellent, so much god dam money there! Really recommend these beach areas.
Then we drove to Lake Havesu, luckly there was the world champ speed boat comp going on the lake which we had a shallet on which was pretty good but apart from that didnt really see much to keep us there any longer.
Palm Springs was next which i acually enjoyed, small place with not a great deal to do but it was nice and relaxing. If you like golf then it's a great place to go, or if you gay (big gay scene), me and the missus went in a gay bar by accident!
Then Vegas baby! dont think i need to say anything about here! Although i will recommend Mandalay Bay's artificial beach and wave machine for chilling in the day.
Then we took a huge drive to Yosemitie, GO it is amazing, the time of year we went was great as all the snow was melting creating the most amazing waterfalls, we were also lucky enough to see a bear with its cubs.
Our last stop was SF which i wish we had more time to explore. We took the Alcatraz trip which was well worth it, if you do go just book tickets in advance.
Im sure i'll be going back sometime, have fun.

Tahoe - If you are planning on doing any hiking, mountain biking, outdoorsy stuff you would want to spend a day. If you are just looking to check the lake, hit the beach, do a little gambling a half-day/overnight is fine. The South Shore is different than the North Shore. South Shore is where all the casinos are and the North Shore is a little more laid back.

Where you staying in SF?

I don't think we'll be doing any hiking in Tahoe, we've got plenty of hiking planned already and we'll be coming directly from Yosemite.

Haven't booked any hotels in SF yet, suggestions are welcome

What are you looking to spend per night?

Hmm well, probably not more than $100-$130 per person in SF.

You're updated route looks fantastic. You guys are going to love hwy 395 in CA and the Eastern Sierra after crossing over from Yosemite. Seriously make sure you allocate enough time to that area.

Make sure to drive thru the June Lake Loop (hwy 158) and stop in Mammoth for some activities. The Mammoth area imo is superior to Yosemite (doesn't have the crowds)and way better than Tahoe. You might want to drive up to Bodie -- an amazing old ghost town -- if you have the time.

Once you leave Mammoth the drive down 395 doesn't have many must see areas to stop but the drive is amazing. Be sure to stop at Erick Schat's Bakery in Bishop for some of the famous Chili Cheese Bread.


I live in Laguna and if you decide to stop here while in SoCal, just try to find a parking spot in the Main Beach area and walk along PCH to the various shops. Laguna was originally an artists colony so the place is saturated with galleries if you like that sort of stuff. Javier's Cantina would be a nice place to have lunch.