best method

Hi, I am trying to organise a trip to west coats USA from London, but cannot ecide whether its best to try and book flights London-LA-San Fransisco-Vegas-London (seems very difficult to get direct flights from SF to Vegas, and Vegas home), to do a flydive from LA, but I%26#39;m a little nervous of driving in the US, or to do a coach trip (think it may be full of older people, and perhaps restrictive on free time). Or finally to fly to LA, and then use Amtrak to get up the west coast, but only problem is Amtrak does not travel to Vegas. Please can you share your experiences of different methods, if you have planned a similar trip. Many thanks!

best method

So -- you want to visit LA, San Fransisco and Vegas? How much time do you have?

How about flying London to LA, then LA to Vegas, then Vegas to San Fransisco, and home to London from SF?

The flights between LA and Las Vegas are quite inexpensive, as are the flights between LA and San Fransisco -

best method

There are direct flights from Las Vegas to San Francisco,

however most of us locals tend to fly Las Vegas to Oakland or Las Vegas to San Jose due to its less expensive to fly into one of those two airports. If you purchase early enough, you can get a seat on Southwest for abougt $90.00 one way. Oakland by the way is the airport closer to San Francisco; there is shuttle service and BART - bay area rapid transit/shuttle bus - that can take you from Oakland to San Francisco.

(Agree with Yogachik its cheaper to fly from Burbank to Las Vegas and back....)

Depending upon how much time you have and if it is summer/early fall, a popular route for fly/drive is as follows:

Fly into LAX

Drive from LA to Las Vegas

Drive from Las Vegas to Death Valley

Drive from Death Valley to Mammoth Lakes/June Lakes

Drive from Mammoth Lakes/June Lakes to Yosemite

Drive from Yosemite National Park to San Francisco

Drive from San Francisco to Monterey

Drive from Monterey to Cambria (see Hearst Castle and on drive down see Big Sur Area).

Drive from Cambria to Santa Barbara (for Lunch)

Return to LAX

The key thing is timing as it depends upon if Tioga Pass is open between Highway 395 and Yosemite National Park. If it is, its easy. If not, the routing can get complex and add many 8-10 hours to the

trip.

There are several posts on here from people from London who have made the drive and find it fine. Of course, the distance and curvy roads from Monterey to Cambria are the most difficult. (Note: You can take Highway 101 in that case instead of Highway 1. But take note: When I mention this to anyone from Englad - they always say - the drive and ocean views are well worth it...and highly recommend the Highway 1 drive.)

Tell us more...

1. How many days is your holiday?

2. What kinds of things interest you in the various cities (natural beauty, museums, amusement parks, architecture) ?

3. How much of a gambler are you?

4. How much do you like to drive? The drive straight down the coast between SF and LA is about 7-1/2 hours without sightseeing (except looking out the window at the ocean as you drive). Would such a drive be enjoyable or would you want to break it into 2 or 3 pieces?

5. How important is saving money? Round-trip international flights are less expensive than multi-segment (in this case, arriving into one U.S. and departing from another).