azepine00

The scariest thing in la is traffic.
Driving at night in a strange new area may be disorienting and uncomfortable but navigation should take care of that. Aside from that just use common sense.

dhuey

Good advice. For most of us, our time in these vessels that travel at high speeds on roads is by far the most dangerous thing we do.

CDTraveler

The utter boringness of Fresno aside, I would simplify your route because the current one has so many hours of driving that you won't have time to see or do much.

I would also ask if you are used to mountain driving in a way that just isn't found in Belgium? Steep mountains, icy roads, possible chain requirement?Yosemite in snow is beautiful but dangerous and you will need to check frequently for road updates, like today's for SR 41:At one end of the route, there's a mudslide, at the other end snow chains are required. That's my home state for you!

To help you understand the CalTrans road condition reports, get a couple large scale maps of California (generally Northern California and Southern California are separate maps) and highlight the routes you plan to take so you can easily find the route numbers and compare where problems are to your planned route.

Also, you mention family trip - does that include children? It takes a rare child not to get carsick or incredibly bored on Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It could easily be a 12 hour drive. Safer and simpler would be to take Highway 101 from San Francisco to Santa Barbara (a beautiful, historic town with a great beach and zoo for kids, historic Mission church for adults and lots of good restaurants) and then from there take the coastal route down to Los Angeles. This would save time and your sanity with kids in the back seat.

All in all, I would be more concerned about road conditions than meth or terrorism.

mlshanks

As others have pointed out, a Death Valley trip is not likely to be a good use of your time, since before June, the nearby Eastern entrance to Yosemite will be closed due to snow. I'd substitute a visit Sequoia National Park, to see the giant trees. Incidentally, if you are planning on staying *in* Yosemite Valley, I'd book my reservations as soon as possible, since bookings can fill up 3-9 months in advance.

As to your concerns about safety in various California cities, if your itinerary is taking you mostly to tourist destination, you should have little to no problem. Yes, poor neighborhoods can carry with them some risk of crime...but the same would be true on a visit to Amsterdam or Paris. Not dressing extravagantly, wearing a lot of expensive jewelry, and flashing a lot of cash is a good rule wherever you travel.

I'd also suggest that you plan to moderate your travel. It is easy to get over ambitious about travel in California and the West. Remember that driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco is roughly the same distance as driving from Brussels to Berlin....sure you can do it in a day.... (I did the round trip 6 different weekends in November and December) ...but will you *want* to, with your family.

MissJ

Yeah, still a bad idea to walk around the Tenderloin.

I agree, where do you plan to stay in these cities?

Koja78

I actually did that recently also

Anyway currently we have booked a LAX-SFO internal flight .. so plans are arriving...sleeping around LAX.. see a bit of LA en fly to SFO in the evening of the second day for some days there before continuing our trip.

dhuey

It's been several years since I've done that drive. I'll be happy if I never do it again.

Koja78

BRU-BER?
Ah come one... it's quite a relaxing drive... with stretches without speed limit.

Anyway... currently looking at the area around mariposa subway station for the first evening after flight into LAX. Good idea or bad? Seems commuting to the centre via subway from there is still rather long.

TWA884

Any particular reason?

El Segundo is perfectly safe. It is a sleepy bedroom community that's best known for a huge oil refinery. The area around that Green Line station is commercial, mostly offices and light industry. In my opinion, there is nothing of interest for tourists there.

The Green Line and the Blue Line are surface/elevated rail, not subway.

If you want to stay in one of the beach cities south of LAX, you're better off staying in Manhattan Beach or Redondo Beach, which are not much farther.

I'd recommend staying near Santa Monica, where you have easier access to downtown (via the Expo Line) and other places popular with tourists.

dhuey

I agree. I have in-laws in Manhattan Beach, which is a very nice beach town. Still, I think Santa Monica is more interesting for a visitor.

TWA884

Please let's leave political commentary out of this forum.

The place for such discussions is OMNI/PR (access is limited to members who have been on FlyerTalk for 180 days and posted 180 messages - please do not go on posting runs as that will run afoul of FT Rule 14).

Post(s) have been deleted.

Thank you for understanding,

TWA884
Moderator

Koja78

<deleted>

Anyway.. reason for that area... cheap Hilton Garden Inn rate...
And as we fly to SFO the next evening.. might be good to leave our bags close to airport

Koja78

Ended up booking hix hawthorne as Hilton price suddenly rose like an american eagle.

caburrito

Skip Death Valley, it's a desert, not that particularly interesting unless you're into off roading. Instead, visit Mammoth/June Lakes. Enjoy the mountains, trout fishing, Devils Postpile, and/or possibly snow. It's relatively close by to Yosemite for a day trip up without having to worry about accommodations. Haven't been on the 395 in a while, but it should still be a scenic desert drive. Maybe visit Carson City, or Lake Tahoe while you're up there (might as well since you'll probably have to drive through that area anyways).

The only coastal drive you need to do is in between Monterey and Cambria. And if your kids are old enough, check out Disneyland in Anaheim, take a picture in front of Club 33, cause why not.

TWA884

There are many who disagree with you:
Chances that the Tioga Pass Road - Highway 120 through the park - between the Yosemite Valley and the Mammoth Lakes area being open in April of this year are nonexistent.