I would drive to Vegas, just because it's a reasonably fun thing to do once. (it gets old if you do it a lot, because it's hundreds of miles of empty desert). A few things, though; it will be VERY hot in the desert in August (say, 45C/112F). Normally I would recommend driving up there at night, because it's fun to see the city of lights appear out of the darkness. But I would not drive from LA to Vegas on a Friday evening as the road will be crowded. Either go in the daytime or the middle of the night.

It will be cheaper for 4 of you to drive than fly. There shouldn't be any issues taking the car across state lines, and having a CA-registered car may get you through the California Agriculture Inspection faster on the drive back. (oddly, though, the car you rent in California may actually have Arizona plates, because it's cheaper to register cars there)

My 2 cents:


Day 1(Fri): Land at LAX, pick up rental car (make sure it is a convertible!) for a week or 2, stay with family friends in East LA
Day 2: Hollywood sightseeing, stay at the Andaz WeHo where we have a Suite pre-paid for at a very affordable rate thanks to a generous FT friend. A night out on the strip hoping we have conquered the Jet lag quick enough
Day 3: Santa Monica, Venice, Hollywood. Have a reservation at the W Westwood
Day 4 to 7: Huntington beach = no good. You might want to do something else like leave for Vegas early and keep driving till you get to Springdale next to Zion Ntl Park. Get a room at the Desert Pearl Inn and use it as a base to discover Utah and the parks.
Day 8(Fri): Drive to Las Vegas. Where should we stay?… this is my first time to Sin City. Should we return the car or hold on to it? Keep the car. Stay in the Encore by Wynn if you can afford it. If you want to spend your money on better things the Staybridge Suites are the very best choice in Vegas.
Day 9: LAS
Day 10: No more LAS... Drive to Grand Canyon and try to get a room at the El Tovar Hotel on the edge. It is quite a drive but an incredibly scenic one. Make sure you arrive at GC before sunset though. Spectacular.
Day 11: Grand Canyon; drive to the nearest airport, ditch the car and fly to SFO
Day 12:15: Rent a new car (most definitely a convertible!) and stay in SFO for a couple of days. You should really do a overnighter in Yosemite...
Day 15/16: PCH with an overnighter in either Big Sur or Carmel.
Day 17-19: Do the LA thing again. If you must. You can also keep going to La Jolla... Ditch the car there and fly back to LAX.

Driving from Vegas to SFO is quite possible one of the best drives out there. LA to Vegas not so much. Lots and lots of traffic jams on a Friday and few scenic parts. So you might want to fly to the Grand Canyon from LA and shuffle the route a bit. Drive back from the Grand Canyon via Springdale, Vegas, Yosemite to SFO.

I have done this dozens of times. If you need advice, don't hesitate to contact me.

Is it churlish of me to be somewhat disappointed by the contrast in number of responses to this thread on the BA board vs my vaguely-kinda-sorta-similar thread on the LA board? :( (I suspect the answer is yes; nonetheless this has a fair amount of info I can use too, so thanks BA board ^)

Several people already mentioned Alcatraz, I would like to recommend the night tour (assuming it runs in August, I went in November so it was dark by 5.30pm as I recall)

Pre-book Alcatraz tours – often not possible to purchase on the day.

Agree in LA the Getty Museum is a great visit (although our SatNav ended up taking us somewhere altogether different!).

Also in LA you may want to see what concerts are on at the Hollywood Bowl – we went to the opening night of the season and had Lizza Minelli, James Galway and BB King! What an unusual line-up!

We went to Warner Brothers and were really disappointed, so on that basis I’d definitely recommend Universal Studios. I think KenJohn is mistaken as Depsarate Housewifes is filmed at Universal not Warner: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Housewives.

If you’re European you can probably find more history under your finger nail than in Hearst Castle – I’d avoid it.

Yosemite is great and, if you’re going to visit a couple of other National Parks it may be worth getting a membership.

In Vegas I would definitely recommend the Bellagio, with a fountain view room – an unforgettable experience.

I agree with much of what HenkyBaby says, but if you are renting a convertible make sure that your luggage will fit in the boot/trunk with the top down! We’ve made that schoolboy error before :(

Indeed. But adapt your packing to the car, not vice versa. This all is so much more impressive in a open top.

Most of my experience of California is in and around San Francisco, so i'll concentrate my comments there.

San Francisco is a great city just to walk about it, or hire bikes and cycle along and over the Gold Gate Bridge, down to Sausilito and then catch the ferry back over the Fishermans Wharf with decent views of Alcatraz on the way back. Or, do what a colleague and I did, and walk the 13 miles from Union Square, over the bridge and down to Sausilito!

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but if you've not done the Cable Car rides in SF, you have to do that.

Take a trip to Lombard Street, great to drive down if you keep your car for a day there, or even walk or catch the cable and have a walk up/down it.

For some cultural views, have a walk through China Town; you'll likely see some amazing things. A colleague of mine once saw an old chinese woman break a chicken's neck on a bus, after the driver told her she couldn't get on with a live animal.

"There, its' not alive now" she said, as she walked on.

Finally, consider visiting Coit Tower in the Telegraph Hill to get great views of the city from its centre.

How about veering off the beaten path and taking such a tour http://www.esotouric.com/


You have to try truck food, google them and follow them on twitter.

And if you are planning on going to the bowl, pack a picnic and go early and enjoy. You can get bleacher seats for less that 5 bucks.

By all means skip Hollywood. Go to the strip, more your age group.... Oh downtown, and by all means go to the Standard Hotel roof top bar, there is where the USC chicks congregate. ;). If the lakers are playing go to a game. And if USC is playing get tickets and to a tailgate.Mind you I didn't say UCLA, avoid that school like the plague :D. Attend a baseball game at Dodger stadium and have a dodger dog and hopefully you'll get to see irl the peanut man. Ohh so much to do in LA, just get out of the tourist trap, they look much nicer on the post cards. Ohh have some real tacos, from a taqueria.

Check if JPL has an open house and take a tour, one of the most fascinating places, you'll get to observe the shuttles or whatever spacecraft they are manning. How about the Observatory at night (check if they are open) and look at the stars. Yes you can see them with all the smog.

FWIW, I'd spend 2 days less in LA, it's not that nice a place, the traffic sucks and the people aren't particularly friendly. I'd drive from LA to San Diego and spend an extra day or two there (use the toll road). The Omni hotel is particularly good and well located near the Gaslamp district. Balboa Park and the San Diego zoo are amazing and well worth sacrificing time in LA for. Try to hit happy hour in the Prado for cocktails :D. From San Diego I'd head to Las Vegas, stopping for a few hours in Temecula wine country. After Las Vegas and Grand Canyon drive on to San Francisco.

Wow, so much great advice
 

Thank you all for your replies, I can already see my rough plan changing for the better^

I genuinely believe this is one of the best places to seek advice for such a trip and I will be sure to follow with a trip report.

Perhaps Yahillwe is right, and I should have explained a little bit more about us. We are 4 guys in our twenties, all have different and sometimes conflicting interests so we would ‘like’ to try and do it all; 5* Hotels, Theme Parks and Nightlife to Camping, National Parks and Sights. I know something will have to give, and as a reference, I think places such as Hearst castle, the Getty and some recommended PCH towns would be first to go.

Los Angeles

I have some family and friends in the city, so this is why we have allocated a good deal of time here; plus it is a great city if you know where to go. East LA is a very nice part of Downey so no need to worry guys;) We plan on renting a convertible, and this was because we could pack light and leave some of our luggage here if needed. I know LA well, although I am worried I have forgotten what is fun for a first time tourist to do.

Huntington

I do not know the city at all. We have friends near Laguna, and I thought it would be close enough to visit them and Newport. We also have a Suite(thanks FT) reserved at the Hyatt for a great price. Anywhere else would cost us a good bit more(for less), or if we stay with friends it would be a tight squeeze.

Las Vegas

Maybe 2 nights and 2 days would be enough, have heard good things about Encore(& PH, Palms, MGM) so ill keep my eye out on any great deals and move on that, would be keen to get a 2 bedroom Suite where possible. I would like to drive to Las Vegas for the experience arriving at dusk, and go at the weekend although this could be changed.

Grand Canyon

So either drive making a 2day trip of it, or take a Helicopter Tour seems to be the best options? I do like the idea of not having to give up the car, and going forward(time allowing) into the surrounding area although(greenbacks allowing) the Helicopter tour sounds amazing.

“Here is where it gets interesting….”

I like the idea suggested by britbronco22 of going from LV up into Yosemite, and then over to SF. I have no doubt Death Valley will be a little toasty for Glaswegians in August, however the drive sounds amazing and we should be used to the heat by then. After Yosemite, how quick could the drive back to LA be? Unless we have all of our luggage and are willing to give up PCH then we would like to go back to the City for a few days –otherwise we would just head over to SF. I never knew you could do day trips to Yosemite from SF so this is something to look into to.

San Diego

Is it worth skipping the city to spend the day in La Jolla? I have never taken to San Diego although I have not been for many years. I did not enjoy Sea World, the Zoo did not wow me(to be fair, I have a dislike for animals) and the daytrip to TJ was not forgetful in the bad sense.

PCH

I think a night would be long enough, where would you recommend we visit and stay?

San Francisco

Walking tour, Alcatraz, Pier and China town were on my list. Thanks to the recommendations here I will be sure to keep the car for at least a day to drive across the GC bridge and visit Saurisito.

Sounds like it might be best to keep the car, as opposed to returning it in different states -what is the ease and cost of this? I am also not keen on the idea of double backing on internal flights although If it is easily done(I expect so from LV, less so from LA) then we could consider doing it once.

Again, thank you all so much. More than welcome to keep the suggestions coming.


** My 1000th post sure is a long one

Same thing happened to us - we ended up in some residential estate round the back of the musuem. But it was absolutely worth it.

It's hard to add to the combined wisdom of the board. We did a similar trip, drove from LA to GC via Palm Springs and London Bridge and back to Vegas where we ditched the car. By the way, no problems with the one-way rental across state lines. I would have given Vegas a miss, but being so close we kind of had to do it. We then flew up to Fresno (FAT) with Allegiant, picked up another car and stayed at the Teneya Lodge. From there out to SF.

Definitely drive to / from Vegas. The drive through Death Valley is fascinating and seeing Vegas appear on the horizon is great, and on the way to/from SFO you can go to Yosemite as well.

Grand Canyon - not sure this is worth a drive, I know I didn't bother on my first Vegas visit. I did a helicopter trip on my 2nd trip to Vegas, when I was older and richer, which was amazing. However, I think you'd be looking at c £200 per head to do this.

Vegas - you MUST do this midweek, or you will be screwed on your hotel prices. You also have to hope there is no big convention in town.

SFO - truly lovely, very British place. You can do 3 days here easily, especially if you go out to Alcatraz one day and drive across the bridge on another. Also a very good place to just hang out.

LA - personally I dislike it, but if you've never been it would be wrong not to go and do the Hollywood stuff! And next time you do this trip you can avoid it!

Personally, I would do a loop, driving down the coast from SFO to LA. It is one of the most amazing drives in the world and you'd be crazy to miss it. Hearst Castle is an interesting OTT stop on the way - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_Castle

I have actually done this trip twice - into SFO for a few days (easy to acclimatise because it is so English), drive down the coast, LA / San Diego, Death Valley, Vegas, Yosemite, back to SFO. You cannot have a better holiday in my opinion - there is literally something for everyone with this itinerary. It works just as well starting in LA as well, although it helps as you have family - LA is a bit of a shocker to cope with, I am not happy being let loose in an unfamilar rental car on a 10-lane highway after a 13 hour flight!

[QUOTE=pazza2000;16085691]

Los Angeles

I have some family and friends in the city, so this is why we have allocated a good deal of time here; plus it is a great city if you know where to go. East LA is a very nice part of Downey so no need to worry guys;) We plan on renting a convertible, and this was because we could pack light and leave some of our luggage here if needed. I know LA well, although I am worried I have forgotten what is fun for a first time tourist to do.

I wouldn't stay in Downey, unless you are planning on doing Disneyland. You will be stuck on the 5 going west all day long. And really there is nothing to do in Downey but track houses, I'd stay more centrally located and AWAY from the 2 lane 5 fwy. And bit of FYI, east coaster NEVER say THE before naming a fwy and always give you the exit #. West coasters ALWAYS say THE before the fwy and always give you the exit name. We just started numbering the fwy exists and really no one knows them.
Huntington

I do not know the city at all. We have friends near Laguna, and I thought it would be close enough to visit them and Newport. We also have a Suite(thanks FT) reserved at the Hyatt for a great price. Anywhere else would cost us a good bit more(for less), or if we stay with friends it would be a tight squeeze.

Hummm Huntington Beach, btw this is the way we pronounce it .. hunigton.. You really aren't close the Laguna, it would take you around 45 minutes on the 405 south (depending on the hr) then crossing over the hill towards laguna. Just keep an eye on the distances and the traffic. Avoid rush hrs otherwise you are stuck in traffic jams under the boiling sun and you'll turn into lobsters. Take lots of water with you. If I recall you will be there in August... water my dear water. for you and your car.

JumboD, your message caught my eye.

I never got past the first line saying they were staying in EastLA. :D

(I grew up in LA. Not sure I ever knew anybody who'd actually been to EastLA, unless they were armed police or undercover DEA agents....)

Lots of good suggestions from the fans, though.

Or Fergie ;)