West coast road trip (planning stage); Any suggestions ?

[jeepescu]

So, it is finally here.
The planets have aligned for THE road trip that I've been dreaming of, and it is just around the corner.

Here is the data:
Available time: 17 days (leaving Wednesday June 4th, must be back on Saturday june 21st)
Departing from: Montreal, QC
Arriving to: Orlando, FL

Planned route:
- Montreal - San Francisco (via Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada) - 4 days
- Staying two days in SF
- Driving down highway 1 to LA - 1 day
- Staying 3 days in LA
- Driving to Las Vegas - 1 day
- Staying two days in Vegas
- One day at the Grand Canyon
- Driving to New Orleans (via Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) - 2 days
- Staying one day in NO
- NO to Orlando - 1 day

If anyone has any suggestions about this, I would be delighted to hear them.

 

[lost1wing]

I'm doing a west coast trip myself in late June and all of July. I'd like to hear about your trip when you get back. I am leaving Atlanta and heading north to Chicago, then Saltlake city. I will go north thru Canada to Anchorage. I will do the intercoastal ferry, then head south thru Canada, to the west coast (USA).The stops I plan are the redwoods, napa valley, LA, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Slide Rock SP in AZ and what ever else that is recomended on the way.

 

[ruking]

Sounds like fun!! It would seem the itinerary is set up mainly to (broad) sight see ( Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada can be end destinations in and of themselves, certainly not to look at another slice of REAL America- Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, would also be a disservice) on the way to SF, LA, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando. You will certainly see a LOT of sights. Of those end destinations, you can further get into wild overload. Normally at end destinations stays like those, I like to think of each one serving as the center point of a radius for up to 250 mile. This would represent a days worth of comfortable traveling (250 miles max one way and return ). But it does not seem you would have time to execute that, except for a few special venues.

I think you could spend easily a week in each place and not still not get bored, so I think the hard part is to narrow down your interests in the times and places you have allowed.

Certainly GREAT cusine is common to SF, LA, Las Vegas, New Orleans. There are hidden gems in Southwest cusine that you can sample also.

If this is one of your first trips to the Grand Canyon, I would urge you to book either a plane flight tour around the Grand Canyon, or a helicopter flight. We went in a Sept time frame (even after having been to the Grand Canyon 4 other times over the years), after driving in a pouring rain all the way from Las Vegas, NV to Grand Canyon, AZ. (did a route 66 fantasy, in a Corvette no less, the rest of the trip was no less grand) and literally the clouds reformed, it stop raining and the flight was absolutely superb, cystal clear (normally quite hazy) !!! It was literally a lifetime memory!

I could go on and on as I have been to all those places you mentioned numbers times. So I think your interests are really the key.