Highlights from your trip. Must see. See timeline. Las Vegas — 3 nights. To find maps, more things to do, photos, and tourist information, refer to the Las Vegas trip planner. Traveling by flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas takes 3 hours. Alternatively, you can drive; or do a combination of train and bus.
Find places to stay Dec 22 — Conditions can vary in the park depending on the weather and time of year, so obtaining up to date information is useful. If you decide to spend the day exploring Joshua tree, then we recommend spending another night near the park, and then heading to Los Angeles the next morning after breakfast, just under 3 hours drive away.
If you wanted to, you could spend a few hours in the morning at Joshua Tree and then head into the city. We can recommend visiting the excellent USS Midway Museum , which is a fantastic museum ship found on what was, for a long time, the largest ship in the world.
Built just as the second world war ended, this aircraft carrier saw service in the Vietnam War as well as the first Gulf War. You can easily spend your whole afternoon here, and lovers of military or aviation history will definitely want to come here. There are lots of other sights to choose from in San Diego. If you would prefer to visit the beach, Coronado Beach is well worth visiting. San Diego is a major city and as such there is no shortage of excellent accommodation options to choose from.
Of course, the flip side being that budget accommodations are a little harder to come by, although there are still some options. Here are our picks for your time in San Diego. There is a huge amount to see and do in Los Angeles, and the city is quite spread out, so we feel you will want to spend a couple of days here to do it justice.
Here are some ideas of how to fill that time. There is a huge amount to do in Los Angeles, so you will need to pick and choose depending on your particular interests. We think most visitors will enjoy visiting the Hollywood part of town, where you can see the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Another popular activity is to get a behind the scenes tour of a movie studio. Both are active movie studios where you can take tours of the working movie lots, with Universal Studios also home to a number of rides and other attractions. Art lovers will want to take the time to visit the Getty Center.
This free art museum is famous for its spectacular views, lovely gardens, architecture, and of course, art collection! The latter focuses primarily on pre 20th century European art, as well as photographs and sculpture.
Note that whilst the Getty Center is free, there is a fee to park here if you visit by car. If you are planning on seeing a sporting event or concert, or for the famous LA nightlife, you might want to stay in the LA Live area, where there are many venues for entertainment. Just be aware the city is vast, and sprawls across a large area, so you will want to carefully plan your time so as to see everything you want. In terms of getting around LA, the most popular option is to drive, although the traffic is legendary.
If you would prefer not to drive, you have other options. One thing to bear in mind though is that the city sprawls across a vast area and is known for its heavy traffic.
It can take a long time to get from one end of the city to the other, so do keep this in mind. We tend to stay either in Santa Monica or the Hollywood area, both of which made for a good base for local exploration of those areas. Here are some of our recommended hotels in the city.
The total drive is around miles, which would take you about 9 hours if you drove it straight in one go. We suggest you take two days and two nights to drive the route.
You will then arrive into San Francisco in the morning of your 10th day. There is a huge amount to see and do along the route, as well as just taking in the spectacular vistas as you do so. We have a complete guide to driving the Pacific Coast Highway , which should give you lots of ideas. However, some suggested stops along the route would be as follows, in order from south to north.
We can recommend visiting Santa Barbara and the Mission here. Onwards again, you may want to detour off the and heading to Solvang. This town is famous for its Danish-style architecture, and there are numerous sights and attractions here, including a motorcycle museum, Christmas store, and early 19th century Franciscan church.
From Solvang, continue north to San Luis Obispo. You can choose to spend the night here, or you can head a little further along to Morro Bay or Cambria. All three make good stopping points. From Cambria, we suggest your next stop should be Hearst Castle. This sprawling hilltop castle estate was the home of William Randolph Hearst, an early 20th century media tycoon.
The castle has an incredible location, offers amazing views up and down the coast, and is well worth a few hours of your time to visit. See more on visiting in our complete guide to visiting Hearst Castle. A little further north from Hearst Castle is the Elephant Seal vista point. Here, if you visit between November and March, you will see thousands of elephants seals on the beach, as they come to mate and give birth.
If you visit outside these months, there will still likely be seals on the beach, but not in quite the same volumes. The views along this stretch of the route are really lovely, and there are plenty of pull outs so you can stop and enjoy the view. If you have time, you might enjoy taking a drive along the famous 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach.
These recommendations are listed from south to north along your route, covering a number of locations we suggest you consider stopping. If you are not in a hurry, there are few sights to take in along the way. First, Monterey itself is home to the fantastic Monterey Bay Aquarium. This is an amazing attraction, but it is quite large and relatively expensive, so you will probably want to spend at least a few hours here to get value for money.
Next, Santa Cruz is well worth a stop. See our guide to things to do in Santa Cruz for some ideas. First, on the afternoon you arrive we can recommend visiting Alcatraz.
For almost thirty years this was home to some of the most notorious criminals in the USA. Today, Alcatraz is open for tours. These are very popular so you will want to be sure to book in advance as they often sell out. Make sure you only book from the official Alcatraz Cruises website , as these are the only ones that land on the island and let you tour the prison. Other sightseeing tours just take you around the island.
For more on visiting Alcatraz, see our guide to visiting Alcatraz. Pack the 21st Tue with family-friendly diversions at Universal Studios Hollywood. Next up on the itinerary: take in the waterfront at Santa Monica Pier , see the interesting displays at Petersen Automotive Museum , and shop like a local with Two Rodeo Drive. To see ratings, where to stay, other places to visit, and other tourist information, read our Los Angeles trip planning site.
Atlanta to Los Angeles is an approximately 6-hour flight. You can also drive; or take a bus. Due to the time zone difference, you'll gain 3 hours traveling from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Finish your sightseeing early on the 23rd Thu to allow enough time to fly to Las Vegas. Despite the road being dry and desolate, you can see a fairly large lake lined with palm trees.
As you venture down the road, you might see some wildlife like a pack of bighorn sheep. Learn about the complete history of Zzyzx Road here.
Alien Fresh Jerky began as a small shop selling healthier snack alternatives for road trips and later evolved into a booming business selling unconventional but tasty beef jerky with flavors like carne asada and mango habanero. From the turning point off of I at Baker, the drive into the park is another 1 hour and 40 minutes. Because this is a longer detour, I suggest planning a separate trip and an overnight or weekend stay to make your visit here worth it.
I have a two-day itinerary for Death Valley here and you can also check my complete list of the best things to do in Death Valley. Planning to stay the night in Death Valley? I also gathered the best Death Valley Airbnbs near the park. Like Death Valley National Park, the Mojave National Preserve is where you can go for a scenic drive through isolated but spectacular desert grounds.
Since the turning point into the preserve from Baker will tack on another hour to your drive, you may want to consider visiting when you can stay overnight at a nearby location. Take in the sights of the Seven Magic Mountains , a special foot high art installation that displays brightly colored boulders stacked upon each other to depict the mountains of the desert. This outdoor exhibit is a popular spot for photographers or those who simply want to capture the Instagram-worthy shot.
Note: Seven Magic Mountains will remain open through to the end of From there, there so much to do in Vegas, from helicopter flights over the Strip or even to the Grand Canyon to checking out the casinos and sights along the Vegas Strip to checking out Fremont Street for an alternate side to Vegas.
And of course, you could optionally continue onwards to the Valley of Fire State Park, which is another 45 minute drive and well worth the extra push!
Lianne quit her job in and moved to the bustling city of LA for a change of pace.
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