A family itinerary in the western United States by: Noah Gruber. The trip was a family trip: 2 parents and 3 kids (ages 9, 13 and 15).
Length: 23 days of travel in August 2022. It was amazing!
Flights with UNITED: on the way out we flew toSan Francisco, a 15-hour flight. It was excellent: a comfortable Dreamliner and a night flight. On the way back we flew fromLas Vegas with a 2.5-hour connection inNew York (Newark). On both return flights we flew Economy Plus, a serious upgrade in terms of space and seat comfort. It was excellent.
Car rental: with AVIS. It went very well. We booked a minivan (Group V), a car for 7, and there was enough room for all of us and the suitcases. The car we booked was a Dodge Grand Caravan.
For the first rental we got a Honda Odyssey, and when we landed in Las Vegas a Toyota Sienna. Both were excellent.
A tip from the Check In Out team: Booking a rental car in advance is recommended and will save you the hassle of comparing prices and finding a reliable rental agency during your trip.
We’ve written a whole article with tips on renting a car abroad.
Weather: in San Francisco in August the weather is cool. We wore sweatshirts and some of us jackets, mostly in the afternoon and evening. In Sequoia National Park it was pleasant, in Los Angeles and San Diego warm and pleasant, and in Las Vegas scorching, 42 degrees Celsius, and in the nature canyons around it too. On the way, Zion had a monsoon with a flash flood warning and some trails were closed the next day, and on the way to Las Vegas there was a tornado warning…
Hotels We Stayed at on Our Western USA Trip
Our guideline was hotels rated above 8.5 on Booking.com, with a connecting door between 2 bedrooms or a family suite with at least 2 bedrooms. In the end there was one hotel (in LA) where we didn’t have a connecting door (even though the hotel has rooms with connecting doors). Also, wherever you can sign up for a free membership when booking the hotel, it’s worth doing: for example, with Marriott you collect points, and some hotels are linked to it (such as the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, which also got us an 8% discount at the Cosmo buffet).
Hotels we stayed at:
San Francisco: COURTYARD BY MARRIOT FISHERMAN WARF: an excellent hotel, great location, convenient parking, modern. Recommended!
Monterey: Best Western De Anza Inn: dated rooms, OK overall.
Sequoia National Park: Kaweah Quail Lodge: a stunning cabin about 20 minutes south of the park entrance, modern and wonderfully equipped. Highly recommended if you want to stay right in nature.
Los Angeles: The Garland: recommended! A beautiful, spacious hotel with a shuttle to Universal that takes about 10 minutes. Very convenient!
Anaheim: Sonesta ES Suites Anaheim: an OK hotel that we enjoyed less. Its only advantage is that it’s on the Disneyland shuttle system, but plenty of other hotels are too.
San Diego: Residence Inn San Diego Downtown/Bayfront: an amazing hotel! Excellent location near the aircraft carrier, a beautiful hotel with a spectacular view. Recommended!
Las Vegas: we stayed at 2 hotels. 4 nights atThe Venetian: we stayed in the newer wing, the Palazzo, and it was amazing in every way!!! Highly recommended! Super spacious rooms with an extra living room area attached to each room (we took 2 rooms with a connecting door), 11 pools, a spa, 2 gyms, 40 restaurants and a shopping area. An amazing hotel! Highly recommended.
The second hotel: the Cosmopolitan: also an excellent hotel, but for us as a family it was less suitable: it’s more for young people, and the rooms are less spacious. Its advantage is that it’s more central on the Strip (in the kids’ opinion that was less of an advantage, because it was also very crowded…).
Grand Canyon: Grand Canyon Plaza Hotel: a reasonable hotel for a stopover close to the Grand Canyon entrance. It’s next to the visitor center with the IMAX, a nice film (details below).
PAGE: Best Western View of Lake Powell Hotel: we enjoyed it less. Dirty rooms and unpleasant staff, so we shortened our stay during the day because of it.
Zion National Park: Driftwood Lodge in the town of Springdale. A charming hotel with a guesthouse feel, with a shuttle right to the park. We enjoyed it very much.
A 23-Day Itinerary in the Western USA
1. San Francisco, day one, landing day. A note about San Francisco: we were warned a lot about thefts from cars, so we left nothing in the car (no suitcases, no sweatshirts, no phones). We’d just had a 15-hour flight and were tired. We landed at 06:00. On the way we stopped at the Twin Peaks viewpoint: very beautiful and recommended. We walked in Golden Gate Park, which is spectacularly beautiful; it’s also worth driving across the bridge and back. The Japanese Tea Garden is recommended. We ate at Boudin Bakery, which is considered highly recommended, but we enjoyed it less.
2. San Francisco, day two. We took a cable car to Union Square, a fun experience, and ate at the Cheesecake Factory at Macy’s on Union Square: worth it! We walked around the area to Chinatown, where we treated ourselves to a foot massage, and continued climbing up to Coit Tower: a cute viewpoint. We passed through Lombard Street, which is very pretty.
3. Alcatraz: amazing! We really enjoyed it! Then Pier 39: we enjoyed seeing the sea lions and the atmosphere of the pier with its shops and restaurants. An amazing day!
4. Leaving San Francisco: a shopping day at the Gilroy outlets, which went well. It’s worth signing up for membership at every store, because membership is usually free and gets you 20% off. Each store has different days of the week when you can sign up and get the discount that same day, so it’s worth asking. Overnight in Monterey, with a walk on the main wharf: sea lions again and a cute pier with restaurants and shops.
Sequoia National Park
5. The drive to Sequoia National Park (the original plan was Yosemite, but because of the wildfires we switched to Sequoia). On the way we stopped for 3 hours at the biggest water park in California, in the town of Clovis.
6. A day in Sequoia National Park. There are several visitor centers in Sequoia and Kings Canyon. I recommend starting the day at one of them and talking to the rangers. There are different trails of different difficulty levels and lengths. A day in nature, highly recommended!
7. A rest day at the cabin near Sequoia National Park
Los Angeles
8. The drive to Los Angeles. In the evening a walk on the Santa Monica Pier: recommended!
9. Universal Studios: amazing!!! The kids had planned in advance which rides they wanted to do, in order of importance (it’s a small park, and in the end we managed everything…). We bought an Express pass, thanks to which we hardly waited in line (the downside is that it pushes up the price). The queues at Universal hold some fun things about each ride, even though we skipped them by not waiting in line. Harry Potter is amazing, and the Universal Studios tour and the shows are great too. An excellent day! (P.S. The Express pass can only be used once on each ride, so if it’s morning and there’s no line yet, you can save the pass for the afternoon.)
10. Exploring Los Angeles. We started at a viewpoint over the Hollywood Sign, continued with a tour of the Walk of Fame, which is an experience, and then booked a 90-minute tour of the stars’ homes in Beverly Hills with Open Bus Tour: recommended! We finished at Olive Garden, our go-to restaurant!
11. A day at Disneyland
A fun day! It’s highly recommended to buy Genie+. It adds 20 dollars to the ticket and really shortens the waiting time in line. With Genie+ you can also attach all the photos from the professional photographers around the park to the app. We bought Genie+ in advance, as well as the tickets, and downloaded the app in advance.
Here too, as at Universal, the kids planned in advance which rides they wanted to do and in what order. In the end we managed all the rides. It’s worth checking the app to see where there’s a line and planning the next ride accordingly, then booking it with Genie+. There’s no point booking too far ahead, because until you scan Genie+ at the entrance to the line you can’t book the next ride. Each time you book with Genie+, you have an hour to get to that ride. It’s very convenient and recommended!
Disney’s evening shows, including Fantasmic! and the fireworks, are very, very recommended! The Star Wars ride Rise of the Resistance is super recommended! (We started with it, but there was about a two-hour wait and it isn’t on Genie+, so we started with other rides and went back to it at the end of the day.)
12. A shopping day at the Citadel Outlets, and in the afternoon a baseball game: a super cool experience!
San Diego
13. The drive to San Diego, with a stop for shopping on the way
14. San Diego: the aircraft carrier USS Midway, amazing!! We spent 3 hours there. Then a swim in the ocean. In the afternoon and evening, a walk in the La Jolla neighborhood: we saw cute sea lions again and ate at an excellent restaurant, Mermaids and Cowboys.
15. The San Diego Safari Park, including a zip line (Flightline, from age 8) and a safari jeep tour: an amazing experience!! But expensive. We bought tickets for the zip line in advance and didn’t know you also have to buy Safari Park tickets to get in…
Las Vegas
16. A flight from San Diego to Las Vegas with Southwest: great. You can also drive, a 6-hour drive. One night in Las Vegas at the Venetian; we’ll be back..
17. Leaving for the Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam: very beautiful!
18. In the morning an IMAX film about the Grand Canyon, and then we entered the park (it’s worth buying the annual pass for all the national parks, which costs 80 dollars, if you plan to visit 3 parks or more; for us that included the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Sequoia and Zion). At the Grand Canyon you can do different trails. We chose the Rim Trail, 1 to 5 km long, where you can choose to cut off in the middle and return by shuttle. A spectacularly beautiful view of the canyon!!! We really enjoyed it!!! It’s important to note that the trail is paved and not narrow, but it isn’t fenced, so take care with young children. In the evening we drove to Page. On the way we stopped at Horseshoe Bend: very beautiful!
19. Antelope Canyon: amazing nature!!! We went with Ken’s Tours, which was a little less recommended. After that we took a kayak on Lake Powell, which was really nice.
20. Zion National Park: an amazing park! There are many different trails you can do. Very beautiful and well organized.
21. The drive to Las Vegas, 3 days. We toured the different hotels (New York-New York has a great video game floor for kids, and there are big Hershey’s and M&M’s stores; Caesars Palace; and Circus Circus, with a whole amusement park area for kids). In the evenings: the Bellagio fountain show, the Mirage volcano show (the Mirage has since closed) and a Cirque du Soleil show: we saw Mystère, which was very, very beautiful! Restaurants: the Cosmo buffet is highly recommended (discount for Marriott members, free to join on the website) and Buddy V’s at the Venetian. And of course Denny’s everywhere.
Where our recommendations came from: Guidebooks and travel itinerary websites, and recommendations from Facebook groups.
Enjoy! An experiential, fun trip!
