Hello fellow Redditors! Expat checking in from UK, sorry about horrid English below.

I have been planning my first ‘serious’ roadtrip lately and I am buzzing about it right now. I just wanted to share it with you guys and maybe hear some suggestions/tips? In summary, it is going to be a 12 nights roadtrip around San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas triangle this June and maybe I should also mention I will be travelling solo in case you might have specific tips for a solo traveller

So, the big day!(mid June), I will take a direct flight from Manchester/UK to San Francisco.(11hours economy flight. This is going to be the toughest I had so far) Landing on SFO around 3pm and picking up the rental car I already booked. I have gone a bit extravagant (for my budget)on the car as I always wanted to drive a convertible and thought this journey might be the right time to do that. Anyway, this is something making me more excited about the journey. Given the big part of the journey will be driving, I think it was a good decision at the end.

Right after leaving the airport, plan is to drive to Monterey(2h drive) to spend the night because I don’t think i will be fit enough for any longer journey on the day of landing. I also read good things about the place so decided to stop there. Spending a night in Monterey and hit the road in the morning for the Pacific coast highway aka PCH. (this is the part I am really excited about)

I am planning to take Route 1 and have several breaks along the way. I am thinking about driving all the way down to Santa Barbara and spend the night there. Although, I am not sure if this is the right place to stop or is it too far from Monterey considering the stops I would want to have along the route. I want to be relaxed in this part of the journey and stop anywhere I like along the way, take some pictures etc so I can stay somewhere closer than Santa Barbara. Any suggestions?

Next 3 nights/days are spared for LA. I have not decided what I am going to do there but probably touristic stuff like Venice Beach, Hollywood etc. which is fine. I just need to find a reasonable hotel/Airbnb around.

After LA, it is time to hit the road again for Vegas and I already booked my hotel there for 3 nights. (Hard Rock - it is off strip but looks like a decent hotel and there was a great deal so I thought why not) To be fair I do not have much plans for Vegas apart from a bit of gambling and sparing 1 day for Grand Canyon. (planning to drive to “real” Grand Canyon which was roughly 5h drive I guess) It is more or less all about Vegas anyway, right?

Then it is time for the long journey from Vegas all the way back to SF. As it is a very long drive, I want to break it by staying over somewhere in the middle but I couldn’t decide where to stay yet. Maybe somewhere in the National Parks like Death Valley or Yosemite etc? Any suggestions are appreciated.

In the last part of my journey, I am going to spend 3 nights in SF(hostel in downtown booked) basically seeing some attractions and maybe a bit of shopping. I guess I will be quite rough to do more anyway.

At the end of this trip, hopefully I will take my flight back to UK with good memories. I believe this journey will be something really special I have done on my own in my life. I do not expect to be enlightened or anything but I will have so much time on my own in places I have never been to. So it will be a challenge and hopefully fun at the same time.

Finally, sorry about the long post (and grammar) and thanks for taking the time to read.

Cheers

TL;DR, guy plans a road trip in West of USA and asks for tips on his plan.