The Ultimate West USA Roadtrip Guide – while staying healthy

All the info on where to go, what to see and how to do it!

 

Who is this guide for?

The Unites states of America offer so much to see and do, that choises  need to be made on a trip. If you like nature, hiking, fitness and healthy eating this guide is for you! If you want to get background info on National Parks and possible routes to take on your roadtrip, also stay tuned! 

However if you want to know the best fast food chains or Star Bucks locations  you can stop reading. (you can still check the pictures of course 😉 )

 This guide also assumes you have a fair amount of time to spent on the trip. 14 days would be the minimum!

The guide is based on my own experiences on a 3,5 week roadtrip made in June and July 2019. Your millage (ha) may vary.

 INHOUDSOPGAVE KOMT HIER

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1. Where to start?

You have decided that you wan’t to go on a trip to West USA, but where to begin? As I soon found out when I started planning our trip there is a huge amount of information to digest in order to make the optimal choises. In this guide I’ve broken it down into the following topics, some of which are dependent on each other!

– Start of the journey

– When to go

– Type of transport

– Where to stay

– What to See

I will further discuss these choices in the rest of this post!

Start of the Journey

Offcourse this largely depends on the rest of your trip, but there are three options that make the most sense, as they are likely to be part of every itinerary you decide to take. These are:

1. Las Vegas
2. San Fransisco
3. Los Angeles

All three cities are worth a visit by themself and have large airports that should ensure flights for a good price. Also in each city you can rent a car or RV to make your trip. Depending on the actual prices and your plan, you could start at one of these and end at another.

We started in Las Vegas and ended in Los Angeles, simply because we got a good deal on the flights. This also enabled us to drive Pacific High way 1 from North to South, which is considered to be the more scenic route. And it made it possible for us to return or RV in San Fransisco, stay there for a couple days, and then go South by car.

It also ment we went from relatively cold coast weather in San Fransisco to warmer beach weather in LA.

But all in all it does not really matter that much. The drive along the coast is beautiful in both directions. One can also continue the full circle and end where they started (Skip to the section, what to see for a map to give you an idea of the route) LINK maken.

When to go

The best season depends again, on your route and your preferences. Every season has advantages and disadvantages and because of the huge distances you will travel, climate differs quite a bit. 

Some examples of our trip might give you an insight into the different effects of your chosen period. 

Then it’s up to you to google the climates for the period you are considering

Period June-July

The desert like areas in Nevada, Arizona and Utah are hot, but it’s still doable by day and cools off at night quite nicely. There is not much rain and near the Grand Canyon it would cool off quite a bit at night. All in all no problems here. Going earlier or later in the season would mean more rain and less heat.

Death Valley was a different story, with temperatures going towards 48 degrees Celcius it was really hot and we where not allowed to stay overnight. It’s probably best to visit in winter but that might not work well with other parts of your journey

Tioga pass – Yosemite. In the route we took, the quickest way from Death Valley to Yosemite was through Tioga pass, a road that goes through the mountains. This road opened very late this year due to heavy snowfall. In fact it opened exactly 2 days before we had to return the RV in San Fransisco, any later and we would have been screwed!

The alternative is a long detour that takes you at least two days extra. Going earlier then June will almost certainly mean that this scenic pass is closed. Going later will mean less mealting water and smaller waterfalls in the park.

It was also quite busy in the park because holidays have started around this time, and the amount of mosquito’s was skyhigh! 

San Franisco and the Westcoast. This area knows a strange phenomenon during the early summer months, when a thick fog creapes in from the sea nearly daily. This makes it relatively cold and very foggy most days. We were hoping for some beach days but the weather forced us to go South quicker than planned. However even in LA the temperatures were relatively cold for beach visits. Later in summer might be a better option for this.

All in all our travel period in June and July played out quite well. Going even later might be an even better option. Around September Death Valley temperatures are over their peak and temperatures along the coast are more beach ready.

Type of transport

Maybe the biggest question of your trip, car or RV?
Why not both I would say!
 
We opted for an RV on the first part of our trip and we where not disapointed.  It enabled us to camp on some sites that we simply would never even have seen if we would have stayed in a motel instead. 
It was also convenient to have everything with us all the time, we would simply make a stop somewhere and were instandly ready to go. 
We we got hungry there was no need to search for a restaurant, we had all our food with us and a kitchen to prepare it.
 
The biggest drawback of the RV 
Next Hello world!

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