Fly Drive USA

Depart the UK on your chosen scheduled flight to Los Angeles. Upon arrival, independently make your way to your hotel, where you spend the first night of your adventure.

Pick up your motorhome from Cruise America in Los Angeles. Just under four hours drive on main Route 101 will bring you to the KOA where you will spend your first night. They call the area around Santa Barbara “America’s Riviera” so their beaches and restaurants might make it a natural break along the way. Visit: Chumash Painted Cave to see some of the very elaborate and colourful rock paintings that have survived for five hundred to a thousand years.

Back-haul on 101 just 11 miles, turning towards the Pacific Ocean and on to California’s spectacular Route 1 at San Luis Obispo. After about an hour you will see the signs for Hearst Castle and you can check into your campground and then spend time at the folly built by newspaper billionaire William Randolph Hearst or enjoy the San Simeon beaches. Visit: San Luis Obispo. They shorten the name to SLO and invite you to enjoy the Slolife of laid back southern California.

Head north on Route 1 and one of the world’s most scenic drives. You will want to stop at Carmel and at Monterey and you will not want to miss the famous 17 mile drive which hugs the Pacific coastline and past famous golf courses and mansions in Pebble Beach. You’re headed for San Francisco where your campsite next door to the 49ers stadium may not be the most rustic but is just four miles from the sights of the city using the campground’s hourly shuttle. Visit: the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park where many of these massive trees have stood for over a thousand years.

Head east now toward Yosemite. It’s one of the most famous of all National Parks and no visit to California is complete without experiencing Yosemite’s magnificent scenery. It is not a long drive, probably less than 3 hours on the Interstate and we are recommending Yosemite Pines RV as your destination for the night you spend here. The campground is an hour’s drive from the West Entrance but, because Yosemite’s three quarters of a million acres have few roads, you can see the valleys and rock formations, the Yosemite lakes, the waterfalls and the highest peaks and yet still have all the resort facilities and full hook-ups for your vehicle waiting when you return to your campground. Visit: Bridal Veil and Yosemite Falls and, if you can, take the 2.5 mile hike to Inspiration Point. It’s steep towards the end so can take a little while but your reward will be the classic photograph of the Yosemite Valley bookended by the peaks of El Capitan and Half Dome.

Return to Yosemite and, this time drive right through Yosemite to join the very scenic Route 395 headed south on the other side. There’s so much of importance linked by this road that it has its own website – scenic395.com. Having just left Yosemite, you’ll now pass between no less than three more National Parks: Kings Canyon, Death Valley and Sequoia. You’ll also pass Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous USA. It’s almost within sight of the lowest point which is in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin. Visit: Manzanar – as a contrast to the natural beauty around, this was the site of the relocation camp that housed 10,000 internees during WW2. If it’s the right time of year you may also want to take our little side trip into Death Valley and on to Lake Havasu.

Continue south on 395 through the Sierra Nevada and then to the flatter lands of the Mojave Desert. It’s a gentle three hour drive. Overnight is in the town of Barstow , a crossroads town that once saw The Old Spanish Trail and Route 66 pass this way. Most visitors now are here for the two outlet malls and their one hundred stores. Visit: take the shuttle from KOA to the silver mining ghost town of Calico.

Campland on the Bay is San Diego’s premiere campground. Dig your toes in the sand on the private beach. Catch some sun and fun on a sailboat from the marina. Enjoy one of dozens of activities and amenities for kids and adults that make Campland everyone’s favourite. Visit: the historic del Coronado; San Diego Zoo and the waterfront. The restaurants and souvenir shops of Tijuana, Mexico, make a popular evening out.

Today you are heading for another great campground beach resort, located in Newport Beach. Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort and Marina is a 110-acre resort at the entrance to the Back Bay Nature Preserve, its home to the premier RV Park and Marina in Southern California. Enjoy the mile of beach front with swimming and a playground on the beach for the kids. Rent a sailboat, electric boat or tour the Back Bay by kayak.

After breakfast it is just a short 30 mile drive back to the Cruise America depot in Los Angeles where you return your motorhome. Make the short journey back to the airport and check in for your flight back to the UK.