UKH

Hi. 
I am planning a relatively short/humble 2.5 week road trip up the west coast of the USA. This would be late August into early-mid September, or mid-August into early September. Taking advantage of our bank holiday as I am a little short on annual leave. 

Rough plan is this:
Fly to San Francisco, rent a car, drive to Vancouver, fly home.
Or Fly to Vancouver, rent a car, drive to San Francisco, fly home.

Slightly less rough plan is: a few days in SF itself, then pick my way up the west coast fairly efficiently but still stopping to smell the trees, couple of days in Portland, maybe some time in Seattle if it looks interesting, and a week in the Vancouver surroundings. Will take a tent but not camping all the way. 

First question is:
Is there a preferred direction? (this will govern which flights I buy)

Then some more general ones.
 

From a first glance at car rental, it is insanely expensive to do a one-way hire that crosses the border, so I assume I am better off doing (say) San Francisco to Seattle, then a train to Vancouver and pick up another car on the Canadian side. Again, any preferred direction?

Is it worth trying to rent a mini-van that I could occasionally sleep in the back of, or is that a no-no and/or so rarely required that I'll regret lugging a bigger vehicle around? I've heard that sometimes you can get unlucky when trying to be flexible, and find even the tawdry roadside motels to be insanely expensive just on the night that you need one...

Any other tips and recommendations most welcomed - I am only in the early days of planning this and am starting with the logistics before getting onto the "what I would like to see and do out there"

Thanks

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I've done it, best drive of my life, I'll never forget it. One obvious point for 'which direction' is go North - keep the sun out of your eyes!

I hope you have a wonderful trip

In reply to profitofdoom:

Won't the sun then be dazzling me in my rear view mirror?  

Thanks

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Errrrr good point but I think no, or much less so... also with the sun it's the reflected dazzle off the road / tarmac driving south that bothers me too

if you plan to do the coast road (although this is more applicable to the stretch south of San Francisco), heading south puts you on the side of the road with better views and easier access to lay-bys on the seaward side for photos etc.

In reply to Jim Lancs:

Thanks Jim. I have heard good things about the road south from San Fran (Big Sur??) but that's not going to fit in to the time scale unless I make it one of my San Fran days. I had been thinking about the "side of the road" aspect but I assume that I won't be literally on the coast all that much, will I? (Haven't checked maps etc! As said, early days in the planning...)

In reply to Blue Straggler:

We did it a few years back, Las Vegas to San Fran to Seattle over 6 weeks.

In all honesty I wouldn't do it again, too much driving to really see anywhere properly and so many amazing places we just drove past.

edit: which isn't to say it isn't amazing, I just think there're better ways to experience that part of the world.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Camping is often free in National Forest areas,  (plenty of those on the coast). Usually there are maintained sites but often with no water and sometimes no toilet. It's probably an every other day sort of thing unless you are up in the cooler mountain areas. This is because it will be really hot in August on the Californian coastal regions. The weather is always worse in the north and sometimes breaking by mid september.. a reason to consider north to south.

I've never done that drive as I prefer the variety in the US SW with stunning scenery in high mountains and desert areas and the world class climbing to be found there with reliable great weather in September.  I have done LA to about 3/4 of the way up California. I found the coastal forests lovely but a bit samey after a while, even though the redwoods are amazing.  I'd suggest buying a Golden Eagle pass for the National Parks and detour inland for quick day visits to the best of these (I enjoyed my first view of Yosemite and the volcanic fun of Lassen the most on our first California road trip). Big Sur was underwhelming for me (maybe spoilt by wonderful UK coasts). A lot of the Californian coastal towns just south or north of SF were much cooler places than I expected (US towns and cities can be a bit sprawling and samey) and ditto for central San Francisco. I'm surprised as a film buff you are avoiding LA: if you go there the local mountain areas are well worth a look especially around Idyllwild and north to Joshua Tree (and back west via Dome Rock/Needles to experience the high Sierra Nevada at its best... with minimal tourist hassle).

You can buy cheap camping stuff on arrival for the price of the excess baggage (normally around $100 each way for 22kg) and motels are cheap away from tourist traps and a better option anyhow in bad weather. Vans are expensive.... we always book a small car, turn down the option to upgrade at arrival and go into the airport hire car garage area and they pretty much always (never failed for us in 30+ visits) end up allocating a mid size Focus type (or bigger) car, as they hardly have any small cars (and if there are some, and arguing fails, and something like a Fiesta is too small...just go back and pay the upgrade to mid size and regard yourself as super unlucky).

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Personally, I'd do a circular trip from Vancouver. If you're doing a roundtrip you can drive down via a more inland route (North Cascades/Seattle/Mt Rainier/Portland/Mt Hood), and then back up via the coast (Olympic Peninsula, ferry across to Vancouver Island). That would save you a lot of hassle and probably works out significantly cheaper. Have you looked at the cost of flights? Usually flying in & out from the same city will be quite a bit cheaper. 

In any case, the Olympic Peninsula is probably one of my favourite places, there are some wonderful basic camping spots right along the cost, but you do need a permit for them (which you can book in advance from the NPS website).

If you do want to do a one-way trip I'd travel North to South for the same reason as Offwidth. Finally,you might want to book accommodation in advance for the Labour Day weekend (start of September), as it's a long weekend and I imagine accommodation will be in high demand.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Wow, thanks for such comprehensive answers. Food for thought there. Especially useful to know about the camping, I wasn't sure if it was easy, permitted etc. Indeed it would be at most an every other day thing or something to give me some flexiblity when needed. 

Context - initially I was looking at Vancouver and a circular, but got talking to some friends who'd done a 3.5 month road trip and they persuaded me to incorporate SF and more of the coast road. LA has not been a consideration and I think it would be a bit of a stretch to include it and the Sierra Nevada on a 2.5 week trip without dumping Vancouver entirely. But I've been hearing great things about the Vancouver region for years so I don't want to dump that. I could extend the trip but then I'll run out of leave for Christmas which is when I fancy another trip away (i.e. it's LA vs Thailand....)

Offwidth when you talk about excess baggage do you mean beyond the usual hold baggage allowance? I'll be ok with standard allowance, I travel light, I am not taking mountaineering gear etc. Or do you mean hold baggage is $100 extra each way and I should go hand baggage only and buy a load of stuff out there then donate it to charity?

Flights, there's not that much difference between a standard return and a self-built open-jaw. Maybe $120 which is worth it to me for the sake of seeing some more of the country (notwithstanding that a circular road trip isn't "seeing less" but you know what I mean, I hope!) I don't mind the minor hassle of car dump then get train, I did this 6 years ago driving from Philadelphia to Washington, we dumped the car 2/3 of the way down in the middle of nowhere, an interesting experience in itself, like Local Hero - the garage that took the car was also the owner of the diner and the taxi company that took us to the railway station  

Labor Day...I can work around that, either go earlier or later or put up with it. I only want to make use of August Bank Holiday, it's not a deal breaker really! 

Thanks
 

In reply to Offwidth:

I didn't mean an actual van. Looking briefly on the Avis site there was some odd semi-van type thing, I guess their equivalent of a Kangoo, which wasn't much dearer than a car (but did look odd and of course only a category, not a specific vehicle). 
I have rented in the US only once, selected "Ford Focus or similar", we got there and they gave us a free upgrade to some big Cadillac sedan! This was Philly 2013. Probably the smallest car they had. We didn't ask for any upgrade and they didn't charge. 

Any recommendation on hire car company? I only so far looked at Hertz (bit useless, they don't price that far ahead) and Avis. I have an account with Hertz but in the UK it's ALWAYS been better to "book as guest". I have an independent 3rd party annual global insurance thing

Thanks

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Drive North.  It’s nice to put the bay area behind you.

Cheap motels - 40-60 bucks a night - can be really good - clean, swimming, free breakfast, cheap laundry.  Avoid cheap ones in the Bay Area and towns with a bad crystal meth problem.  Trip advisor is your friend.  I would camp to enjoy the wild areas but not to save money.  As said before me, the motels outside of tourist areas are good.

The Eel River brewery in Fortuna is worth a visit. There’s a hotel in walking distance.

Don’t underestimate state parks for access to amazing places.  

Go inland in Oregon for a change of scenery - Crater Lake is mind blowing and the nearby Umpquah Hot Springs are lovely - if you’re happy being naked in the middle of a forest with a hippy crowd.

Lava Beds national monument - walking the lava tubes was something else.  Use the optimal helmet.

If on limited time I’d use my jet lag day in the Bay Area and then get the hell out.  The mental health and homelessness crisis in San Francisco is increasingly awful and will open your eyes to life in America if you don’t already know.  You might like to visit the Musé Mechanique and adjacent liberty ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien.

Not made it north of Oregon yet.  Will be a long time before I go back.

If you want to go to state parks, get a car with decent ground clearance. Our VW Jetta struggled  with some of the dirt tracks (called “roads” in the guide books...)

In reply to wintertree:

Thanks. Comments on SF appreciated I hope to visit a couple of friends in SF too so I will spend some time there. I am slightly interested in seeing some grime close up (as long as I don't get stabbed etc) although I'd probably in reality just wander in a jetlagged haze around the top tourist spots TBH

(this bit is kind of me talking to myself a bit but may be of some mild interest)

Looks like a return flight to San Francisco, a one-way road trip to Vancouver, and a flight back from Vancouver to San Francisco, all in September outside of Labor Day and outside of school holidays, could be the way forward. Or I need to delete my cookies I am sure last week there were one-way flights to SF for £188 and back from Vancouver for around £290. Not any more! But SF returns are around £350; doing the whole thing "open jaw" is £550-600, OK a £90 hop Vancouver-SF hikes that £350 return to £440 but there may be other (baggage allowance? Hire car?) advantages to having the same entry and exit point. Need to research some more but this stuff is just flight and pricing logistics, not really for this thread but it's a handy bookmark

Appreciating all the tips on what to do and how. Thanks

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Scrub the previous entry. I'd been looking at individual one way flights. Changed it to multi-city on Skyscanner and can do an open-jaw for about £360 in either direction. Wowzers. All in September so I don't get to utilise our August Bank Holiday for this trip but frankly for £200 and still actually retaining the Bank Holiday, I'll shift to September! Also removes Labor Day worries and hey the trees might be turning all pretty  

So at the moment we are still on "drive north, or south" Will book flights soon....

Thanks so far 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I'm very envious of your plan.  Bits of the USA do physical geography like the UK does history, so many things that might be remarkable just become part of the general background.

I strongly suggest an inland route up the three western states; Death Valley would be a ball-ache to include but I loved spending a night camping there (I strongly advise getting your tent down before the sun comes up).  But given the time you have and the things you could see, Death Valley might be asking a bit much.  Yosemite is a given, I think; then head east over the pass, stopping at Tuolumne if it's open.  Then stay inland and head for Oregon.

Crater Lake is a marvellous place, everything you think it's going to be and a definite inclusion.  The small town of Bend, about two hours drive north, is a chilled-out place worth a look round.  A bit further north is Smith Rock.  Then, volcanoes; Mt Hood, Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier.

You should see one, you could see all three, but if you do see just one then make it Mount St Helens, from the east side.  It's a day's worth to do it driving mostly on forest tracks which are every bit as good as the main roads for the most part.  Where they aren't, heading west to the viewpoints for Mt St Helens' east side, you may be glad of hiring an SUV for the ground clearance.  The views from the east side are what you imagine them to be, scenes of explosive devastation that will stick in the memory.  Views from the west side don't really give you that.

Further north, the drive through the Cascades on I-20 will have you frequently stopping and reaching for your camera.

They're just some highlights, there is so much more you might include.  Top tips are before you set off from San Fran, have a shopping trip and get a few gallons of drinking water, some stuff for at least a couple of lunches, plus breakfast/tea stuff if you are majoring on camping, and wine and beer.  If you are camping then remember that the US has its share of wildlife that can do anything from inconvenience you (raccoons have run off with bits of my cooking stuff), through to different degrees of making your life rather (skunks) to potentially terminally (bears, possiby snakes) unpleasant.  Campsites are usually more organised than they are here and it's worth asking if there are wildlife issues when you check in.

There are some photos on my flickr pages (link in profile, but if you want a direct link then just shout) and do let us know how you got on when you come back.

T.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

Admittedly, I have not read through all the comments above.  But a couple of general US road trip tips.

I’d start in Vancouver & head south.  Weather up in BC (& OR, WA) can “go south” earlier than CA weather – hit it as early in Sept. as you can.

I’d skip the van & rent something economy.  Motels outside of major cities/tourist holes can easily be arranged on the fly (esp midweek).  For cheap accommodations, check out motel6.com (chain).  It can range from decent to total sh.tholes but you can book online & cancel charge-free up to 4pm of the check-in date.  Generally the cheapest option.

“Any recommendation on hire car company?”  Go to travelocity & book through there.  Always works.  Generally try to go with one of the major brands (Enterprise, Alamo, Budget, Hertz, National); the other ones which are often a bit cheaper can be more hassle to deal with should something go wrong (more attempts at milking you right from the start).

Looks like you got plenty of outdoor activity recommends so I’ll just add this.  If you enjoy good food, all the cities along the way (Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, SFO) will have many excellent eating options.  However, Portland will be the cheapest of the bunch (we have no sales tax; if you want specific recommends, let me know).  We also have legal green recreation here in OR if that’s your thing.

For nature sightseeing, don’t miss Olympics (can be wet & socked in often; Hoh Rainforest or a quick hike up Mt. Ellinor), North Cascades (drive up to the trailhead & hike up to Sahale arm for example; check out Washington Pass are if you have more time) and Rainier National Parks in WA.  Crater Lake NP in Oregon is a quick 3 hr drive/stop sightseeing outing.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Lots of people myself included recommending motels.

Just look at trip advisor and avoid ones that are basically half way houses and brothels...  looks like the one I stayed in is pulled from trip advisor but here are some similar ones...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g32607-d77511-r1150529-Motel_...

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g29092-d78809-r119085157-Days_I...

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g29092-d12290103-r633053874-Stu...

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g33009-d77080-r393053169-Super_...

Most are great though, just always check!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

You might want to hire a tent and stove if you're going to return to SF. I did that a couple of years ago. There's a Mountain Co Op shop in Berkeley (which is on the way North) that hires stuff, there may also be one in SF.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I am happily amazed at how quickly this thread has filled with informative responses! I thought this initial research would be slow. Not on UKC ha ha! Thanks. I think I’ll start in the Vancouver region and drive south, despite the “sun in my eyes” thing. Nothing to do with saving £50 on the flights btw. Actually I’ll check the flight times again, there may yet be a reason to do it the other way around. Off to the cinema just now, and anyway awaiting approval on my annual leave request 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Last time I was in the USA we hired a car through Happy Tours who were much cheaper than the others, so cheap I was concerned they might not have a car when we got there! They were totally legit and included all the usual extras for free as well.

https://www.happytoursusa.com/en?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzePjBRCRARIsAGkrSm5RGabHRjI9...

I'd second the comments about hiring the smallest car and declining the upgrade when they ask you at the desk. I've always been given a bigger car seven times out of seven.

Re baggage allowance, its normally huge on transatlantic flights anyway, I've never had less than 2 x 23kg + 15kg hand luggage for free.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

If you plan a one way car hire, just check that that there's no problem with a Canada pick-up / USA drop-off.

If it makes a difference, you could always start in Seattle. 

Although the inland route has been suggested, it's worth researching a route that includes using the ferries between the Gulf / Vancouver / San Juan Islands and also the Oregon coast: If you have a reasonable westerly wind, the entrances to the rivers, including the Columbia River, can be spectacular. All depends on what you want to see.

In reply to Jim Lancs:

Thanks Jim. I already addressed the “taking a hire car across the border” issue but I appreciate your post, especially regarding the ferry rides (car or no car)

In reply to Blue Straggler:Keep it simple, just do a cross Canada tour, wonderful unique quiet locations in all provinces except Saskatchewan.

In reply to Stephen R Young:

Saskatchewan is loud ordinary and not wonderful? 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

The best way to experience the west coast is to rent a small car and camp. There is REI in SF or MEC in Vancouver for camping gear. Two or three nights in a motel will pay for your kit.  Most of the time you should be able to sleep under the stars. There are lots of state and forest campsites on the beaches and in the mountains, tho they will still be busy after Labor Day with the 'Greys'.

Going N stay in Sausalito to de-jetlag for a couple of nights.

Going S the brewery/inn in Squamish.

Olympic Peninsula via Victoria ferries is good. Seattle is now a mess with construction, traffic etc and not worth visiting. I used to live there and it has gone downhill.

Places to visit:

N Cal and Oregon coasts includes Redwood forests

Crater Lake and Bend area ( high plains semi desert) and Smith Rocks

Rainier NP

Olympics

Vancouver Island and ferries

2 1/2 weeks is not too long and you dont want to be driving every day

In reply to IainL:

Thanks Iain, good stuff . Yep I think Seattle is skippable

Annual leave approved and flights booked! Thanks for help so far especially the stuff about Labor Day. I'll fly out on Sep 4. With some unheard of bargain bucket airline, so that'll be an adventure in itself no doubt (TransAt - yeah WHO?!). Starting in Vancouver and returning from San Francisco with Norwegian Air. Roughly £450 return with baggage, seems almost TOO cheap 

In reply to Stephen R Young:

Saskatchewan is one of THE gems of Canada. Mostly because people like you ignore it

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Hey, don´t knock TransAt, anyone who can glide an engineless Airbus A330-200 with over 300 people on board for 120km and land it on the Azores deserves respect!

In reply to jimtitt:

Wow, you're right, just googled that. He even had to fly a 360° turn and a number of S turns to lose excess altitude. All that with no hydraulic power for flaps etc... fantastic!

In reply to jimtitt:

Ha ha! Any flight is a bit of a gamble. I am fatalist, if my time comes then it is time (lesson learned from the 1983 movie Krull plus my heritage). I have a small amount of insight into aviation checks as well. If I worried about crashes I’d never leave my house. I’m more bothered about operational logistics - delays and cancellations etc 

In reply to jon:

Yeah, longest glide in a jet plane and landed ok. Impressive indeed!

In reply to jimtitt:

I suppose if you've got to glide then an airport at sea level is just about ideal!!