1 week tour from San Diego: recommendations?

I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...

I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

*********

hmmmm...you seem to like nature. Possible destinations would include

Anza-Borrego State Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Grand Canyon (revisit)
Monument Valley
Arches National Park
Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky)
Dead Horse Point State Park

Figure about two days driving from the Carlsbad area to get to Moab. But
we're talking more than 100-200 miles of driving per day, more like 300
miles a day, definitely doable driving 6-7 hours a day with reasonable
stops. This handy dandy mileage calculator says that there are 573 miles
between Carlsbad, CA, and Moab, UT. http://www.myrateplan.com/how_far/

That will give you a good three days to poke around the Moab area. Keep an
eye on the weather. You'll be visiting in the dead of winter. If the
weather is inclement, I strongly recommend sticking around southern
California and thereabouts.

On Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:41:09 +0000, Terry Pinnell
wrote:

I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

Depending on your interests, fairly near San Diego/Carlsbad, assuming
return to your base same or next day:
(For an extended itinerary I can suggest others, if I know your
interests and desires.)

Wild Animal Park (part of the great San Diego Zoo, but located quite a
ways out of town), wild animals in sort of normal habitat.

Anza-B0rrego Desert State Park not too far from the Salton Sea, a lake
formed when the Colorado River broke through its banks about 100 years
ago. Interesting (?) desert scenery.

Julian - an old mining town in the mountains easterly from San Diego,
a sort of combination resort and ghost town. :-) Could be cold,
maybe snowy, in February.

Commercial flower fields beside the highway near Carlsbad, north of
San Diego. Lego Land in the same general area.

I'm assuming your son will get you to the nearer places like the
mission, the Old Town site of original San Diego, La Jolla, Torrey
Pines.

These should all be searchable in your favorite search engine.
--
Don Kirkman

Don Kirkman wrote:

On Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:41:09 +0000, Terry Pinnell
wrote:

I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

Depending on your interests, fairly near San Diego/Carlsbad, assuming
return to your base same or next day:
(For an extended itinerary I can suggest others, if I know your
interests and desires.)

Wild Animal Park (part of the great San Diego Zoo, but located quite a
ways out of town), wild animals in sort of normal habitat.

Anza-B0rrego Desert State Park not too far from the Salton Sea, a lake
formed when the Colorado River broke through its banks about 100 years
ago. Interesting (?) desert scenery.

Julian - an old mining town in the mountains easterly from San Diego,
a sort of combination resort and ghost town. :-) Could be cold,
maybe snowy, in February.

Commercial flower fields beside the highway near Carlsbad, north of
San Diego. Lego Land in the same general area.

I'm assuming your son will get you to the nearer places like the
mission, the Old Town site of original San Diego, La Jolla, Torrey
Pines.

These should all be searchable in your favorite search engine.

Lawrence, Don: Excellent, thanks both. I'll do more research over next
week or two based on those suggestions, including some advance 'touring'
in Google Earth.

So many possibilities! First reaction is that I'd like to cover the longer
distances, e.g. to Moab. But maybe I won't sustain that ambition and
decide instead to go 'local' and spend the time gained in solo hiking. Or
compromise, and take in say the Wild Animal Park on the first or last day.
Not Legoland though, as I'm 100% sure that will be part of my San Diego
sight-seeing, if only because my son has a season pass!

Note that whatever itinerary I follow, I deliberately won't return to San
Diego until end of the week. I then have another 4 days with my son and
two young grandsons before my flight back from LA 5th March.

How much can I expect to pay for a car for a week's hire?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...

Don Kirkman wrote:

On Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:41:09 +0000, Terry Pinnell
wrote:

I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

Depending on your interests, fairly near San Diego/Carlsbad, assuming
return to your base same or next day:
(For an extended itinerary I can suggest others, if I know your
interests and desires.)

Wild Animal Park (part of the great San Diego Zoo, but located quite a
ways out of town), wild animals in sort of normal habitat.

Anza-B0rrego Desert State Park not too far from the Salton Sea, a lake
formed when the Colorado River broke through its banks about 100 years
ago. Interesting (?) desert scenery.

Julian - an old mining town in the mountains easterly from San Diego,
a sort of combination resort and ghost town. :-) Could be cold,
maybe snowy, in February.

Commercial flower fields beside the highway near Carlsbad, north of
San Diego. Lego Land in the same general area.

I'm assuming your son will get you to the nearer places like the
mission, the Old Town site of original San Diego, La Jolla, Torrey
Pines.

These should all be searchable in your favorite search engine.

Lawrence, Don: Excellent, thanks both. I'll do more research over next
week or two based on those suggestions, including some advance 'touring'
in Google Earth.

So many possibilities! First reaction is that I'd like to cover the longer
distances, e.g. to Moab. But maybe I won't sustain that ambition and
decide instead to go 'local' and spend the time gained in solo hiking. Or
compromise, and take in say the Wild Animal Park on the first or last day.
Not Legoland though, as I'm 100% sure that will be part of my San Diego
sight-seeing, if only because my son has a season pass!

Note that whatever itinerary I follow, I deliberately won't return to San
Diego until end of the week. I then have another 4 days with my son and
two young grandsons before my flight back from LA 5th March.

How much can I expect to pay for a car for a week's hire?

******
Terry -

Keep an eye out on Travelzoo for rental specials -
http://www.travelzoo.com/car-rental/north-america/

Also check out the rental car agency websites - Herz, National, Alamo, Avis,
and the like.

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...
I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

I think I'd probably head up I15 then I215 towards Perris
http://www.oerm.org/ then pick up I10 east to
http://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm and on into Arizona passing
http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=22570 bypassing Phoenix to
Tucson and http://www.pimaair.org/ or http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm and
turning round at http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm (which allows you a bit
of fun at http://www.cityoftombstone.com/) or maybe just over the border
into NM at Silver City http://www.silvercity.org/ for
http://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Chino_Mine and
http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/PRD/cityrocks.htm . On the way back from
Tucson to Phoenix take I8 towards San Diego passing
http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm...n/son_des.html and a
possible side trip to http://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm

The Chiricahuas have some nice hiking. The Gila Cliff Dwellings were much,
much less touristy than the similar artefacts in Mesa Verde and we were
allowed to visit as individuals rather than being herded through in a group.
The OERM in Perris has a wonderful collection of US railway artefacts
including steam, diesel and electric and Pima is adjacent to the outdoor
storage facility where the US forces keep all the planes they don't
currently want but might one day.

Phoenix is worth a stop to see the high end hotels at the north end of the
city but, in my view, not much else. Tucson isn't that exciting other than
as a base. Silver City NM is a small town and at first glance doesn't have
much to recommend it but we spent a couple of nights and found it friendly.

"Graham Harrison" wrote:


"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
.. .
I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

I think I'd probably head up I15 then I215 towards Perris
http://www.oerm.org/ then pick up I10 east to
http://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm and on into Arizona passing
http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=22570 bypassing Phoenix to
Tucson and http://www.pimaair.org/ or http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm and
turning round at http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm (which allows you a bit
of fun at http://www.cityoftombstone.com/) or maybe just over the border
into NM at Silver City http://www.silvercity.org/ for
http://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Chino_Mine and
http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/PRD/cityrocks.htm . On the way back from
Tucson to Phoenix take I8 towards San Diego passing
http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm...n/son_des.html and a
possible side trip to http://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm

The Chiricahuas have some nice hiking. The Gila Cliff Dwellings were much,
much less touristy than the similar artefacts in Mesa Verde and we were
allowed to visit as individuals rather than being herded through in a group.
The OERM in Perris has a wonderful collection of US railway artefacts
including steam, diesel and electric and Pima is adjacent to the outdoor
storage facility where the US forces keep all the planes they don't
currently want but might one day.

Phoenix is worth a stop to see the high end hotels at the north end of the
city but, in my view, not much else. Tucson isn't that exciting other than
as a base. Silver City NM is a small town and at first glance doesn't have
much to recommend it but we spent a couple of nights and found it friendly.

Thanks a bunch Graham! I'm looking forward to researching those exciting
suggestions soon.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

"Graham Harrison" wrote in message
...

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...
I'm flying from London to visit my son in Carlsbad, San Diego on February
17th. He will no doubt take me to many of the San Diego tourist spots
during the next 4 days. But then for a week I plan to hire a car and see
as much as I can on my own. So any recommendations for possible practical
itineraries would be much appreciated please. I don't mind driving a
hundred or two miles a day.

Ideally I'd like to cover new ground, so here's a list of places I've
visited on a previous USA trip in 1997:

San Francisco
LA
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Bryce Canyon
Zion
Grand Canyon (but if possible would love to see it again!)
Sedona

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

I think I'd probably head up I15 then I215 towards Perris
http://www.oerm.org/ then pick up I10 east to
http://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm and on into Arizona passing
http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=22570 bypassing Phoenix
to Tucson and http://www.pimaair.org/ or http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm
and turning round at http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm (which allows you a
bit of fun at http://www.cityoftombstone.com/) or maybe just over the
border into NM at Silver City http://www.silvercity.org/ for
http://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Chino_Mine and
http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/PRD/cityrocks.htm . On the way back from
Tucson to Phoenix take I8 towards San Diego passing
http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm...n/son_des.html and
a possible side trip to http://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm

The Chiricahuas have some nice hiking. The Gila Cliff Dwellings were
much, much less touristy than the similar artefacts in Mesa Verde and we
were allowed to visit as individuals rather than being herded through in a
group. The OERM in Perris has a wonderful collection of US railway
artefacts including steam, diesel and electric and Pima is adjacent to the
outdoor storage facility where the US forces keep all the planes they
don't currently want but might one day.

Phoenix is worth a stop to see the high end hotels at the north end of the
city but, in my view, not much else. Tucson isn't that exciting other
than as a base. Silver City NM is a small town and at first glance
doesn't have much to recommend it but we spent a couple of nights and
found it friendly.

I just remembered http://www.azcaf.org/ in the outskirts of Phoenix if
you're interested in 2nd world war planes.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings were much,
much less touristy than the similar artifacts in Mesa Verde and we were
allowed to visit as individuals rather than being herded through in a group.
Silver City NM is a small town and at first glance doesn't have
much to recommend it but we spent a couple of nights and found it friendly.

It's nominally a year-round place, though guided tours and other
activities are harder to come by in the winter, and frontal weather
could throw a monkey wrench into your plans (albeit fairly predictably
on a few days' notice). http://www.nps.gov/gicl/planyourvisit/hours.htm

It's a grueling day's drive from San Diego -- better to do an
overnighter and see something in southern or central Arizona (there's
no shortage of candidates) en route.

http://www.desertexposure.com gives you an idea of what else there is
to see and do, including where you might stay, in the general
vicinity of Silver City. (Alas, I just found out that Faywood Hot
Springs is closed to guests and for sale, for unfortunate reasons; but
I think there are non-motel places to stay in Silver.)

The western and eastern sides of the Gila both offer chances to gape
at a stupendous mining pit if you're into that. Note: that stretch
of US 191 (nee 666) up the western side can be quite sporty in winter.

There are options in New Mexico depending on time, interests, and
weather, ranging from a drive up I-25 through Truth or Consequences
and Socorro, then westering up US 60 to get a glimpse of the Very
Large Array, and after that, either turning for home or going to the
Petrified Forest / Painted Desert (http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm)
and Meteor Crater (http://www.meteorcrater.com/ ; http://www.barringercrater.com/)
area, then Sunset Crater (http://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm) and
either back down or up into the Utah canyonlands. Or you could keep
going up I-25 and see Santa Fe, then maybe Taos -- perhaps up through
_Milagro Beanfield War_ country (http://www.newmexico.org/scenicbyways/
high_road.php) or the Rio Grande Gorge (http://
www.enchantedcircle.org/ ). If weather makes you want a southern
route, consider White Sands -- perhaps for a Friday evening or Full
Moon astronomy program (http://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm ;
http://www.desertusa.com/wsand/) or even Carlsbad Caverns (http://
www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm).

With only a week, you might want to have a plan for maximal extent of
the trip and a fallback position in case you find yourself running out
of time. (I alone, never mind the other posters, have outlined a lot
more than a week's possibilities.) There's always next year!

--Joe

The Chiricahuas have some nice hiking. *

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-...8.photogallery
has a picture of some scenery there (#4), and other pix of a few other
places mentioned in this thread (25, 28, 35, 35, fr'instance), many
with a link to a story they've run on the subject.

--Joe