So as the title says me and a close friend are looking to travel around the west coast of America for ~3 weeks in a months time and would love to hear some local knowledge to potentially discover some hidden gems! Our current route is - http://goo.gl/pTbDLi - although this pretty much changes daily, feel free to add to it or remove things if you feel we are missing out on anything - If i'm honest i'm a little concerned we might be trying to see too much and so will end up on the road for too much of our holiday.
A little about us: We are your typical mid 20's UK tourists, my travelling buddy has just finished a tour in afghan as part of the Royal Air Force and I am a Account Manager / Sales and Marketing Exec depending on which day of the week you ask me, and after far too much work we've decided to stretch our legs a little and see what's going on on the other side of the pond. We both enjoy sports and keeping active (rock-climbing and surfing are both a passion of mine), love driving and fast cars, which is why we've chosen to drive around the west coast.
Length: 3 weeks starting August 1st
Budget: We've already paid for the flights and car-hire is being looked into at the moment (Hurtz looks like a good choice), we have budgeted a decent amount for extra activities that we may spot on the way as well as food, hotels etc etc.
Interests: My main goal is to finish the trip feeling like I've seen the real America, seen some true natural beauties and met some awesome people.
I love music and festivals, having just got back from volunteering at Glastonbury festival, I love the natural world, particularly animals and any other wildlife, I love anything active, Rock-Climbing, Surfing, Scuba-diving etc etc and finally I love beaches!
My travel buddy loves all things cars, he's currently pushing for a really expensive muscle-car to travel around in but the extra cost just isn't worth it in my mind - would be good to do something car-based for a day or two, not overly sure what though.
Must see's: * Redwood Tree's * Grand Canyon * Yosemite * Death Valley * Hoover Dam * San Francisco (apparently we have to see the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise/sunset)
Safety: Is there anything we need to be wary of or any areas we need to avoid when driving around or looking for hotels to crash in ?? We have the idea of putting a few sleeping bags and general items for safety in the boot of the car in case we get stuck nowhere near a decent hotel/inn but it's not something we've hugely thought about.
So that's about it! Honestly I don't know what I'm expecting posting this in here but any help or advice would be greatly appreciated so we can make the most of our trip. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll try to clarify.