30

Perhaps the OP was thinking Santa Barbara but wrote Santa Monica. As said, Santa Monica is really a part of LA and very close to Malibu. With six days, I think your two options are 1) fly to Vegas straight away, spend two days, and then fly to San Francisco. Spend three days in San Francisco and then take three days driving down to Malibu. Option 2 is to drive to Vegas, spend two days there, and then spend six days doing a loop drive through the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and other spectacular places in that area. Have fun!

31

Ah yes thanks all - we are toying with the idea of trying to change car hire and so on - or leaving the car in LA, flying to and from Vegas giving us more time to get up the coast and see San Fran, maybe extending the trip by a day or so and finishing up in LA doing the touristy bits there.

What we'll probably do however, is drive to Vegas, drive from Vegas to San Francisco (some how!) and then make our way down the coast. We just need to work out how to break up that SF journey as it looks hideous - especially in one day, but can't really see anywhere to stop on the way.

So much to do and see and so little time - We also wanted to see San Diego - I think two trips might be in order!

32

Flying to and from Vegas is not necessarily faster. It's a 4-hour drive. It'll take you that long to get to the airport, check in, wait, fly, and get to your hotel.

Maybe you head up the coast first and see Vegas and LA with whatever time you have at the end.

33

very true! Will probably be leaving nice and early on the weekday to get their so no traffic and we'll be going out of vegas on the Friday rather than going in

Annoyingly can't change it because we got a great deal on a hotel, but am warming more to just exploring now and not booking much else - will see then what happens when we're there! All I know is - I cant wait to see it all - definitely going to have two trips now

34

If driving to Las Vegas right after arriving, most flights from the UK land at LAX in the early to late afternoon, so after border formalities, bag claim and customs, getting to the rental car stations (all off-airport requiring a shuttle bus ride) it's very hard to be on the road before 4 PM at the earliest. In that case, four hours to Las Vegas is not possible (IMO) as one needs to transit the entire E/W width of the LA metro area during peak traffic times. Assuming a stop en route (for a meal, nature, fuel) it's hard to see arriving at a hotel much before 10 pm, i.e. 6 am UK time.

Flights from LAX to LAS cost around $75 and take an hour; counting transit time at LAX they could easily be in their hotel by 7 PM.

I also checked (having no life I guess) and a 2-week rental car contract picking up at Las Vegas airport and dropping at LAX two weeks later is actually cheaper (lower taxes) than a contract picking up at LAX the same day and dropping it there two weeks later. The difference isn't quite the $150 it would cost in the one-way plane ticket, but close (and probably less all in counting fuel) and the time savings would be substantial.