Rapid 2 week roadtrip around the US West Coast States

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
10
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
6
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
7
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
7
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
10
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
9
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
85 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
20th/454
Top 5%
continent
North America
country
USA
Length of time
2-4 weeks
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$240 ($3,000-$4,500 in 2025 prices)
Time of year visited
May
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Adventure Driving Wonder of the World - Natural
All Tags
Beach promenade Beaches Big city Breweries Bridges Bustling restaurants Campervanning Canyons Casinos Celebrity Spotting Cliffs Cool neighbourhoods Dam Desert Forests Hiking Isolation Lakes Live sport Market Mountains Partying / Lash Red deserts Rock arches Snow Stadiums Sunsets Theme Park UNESCO world heritage site Waterfalls Wildlife - Bison Wildlife - Wolves Wonder of the World - Engineering / Industrial
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary

If you want to do one road trip in your life, do this one.

In two weeks you go from the forests of Washington and Yellowstone, to the red rock deserts of Utah and Monument Valley, Route 66 and the Grand Canyon, and up the coast through LA, San Francisco and Yosemite. The scale, the variety, and the number of genuinely world-class sights along the way are unmatched anywhere in the world.

I’ve done a lot of road trips. This is the best one.

 

Before you begin . . . this is a super high octane trip – 4200 miles / 6760km of driving.  The sort of thing you rattle off in your 20s, when you have the energy, 2 weeks of vacation and are keen to see and do everything.  There’s something just so incredibly fun and fantastic about seeing one world-famous site one after the other in rapid succession.

But could you take more time?  Of course.  3 days hiking in some of these parks would have been wonderful and I shudder just thinking of trying to do this again.  But in a part of the world that has world class sites one after the other, the gorging on them was great fun.  Do it.

 

US west coast road trip itinerary - grand teton range

 

Table of Contents

The West Coast Route

 

As its a loop it doesn’t matter where you start.  We actually started in Vancouver, so began at the northern point.

 

 

The Highlights of the 2 week Trip

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#1 The roadtrip itself - stunning views of some of the most impressive natural scenery in North America from the seat of the car. This part of America is just perfect for this sort of trip

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#2 Hiking through Yosemite National Park - one of the most intensely beautiful spots in the world, with scenery as jaw-dropping as it is compact

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#3 Getting on the lash / partying in the giant theme park that is Las Vegas

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#4 Seeing some of wildlife and vast landscapes of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming

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#5 Going to see any of the live sport on offer. Something will be on just about anytime of the year and its showcases something that is about as close to the heart of what is American as it gets

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#6 Having the high expectations met as you gawp at the immensity of the Grand Canyon

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#7 Passing through some of the former frontier towns and seeing a different conservative side to this vast country

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#8 Driving through the Navajo Nation to see the mesmerising reds of the desert and the looming giant buttes of Monument Valley in Arizona

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#9 Driving over the world famous Golden Gate Bridge on your way to San Francisco

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#10 Driving past the spectacular Grand Teton Range in Wyoming

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#11 Giggling at the customary odd road signs

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#12 Walking along the various trails and seeing the impossibly narrow rock arches of Arches National Park in Utah

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#13 Driving down some of the world famous Route 66, and watching its 2,448 mile sunset from Santa Monica pier

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#14 Walking alongside some of the tallest trees in the world in Redwood National Park

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#15 Seeing the famous geysers in Yellowstone National Park, especially the giant Old Faithful

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#16 Learning the history (did you know the city was rebuilt on stilts?) and checking out the open markets of Seattle

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#17 Looking across the vast . . . and cold . . . vistas of Yellowstone National Park

The itinerary

The following itinerary has links to the individual travel entries that will give you more tips on how to have the best experience there:

If can’t do it all, what to prioritise

 

If in a rush, or simply want to focus more on fewer destinations, this is how I would look at the options:

 

Mega wow (3):

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hiking through Yosemite National Park – gobsmacking views.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hitting the strip in Las Vegas – yes its glam and cheesy, but it is insanely impressive.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Arches National Park – it felt like being in the Roadrunner set and just so much fun to walk.

 

Do not skip (5):

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Yellowstone – even if only staying for the night, it’s wonderful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Grand Canyon – one of those sites that takes your breath away, even if only looking for an hour from a viewpoint.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Monument Valley – truly felt like being in a cowboy set.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Driving the Gran Teton Range –  how is this not more famous!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Driving Route 66 – surprisingly cool stopping into the dinners.

 

Totally worth it, but can skip if pressed (5)

⭐️⭐️ San Francisco and driving over the Golden Gate Bridge – pass on the way for sure

⭐️⭐️ Redwood National Park – it shows just how incredible the national parks are that this doesn’t make the cut.

⭐️⭐️ Microbreweries and strippers in Portland – hard not to enjoy!

⭐️⭐️ LA and Santa Monica – yes there are famous spots, and you’ll have a good time, but don’t prioritse over the above

⭐️⭐️ Seattle – great city with great history, but can be cut if needed

 

Tips for driving

 

There’s a lot of driving – around 4200 miles / 6760km, so be prepared for it.  Again, while there are world famous stops and time to enjoy the national parks or big cities, this is a road trip and you’ll most likely be driving for 70 hours in total. 

So share the burden and take the time to just watch the scenery go by.  Best do so in a campervan as you’ll have more space on the long drives to properly sleep and can, when needed, just rock up and park / sleep by the road.

 

The Amazing Drives

This trip is packed with them, but the highlight drives were:

  • Driving through Grand Teton National Park – hadn’t even heard of it before the trip but wow!
  • The Big Sur – most famous Californian road.
  • Route 66 – old dinners and images of a past era.
  • Pacific Coast Highway – iconic, nearly 660-mile scenic drive along California’s coast from near San Diego to Mendocino County.
  • Over the Hoover Dam.
  • The Las Vegas strip (don’t suggest doing a u turn on it in a camper van).
  • Up to Yosemite National Park.
  • Through the deserts near Monument valley.

Other than Yosemite, they’re all on the way, so don’t miss out.

 

Extra Tips

 

Live Sport

See if can fit in a sports game – classic America right there.  We, for example, were able to go to see a Seattle Mariners baseball game.  Hotdogs, staring around the stadium when nothing was happening (majority of the time), seventh innings stretch and all that, great stuff.

 

Places it would have been nice to also see

Zion National Park, Rafting down the Grand Canyon, San Diego, Sequoia National Park, Death Valley, Napa Valley for the wines, Glacier National Park, and Mesa Verde over in Colorado.  All look to be wonderful experiences and something I’d have added to a longer itinerary.

 

Places it would have been nicer to spend longer in

  • San Francisco – this itinerary only gives a short stop to pop into China Town and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge
  • Time to properly hike any of the national parks.
  • More partying in Las Vegas.

The downside of doing this trip so rapidly, but if you had more time, these are the places I’d like to have stayed longer

Experiences Nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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