The Golden Triangle

Fourteen nights in California and Nevada, starting with three in San Francisco and finishing in the Napa vineyards. Flights, car and hotels come together as one package from the UK, with a road book for the driving.

San Francisco is done properly before the car arrives: the cable cars, Lombard Street, Alcatraz, and a bike ride over the Golden Gate to Sausalito. Then Highway 1 south through Santa Cruz and Monterey, with the 17-Mile Drive and two nights at Carmel-by-the-Sea for Pebble Beach and the headlands at Point Lobos. Big Sur follows, then Santa Barbara and two nights in Los Angeles.

From there the trip turns inland and changes character entirely. Joshua Tree and the Mojave lead to two nights in Las Vegas, then Death Valley and the salt flats at Badwater, the lowest point in North America. Highway 395 runs north under the eastern Sierra past Mono Lake, and the Tioga Pass drops you into Yosemite for two nights, long enough for the valley floor, the sequoias at Mariposa Grove and Glacier Point at sunset. Napa closes the fortnight.

One thing to know: this route is sold from May to October only, because the Tioga Pass is shut by snow for much of the year. Outside those months the company will suggest alternatives. Everything else is flexible, with nights addable and stops removable, and departures arranged around your dates. At around 1,300 miles it is the least driving of their California trips, which leaves more of the day for the places. It suits anyone who wants the coast, the desert and the high Sierra in one fortnight, and would rather someone else solved the hotels.