Expert: Jason Curodeau - 2/4/2010

Question
Hi

Have just booked our flights %26 RV for our summer holiday this year.  We have booked a 30ft for 2 adults %26 2 children (8 %26 4).  Are we mad?

We pick up our RV in LA on Friday 30th July %26 have to return it on the Wednesday 11th August. We want to travel up to San Francisco, up the coast staying over on the way up, maybe 2 nights in different places.  Where would you suggest staying?  The kids would love to go to the beach.

In San Francisco we we want to stay about 3 days, ensuring we get a visit to Alcatraz in. We don't really want to stay right in SF, however we are not sure where the best place to stay is to ensure we can get public transport into SF.  On one of the other posts there is a suggestion of taking a ferry, this sounds good, the kids would love that.

After SF we want to travel to Yosemite stay a couple of days in this area and then travel to Las Vegas, again staying a couple of days before heading back to LA on the 11th.

Can you recommend the best area of Yosemite to stay?

Do we need to pre-book the RV sites?

Do the children need booster seats to sit in the back of the RV?

Is there anyway of getting Wi-Fi while on the road, I know in the UK you can purchase a USB 'dongle' and connect, is there a similar facility in California?  I notice that some campsites have Wi-Fi but there are also comments that you need to be close to the Club house, i was hoping for something a bit more reliable.

Sorry for all the questions, we have never done anything like this before and i think i am driving everyone mad by keep asking questions and worrying out getting everything sorted.

Many thanks

Jayne

Answer
Jayne,
Sorry for the late reply, been busy with school. I would not try doing this trip with a 30 foot motorhome unless you have some serious experience driving an r.v.! The road up the coast is really windy and congested with people who are busy looking at the scenery. Also San Fransisco has a lot of traffic and hills and as far as I know there aren't any campgrounds within public transportation. The roads through Yosemite are pretty narrow and winding as well. Las Vegas can be tough to drive in. Unless you want to head to Vegas first and finish your trip coming down the coast, I would try and get an 18 foot motorhome with a small vehicle. I suggest Vegas first for two reasons. One it will give you a few hundred miles to get used to driving a behemoth and two the view coming south on highway 1 is better than the north bound view, and you'll be less likely to scrape the cliffs on the western side of the highway.
I do not want to discourage you, I just feel that you would have a nicer less stressfull experience with a smaller R.V. especially since your children sound to be young. You do not need booster seats in the R.V. but make sure all of your cooking gear and stuff are secured before heading out things tend to shift on the road. Also I would definately pre-book r.v. sites especially in the summer. The fill fast and along the coast there are few of them.
Again I don't mean to discourage but I know you will enjoy yourself more with a smaller R.V. and a small car to get around in. This way you can set up camp and meander at will in something less stressfull. I apologize for the fact that the majority of us Americans have not fully embraced public transport, I think we have the dukes of hazard and knoight rider to blame for this but it bugs me too.
I hope I have been of some help and if you have any further questions feel free to ask.
Thanks, Jason Curodeau