USA & Canada Road Trip Itinerary

We spent 2 weeks in USA (LA - San Francisco - Portland - Seattle) & 1 week in Vancouver and Vancouver Island. And by the royal 'we' I mean me and my cool boyfriend Andi.

We enjoyed a couple of days around LA with the help of a few uber rides (only picked up the car on day 3). It’s near impossible to get enough of LA in 48h, but we squeezed in most of the ‘iconic’ attractions.

DAY 1: Arrive in LA, check into hotel & head straight to Venice beach, totally jetlagged. We used up the afternoon & managed to see the iconic Baywatch beach, skate boarding park and the famous outdoor gym where Arnold Schwarzenegger worked on his muscles.

DAY 2: Hang around LA and tick off some of the most iconic parts: Walk of fame, Dolby Theatre where they hold the Oscars, followed by Rodeo Drive and a walk around Beverly Hills, finished the day at Santa Monica Pier.

DAY 3: Pick up the car . I’ll use the word iconic again: we hired a convertible Ford Mustang. It was all American road trip, so the car had to scream USA! We went up to the Griffith observatory, got to see that famous Hollywood sign (it's quite tiny actually;) and a great top view of the whole city. We then started our trip up north.

DAY 4: Santa Barbara morning followed by Monterey in the evening, via the Pacific 1 Coastal Highway (sadly, the famous bridge around Big Sur was closed off, so had to go around that one, but the rest of the route is also worth the ocean views). Monterey had it’s annual Car Week on, which I completely wasn’t aware of, but for a car lover like me it was amazing to see so many cool vehicles in one place & plenty of motorsports fans around. Hoping to come back to Monterey soon to enjoy the Car Week properly (next year?;)

DAY 5: Driving to San Francisco, did a loop around the city & a geeky silicon valley de-tour. I’ve been to San Francisco area before, but wanted to see some of the places were the tech and money giants are based : ‘Google street’ , Facebook HQ and the Sequoia road with offices full of investment and venture capital companies . Just to be clear: the architecture here is very basic with some modern office buildings. Lots of US companies used to set up their offices here back in the day, as it was cheap to rent & also cost effective for the workers to find accommodation.

San Francisco has a very much ‘European’ vibe, different from other US places. Colourful, with ever changing weather like the UK and lots of mist, an a thriving arts/fashion/music/business scene. Fun city stop.

DAY 6: San Fran day 2 for the NFL game. My first ever NFL match (be it pre-season, but still counts;) Got myself a 49ers cap as a souvenier.

DAY 7: Direct drive to Portland via the famous Golden Gate bridge. Mostly did the interstate 5 and it was quite the drive which took over 9 hours in…but worth it to spend a couple of proper days in Portland.

DAY 8: Portland out and about the city: seeing The Rose Garden & The Japanese Garden, city loop the car, very chilled day seeing friends and eating too much food!

DAY 9: Portland nearby : Mount Hood and that famous hotel from ‘The shining’. We drove to Seattle in the evening

DAY10: Seattle sightseeing

BTW Fun hotel to stay in and centrally located CitizenM Seattle Pioneer Square.

DAY 11: Seattle day 2, looooved the city skyline at night, my fave in all of the US I think !

DAY 12: Seattle to Vancouver travel via Amtrak train. It was meant to take 4hour…ended up more like 7 hours. Some beautiful sunset views on the way which were worth it, the rest was a bit of a shit-show, Amtrak!

DAY 13: Finally in Canada. Vancouver you beauty!

DAY 14: Vancouver. I think it's my fave city from the whole trip: super laid back, stunning port area, parks, fantastic place for foodies and easy to walk around. Good vibes all round.

We stayed at Exchange Vancouver , with my fave 24/7 bakery literally downstairs Breka Bakery and Cafe.

Scenic flight over the city: WOW, I looooved it, what a special way to see this beautiful place on earth from up above!

DAY 15: Vancouver to Victoria, Vancouver Island travel (back on that cool water plane again)

DAY 16-18: Vancouver island roadtripping, spent a day in Victoria and then drove to the very north of the island, followed by the south west visiting the popular surfing spot of Tofino (another one of my Canadian gems)

DAY 19: travel back to Vancouver on ferry (the views were unforgettable and ticket for 2 cost just 40 CAD dollars ).

DAY 20: Extra Vancouver day allowed for some hiking around Stanley park, also recommend the bikes if you don’t fancy too much walking. We are Europeans we walked around A LOT.

DAY 21: Fly back to Europe