Just booked our honeymoon!!

Lucky you, sounds amazing! No recommendations I'm afraid, I've only done NYC and Florida! A proper tour of the states is definitely on my bucket list though!

Wow! Yosemite is incredible! If you're into hiking do the half dome but take LOTs of water. San Francisco is amazing too - eat in china town and if you want to do the Alcatraz tour book farrrrr in advance. I tried to book 10 days before I arrived in San Francisco and every single tour for the entire 5 days I was in the city was booked up :-(

Wowwweee this sounds amazing!!!

Thank you! We are definitely gonna book Alcatraz and this gives me an excuse to buy some nice new footwear for all the walking in the cities and at Yosemite!

This is almost identical to my honeymoon! I'm starting in San Fran, going over to Yosemite, then down the west coast to Anaheim (yay Disney!). If it helps, our honeymoon company recommended a hop on hop off tour for San Fran as they said it's a bit cheaper than taxis. Also booked Alcatraz as the other poster recommended. Apparently the Big Sur is amazing to drive down, there's some tips here - huffingtonpost.com/David-Landsel/california-big-sur-driving-the-coast_b_5095299.html

Also there's Disney in Anaheim but there will be lots to do in LA anyway Very exciting!

How fabulous! My suggestions would be: (LA) Santa Monica pier, LA Dodgers stadium, universal studios, Hollywood homes tour (as it will take you through Beverly Hills, rodeo drive, up mullholland avenue where you can see the whole city) and Venice beach. (Vegas) helicopter tour over the Hoover dam and to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the roller coaster at New York New York, the welcome to vegas sign which is at the Luxor end of the strip and is walking distance from there, the Bellaggio fountains and the mirage volcano is every hour I believe. I hear the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower is amazing and it overlooks the fountains. Fremont street and old vegas is amazing and they have live rock concerts and zip wires. (SF) the old fashioned cable cars, China town, the seals and sea lions at pier 39, sunset cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge (we booked alot of tours through viator). I haven't been to your other destinations, hope that helps, appreciate everyone's different in what they like to do. X

Fab honeymoon. We did a similar trip a few years ago so a few tips!

Book Alcatraz on line way before you go. We did it in the morning and had time in the afternoon to do other things too.

We took a tour of San Fransisco with a company called Dylan's tours. Booked it online before we went. Did all the main sights then went over the Golden Gate Bridge to Malin heights and saw the costal redwoods. Amazing tour by local guide. Really would do it again.

Go for drinks at the "top of the mark" it's a lovely bar and resturant at the top of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel. Great view. You don't have to be staying there to go

Book a day tour of Yosemite. Great for both of you to see the views and don't have to worry about driving. We would do this again in a heartbeat. The most beautiful place on Earth.

San Diego -loads of great places to eat in the gas lamp district. Ask your concierge at the hotel for a recommendation. They gave us great suggestions and little cards that gave us a free appetizer.

We had a great day exploring the USS Midway. Not to everyone's taste but I love planes and it was really interesting.

Go for drinks at the Famous Hotel Del Coronardo. We went in the afternoon and had lunch and champagne.

i could go on ( and on and on !!!)

we we loved it and I would love to do it all over again - I hope you do too

For this, do you need to book online before you go or is this something you can do at the National Park? Thanks!

We booked before we went online. The company was called discover Yosemite tours. Full day inc lunch and hotel pick up. We stayed at The Yosemite View Lodge. There are buses into and around the park that get you around but they are not tours as such. We only had two nights so one full day and wanted to see as much as possible. We loved it.

That's exactly the same place that we're staying! We're driving there from San Francisco, staying there two nights and then driving onto Monterey after. Thanks very much for the advice, might book the same tour, sounds great.

That's what we did! Would definitely book the tour if you have the one full day like we did. You make the most of it then. I would do it again

Stop at Mariposa for supplies on your way to Yosemite. We had a river view room at the lodge -it was May and the river was really wild. It was lovely to sit on the balcony with drinks and snacks.

Monteray was nice too. We stayed in Carmel before the drive down highway one. The drive from Monteray to Carmel is nice. It's 17 mile drive and you pass the lone cypress tree.

you are making me want to go back!!

Wow, thanks for all the tips! It's amazing to find somebody that has gone on the same honeymoon. We're going in September & have a river view room booked so I hope we get the same amazing view that you did. I think we're staying close-ish to Carmel for the next bit, I had a quick look on google maps, it's a hotel called Hyatt Regency Monterey. Do people tend to upgrade your room when you arrive and mention you're on your honeymoon? Or is that wishful thinking?

I think I'm looking forward to the honeymoon more than the wedding now!

Thank you so much for all the recommendations, it is so useful to hear from people who have done something similar! Definitely want to see and do as much as we can in the time we have in each place.

Can't decide what we are more excited about, the honeymoon or the wedding!

We booked through an agent and they said they will tell all our hotels that we are on honeymoon and said we will probably get updragded/have a bottle of fizzy waiting in the room for us in at least a few of the hotels!

Can't wait now, we don't go until next May so a while to wait yet!

We were in San Fran, Monterey, Vegas and New York in May. Definitely drive down Big Sur, there is a restaurant/bar called Nepenthe about an hour to 2 hours south of Monterey, it's right on the cliff edge and it's a stunning view.

San Fran is gorgeous, try clam chowder/tomato soup in a sour dough bread bowl along Fishermans Wharf. We got a city pass as that included unlimited MUNI travel for 7 days so worth it. Alcatraz is fab, we booked the last boat out so we were there for Sunset across the Bay.

Monterey and Carmel is worth a visit. Clint Eastwood owns Mission Ranch which is a great restaurant but you can't book. You can stay there though, there are little white cabins across the ranch with porches and we saw people sitting out on them, looked lovely.

Vegas - I wouldn't bother with the tour we did (I think it was a Vegas City Tour) or something... you don't really see anything you couldn't see yourself. Take comfy shoes as everything is miles from everything else... even the tram isn't much use as you have to walk right to the back of the hotels to get there! There is a restaurant in Fremont Street called Hugos Cellar, great food and amazing service. It was one of the best places we ate in the whole trip. Some of the servers in there waited on Frank Sinatra and the rat pack! It's not cheap but it was worth every single penny. The Top of the World in the Stratosphere was also good, again we went at sunset so we could watch the sunset across the desert. And there is a high roller (a bit like the london eye) which was empty when we went on it at sunset... I booked a free bar for an extra $10 and we were the only ones in there so we had at least 4 drinks each!

We stayed here! They upgraded us when we told them we got engaged on the flight out so you might get lucky

We did the Maverick Dream Canyon Tour I think... you fly out to the South Rim then you have a helicopter flight over the Canyon with the pilot commentating on what you are looking at. You then get on a trolley bus and go to Bright Angel Lodge where you get a lunch pack and can walk along the edge of the canyon, or even down into it if you have enough time. Definitely book a tour! We didn't get to see the Hoover Dam much on this one though, but apparently the South Rim is slightly less touristy.

We are looking at a similar type of honeymoon (Vegas - LA - SF), so I've picked up loads of tips here thanks. Can I ask, how did you book your trips? Was it all through the travel agent, or did you do the different parts individually? (Does that make sense?!)

We booked our flights and hotels via Virg1n Holidays. All the trips we just booked ourselves... I would suggest booking yourselves only because we had real trouble changing anything through VH and you might have better luck when booking direct.

We've booked our flights, hotels and car hire using dial a flight.

We haven't booked any trips yet but will definitely be booking some of the ones people have recommended here. I think we will ask dial a flight how much it would cost to add them to our package, and also price them out separately and see what works out best

This is exactly what we are planning on doing! Would love to hear how it goes! I found this really good blog on it http://www.heleninwonderlust.co.uk/2014/10/california-road-trip-yosemite-and-las-vegas/