You are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Those are the two choices you have since there is no passenger train service in Las Vegas. So you either bite the bullet and take on or the other or you don t go at all.
You are looking at an 6-8 hour drive but with more drivers you just spell each other. Otherwise each of you will be paying for rt airfare. Cheaper to share the cost of gas. And there are NO horror on the way to Vegas, just open desert
If you are going to drive, go to Los Angeles first, stay there a day or two and enjoy the scene. Later go to Las Vegas and have some fun.
Check the sunday newspaper there might be bus trips that include hotel accommodation
I agree with Paul.Drive.
I suggest that you go to psychoanalysis instead of Las Vegas. Life is not this tough.
It seems you would be going to Las Vegas with some one else, therefore I think you should drive. With a car, you guys can get around in Las Vegas without having to rent one. A lot of people drive between North CA to Las Vegas, the trip will have enough rest areas and be safe. The horror flicks are all fictitious.
Actually you could take the train Amtrak routes it SF LA Kingman AZ and then provides bus service to Las Vegas As far as doing a road trip goes some of these answers are just flat-out naive ,you do indeed have reason to be nervous about driving some of the long isolated stretches of desertWhile an encounter with Freddie Kruger probably won t happen,you still have to exercise due diligence in your planing and execution of this trip If you route it the short and fast way which is SF Fallbrook NV Tonapah NV Las Vegas once you leave the interstate you re on mostly 2-3 lane undivided road and driving thru an area where you can often be 50-100 miles from the nearest hospital and where cellphones often don t workAn accident that you would easily survive in SF will easily kill you out there simply because help is so far away .If you drive that route be really careful when passing , when being passed or when oncoming traffic is legally using the lane you re in as a passing laneEven if you don t have an accident a mechanical failure that leaves you stranded on the side of the road invites visitation from the Freddie Krugers of the world who want to help you out If you route it SF Bakersfield Barstow Las Vegas It s boring as Hell But it s a lot safer than running thru Tonopah .Still make sure that you leave Barstow with a full tank of gas.adequate water for your group and a machine that is in good running orderSafe trip
I have taken Amtrak train/bus from San Francisco to Vegas, I have driven from Vegas to San Francisco alone, and I have flown from San Jose to Vegas.The drive is not that bad, all the routes are highways with heavy traffic day and night and lots of rest stops and towns along the way so it s not that creepy. If you have more than 2 people, driving will be a lot cheaper, and driving also means you get to have your car in Vegas to get around. If you leave early enough in the morning, the time spent is not really that much worse than the time you would spend getting to the airport, through security, boarding, taxiing, flying, landing, taxiing, disembarking, waiting for luggage, waiting for a cab... The 1 hour and 45 minute flight ends up taking 5-6 hours of your day between the time you actually leave your house in SF and the time you actually get to the hotel in Vegas anyway. The train/bus is alright but takes forever and with 3+ people would probably cost more than driving.
Airlines have cut their number of flights by about 50% since last year so flying is more of a hassle. Normally I d still recommend air travel over driving but from northern California it s about a 10 hour trip.http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d source=s��Compare an hour getting to the airport, spending an hour at the airport, 2 hours on the plane, an hour getting from Las Vegas airport to your hotel (5 hours) to a 10 hour drive and the drive looks more attractive convenience wise. It takes twice as long but either way it s a one day trip and driving doesn t expose you to an airplane packed full of people who may be sneezing and coughing flu germs all over. Since you hate flying it s an easy choice. Don t pay attention to horror flicks, they re not true stories.