GIven your preference for driving the coast from north to south, I too would recommend flying from L

Appriciate you guys can advise on the MUST places (I Must say I know NYC pretty good, its my 4th time at NYC, and gonna be my 2nd time on Miami Vegas) But my wife never been at the U.S so I wanna show her as much as I can), Maybe help out with the time allocation ETC.
If you want to see the area around Vegas, then rent a car and return it and fly either to San Francisco or LA for the drive down or up the coast on hwy 1. Hwy 1 is not near Vegas and renting a car there to drive to the coast would involve a lot of extra driving and high drop off fees.
It is interesting all the way. Go through Half Moon Bay to approach SF, not allowing yourself to be tempted by the cities on the eastern side of the Peninsula, though they are fine in their own right.
royo: You go from San Francisco - down (south) the coast to LA - and that is what I would recommend. Fly from Vegas to SF - enjoy a couple summer vacation packages days there - and then rent a car and drive down the coast to LA - or even wind up here in San Diego - a couple hours further south - and less congested than LA.
Wherever you start your driving portion be sure to ask if that location has any cars which need to be returned to your endpoint (whether it is Los Angeles or San Francisco. summer vacation packages Sometimes you can avoid any drop fees at all by doing so.
My preferred route would be to fly to Las Vegas, rent a car, see Hoover Dam and the south Rim of the Grand Canyon. Return the car in LV. Fly from LV to San Francisco (or Oakland) and drive south along the coast as far as you want perhaps not all the way to Los Angeles. Cut back over to I-5 to go north and return your rental car where you rented it and then fly from SFO back to New York.
GIven your preference for driving the coast from north to south, I too would recommend flying from Las Vegas to San Francisco (under 2 hours) and driving the coast TO Los Angeles, then fly LAX to NYC. If you must backtrack to SFO in order to return the car without a huge drop-off fee, go at least as far south as Cambria before making your way back.
Are you from outside the US? If so, look into carhire3000.com as they will provide all insurance needed and can often get one way dropoff fees waived especially on a common route like the Highway 1 drive. Car rentals are cheaper in Vegas, just depends if you want to drive thru the desert to LA, or fly to LA or SF.
There are 3 and 4 night cruises to Baja, Mexico out of LA and possibly San Diego on Carnival, my former manager took one. Not my thing as I like to be on my own schedule, but you might enjoy it. Just know that the drinks are expensive and not included (and that includes soft drinks).
Well while looking summer vacation packages at the map it will be better to drive from Vegas to LA and then go all the way up to SF and from SF fly back to NYC.... (considered if I'm driving to LA and not taking a flight to SF and than make the drive all the way to LA...
Most people drive Highway 1 with at least two nights to stopover, either Pismo Beach or Cambria or San Simeon (Hearst Castle is nearby) and Monterey or Carmel or Pacific Grove. summer vacation packages I like to take 3 nights and also stay in Santa Barbara.
One person over on TripAdvisor ignored everyone's advice and drove SF to LA on one day, got into LA about midnight and said the last two hours from Santa Barbara to LA were miserable and exhausting to her, at least she was nice enough to come back and admit her mistake.
Are you already ticketed to fly back from SF? - as it's far easier to me to fly from Vegas to SF and then drive down the Coast - rather summer vacation packages than to drive the 4 plus hours from Vegas to LA (a fairly boring drive) and drive up the coast from LA.
But that doesn't allow much time for stopping. As for driving from/between Santa Barbara to LA - (aside from getting getting caught in rush hour) - you are not missing much if you finish the drive in the dark, or start it in the morning in the dark to beat the morning commute traffic.
Also - not sure cruises just go one way from Miami to Mexico, which also is a long way. There are 3 and 4 days cruises leaving from here - San Diego (2 hour drive south of LA) all the time, or you could take a 7 day as far as Acapulco and back.
Right now - I don't suggest going into Mexico - at least close to the border. summer vacation packages Too much Narco war/possible collateral damage going on. Cabo San Lucas - at the tip of Baja - is great - a two hour flight from SD, a little longer from LA.