Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread

Perfectspace · 28 August 2011 at 11:27PM

We recently did a three week tour starting in SD and ending in Denver. We booked everything ourselves (started in Jan!) Here's a mini TR, which might help others to knowing how much time we spent where. Bear in mind we are the sort of family (M & D, + 2 kids 9 & 12) that like to see the sights, but once we've seen 'em, we're straight on to the next thing!! We don't hang around!

Day 1 Arrived San Diego. Pick up car. Upgraded to a Chrysler MiniVan! Very nice! Stayed in the Dolphin Motel, found using TA. Excellent for the money. Great simple breakfast included. Friendly staff.

Day 2 Visited Cabrillo National Monument, Coronado Beach & Hotel, Balboa Park and Mission Beach. (We knew in advance we didn't want, or have time, to do Sea World / SD Zoo).

Evening: Drove to Mission Viejo outside LA, to stay with friends for the next 4 nights.

Day 3 Disney: California Adventure. Loved it.

Day 4 & 5 Chill out with friends in Mission Viejo.

Day 6 Universal Hollywood + City Walk. Brilliant as expected. Ate at Buca Di Beppo. Lovely food and loads of it! Stay at Hilton Universal (with a cheeky code found on net.)

Day 7 Hollywood Walk of Fame, then drive 5hrs north to Oakhurst. Stay in Best Western Oakhurst. Ok, but prob a bit disappointing for the money. Got there a bit late, kids a bit tired.

Day 8 Up early to hit Yosemite! Buy Annual National Parks Pass for $80. See note later. See Mariposa Sequoias, then Glacier Point. Incredible!! Most beautiful thing we've ever seen! See bears, deer and coyotes. Then drive through the valley to stay the night in a tent in Curry Village. Really good fun. Kids loved it.

Day 9 Drive back through valley and up on to Tioga Pass. Do a nice walk round Pothole Dome in Tuolumne Meadows, then drive out of Yosemite Park down to Big Pine. Stay at Bristlecone Motel. Cheap, and much nicer than expected!

Day 10 Drive right through Death Valley stopping at all the viewpoints. Then on to Vegas.

Day 11 - 15 Las Vegas Trip Report here!

Day 16 Leave LV. Quick stop at Hoover Dam, then on to Grand Canyon. Arrive late afternoon. Get on Sunset Bus Tour ($20 for adults, free for kids). Truly excellent. Just what we wanted. Watched amazing sunset over GC, and saw Californian Condors! Stayed in Thunderbird Lodge. (Started off booking Yavapai Lodge, but kept checking for cancellations, and eventually moved up to Maswik, then Thunderbird!)

Day 17 After another quick look over the edge, we drive on to Monument Valley. Drive through stopping for photos and video, then on to Mexican Hat. Stay at Canyonlands Motel. Cheap and cheerful! No frills. Ate at San Juan motel.

Day 18 Drive on, stopping in Cortez at Jack and Janelle's Country Kitchen for a wonderful breakfast. Such brilliant service. A quick look into Mesa Verde NP, then on to Montrose and stay at Black Canyon Motel (found using TA). Free pool and wifi. Very nice, clean and a really good breakfast included.

Day 19 - 20 Drive through beautiful Rockies. Stay with friends in Thornton, Denver.

Day 21 Drive to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Stay 2nts at Discovery Lodge (again found using TA). What a result! Such great service. They lent us rods and bait to fish in the their pond. Took a Cowboy Horseride & Supper (at 'Sombrero Stables'). Ride up a mountain (9000ft!) and stop for a steak, potatoes and beans!

Day 22 Whitewater Rafting! What a blast! Discover Lodge then go one further by letting us have a campfire in their grounds, showing us where to collect wood. Kids in heaven!

Day 23 Shopping in Boulder. Then flight from Denver. Got asked to bump for 24hrs with an offer of $800pp +hotel+meals, but we sadly made it onto the flight! Boo!

National Parks Pass cost $80, and used at Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde & Rocky Mountain National Parks. Here's the good bit - get home and sell it on Ebay - they go for around $50-60. Saved a packet!

Some spending figures: Return Flights £2430. Car Hire: £470 Petrol: £266.96 (2011 miles!)

Bri1 · 29 August 2011 at 6:37PM

pazza2000 wrote: »

I dont have a GPS (built into the car) however buying one here beforehand sounds wise, loading it with US maps. The TomTom 910 is going for a bit more than £80 right now on ebay so ill rule that out.

It would be good if there was a UK based company you could hire one from for a few weeks and post it back to them. Seems a bit of hassle buying one in Walmart over there

There someone on Ebay hiring them for £30 all in for the US within the UK, for 18 days hire & postage both ways.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170676257343?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_978wt_1139

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280720914990?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1156

Perfectspace · 29 August 2011 at 10:03PM

x_missymoo_x wrote: »

Thank you Perfectspace! Can you tell me when you purchased your flights and where from? We are looking to do a similar trip next August so am unsure when would be the best time to book and where to purchase - we would also be making an open-jaw flight.

We flew British Airways Heathrow to San Diego and Denver to Heathrow.
Bought in Jan 11 from Opodo. We looked everywhere for the cheapest direct flights and I was a bit surprised Opodo and BA came out cheapest...!

Perfectspace · 29 August 2011 at 10:06PM

Bri1 wrote: »

There someone on Ebay hiring them for £30 all in for the US within the UK, for 18 days hire & postage both ways.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170676257343?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_978wt_1139

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280720914990?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1156

If you have an iPhone or similar, Co-Pilot is easily the cheapest. I paid 2.99 for the U.S. Map and it was spot on. I think it's about 6.99 at the mo. Still an absolute bargain. It downloads all data to phone, so no data roaming required!

watpoae · 7 September 2011 at 9:00PM

Wanting to book flights for July next year, flying to SF and returning from Vegas.

Does anyone know when the best time to book is? Flights are currently around £600 and this seems very high!

Thanks

Vikki_74 · 10 September 2011 at 9:11PM

watpoae wrote: »

Wanting to book flights for July next year, flying to SF and returning from Vegas.

Does anyone know when the best time to book is? Flights are currently around £600 and this seems very high!

Thanks

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule, or at least not in my experience. We booked our flights in early May for a mid-September (this Wednesday!) departure - I had been keeping an eye on flight prices for maybe a couple of months at that point and just booked when we saw a price we were happy with (£517pp for MAN-CDG-LAX return). Prior to that the prices were coming in more around the £650 mark.

You can set up a fare alert on Kayak to help you keep an eye on the prices going up or down. Unfortunately it's not possible to set this for an open jaw flight like the one you're looking for, but doing one from a return from the UK to SFO and another for the UK to LAS might be useful to flag up any decent deals which come out.

I would also suggest being a bit open about where you want to fly in and out of if you can. We were originally looking to fly into LAS and out of SAN or LAX but just couldn't find anything reasonably priced...when the return to LAX came up at a good price I took a look at our rough itinerary and figured that a circular trip with a cheap internal flight from Southwest in between would actually work out better than what we had originally planned. Just something to think about if your plans are not yet set in stone.

Vikki_74 · 10 September 2011 at 9:23PM

mysparrow wrote: »

I see you mentioned the mule trip at Bryce canyon - we did the 1/2 day peek-a-boo trail & it was just amazing - definitely aim for the 8 am one as it just gets hotter & hotter as you reach the bottom.
http://www.canyonrides.com/bryce_canyon_rides.html

Vikki_74 wrote: »

Regarding the mule trip, my husband is a bit nervous about doing it at all (had a bad experience riding a donkey as a kid apparently!) so i'm not sure we'll make it on the half day tour, might have to settle for the shorter version. I'm still working on him though so who knows!

mysparrow wrote: »

I'm not a great horse rider by any stretch but this operation is so well run I don't think there's much to worry about. They assign horses/ mules to you depending on nerves & experience. Everyone rides in a line with the guide at the front instructing you. I felt really secure. There were some steep parts but the mules know what they're doing - you just need to trust them! I know that's a tough thing to convince someone who's had a bad experience though.:o

mysparrow or anyone else who's had experience of doing the mule ride at Bryce Canyon, I'm after a bit of help...

I had convinced my husband to try the shorter 2 hour ride (a 'compromise' in return for me going to see an NFL game in San Diego with him), but he's now got cold feet again after speaking to his sister. Long story short, she is a very experienced rider but bottled out of doing the ride at the Grand Canyon after seeing how close to the edge the mules got and the steepness of the drop off.

I have shown him pictures and tried to convince him that (a) Bryce is not the same as the GC and (b) they would not allow people, including children, to do these rides if they weren't extremely safe, but he's still on the verge of chickening out!

I really want to get the ride booked this weekend if I can, so if anyone can offer some words of reassurance about exactly how terrifying (or, hopefully, not!) the mule ride experience at Bryce is, it would be appreciated

watpoae · 12 September 2011 at 8:33PM

Is threre a massive difference in flight prices for early July as opposed to late July when school holidays kick in or not?

northwest1965 · 28 October 2011 at 5:28PM

Perfectspace wrote: »

Day 8 Up early to hit Yosemite! Buy Annual National Parks Pass for $80. See note later. See Mariposa Sequoias, then Glacier Point. Incredible!! Most beautiful thing we've ever seen! See bears, deer and coyotes.

Just back from our trip. i agree, Glacier Point is too stunning for words. We also loved Death Valley. I wish i was still there!!

droow · 29 October 2011 at 10:57PM

So, I'm currently planning a mammoth drive from Miami/Ft Lauderdale (where I have friends) across to St Pete, follow the gulf coast to the mississippi, up to memphis , then a bit lost for what to do between there and colorado. Over the rockies/million dollar highway to colorado state park, moab, monument valley, grand canyon, vegas, death valley LA, A1A, San Fran, yosemite. The end!!

Anyone any opinions on the best time to do it? I'm looking at six weeks to two months. I'm currently thinking march/april - april/may.

Oh, not that it's particularly important, but I'm in a wheelchair

Cheers

Andy

Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread

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