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

northwest1965 wrote: »

I need some help with my planning please.
We’re going back for 2weeks. We’ll be flying into Vegas and staying the night. From there we thought about going to Zion National Park. (do we need 1 day here?) Planning on staying for 2 nights in this area and on the 2nd day going to Bryce Canyon.
From there we want to do 2 and half days at Grand Canyon. Hoping to do a mule trek into the Canyon and stay overnight. From there we want to head to Death Valley. I definitely want 2 nights here ( I know, I can hear you asking WHY?)
What I would like to know is, what else should we be doing in the area of Bryce. We did think about going out to Monument Valley. The accommodation seems to be really expensive here.
We want to finish with 2 nights in the area of LA (beach??) and fly home from there.
Thoughts please

I know you've seen my post at 338 did none of those places or the itin look interesting?

If you're into hiking you could spend a week at Zion! It's 3hrs drive from LAS so even with an early start you're looking at a half day quick tour on the shuttle around the park and then maybe the next day on one hike.

Then to Bryce is 1 1/2 hrs. Bryce can be done in 3-4 hours with quick stops at various points and maybe one\two short hikes.
Worth staying longer though

MV doesn't need an overnight stop TBHO. If you drive yourself around the Buttes it's about 2-3 hours if you stop at all the photo points. Obviously you may miss sunrise\sunset.
The cabin was good value in an expensive accomodation area.

If you're in that area I'd seriously try to get to the Wave.
Awesome place :cool:

On-line lottery is 3 months before (IIRC) so if you do\don't get in you can plan around it.


LA South beach where the QE2 is moored is Ok for the beach and stuff.

northwest1965 wrote: »

I forgot to add in The Wave, that's a definite.

How does Zion compare to Yosemite?

For starters they are both awesome places :cool: and each deserves at least 2 days\nights minimum.

Depends on your love of the outdoors.

On my brief visits to Zion I'd say it's cheaper\easier to get around-though during high season now you have to park and get a shuttle-though not too bad TBHO.

Yosemite is huge and you can drive around-though it does get crowded. accomodation can be expensive.

Both have to be on your "bucket "list

Just back from USA and did a trip report as a thank you to those who have helped me with my planning:

Hotels:

San Francisco: Hyatt Regency, did the $20 trick and got an amazing upgrade which should have cost us an extra $120 per night. Best hotel room of the trip.

Flagstaff: Courtyard Hotel, nice room, nothing exceptional, nice and relaxing.

Cameron: Cameron Trading Post, run by locals, room was functional, probably the least best room of our trip, but the drive from Grand Canyon village to the park exit (26 miles) was amazing followed by another 20+ miles of incredible scenery.

Mesa Verde Lodge: Set in the Mesa Verde National Park, we did the drive in the dark and we just kept going up and up and up until finally we reached the lodge, room again was functional but with incredible views of the sun rising and 4 deer munching on some bushes outside was worth staying in the Park, as was the close proximity to the visitor centre and subsequent first guided tour of the Cliff Palace.

Moab: Aarchway Inn, we drove from Mesa Verde. After visiting Grand Canyon, Navajo National Monument and Monument Valley within the previous 30 hours I decided not to take on Canyonlands and dive into their pool. The room was very nice, we made use of their laundry room, there were free homemade cookies and breakfast was provided, in the cost. Really liked this hotel and with Arches National Park just 5 minutes drive away then it was a very good choice in hotel.

Torrey: Austin’s Chuck Wagon was the name of the next hotel and due to the hotel having already rented out all of their rooms back in April, we got a 2 bedroom cabin, with kitchen and living room, very nice to relax in but due to car difficulties we arrived again in the dark but the road to Torrey was empty, except for a deer that I nearly demolished. Functional but with the only other hotels in the area being “chain hotels” then glad we stayed here. Capitol Reef National Park only being 10 minutes away and incorporating a car trail into the base of the canyon, I really enjoyed the tour around this small little National Park.

Kanab: Victorian Inn Bed and Breakfast, fantastic hotel with a large bath, separate shower, immaculate clean bedroom and bathroom, comfortable bed, best independent run hotel we stayed in, breakfast was good.

Las Vegas: Vdara, I did the $20 trick again but without spectacular results (we got spoilt in San Francisco) we got what appeared to be a deluxe suite without the separating wall in the living room, which I guess makes the room a little more spacious and the reception guy said that the cost of the room would normally be $20 extra per night but he waived it for us. I enquired about the resort fee and he said that they were included in the price of the room. This came as a pleasant surprise as quickrooms were quoting the hotel with and without resort fees the week before I actually booked the room and then when I finally booked, they were only offering rooms without the resort fees, implying they were extra. We liked the room, no great view from the 7th floor but it had a functional kitchen, nice bathroom with big tub and separate shower and a comfortable king size bed. The kitchen came in useful as we had bagels, bacon and cereal for breakfast and kept the milk, water and alcohol cold. We bought milk at $3 per 500ml on the last night and it was nearly double to what we had been paying at Walgreens during the rest of the stay.

National Parks in our 6 day/1700 mile road trip:

Grand Canyon (South Rim): Incredible way to start a road trip, the immensity of the place is what made it different to the rest of the places, the different colours and views, made this a must do. We did the 26 miles to the East entrance/exit to the park together with the 20+ miles drive to our first hotel in Cameron. Spectacular all the way once we had got there. The drive into the park from the south was fairly unremarkable which I guess increases the first impression of the Grand Canyon as you are not alerted to the magnificence of the place until you see your first view.

Navajo National Monument: So quiet, so steep! A contrast to the Grand Canyon but worth a visit, a tarmac walk to the first view of the valley which descends quite steeply towards the end. A non tarmac walk with loose shingle, non-even steps and very steep drop to see the valley floor and the two sides of the valley that we didn’t get to see at the Grand Canyon.

Monument Valley: $5 per person to get in and when you get there, there is the obligatory visitor’s centre and shop but nothing of any note, except the valley with the incredible formations that were used in many films. Your choice is either to ride on the back of open bed truck that has been converted to have 4 rows of seats and a canopy with a “guide” explaining which formations were used in which films and the history of the valley or drive yourself around the place without the guide’s information. We chose the latter, even though the rough road is not tarmaced and have no flat and even surfaces, our four wheel drive car, had no problems with the loop road. The big advantage over the paid tour is that you come out clean, the look on some of the people on the back of these wagons as they tried to cover their face with scarves made us glad that we kept our money in our pocket. The car was filthy and I had to give it a bit of clean when we got to Mesa Verde.

Mesa Verde: we arrived at the Park’s entrance just as the last light gave way, we drove about 16 miles to the lodge on a long windy steep road until we got to the lodge. We missed the fantastic views but saw them on the way out. The park had the greatest diversity of scenic views of the National Parks we visited. I went on the first guided tour of the Cliff Palace at 9.00 am. The Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwellings in the USA and was well worth the steep path’s into and out of the dwellings. The altitude made me breathe heavily as I emerged out of the tour but it was well worth doing. We did a scenic view loop around the valley and then departed out on the road we came in on. We encountered a deer in the road, which made it the 5th deer I had seen that morning as 4 had been feeding within yards of our lodge as dawn arrived in the park.

Arches National Park: we drove 5 minutes from our hotel and into a large park which took us 3 to 3.5 hours to drive, the place has rock formations different to anything we had seen before, with a balancing rock that was huge, we walked around it and took a few snaps, we drove from one viewing spot to another with small walkable trails to get closer to those arches that the park is named after.

Capitol Reef National Park: When we drove in to the park we thought the scenery was very similar to those we had already seen and by the time we had drove the few miles of the scenic tour, it was great but nothing different. I had spoke to one of the Park’s representatives of things to do whilst in the Park and she said that at the end of the tarmac road, there was another road that whilst it was “off road” was very accessible for all cars and that the steep walls come close together at the bottom and you get a different perspective of the valley. Think of those the films where the lines “we’ll head them off at the pass”, where the views from the top of the cliffs look peering down to the bottom where the few unsuspecting people with their horses are making their way through a tight small pathway and you get an idea of what this little drive at the end of the valley was like, but from the view point of being at the bottom of those huge cliff faces looking up rather than looking down which is what we had experienced at all the previous “scenic” drives we had taken. I am so glad we went to this Park as what appeared to be a same old same old Park, was in fact a contrast to what we had already seen.

Bryce Canyon National Park: It is 120 miles from Capitol Reef National Park to Bryce Canyon and to be fair we didn’t do it justice. We had arrived in two of the places we were staying after dark and we were desperate to get to a town and soak up a bit of the town’s feel, by visiting a supermarket or walk around, visit a restaurant etc… and with a 90 minute car ride from Bryce Canyon to Kanab where we were staying, we looked at the options available to us, a shuttle bus was available to us, we could drive the park and take in the scenic views available. We looked at the publications available to us and it indicated that if we had 4 hours we could do a basic drive to most of the viewpoints. I said we didn’t do the Park justice and we didn’t, we did the Park in two hours! This park had the best panoramic views of all the parks we had been, you could look for miles and marvel at the beautiful landscapes that presented them to you. To tell you the truth we were (not for the first time) scenic viewed out. Had enough of them and not desperate to see another, which is why we skipped two of the most popular views in the park called sunrise and sunset, we wanted to see civilisation, so we headed off to Kanab and to the supermarket to get stuff in for the night.

Zion National Park. You have to arrive early at this place, as the only way to see the valley at certain times of the year is by their shuttle. This park is probably the best for those who want to do some hiking and not touring by car as every attraction is at the end of a trail. The trails vary in intensity and length. We rode the shuttle up and down the valley but didn’t fancy the shortest of trails, which were 60+ minutes of walking (mainly due to us being “scenic viewed out”). With Las Vegas as our next part of our holiday we had been impressed with the again, different type of scenery coming into the park, the long tunnel through the mountain to get to the visitor’s centre. The visitor’s centre has car parking but limited spaces and by 10.00 am it is usually full. We arrived at 10.15 and managed to get a space. This was the last week of the shuttle being mandatory and by noon when we were at the museum we heard visitors moaning about the car parks being full.

Glad we saw the parks we saw, we missed out on Canyonlands due to fatigue and Natural Bridges National Park due to car troubles but the 6 days travelling we saw and drove 1700 miles of jaw dropping countryside that is words can’t do justice to.

Eateries

Plane food: disgusting, but I ate it all the same.

Most days we ate sandwiches, inexpensive to the alternatives.

Notable food experiences:

Commonwealth in San Francisco: A high-end restaurant. We went for the tasting menu with the wine pairing. Food was incredible as an experience and something we would never had experienced had it not been for the generosity of a family member.

Milts in Moab: Best burger I have had in my memory, perhaps there has been a better one but I can’t think of one.

Ellis Island in Las Vegas: Best barbeque I can remember having, half rack of ribs, half chicken, garlic bread, corn on the cob, coleslaw and homemade baked beans. Cheap at $14.

Buffet at the Bellagio in Las Vegas: Unlike the other meals mentioned here, where when you are consuming the meal, you are really enjoying the taste of the food and want to continue experiencing the food you are eating, the buffet at Bellagio had food that was correctly cooked, tasted nice, good range of foods (dirty !!!!!!s put pineapple in their Chinese fried rice dish), but lacked the wow factor.

Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas: We went for our last lunch of the holiday and ordered from their full menu, stuffed chicken wings and fried chicken dumplings to start. Pork dish and beef fore rib dish and combined fried rice was what we had, it came with some plain steamed rice. It was the best Thai food I have ever eaten. $66 plus $14 tip.

Peanut butter confectionary: sounds nice but a snickers peanut butter alternative and peanut butter M&Ms tell you that in fact that peanut butter should be left for sandwiches and not added to already sweet things.

Las Vegas casinos: First off, I am asthmatic and I thought that I would be struggling in casinos due to the smoke, as it happened the casinos had very good air conditioning and air fresheners that didn’t stop me from gambling anywhere. I find it strange to gamble money, when I know the odds are against me, due to this I will not gamble large amounts and I would restrict the amount gambled in any one session. It !!!!es me off if I lose, I don’t like being !!!!ed off as it affects my mood. With this in mind, it does seem pointless to sign up for the reward cards that the casinos offer. Last time I checked I had accumulated 27 cents on my total rewards card and there are no offers currently in terms of rooms being discounted etc… Perhaps this will change but the discounts at the restaurants don’t have much value to me.

Free drinks, they seem to be watered down, we drank bloody marys and the alcohol content seemed to be very low as I don’t normally drink and they were having very little effect on me. Heineken in bottles were my next drink and fair play they seemed to be a little better but hey it’s free and I shouldn’t quibble too much.

Our normal routine was to walk up the strip, take in whatever a hotel/casino has to offer in terms of attractions and when we got tired or thirsty, we would sit at a video poker machine and play the 25c line until a waitress caught up with us. If the waitress hadn’t turned up before we lost $5 each we would move on, to be fair this only happened twice, once at the golden nugget and the other time was at the Venetian, where the waitress came around twice but didn’t offer us drinks, it left us with the feeling that the Venetian was up it’s on !!!!. We liked Harrahs for video poker and the fast service for drinks from their waitresses. I am guessing that $5 per round as a tip, was more than most customers were tipping, as we were averaging 4 drinks an hour and the gambling was costing us $2.50 each per hour.

I liked Caesars Palace, Harrahs, Bellagio, indifferent about the rest, disliked the Venetian and wouldn’t go to the Rio to play, as it was a little too noisy but more importantly the smoking was irritating me more than any other casino.

samal wrote: »

Hi glenbois

We are hopping to do the tour July 2013.
Can you explain what the "$20 trick" is please:(

When checking in you place a $20 bill as a tip in your passport and in exchange the clerk gives you a free room upgrade.

Or not as the case may be - it's not guaranteed

Hello USA travellers,
have been enjoying reading all your posts. My wife and I are travelling to LA in december and I have been trying to put together an itinerary. I was wondering if you might add your 2 cents to the master plan! I followed some advice on here and used ch3000.
Dec 1st - Land in LA 7.15pm. Stay the night in LA
Dec 2nd - Hollwood sightseeing etc. Stay the night in LA
Dec 3rd - Check out muscle beach in the morning. Drive to south rim of Gran canyon (8 hours)!. Stay at Gran Canyon
Dec 4th - visit Gran Canyon, go wow. Drive to Vegas. Stay in Vegas
Dec 5th - Vegas, stay in Vegas
Dec 6th - Leave Vegas early, drive through Death Valley, cut west across towards bakersfield. Stay somewhere here for the night.
Dec 7th - Continue west to hit the coast near San Luis Obispo then drive up highway 1 and the big sur to San Fran. Stay in San Fran.
Dec 8th - 11th - Stay in San Fran
11th Fly out of San fran

Is this a bit rushed - i.e the 8 hour (at least) drive from LA to GC. I could swap a san fran night for an extra night to break that journey up but is it worth taking my time along that route or should I get it over and done with?

thanks