west coast fly drive?

fisingblade1889 · 3 January 2008 at 5:34PM

hi all, Its our 25th wedding anniversary in september, and we would like to escape from the 3no teenage girls for our 1st bit of freedom for yrs lol, would like to go to los angeles, san fransisco, and vegas not bothered about which way its done and maybe thinking of flying to vegas then fly to one of the others then drive, or could i drive to all 3no places? all ideas and advise appreciated thanks

brazilianwax · 3 January 2008 at 5:42PM

we did this last October for my 30th birthday.

Flew into SF, down the coast to LA, through the desert to Vegas, up to Yosemite and back to SF.

Was a lot of driving - about 2000 miles, which we did in 2 weeks (8 hotels in 13 nights) but truly spectacular.

I guess if you didn't complete the 'loop' it would be less travelling, but the roads and scenery were fabulous and I'm a drive-aholic so it suited me.

Have a great time!

(By the way, the jetlag is awful, so factor that in

)

debs66_2 · 3 January 2008 at 6:03PM

you have picked a fabulous trip and have a number of options.

for instance, you can fly in and out of Vegas, and start the loop to all see all 3 places from there - but it will be a full loop. or Virgin do an option of flying into San Fran and out of LA - or the opposite way round.

their flights to LA and SF leave from Heathrow, and Vegas out of Gatwick, so it depends where you live and the convenience for you. Gatwick is a chore for us to get to, but if Vegas is at the end of the trip, we don't mind (until we are trying to get round the M25 and back up to the East Midlands after an 11 hour flight home).

if you do the latter choice, you can fly into SF, travel through Yosemite and Death Valley to go to Vegas, perhaps do the Canyon, then go down to LA. the journey between LA and SF is a good 8 hours on the road, so cutting out that trip by flying out of LA will add a couple more days elsewhere. (of course Virgin aren't the only airline to the states)

can i suggest three sites to help you plan your trip -
1) www.roadtripamerica.com - what their moderators don't know isn't worth writing about. you shouldn't even need to post as there are loads of threads to research.
2) www.local.live.com - ideal for planning road trips. you can even see birds-eye views right down to street level. we found this site a boon on our last road trip. we printed out every leg of our journey in directions and map form, and didn't get lost once. i would just add a little time on to the estimated driving times though as they are a little out (if it says 2 hours, add up to 30 mins).
3) www.tripadvisor.com - i have never been let down with accomodation recommended through this site. and don't miss the B&B section as well as the hotels. we found some wonderful ones.

one big tip - remember that this place is HUGE! although the driving is part of the holiday, don't leave yourself no time to see the destination, and try not to be too strict on timings so you can stop off at any places that look worth a visit on your travels. these will be the little jewels you will remember forever.

any more info needed, just ask.

Alan_Bowen · 3 January 2008 at 9:11PM

If you are trying to save money, it is always cheaper to fly to LA or SF rather than Las Vegas, on the Vegas run, Virgin have a monopoly and on the other routes there are at least 4 competitors. Air France is due to start daily service to LA in June from Heathrow, and I expect it will have very competative fares when they start.

I would add San Diego to your list, it is our favourite destination in California, totally relaxed and great weather all year round. There is little or nothing to see from the coast to Las Vegas, so fly in an hour or so, Southwest is an excellent airline and will sell you seats from $49 which is only around £25 at today's rates. I would spend less time in LA, by all means do Universal Studios or Disney if you want but there are much better beach resorts and Hollywood is downright tacky

fisingblade1889 · 3 January 2008 at 9:12PM

thanx for the above, the more I look into it the more I get excited at the thought, thanks again

debs66_2 · 3 January 2008 at 9:21PM

i agree about San Diego. we much prefer it to LA. one of our fave nights last summer was an evening at a San Diego Padres baseball game. no violence. great fun. lots of laughs. lovely city.

you could fly into SF. go to Vegas. do the canyon. drive down to San Diego via Lake Havasu (where London Bridge is now situated!) and go down to San Diego. you can then fly out of LA after doing the coastal run on the way back up - San Diego to LA only 2 hours drive.

fisingblade1889 · 3 January 2008 at 11:00PM

hi all, thanx again, where is the best place to look for flights, also i am in south yorkshire, but dont really mind if i have to fly from the london airports, also would i need a car for the whole trip iif say i did as you say debs66, it was easy when i went 2yrs ago florida disney area, a car was a nesscessity then, ps just seen the thanks button on each post im slowly learning lol

debs66_2 · 3 January 2008 at 11:30PM

we are from north notts, not far from you. we have been from Gatwick to Vegas before, but as i said, it's not an easy trip down to south, south london - with all the roadworks and traffic. you can go from Manchester with My Travel but they only do 7 and 14 nights on a sunday or wednesday, although i think BMI now go out of there.

this year we went into LA from Heathrow. we went with BA but have already booked with Virgin for this summer, who we have flown with before and prefer. remember, it's a long flight. be comfortable.

the car thing is up to you. if you fly into San Fran you won't need a car while you are there. it's not very car friendly and is expensive to park. you will need one to get everywhere else though. you can therefore start your hire from the day you leave on your roadtrip.

yes, you can do a cheap flight from say Vegas to San Diego, but you will pay extra for a one way drop off for the car from SF to Vegas, and then San Diego to your departure airport. you also miss a big chunk of road trip, which to be honest is a big part of your holiday. i remember well cruising in a convertible with my feet on the dashboard (i wasn't driving at the time!) singing my head off to dead-dog country music and red hot chilli peppers!

we were going to do a similar loop last year, and planned to fly into SF first to aclimatise and get into the time zone before picking up a car and heading out. the kids then decided they didn't want to live out of a suitcase so we changed our plans and hired a beach house as a 2 week base.

if you pick up in SF and drop off in LA, you are still in California, but if you drop in Vegas you are leaving it in another state, ie Nevada. go to www.dollar.co.uk and play around with the bookings. (it's cheaper to book via dollar.co.uk than the US equivalent or any other US hire companies as the UK site adds on all the taxes/insurances you need in a package, without the stuff that you don't need!).

check out virgin and BA for flights, or just type in a general search for flights to LA/ SF or Vegas.

also, go to www.seatguru.co.uk for info about the companies and their planes for seat pitch/comfort etc. it all matters when you are sitting in one place for a good 11 hours!

finally, enjoy the planning. our last holiiday lasted 6 months!

debs66_2 · 3 January 2008 at 11:43PM

my fella has just read this thread and asked me to post on his behalf...

he prefers to fly into and out of Vegas, because it gives you a day or two break either side of the holiday where you don't need a car. you can fly in, after being up around 24 hours depending on your trip to the airport, and be only a 15 minute taxi journey away from your hotel. likewise on your departure, you can stay in Vegas luxury on your last night and tootle on over to the airport for your flight home almost at your leisure.

this is me now(!) be aware though that Fridays and Saturdays are the most expensive days to stay in Vegas. Plan your arrival/departure around that if you want to get the best deal for your money.

also, if you don't want to do the whole massive loop to LA and SF and back, you might want to cut your loop and factor in only one of the other 2 places you want to visit, for maximum enjoyment of the rest of the holiday and less travelling. this will however make you want to return to do the other city!

Strapped · 4 January 2008 at 1:11AM

We flew into Vegas (from LGW) and back out of LA (to LHR) with Virgin. We had someone to pick us up from LHR but there are connecting buses to LGW if you are leaving a car or whatever. Worked well for us because we were travelling with a small child and didn't want too much mileage.

Mutton_Geoff · 4 January 2008 at 10:18AM

If you're in that area, you must visit the Grand Canyon. If your budget allows, the helicopter ride is one of the best tourist things I've ever done in 30 years of travelling.

west coast fly drive?

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