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

Vikki_74 · 28 May 2011 at 7:56PM

Did YOU bother to read MY whole list of links before dismissing what I'd done? Probably not or you would have spotted quite a few from pre-2011 including the good old 2007 MTC post which I agree contains loads of useful info which is still relevant. The list might not be complete, it's still a bit of a work in progress to be honest, but in no way have I ever said that older posts or threads are too out of date to be of use - the whole point of making the list in the first place was so that all the information which had been posted here in the past would be more easily accessible!

I'm not quite sure what I've done to offend you or make you so hostile...if you don't like the thread or think it's a good idea, nobody's forcing you to read it. Maybe I am wasting my time and nobody will ever look at what's been written or come on here to post ever again, but surely that's my problem?

trets77 · 28 May 2011 at 10:06PM

any stickie thread needs people who will contribute and update frequently

take the Las Vegas thread . if it wasn't for people keep asking questions and members keeping it fresh , it would go stale and die .

i say well done Vicky and thank you for taking the time and effort to compile the info ect . :T:T:T:T:T:T

Vikki_74 · 28 May 2011 at 10:14PM

pennylane99 wrote: »

there are a couple of 2010 threads still as stickies

If they were unstickied, and the links pointing to those threads were added into the current 2011 ones, it would free up space for this one to become a sticky.

Although I do think that Vegas, New York & Orlando should have their own threads rather than you merging them all into one

I noticed the older threads being left as stickies too and have pointed that out, but I think even if say the 2010 Vegas thread is moved or added to the 2011 version they still feel there are too many.

As I understand it, savvy's plan is to keep all the existing threads for Vegas etc as they are i.e. totally separate from each other and from anything else - the only merging done would be a few of the more recent posts on California etc possibly being merged into this one to keep more of the info on just one thread. The only change for the established Vegas/Orlando/New York threads would possibly be how they are accessed from the front page - instead of each being a sticky on its own they are thinking of setting up just one general index sticky for the US, with a link to each of the separate threads in it...if that makes sense!? I don't think it's ideal, but it seems to be the only option available.

Venusflytrap · 29 May 2011 at 11:35AM

Absolutely brill! My hubby's dream (for the last 25 years) is to visit the West coast and your posts have given me a good start in making this a reality.

We would like to travel to San Fran for 2 weeks, rent a bus and camp (w/out planning out too much in advance), so any pointers more would be welcome!

savvy · 29 May 2011 at 10:09PM

blindman wrote: »

This was done by Crabman in 2009 and is a sticky at the top of this very thread

Why are you repeating it?

I think since Crabman constructed that index, each section relating to the countries etc, has grown massively if you compare those originals links with the amount Vikki now has in her thread. Now in essence you could add all that Vikki has found and the rest that may be found, into Crabman's thread, however I suspect it would be missed by many people as there is an extensive list there already.

OR we could construct the new index posts of USA, Europe, Rest of the World in 3 seperate stickies and tidy up the amount of stickies at the top which could then attract the eye of most of the visitors to the board, and easier for the regular contributors to find all the threads they want if they haven't or don't want to subscribe to them.

Vikki_74 · 31 May 2011 at 9:38AM

Venusflytrap wrote: »

We would like to travel to San Fran for 2 weeks, rent a bus and camp (w/out planning out too much in advance), so any pointers more would be welcome!

By a "bus" I'm assuming you mean a campervan / RV type vehicle? I've never done anything like that, or any camping in the US, but have seen the topic covered here a few times in the past...

Try searching the overseas forum for 'RV' and there are quite a few different threads on the subject - just a couple here to get you started (going to add these to ther front page as I hadn't come across them before):

Driving an RV in the USA
Cheap USA Flights Needed!
Hiring Private Motorhome

There's also a lot of good info on the Trip Advisor Road Trips forum which I've linked to on the first page - one of their top questions (listed on the top right of the first page of the forum) is about RV hire and it's quite a common topic, so again maybe do a search on there and see what comes up.

I am a complete planner so need to know exactly where I'm going in advance, but it isn't essential if you'd rather be a bit more free spirited! However, I think that at least some campgrounds (and I assume RV parks) in the more popular spots e.g. in or near the National Parks require reservations quite far in advance, so you might need to do at least a bit of advance planning. I personally think you need to have at least a rough idea of what route you're going to take before you get there, even if you don't want to get down to the specifics of where you'll stay when until you arrive, just to avoid wasting loads of time once you're on holiday trying to decide where to head for next.

There are really endless possibilities in California for what type of trip you could have in two weeks, which is why I love it! You need to have a think about what kind of holiday you want to have (cities vs national/state parks vs beaches vs mountains vs desert!?) as well as how much time you want to spend driving around vs actually staying in and seeing the places you stop on the way. Just a couple of thoughts to get you started...

If you wanted to start and end in San Francisco then in two weeks you could make a nice loop by driving up the coast a bit to Muir Woods and Point Reyes, across to Napa/Sonoma then down to Yosemite, across to Carmel/Monterey and back up to San Francisco. Lake Tahoe would also be a possibility before Yosemite if you had time and depending on how much driving you wanted to do and when you would be taking the trip - after about October time you may run into problems with snow on the routes both to Lake Tahoe and down to Yosemite so would need to plan accordingly.

The very popular drive down the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles or as far as San Diego would also be a possibility, but then you might be better flying into SFO and out of say LAX to avoid having to double back on yourself. Or I guess you could drive back up north via Yosemite and do it that way, but that might be pushing it a bit in just a couple of weeks depending on how far down the coast you drove on the first leg.

Either way, if you did decide on the RV option, you may be better off just looking to rent in once you'd left San Francisco - it's not the easiest place to have a car (expensive parking & all those hills!), let alone anything bigger.

misa.blue · 2 June 2011 at 11:02AM

Vicky this is great thread, many thanks for taking time to put it all together!:)

Before you set up this thread, I started posting my trip reviews from very recent (April-May 2011) hols in California on this thread, so if people looking for tips about budget hols in California, have look here (so far covered LA, San Diego, Laguna Beach and Santa Barbara)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2769588&page=3

travellerboy · 2 June 2011 at 11:20AM

I will be touring Arizona and Utah doing the usual National parks (GC, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Monument valley in a rental car out of Vegus.
My question is " Can anyone recommend the best prepaid cheap Cellphone for Emergency Use only" I will probably buy in Walmart, LV.

Vikki_74 · 2 June 2011 at 11:28AM

Thanks misa.blue!

I've read through your trip reports already - they're very useful, thanks for taking the time to write them up. I was very bad and only posted a bit of a trip report for the Las Vegas portion of our trip last year, but will do better this year (doing Disneyland - Zion - Bryce Canyon - Page - Grand Canyon - Route 66 - Palm Springs - San Diego) I promise! It's so useful to hear back from people who have done this type of trip and all the tips they have to share.

That thread you linked to is actually part of the list of previous posts I have asked the board guides to merge with this one so watch this space! In the meantime though, I'm going to do some links to your specific trip report posts on the first page as well as any others I can find on the forum.

Vikki_74 · 2 June 2011 at 3:16PM

Just pinched this from one of the regulars over on the Las Vegas thread (thanks nvh

) - we won't be up that way this year but looks like an interesting trip...

nvh wrote: »

Also, slightly OT but a few people do combine the west-coast cities so worth pointing this out to anyone going up San Francisco way, seems quite a decent deal:
http://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/deal/2266
$69 -- Napa Valley Wine Train w/Food and Wine, Reg. $99

We did the wine train a few years ago - this deal seems to be one of the cheaper ones (where you alternate between the eating carriage and the non-eating carriage when going there / going back - the one we did you stayed in the same carriage for both directions) but seems good for what you get. We really enjoyed it

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

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