Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread
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I understand the whole one driver thing as my husband doesn't drive so I'm the one stuck behind the wheel in our relationship! I just weighed up the long drive versus staying somewhere for the sake of shortening the journey and decided the first was the better option. We're doing the same this year with our San Diego - Tucson drive. There's something about driving in the USA that makes it seem so much less stressful than over here.
Well we might still do that yet, who knows! When I was starting to plan this trip we were thinking of flying into Salt Lake City (since changed our minds) which would have meant something like a 5-6 hour drive to get to near Zion NP and my husband's opinion was that he would definately prefer to do that all in one go rather than waste a night stopping somewhere, but he doesn't seem so keen on the GC - PS drive, possibly with it being a bit longer. We did once drive from Orlando to Miami and back again in a day and he managed that without falling asleep or going out of his mind with boredom so I guess it would be possible, if not particularly enjoyable!
EDIT: Just re-read your post and realised you're driving San Diego to Tucson in one go - that's a serious amount of very boring looking desert road to cover...hats off to the hard core road tripper
We stayed at the Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs. It's a couple of minutes drive outside of PS but was half the price of some of the more central hotels. It was nothing fancy but it was clean and comfortable and the tiki theming was quite cute.
How funny, that's actually one of the places we've been looking at in Palm Springs! Glad to hear it was ok as their prices are pretty good and I think the tiki bits and bobs are nice too - I'm a sucker for a bit of quirky theming!It was the Desert Hills Premium Outlets. We've been to a few of these now (Orlando, Vegas, LA Camarillo Outlet) and I think this was by far the biggest with the best variety of stores. They had a Kipling store where I could have spent a small fortune if I hadn't had a voice of reason (husband!) with me
Ooh that does sound like it might be worth a trip - I think the Orlando Premium Outlets are pretty good so bigger and better than that sounds very interesting...not sure I could trust myself at a Jimmy Choo outlet though, pretty much my idea of heaven!!0 -
Oh, and realised...I just remembered that I read on the MSE New York thread recently about someone who had checked flight prices then looked again a day or two later and the prices had shot up. It was suggested that they clear the cookies from their browser history as that can apparently mess with prices sometimes. It's probably not the case here as I think you said it was May when you originally got your flight prices, but worth a try maybe?
Otherwise, do you know you can set a fare alert on Kayak which sends you an update every time the price of a flight you're looking at goes up or down? Could help you spot if a good deal comes up again in the next few weeks.0 -
We did once drive from Orlando to Miami and back again in a day and he managed that without falling asleep or going out of his mind with boredom so I guess it would be possible, if not particularly enjoyable!
EDIT: Just re-read your post and realised you're driving San Diego to Tucson in one go - that's a serious amount of very boring looking desert road to cover...hats off to the hard core road tripper
We did think about stopping somewhere but the only place of any size on that route is Yuma and we decided that we'd rather spend the time in Tucson. I may live to regret that on the day, but I think I'd regret 'wasting' a night of our holiday so we had two shorter drives more. I'm not sure I'd sign up to drive Orlando to Miami and back in one day though so I'm very impressed with your husband for doing that!0 -
Oh, and realised...I just remembered that I read on the MSE New York thread recently about someone who had checked flight prices then looked again a day or two later and the prices had shot up. It was suggested that they clear the cookies from their browser history as that can apparently mess with prices sometimes. It's probably not the case here as I think you said it was May when you originally got your flight prices, but worth a try maybe?
Otherwise, do you know you can set a fare alert on Kayak which sends you an update every time the price of a flight you're looking at goes up or down? Could help you spot if a good deal comes up again in the next few weeks.
Thanks Vikki. I try and clear my cookies before and after every search for flights and still no luck.
Kayak alert are great for single trips but I dont think they do alerts for multi-trips? I have in any case set up 1 alert for each flight to monitor. Let's hope they go down in the next few months!!0 -
Where would people recommend staying overnight between LA and San Fran. Aiming for about halfway between, just for 1 night. Looking at San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay or Pismo Beach?0
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red_pad, I can only personally recommend Pismo Beach as that's where we stayed (lovely place!) but have also heard good things from others on the forum about SLO.
What day of the week would you be staying? I remember struggling a bit to book just 1 night in Pismo Beach at the weekend so that might be something to consider, although we managed to get around the problem by booking on hotels.com rather than the hotel's own website. Also there is apparently a good farmers market in SLO on I think a Thursday if that would be of any interest and you're there at the right time.0 -
Where would people recommend staying overnight between LA and San Fran. Aiming for about halfway between, just for 1 night. Looking at San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay or Pismo Beach?
We stayed in a place called San Simeon. It's beautiful. The hotel we stayed at was pretty basic (we were at the point where we wanted to save money!) but it was right on the beach and had a jacuzzi which was great! And plus hearst Castle is nearby and there is somewhere to look at sealions if you didn't get a chance in SF.
We also found this really cute cafe (can't remember exactly where) but it was one of those get your items and leave the money on the counter. Nice to see people were trustworthy. And there were farms where we bought strawberries0 -
We stayed in a place called San Simeon. It's beautiful. The hotel we stayed at was pretty basic (we were at the point where we wanted to save money!) but it was right on the beach and had a jacuzzi which was great! And plus hearst Castle is nearby and there is somewhere to look at sealions if you didn't get a chance in SF.
I think you'll find those sealions are Elephant Seals
http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/elephant-seals.html2.22kWp Solar PV system installed Oct 2010, Fronius IG20 Inverter, south facing (-5 deg), 30 degree pitch, no shadingEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endMFW #4 OPs (offset): 2018 £866.89, 2019 £1322.33, 2020 £1337.07,
2021 £1250.00, 2022 £1500.00, 2023 £1500Target for 2024 (offset) = £1200, YTD £345
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur0 -
That stretch of coastline is gorgeoos and any of the places would do you proud. For me, if you could make it on a Thursday, the Farmers Market at SLO would make it a winner.0
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I am off to SF/Vegus and all the NP in September, I have found the Rough Guide to Southwest USA book to be in valueable in all my planning together with Goggle Earth.
Highly recomend this Book.0
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