California Help - Going on honeymoon in 11 days!!

harloe

Hi all,

Me and my new hubby are off to California on our honeymoon next week and we have a few queries:

1) Do we need separate car insurance to hire a car in California or are you covered by the standard insurance offered by the car hire company? There is contradictorary advice on different websites.

2) We are staying in San Fran and then doing Napa, Yosemite etc in the first week. For the second week we would like to travel down the coast (no further than LA) and stay somewhere lovely for 4 nights - Can anybody recommend a town/city that is nice to stay in either on the coast or inland?

3) I know that this is a "how long is a piece of string" question but can anyone give me any indication of how much food and drink is in San Fran in particular as we are on a budget.

Thanks in advance.
H

SimbaSimon

harloe wrote: »

Hi all,

Me and my new hubby are off to California on our honeymoon next week and we have a few queries:

1) Do we need separate car insurance to hire a car in California or are you covered by the standard insurance offered by the car hire company? There is contradictorary advice on different websites.

2) We are staying in San Fran and then doing Napa, Yosemite etc in the first week. For the second week we would like to travel down the coast (no further than LA) and stay somewhere lovely for 4 nights - Can anybody recommend a town/city that is nice to stay in either on the coast or inland?

3) I know that this is a "how long is a piece of string" question but can anyone give me any indication of how much food and drink is in San Fran in particular as we are on a budget.

Thanks in advance.
H

I can only really advise for your first question. Your best bet is to book with a UK car hire company i.e. netflights, carhire 3000, holidayautos or any one of the other car hire agents. That way all necessary insurance will be included except a few things (tyres, windscreen, and a few other small things). However you may still be offered additional insurance when you go to pickup your car but this is entirely optional. Also check your paperwork carefully when you pick up your car encase they add any extras on without saying.

utopiah

hi
i have been to california twice and have always found it very reasonable to eat out. Breakfast about $6 and you get loads. Evening meals well depends on what you want $10 upwards. I have only stayed in southern California and rented a house for our stay. I would reccomend staying in Santa Monica which is not too far away from LA and is by the coast and has a lovely shopping area - might be pricey though.

fat50

Try Hotel California in Santa Monica. Not 4 or 5 star but half a block from the beach, 3 minutes walk from the Pier and 5 minutes to the main shopping street.

A little further north along the coastal road (highway 1) Hurst Castle is a great place to visit.

jackieblack

harloe wrote: »

Hi all,

We are staying in San Fran and then doing Napa, Yosemite etc in the first week. For the second week we would like to travel down the coast (no further than LA) and stay somewhere lovely for 4 nights - Can anybody recommend a town/city that is nice to stay in either on the coast or inland?

H

Lots of info here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=542691&page=28

Several recommendations for SLO/Pismo Beach

fat50

There is no need to hire a car in San Francisco. Local transport is cheap, frequent and fun. The North Beach area has lots of cheap/mid priced delis and restaurants.
If you like chinese food then there are a multitude of authentic restaurants in China town just stay away from the main tourist drag, go exploring.
If you are a fan of the film American Grafitti then Mels Diner just behind Market is a fun and reasonable priced place.

harloe

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply!

We aren't getting the car until we've "done" SF so probably on the Wed after we arrive on the Sat.

Thanks for the food tips - will definitely try out Mel's Diner!

Santa Monica sounds great but there is no availability at HC so any other suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks again

springclean

i've always used dollar.co.uk for cars, as they offer a full package deal for cars hired in the states. cuts out the worry about what taxes you need and you don't need. just make sure you don't get conned at the pick up desk to buy 'extras'.

can recommend Dana Point, just south of Laguna Beach for the LA side of things. Lovely place. Just on south side of LA coast, which means also useful for trips down to San Diego, which is a lot nicer than LA. We hired a private apartment near the beach, and it was fabulous.

use www.tripadvisor.com for advise about hotels/areas etc, and www.maps.live.com to check out where places are, and to plan directions/trips etc.

Enjoy and congratulations!

realised

I've used usrentacar.com for car hire before and all the necessary insurance is also included.

With regards to staying in between sf and la theres a really nice place called san simeon... We stayed there for a night and it's really quiet and very close to hearst castle.

However if you want to stay in la.. culver city is also a very nice place to stay.

I found food in san francisco was generally a lot more expensive than food in LA.. but that depends on where you eat!

I would recommend yelp.com.. it was very useful when working out food prices in SF and LA... it gives you reviews of places, what type of meal the reataurant is good for and an approximation on how much a meal would cost

davetrousers

harloe wrote: »

1) Do we need separate car insurance to hire a car in California or are you covered by the standard insurance offered by the car hire company? There is contradictorary advice on different websites.

Obviously it varies between companies but you may find that the insurance is only a basic Third party only. This means that any damage to the car (from a tiny scratch to it being written off) will mean you have to pay for it. To avoid this you will need Full Collision Damage Waiver.

As well as this you will need SLI ( Liability Insurance). This is in case somebody sues you!

Google Car Hire Excess Insurance and look at places like Questor and insurance4carhire. By taking out one of these policies you will then be able to decline the (expensive) insurance offered by the car hire company. Questor have an online 'Chat' facility so you can get help.