Road Trip - San Francisco to Vegas

Zazie

clairel69 wrote: »

Are there any websites etc that you have used?

For California I have got some good tips and links from http://gocalifornia.about.com/.

For Las Vegas, the Las Vegas thread on MSE (a sticky in the Overseas travel section) has more tips and links than you will ever need (smartervegas, openvegas, etc).

springclean

Sedona is stunning! I can highly recommend the Pink Jeep tour. we did the Broken Arrow tour, which runs in the area where the old Western film was made. One of the highlights of our road trip. http://www.pinkjeep.com/

on way back to Vegas we then stayed at a dude ranch: (http://www.stagecoachtrailsranch.com/

they do one night stays and the fee includes your breakfast and dinner, plus a morning and an evening escorted ride out in the desert. our horse riding experience before we went was a donkey ride at blackpool, and knowing all the words for the Champion the Wonder Horse theme tune, but the family who run the ranch were fabulous, and we were fine. not saying i would do a whole week on the ranch, but what an experience after a day out riding through scrub overlooked by the biggest sky you've ever seen, to then sitting drinking wine on the patio listening to the coyotes howl in the dark.

btw, plan your route by using www.maps.live.com to check the distances/times. and join www.roadtripamerica.com - what their moderators don't know ain't worth asking about.

merlinormartin

Hi Claire,

We returned last week from exactly that trip!! ..brief outline follows, but if you have any specific questions about prices/locations ..feel free to ask

Flights
Manc -> Heathrow (BMI)
Heathrow -> San Fransisco (Virgin) ... great flight new plane
Vegas -> Gatwick (Virgin) .. awful flight on their old fleet
Gatwick -> Manc (BA)

Car Hire
We booked with Dollar using Netflights.. parking is very very expensive at San Francisco hotels so we decided to collect the car on day we left .. dollar just so happened to have a base next to our hotel .. result!


Arrived in SFO paid $15 each for transfare to hotel using GOLorries .. Stayed at Tuscan Inn (Done typical tourist things including Alcatraz)... plan was to drive to Yosemite Valley within a few hours and stay 1 night at House Keeping Camp but due to forest fires the drive turned into a 7 hour drive and the following day also turned into a 7 hour drive! Yosemite was AMAZING ... from here we drove along toga pass to Bishop stayed 1 night at Creekside Inn .. then 1 night at Death Valley staying at Furnace Creek Ranch i loved DV especially Dantes Peak .. the view was stunning. Then to Vegas via DV Junction and Red rock (visited Amargosa Opera House) ...once at Vegas we stayed at MGM (west wing & Grand Tower) .. The Signature (Loved the Sig and will be returning here nxt year)...Mandalay Bay (Hated this hotel.. apart from the food choices )...The drive was "easy" due to Cruise control and amazing scenery ..my other half done all driving and said he would happily drive more miles next year.. he says it's a pleasure to drive over there unlike the UK ... although we did drive around LA a few months back and that was a nighmare! lol

* we visited Grand Canyon South Rim we booked with a company called Grand Canyon Tours the whole day took around 14 hours but was worth every second... Amazing.

clairel69

WOW! That sounds fantastic and just what we are looking to do. :j How long did you do the trip over? And also i hope you dont mind me asking but what was the cost of the holiday? Just so we know how much we need to start saving, lol.
I cannot wait!
xx

cubegame

It will be very easy to stick to such an schedule. My GF and I are just back from a two week road trip from Seattle to San Diego and we even managed a trip to Vegas. It came in at just under 3500 miles.

My biggest hints would be:-

1. Get a BIG car. No-one should charge one way fees for SF to Las Vegas and you'll find that a large SUV style car will not be considerably more than say a compact. When you have to heave the cases in and out each day you'll thank yourself.

2. To save on accommodation, take a laptop. You can grab a wifi signal in most places and check prices on Kayak. Use Priceline on the day for big cities and you get silly prices. Still worth grabbing the coupon books from gas stations to find the cheapest motels.

3. Don't worry about parking. Parking in San Francisco is a breeze and there's loads and loads of free street parking. Anyone who says there is isn't is falling into the trap of the Americans who won't walk more than a block from what they want to see.

merlinormartin

Hey Claire

Due to work commitments we managed to fit the whole trip into 12 days! .... we have not worked out the total cost (secretly we dont want to know) but i can give costs and you can do the maths lol

We paid both £ and $ all prices include tax/fees unless specified.

10 days Car hire £205 (dodge caliber) .. this inc One Full Pre-Paid Tank Of Fuel and all other fee's/insurance things. .. we probably spent about $80 on fuel.

Tuscan inn at Fishermans Wharf we booked through Hotels.com total price per night was £90.00 this included breakfast/wireless internet.

House keeping camp at Yosemite we booked direct $88.69 per night.

Creekside inn at Bishop we booked direct using AA membership discount, although they never did ask to see the membership card .. $156 per night .. We loved this hotel,, especially the amazing breakfast!

Furnace Creek Ranch at death Valley we booked direct .. $124 per night.

MGM we booked direct using a promo code found on the MSE vegas thread..the offer included unlimited access to the buffet, free slot play, free inner tube rental and discount on spa treatments.
Wed - Fri = $89pn
Friday night = $155 *Labour day weekend

We booked MGM Signature through booking.com $119 per night. *Labour day weekend

Mandalay Bay we booked direct using a promo code .. $79 per night included breakfast.

Sites i used ..
Moneysaving Holiday Forum
Trip Advisor
Travelzoo (the usa version to book vegas tickets/hotels)
Flyertalk hotel thread

Oh one more thing .. you must and repeat must purchase food vouchers from Restaurant.com .. you get a discount code online (upto 90% off) ,, and can buy $10 worth of food for a $1.

dorsetjohn_3

cant you squeeze in bryce and zion . on way to canyon and vegas . fantastic

Gilly_flower

Agree with dorsetjohn - definitely go to Bryce and Zion. You are doing big mileages so might as well do as much as poss! I did 2 weeks taking in San Fran/Yosemite/Kings Canyon/Sequioa/ DeathValley/Vegas/Zion/ Bryce/Monument Valley and back to Vegas in February - all were superb and well worth the 2500miles driving!

I'd only pick up the hire car on the lastday in SanFran - partly because of parking and partly becuse the public transport is easy, cheap and fun. A 1 day passport is $11, 3 day $18, and this is for unlimited trips on the cablecars, buses and light railway (not BART though)

I used carhire3000 following recommendations on the Las Vegas thread - cheapest I could find, and included a free 2nd driver and no drop off fees

Pre book Alcatraz if you want to go (direct from www.alcatrazcruises.com , no mark ups!)

http://www.roadtripamerica.com is another useful site/forum for planning (the best, of course, being the Las Vegas thread on this very board). My trip report is on PART 1 of this year's Vegas thread, its split into two posts - post 3354 (on page168) and post 3366 (p169)

happy to help if you want any more details

Pssst

Zazie wrote: »

Oops - just looked again and saw you are going for 2 weeks. I thought we'd need 3, but then we are staying a full week in SF and not doing Sedona.

Just a tip but you might need to take another look at your SFO stayover. A full week could well be too long. We stayed for 4 nights i think and we were ready to move on. Its quite compact.

Also dont restrict yourself too much as you can cover an awful lot of miles in the US in surprising little time so you may well find you can fit more in than you think.

blindman

This thread has loads of tips about the California coast trip.
My tips are at post #496
My last trip is at #497

Tips
Use Priceline where you can in Major cities.
There are NO One Way drop off fees in CA and between CA, UT, AZ and NV.
Visit Vegas Sun-Thurs A Lot cheaper!
Do not drive on SFO as parking is expensive and the city is easy to get around by public transport.
Pre book Alcatraz (night tour is best)
Get the America the Beautiful pass if you're visiting more than one national park. They are sold on ebay :rolleyes: