California fly drive advice

pcg2001

Miles16v wrote: »

I've booked us into the 4 star Hyatt Regency San Francisco for our first 3 nights, via Priceline, at £58 a night.

Had never used priceline before but a bit of work before hand ruled out anything that might have been questionable.

Congrats on your win. Woudl you mind sharing your strategy on the priceline sucesses thread? http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1036857&page=14&highlight=priceline I am sure it will be useful in the future for others and in your thread about the california drive it might get lost.

PS: Loving reading about your trip preparations, by the way.

Murphy_The_Cat

Miles16v wrote: »

I've decided to lop off San Diego in exchange for the Palm Springs area.

I booked The Westin Mission Hills Villas in Rancho Mirage, via priceline for the tidy sum of $60 a night.

I'm still undecided (I'm sure by now, your not surprised!) about what to do with my time between San Fran and Palm Springs.

Essentially I'm unsure where to stay in LA, and am unsure whether to spend 1 night in each of Monterey and Pismo Beach with 4 nights around LA, or 2 nights in one of them and 3 nights in LA.

Hello Miles
Look at it this way, its given you San Diego to look forward to for your next American Road Trip ! (& yes, I'm fairly sure that you will have another one ). If you can't find anything to suit you in Pismo Beach, have a look in San Luis Opisbo, or, if you fancy somewhere quiet, Avila Beach.
Doc Burnsteins Ice Cream Lab is a nice way to spend a few minutes whilst your in the area. Its at Arroyo Grande, about 3 miles from Pismo Beach.

Miles16v

pcg2001 wrote: »

Congrats on your win. Woudl you mind sharing your strategy on the priceline sucesses thread? http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1036857&page=14&highlight=priceline I am sure it will be useful in the future for others and in your thread about the california drive it might get lost.

PS: Loving reading about your trip preparations, by the way.

I'll post there soon.

Thats good, I thought I might have started to get annoying!

Murphy_The_Cat

Miles16v wrote: »

I'll post there soon.

Thats good, I thought I might have started to get annoying!

Not to me Miles, I love reading about peoples holiday plans. Especially in areas that I've been to and enjoyed.previously.

cubegame

Doesn't look like you've considered heading North?

San Francisco northwards up to Mendocino is lovely country and then you hit the coastal redwoods. It wouldn't be too hard (if you have got 14 nights) to hot-tail all the way up to Oregon, see Crater Lake and then wind yourself back down through California seeing Lassen National Park, The Lava Beds and then following the spine of the Sierra Nevada (and Yosemite) on the way to Vegas/Palm Spings.

Sounds ambitious but with American roads it's pretty simple. We did Seattle to San Diego via Las Vegas in two weeks last autumn. I wouldn't fancy a convertible though but then that's only because there's no room for crap. It took an hour to clean our SUV in San Diego!!

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

Doesn't look like you've considered heading North?

Sounds ambitious but with American roads it's pretty simple. We did Seattle to San Diego via Las Vegas in two weeks last autumn.

We visited the Napa Valley on one trip and enjoyed it very much.
On your Seattle - SAN - LAS trip, can you remember what the one way hire surcharge was ? I've fancied a trip where I started in Washington State but I've always been put off by the idea of a whopping one way drop off charge.

cubegame

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

We visited the Napa Valley on one trip and enjoyed it very much.
On your Seattle - SAN - LAS trip, can you remember what the one way hire surcharge was ? I've fancied a trip where I started in Washington State but I've always been put off by the idea of a whopping one way drop off charge.

Booked with Holiday Autos via the Virgin One account link (google it) the car Mid-Size SUV (we were upgraded to a Full size) was just over 400 pounds with no one way fees. They seem to be the only people who do that from Seattle to California.

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

Booked with Holiday Autos via the Virgin One account link (google it) the car Mid-Size SUV (we were upgraded to a Full size) was just over 400 pounds with no one way fees. They seem to be the only people who do that from Seattle to California.

Nice one cubegame. Quite often its the devils own job in finding out what different companies one-way policies are. Quite a few sites quote 'one way charges may be applicable locally upon collection of the car' and I don't fancy that idea one bit.

jaypr

Miles16v wrote: »

I've decided to lop off San Diego in exchange for the Palm Springs area.

I booked The Westin Mission Hills Villas in Rancho Mirage, via priceline for the tidy sum of $60 a night.

I'm still undecided (I'm sure by now, your not surprised!) about what to do with my time between San Fran and Palm Springs.

Essentially I'm unsure where to stay in LA, and am unsure whether to spend 1 night in each of Monterey and Pismo Beach with 4 nights around LA, or 2 nights in one of them and 3 nights in LA.

Sounds like you bagged a great hotel there. If your there on a Thursday, definitely check out the Villagefest in the evening, it’s great fun.

Here are a few ideas of what to fill your time with between San Fran and Palm Springs.

If you stay in Carmel/Monterey

In Carmel/Monterey we stayed in the Marina Dunes Resort which is now called The Sanctuary Beach Resort via Priceline. When we got there we paid an extra $20 for an ocean view room. They also give you a personal golf cart assigned to your room that you drive around in. http://www.thesanctuarybeachresort.com/

You have to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This is a must, make time to go here. http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

If you have time Point Lobos State Reserve is beautiful and definitely worth a visit. http://www.pointlobos.org/

You could have a meal at the Hog’s Breath Inn. It used to be owned by Clint Eastwood but I don’t think it is anymore. It’s not fantastic, but it’s a talking point. http://www.hogsbreathinn.net/

As mentioned before the Pebble Beach 17 mile drive is rubbish and a waste of time and money, don’t do it!

If you stay in Pismo Beach

We stayed at the Pismo Lighthouse Suites and the Kon Tiki Inn. Both are close together, but all of the Kon Tiki Inn rooms have ocean view rooms. You will pay extra for that at the Pismo Lighthouse Suites.

http://www.kontikiinn.com/

http://www.pismolighthousesuites.com/

Not much to do in Pismo Beach itself other than walk along the beach and enjoy the view.

If you stay in San Luis Obizpo

We stayed at the Madonna Inn. Check it out, it’s a freaky hotel. http://www.madonnainn.com/

Not cheap though. Personally I’d stay somewhere house and just have a meal at Gold Rush Steak House in the Madonna Inn, take a look at some of the photos online of it.

Not much to do in San Luis Obizpo either, if you like weird crap visit Bubblegum Alley! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_Alley

If you stay in Solvang
We stayed at the Hadsten House Inn and Spa http://www.hadstenhouse.com/

Solvang is a Danish town and is very pretty, only really half a day’s worth of things to see here though. They have a farmers market from 3-6pm on a Wednesday, but it’s really small and not a patch on Villagefest.

Solvang is also near Neverland Ranch, if you fancy a quick peek at some gates (not really much else there)

From Solvang to LA you pass through Santa Barbara, which you can take a look at or you can stop off at the outlets at Camarillo http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=20


Hotels in LA

We have stayed at the Renaissance Hollywood which is at Hollywood and Highland, so next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theatre. Got this through Priceline too.

http://www.renaissancehollywood.com/

Also stayed at the Hilton Universal City which is within walking distance of Universal Studios. Great if that’s where you’re going, but a nice hotel too.

http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/BURUCHF-Hilton-Los-Angeles-Universal-City-California/index.do

Remember both hotels are in LA and you will pay extra for parking.

Apart from Hollywood Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theatre I think the best place in LA is the Griffith Park Observatory. Nice drive up, great view from the top and it’s free. I think you have to pay for the Planetarium, but that’s a great show too. Probably my favourite place in LA.

http://www.griffithobs.org/

If you want to go nutter spotting then Venice Beach is the place for you, it’s full of them. Santa Monica Pier which is close by is a nice little trip.

http://www.venicebeach.com/

Personally I wouldn’t stay in LA for more than a couple of days.

Oh and if you haven’t already got one, get a Tomtom with USA maps before you go and spend some time adding the destinations into it before your trip, It’s worth every penny. If you dont, you will get lost and you will argue with your new wife and you don’t want that.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Jason

Miles16v

I originally considered going North, but realised that would be a bridge too far and I wanted to go down the pacific highway.

Thanks for that monster reply jaypr, very helpful.

How easy / expensive is it to get USA maps for a UK tomtom?

So if we work on a night in Monterey, a night in Pismo area and 3 nights in LA. Where do I add the spare night? I have been offered another night in Palm Springs at the same price.