California honeymoon ideas....

Miles16v

Hi,

I'm organising a surprise honeymoon for my wife to be, and am thinking about a Californian fly drive.

I've had a look around and reckon its cheaper to book it all yourself than to go through an agent.

Here's what I'm thinking.

Route:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=San+Francisco,+CA,+USA&daddr=south+lake+tahoe+to:mammoth+lakes+to:Las+Vegas,+NV,+USA+to:San+Diego,+CA,+USA+to:Los+Angeles,+CA,+USA&hl=en&geocode=&gl=uk&mra=ls&sll=33.67864,-119.421387&sspn=4.213891,10.821533&ie=UTF8&z=6
San Fran (3 nights) > Lake Tahoe (1 night) > Yosemite (2 nights) > Las Vegas (3 nights) > San Diego (2 nights) > LA (3 nights).

We like walking so thought Lake Tahoe and Yosemite would be good. However might ditch Lake Tahoe to make it less frantic?

About 1100 miles driving in 14 days.

BA flights - £800
Convertible - £450
Accom (3-5*) - £1200
Helicopter to the Grand Canyon - £400

Can you book BA flights cheaper through agents than you can direct? All the comparison sites dont seem to like split city flights.

Any thoughts on the route?

Must do things in the area?

Places I've missed / changes you'd make?

All appreciated, as I'm very much feeling myself through what seems reasonable.

All help much appreciated, and might just save a divorce before its even started!

madmumof2

The majority of the time it is much cheaper to 'diy' a holiday than go through an agent.

There are a lot of cheap flights you can book yourself, which would add on a couple of hundred if you went through an agent.

I would plan it all yourself, find out how much it would cost, then present it to a TA and tell them to beat the price or you'll go elsewhere.

This is what I did for my trip to Florida last year. It was going to cost me £4k (which was still reasonable considering we went all out, all parks, on site accommodation, posh dining, etc) but by going to loads of travel agents in my area, asking each one to beat the previous price (which they did) I ended up paying less than £2k and got extra luggage, transfers and deluxe travel insurance added on too.

The last TA I went to could not beat the price but could add on extras instead. That is when I knew I'd hit my floor and booked!