West Coast of America road trip - ideas please :)

gymfiend

Hello,

Sorry to barge in on a board I've never posted on before but I was hoping to pick some experienced brains :A

My OH & I are getting married in July and after the initial shock of the cost of 2 weeks in Italy, we've decided to go to America instead to celebrate the start of our lives together The only things we're really bothered about are going to LA & San Francisco, and I'm struggling to find online any itineraries I can play around with.

We're going to hire a car (so any tips on where to do that on a budget would also be great) & we'll be taking our baby (currently 10 days overdue!), so any tips on itinerary, car hire, hotels etc would be wonderful :A

richardw

I'd go for 10 days in Italy in July, no long flights, no jet lag and they'll love the baby.

gymfiend

Whilst we'd have liked to...the £4k for 2 weeks just seemed a bit steep for what you get iykwim? We'd always planned to go to the west coast sometime soon, and figure if not now, when, as baby will still be fairly manageable this year, but not once he starts toddling!

jackieblack

There have been LOADS of threads on this..... I'm sure if you do a search you'll find loads of useful info.

Here's a few to be going on with.....
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2178827&highlight=west+coast

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2268131&highlight=west+coast

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2214011&highlight=west+coast

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2256453&highlight=west+coast

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2003377&highlight=west+coast

From personal experience, we weren't keen on LA - wouldn't bother again, and I wouldn't have dreamt of doing a trip like this when my daughter was a few months old, but if you do - good luck and have a great time!

shiv2001

If you're driving between San Francisco and LA stay at the FogCatcher Inn in Cambria. It's right on the beach and the place is really lovely and friendly.
Just North of Cambria is Hearst Castle which is pretty cool to visit.

It's quite a drive between SF and LA so try and stay two nights along the way. We were travelling from Napa to LA and stayed in Monterey and then Cambria, but still found it quite a drive for two days and we hit LA in the dark at rush hour - not a nice experience.

Personally I wouldn't recommend LA. Universal Studios was pretty good, but we were there on a tuesday at the begininng of October.

gymfiend

Fantastic, thanks for your help so far, will have a nose through those threads now I love LA personally so really excited at the prospect of going back!

davetrousers

Don't take out the Full Collision Damage Waiver with the car hire firm. Use their basic insurance then get your own Car Hire Excess insurance.

There are places like insurance4carhire that'll do this, as well as other places.

LittleMissAspie

My boyfriend and I did a 3 week road trip last year. San Francisco up the coast to Portland, down through central Oregon and to Yosemite then to Sacramento and back to San Francisco.

We worked out our itinarary online, just using Google maps and working out what towns to stay in - looking for ones that had plenty of motels and what things there were to do and were evenly spaced. We didn't want to cover much more than 100 miles per day - bear in mind that speed limits are 55 or 65mph. And as it turned out, by the time you factor in driving around to things and going the scenic way and getting a bit lost, we covered a lot more, I think it was 2900 miles total.

We stayed in motels the whole way. The only ones we booked in advance were San Francisco and Portland. We researched every town we stayed in and did really well and always managed to find somewhere cheap very easily, except for one night when we ended up in some weird back room above a restaurant with a door that didn't lock from the inside and had to pay $100 for the priviledge! That was by Yosemite, we hadn't realised it was Free National Park day and so it was very very busy.

We booked the flight and car online but separately. Came to about £1000 total. We paid extra for a non-stop flight.

Accommodation we also budgeted £1000 total. That was $1600 at the time and allowed an average $76 per night. Motel prices ranged from under $50 for cheap chains and independents on the coast, to $200 for San Francisco/Portland. We came in under budget in the end as I don't care for fancy rooms, just clean and with a shower.

Food and spending money was another £1000. We often bought snack/sandwich food for dinner and supermarket fruit and bagels for lunch to save money. Beware pizza restaurants are really expensive, Mexican is the cheap option over there and you have to budget for a 20% tip. We mostly ate in chain diners or Mexican. Again we came in under budget and were able to splash out at the end.

It was absolutely the best holiday we've ever had. The scenery was amazing, you just cannot get that in England. Cities, beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, semi-desert, lava fields, volcanoes, meadows, waterfalls, we saw the lot. The people are so helpful and friendly and it really helped with our confidence as they are a lot less reserved than here. You just say what you want and it's never a hassle for them.

£3000 is a fortune to spend on a holiday and I wouldn't normally consider doing that. But for 3 weeks, 2 people and including all our spending money it worked out a bargain compared to anything else you can book.

LittleMissAspie

Oh and to add, their "small" cars are actually medium size, we booked small and got a PT Cruiser so you won't need medium or large even with a baby I think. Then again if you want to store luggage for all three of you in the boot for security, a medium might be better. If I went again I might get a 4x4 but we did go off the beaten track a bit.

I looked into what davetrousers suggests but didn't understand it all. Standard insurance is equivalent to third party only but the excess insurance only covers your excess, not first party claims. I don't know, but we took the cover from the car hire place.

gymfiend

Fantastic thanks LittleMissAspie, can I ask, did you stop between Yosemite and Sacramento, and is there anywhere you'd reccomend along the way? Think that the stint from Yosemite to San Fran would be too long for baby unless we tried to do it overnight? Also, did you get sat nav with the car?

Zazie

We are leaving 3 weeks today :j: San Francisco for a week, then driving down the coast (Monterey, Big Sur as far as Cambria) then inland and through Death Valley to Las Vegas (for another week - during which we are driving to the Grand Canyon for an overnight).

Best deal on the car for us was via cahire3000 who are not adding on a on-way fee.

We're not picking up the car until we leave San Francisco as it is apparently expensive to park and so easy to get around on foot or using public transport.