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USA Experts - check my holiday plan is ok :)
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AMG2B
Posts: 83 Forumite
Hi everyone, my first post for a long time, but just wanted to tap in to your knowledge.
Me and DH are going on a US trip of a lifetime in May and I'm hoping to book the flights tonight. I'd just like to check that I've allowed enough time in each place and also see what you'd advise re car hire for the California part of our trip.
Basically - fly to NY - 5 nights, internal flight to LAX, hire car, drive to San Diego - 5 nights here (or 4 - what would you recommend), then 3 nights somewhere on the coast between LAX & San Diego for a mega luxury chillout before flying back from LAX.
Does this sound ok? What is the best/cheapest way of hiring a car - I figure we won't need one at all for the NY leg, but then might as well have one that we pick up and drop off at LAX for the 7 nights in California.
Am I on the right lines?
Me and DH are going on a US trip of a lifetime in May and I'm hoping to book the flights tonight. I'd just like to check that I've allowed enough time in each place and also see what you'd advise re car hire for the California part of our trip.
Basically - fly to NY - 5 nights, internal flight to LAX, hire car, drive to San Diego - 5 nights here (or 4 - what would you recommend), then 3 nights somewhere on the coast between LAX & San Diego for a mega luxury chillout before flying back from LAX.
Does this sound ok? What is the best/cheapest way of hiring a car - I figure we won't need one at all for the NY leg, but then might as well have one that we pick up and drop off at LAX for the 7 nights in California.
Am I on the right lines?
Everything will be ok in the end, if everything's not ok then it's not the end

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Any particular reason you're flying into LAX rather than SAN ?I Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole
MSE Florida wedding .....no problem0 -
Sounds great!
Cars - netflights.com / carhire3000.com
A place between SD and LA - Laguna Beach. I was looking at stopping at this place - http://www.casalaguna.com Ended up stopping in La Jola. Wish I'd have done Laguna...0 -
Hi Duchy - flying into LAX as it's closer to SD and we've decided not to do the coastal drive on this trip - want to get to grips with how everything works first!Everything will be ok in the end, if everything's not ok then it's not the end0
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SAN Diego airport is nearer to San Diego than LAX and has many internal flights from NYC including https://www.jetblue.comPosts are not advice and must not be relied upon.0
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I am the biggest San Diego fan you can find, so spend as long as you can there, especially Sunday in Balboa Park which is really special. You can of course chill out in SD itself rather than anywhere else along the coast but if you want to get away from everything I can seriously recommend taking the ferry from Newport Beach or Long Beach to Catalina Island. Great hotels, great atmosphere, especially when the day trippers have gone, enjoy a film at the Casino, the greatest cinema I have ever seen, the organ still comes out of the floor before the 7pm show every weekend, it feels as though you are a 1000 miles away from LA.
Flight wise, see which works out best price wise buying LON/NYC-LAX/LON and buying an internal flight on Jet Blue, great staff, 24 channels of Live TV, free, and comnfortable planes or buying the whole set of flights in one go. The problem is that 'ordinary' internal flights are very poor, five and a half hours and you have to buy everything, and there may not be much, on board, its like Ryanair except for a much longer flight.0 -
SAN is San Diego airport NOT San Francisco (which is SFO) !
I was wondering why you'd want to navigate the LAX area when you don't need to as you're planning on going to San Diego rather than LA firstI Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole
MSE Florida wedding .....no problem0 -
Ahh - ok thanks for the Jet Blue tip off - that's really useful. We will still need to go back from LAX as we'll be flying with Virgin, but if we can avoid it once then that seems good enough for me! I suppose that poses a new question - will we need a car in SD for the whole time (thinking of stopping in gaslamp district) or just for our trip towards LAX?Everything will be ok in the end, if everything's not ok then it's not the end0
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Definately as others have suggested look at flying into San Diego instead - makes a lot more sense than doubling back on yourself with the driving unless there is a huge difference in price vs flying NY to LA.
For car hire, if you did fly in to SD I'd be surprised if there was a one way fee between there and LA as it's a popular route, so it shouldn't cost you much, if anything, more than picking up and dropping off at LAX. Personally I've always found better prices booking direct with the rental companies than using a third party but many others on these boards seem to disagree. We used a combination of Avis and Hertz on our trip to California last year, both fairly similar in terms of pricing, quality and vehicle types, just have a play around. If you do book direct, I would recommend doing it on the UK site (e.g. avis.co.uk rather than avis.com) as they will bundle up all the insurances you need for a cheaper overall price than using the American version of their websites.
I am another San Diego lover and could easily spend a week there but I'm guessing you want to see as much as you can so splitting your time in California isn't a bad plan. There are a lot of nice places to stay on that part of the coast, but I haven't stayed overnight at any so will leave it to someone who has to give you some better advice.0 -
Thanks Duchy - shows how much I know
Good job I'm posting on here before I book flights to the wrong airport!
Everything will be ok in the end, if everything's not ok then it's not the end0 -
Sorry, cross posting with you there! You can just about manage without a car in San Diego if you stay in the Gaslamp/downtown area as you'll be on the trolley (if that's what they call it there, can never remember - tram type thing!) route, but the public transport isn't as good as say San Francisco...you'd have a bit of a faff getting to the zoo for example.
Parking in downtown hotels is expensive ($20+ per night usually) so you need to weigh up where you want to visit, whether that makes a car necessary, and if so whether you really need to stay in the gaslamp area. We were going to originally, without a car, then decided it really would be easier to drive everywhere so ended up staying on Shelter Island (Best Western Island Palms hotel) which was cheaper than staying downtown anyway and didn't cost us extra for parking.
Most places in San Diego are no more than 15-20 minutes drive away from one another, so it's not essential to stay in one particular area to be able to get to everything.
All depends on what you want to do whilst you're there - do you have any set ideas yet?0
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