Our California Fly Drive

cottyh24

The Hollywood Orchid Suites has free underground parking which is only accessible with a key so your car is pretty safe. It's nothing fancy so if you're looking for a really nice hotel it may not be your thing, but it's in a really good location and it's clean.

ferf1223

stphnstevey wrote: »

Thanks for that - does Priceline let you select properties with parking?

Not on the name-your-own-price option, you can only select the zone and star level...when we did it, we put in a bid knowing that 2 of the 3 hotels that were likely to come up charged for parking, and we understated our bid as a result - thinking if we were successful we had the parking fee in our pocket...got lucky to get the one that didn't charge for parking.

With something like Hotwire and the help of info at betterbidding.com you may be able to narrow it down to a particular property that does have free parking, but it would always be a risk and may be more effort than it's worth.

jackieblack

stphnstevey wrote: »

Yes parking has been a problem with most hotels only having a small parking lot - yours sounds good with pleanty of parking - where was that?

I agree, hotel parking in lots of cities seeme to be a major problem now. We parked in the shopping mall car park right next door for $10 per 24 hours, hotel only did valet parking about $35 per night!

stphnstevey

Looking to book helicoptor for Grand Canyon tour - the price of:

a) Flight - no landing - reserved front seats

is the same as

b) flight with landing - no reserved front seats

Not sure which to go for and which is the most important to us?

stphnstevey

We found a deal for Buy one get one half price with Papillon through Travel Zoo!

Now just struggling to find things to see from

a) lone Pine to Yosemite

b) Big Sur/ Pacific Coast Highway

mumibear

We did a similar trip last August - we drove from San Fran down the coast - it is beautiful - we felt we stopped too many times as there is so much to see - give yourself lots of time. If you get chance go quad biking on pismo beach - fantastic.
Hope you are both driving - it does get tiring but much easier than driving in the UK.........you will love it

stphnstevey

With driving alot of miles and through some very harsh climates (Death Valley for example), just wondering what others have done about a mobile phone?

We obviously have our UK mobiles and SIMs, but imagine the costs to use in the USA would be astonomical

tingtong

stphnstevey wrote: »

With driving alot of miles and through some very harsh climates (Death Valley for example), just wondering what others have done about a mobile phone?

We obviously have our UK mobiles and SIMs, but imagine the costs to use in the USA would be astonomical

The most important thing to take is PLENTY of water, even if you end up giving it away to the car rental people at the end of the trip (they always seem grateful for it).

As far as the costs of using your UK mobile, i wouldn't worry too much if you are only going to use it in an emergency. The main problem I had was getting a signal in more remote places, which is ironic as that's where you're most likely to need it.

travellerboy

Anyone know the answer?

Is it better to book a helicopter flight on-line prior to arriving in Vegas, or better to wait and book in Vegas?

Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks..........

pazza2000

Sorry to weigh in. I am also heading out to CA on a fly drive v.soon and I was wondering if there is a way to get cheaper universal/disney tickets. Can not seem to find them discounted online, so appreciate there won't be many options. $105.00 for our 1 day Park Hopper ticket to Disney/CA adventure & $72 for Universal Studios is the best i can find so far. Deals to be had for 2 days+ but only need 1 day at each.