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Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread
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Yes there isn't much to do in Phoenix but to be honest we'll only spend about 3-4 days there (including the trip to the GC and probably sedona) I wanted some sun and time to laze around and do nothing!
whilst we were in the Phoenix area, this place was moderately interesting & further along the Apache Trail, this place may offer you a break from Phoenix.
Depending what time of year you are going, you may find Phoenix to be incredibly hot and (nearly) unbearable.0 -
tarkytarks wrote: »I wouldn't say that the flight from LAS to Gatwick is that bad, it's just on an old plane that could do with some updating inside. It's a night flight so once they've fed you they leave you alone to sleep for the duration. If you can afford it you might prefer to book premium ecconomy seats in the bubble part of the plane though.
We flew LHR-SFO and back LAS-GAT last year, and paid around £1300 for over Easter 2010. TBH I hadn't researched flight prices before hand so we didn't know what was good or not. However if your dates are fixed and you're planning to go in the easter hols I'd want to get them booked sooner rather than later too as those flights will only ever fill up!! At least if you book now you've a chance to save up for the rest of of your holiday
Book your hotels on a refundable basis - the prices for the hotel in SFO and Vegas both dropped by quite a bit nearer the time of travel.
Oh and watch out for the jetlag when you get back! I found it a killer - when were you planning to go back to work after you get back?
You won't need a car in SFO so I'd book to collect it on your last morning (we trundled our cases from the hotel over to the hire car places!!), we ended up keeping the car for 1 week.
And for vegas I'd suggest looking for a good price hotel a bit more mid-strip than the excallibur but only because you'll be a bit more central and not get as fed up with walking aroundMaybe consider Ballys or the Flamingo one as they are very nice and central.
Final edit: This was some more details on our trip https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/40472550#Comment_40472550
Thank you! Yes I think its going to be best to book the flights asap as I know its going to be a busy period.
I think we are going to have 1 day off then back to work which might be a killer but I think then we will only have to do 3 days at work which wont be too bad.
I have quoted the car so we pick it up on the day we check out. I def don't want a car in San Fran.
I was looking on hotels.com just now and I was surprised to find some of the prices there a lot cheaper than what I thought they would be. There seems to be an offer on at the moment for the Luxor at about £210 for 3 nights. I'd really like to stay at the The Venetian but that is a bit more expensive so maybe we will take that down to 2 nights so we can stay there.:rotfl:0 -
This thread will tell you everything you need to know about Vegas (and more!), so I won't go into too much detail here, but basically the hotels there are probably the cheapest you'll find on your trip for the quality of the rooms. If you can, avoid weekends though as the prices will be at least double what you'll pay on a weekday in most cases.
Looking at somewhere like hotels.com though won't give you the best prices - sign up to somewhere like Smarter Vegas and you will get weekly emails with all the best hotel discount offers. It's a bit early yet to get anything decent for April but still worth keeping your eye out for what's available...we found an offer last year paying $55 per night for a king suite at the MGM - bargain!0 -
I have found a Ford Mustang hire car for £325.56 on www.usrentacar.co.uk . Not sure if this is a good price but I thought it was reasonable.
QUOTE]
The question I have is " why a Mustang?" - open top motoring is very uncomfortable if you are doing a lot of miles.0 -
I have found a Ford Mustang hire car for £325.56 on www.usrentacar.co.uk . Not sure if this is a good price but I thought it was reasonable.travellerboy wrote: »The question I have is " why a Mustang?" - open top motoring is very uncomfortable if you are doing a lot of miles.
No guarantee you'll actually get a Mustang anyway
http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/faqAns.aspx?pk=2922.22kWp Solar PV system installed Oct 2010, Fronius IG20 Inverter, south facing (-5 deg), 30 degree pitch, no shadingEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endMFW #4 OPs: 2018 £866.89, 2019 £1322.33, 2020 £1337.07
2021 £1250.00, 2022 £1500.00, 2023 £1500, 2024 £13502025 target = £1200, YTD £690
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur0 -
Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »whilst we were in the Phoenix area, this place was moderately interesting & further along the Apache Trail, this place may offer you a break from Phoenix.
Depending what time of year you are going, you may find Phoenix to be incredibly hot and (nearly) unbearable.
We were in Phoenix last Jul/Aug and it was 100+ degrees f. This time we're going in September so I hope it will be slightly cooler. Thank you for the links I will definately look into them. My partner and I have finally decided we'll only spend 2 days and 1 night in phoenix and try and explore other parts of Arizona too.
With regards to the Mustang, my partner insisted we get one the first time we went to America. It is a nice car but huge and the 5 ltr engines drink petrol. He only put the roof down on the car once (during the drive from the airport to our hotel) because he found it too hot and opted to use the air conditioning for the rest of the trip. We also found that we could only fit 1 large suitcase into the boot and the rest of the cases had to go on the back seat.
When we got the car the rates were near enough £1=$2 so the price for the car was good. Since then we always get the basic (chevrolet aveo) and we managed to fit 2 large suitcases + 1 carry on bag0 -
travellerboy wrote: »I have found a Ford Mustang hire car for £325.56 on www.usrentacar.co.uk . Not sure if this is a good price but I thought it was reasonable.
QUOTE]
The question I have is " why a Mustang?" - open top motoring is very uncomfortable if you are doing a lot of miles.
I expect it is but thats why you can put the top up.jackieblack wrote: »No guarantee you'll actually get a Mustang anyway
http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/faqAns.aspx?pk=292
Yeah I know that, they always give these disclaimers. As I said I'm still only looking for quotes at this stage.:rotfl:0 -
Venusflytrap wrote: »Absolutely brill! My hubby's dream (for the last 25 years) is to visit the West coast and your posts have given me a good start in making this a reality.
We would like to travel to San Fran for 2 weeks, rent a bus and camp (w/out planning out too much in advance), so any pointers more would be welcome!
Just spotted these on a link in an email newsletter I subscribe to so thought I would share in case they're of any interest:
Information on camping in California's state parks
California outdoor recreation ideas
Camp California! website0 -
Well our trip really seems to be coming together now so thought I would post a bit of an update in case it's of any interest...
3 nights Anaheim - Desert Inn & Suites
2 nights near Zion NP - Dreamcatcher Inn B&B, Rockville
1 night near Bryce Canyon NP - Bryce Canyon Inn, Tropic
2 nights Page, AZ - Holiday Inn Express
1 night Grand Canyon NP (south rim) - Maswik Lodge
1 night Lake Havasu City - Travelodge
1 night Palm Springs/Palm Desert - Hotel undecided*
5 nights San Diego - Private rental booked via vrbo.com
* I now have 2 different Marriotts booked in Palm Desert at bargain rates via their best rate guarantee plus a room in the Travelodge Palm Springs which would give us 15,000 bonus Wyndam Rewards points (enough for a free night's stay somewhere next trip) and can't decide which is the best bargain so keeping them all reserved for now!!
According to my rather geeky spreadsheet, our average accommodation cost is going to be around $95-$100 per night inc taxes etc which I'm really pleased with...bearing in mind that San Diego can be really pricey and we're staying in or near to several National Parks we figured we'd have to spend a lot more for some nights so are now well under our original budget of £100 per night :money:
All flights are now booked - again under budget as apart from saving at least £100pp on what I thought we'd have to pay for the transatlantic flights we managed to bag $40pp Southwest fares in the sale and were also able to make use of a $50 credit voucher (which SW issued my mum last year for a damaged bag) on the very last day it was valid:j. Overall it's cost $51.40 inc taxes, fees etc for the two of us to fly from Orange County to Las Vegas which I'm chuffed to bits with - I almost booked up a few days earlier but am so glad I procrastinated a bit and was able to take advantage of their sale fares as it's saved us about $100!
I think we've pretty much decided on the route for the driving portions. Overall we'll be doing about 2-3 hours driving most days with a few no/low driving days inbetween, two longer 4-5 hour driving days after the Grand Canyon but then 5 days to chill out and relax again in San Diego which I think is an ok balance.
I only realised a couple of days ago that after doing a lot of searching around a few weeks ago we've forgotten to actually finish off booking the car hire, so need to get that sorted ASAP - kind of important for a road trip.
Disney tickets (2 day hopper passes) are booked as we had to get in quick before the prices went up in June. I have also been toying with the idea of a day at Sea World as there is a good $20 off coupon available online at the moment, but I'm really not sure whether it's worth $50 (reduced price) each when we've already been to the Orlando version several times and I don't think they'll be running fireworks or any of the evening shows (Shamu Rocks etc) because we'll be going out of season. If anyone has done both the Orlando and San Diego parks what did you think - is it worth it?
I don't think anything else we want to do (National Parks, mule ride at Bryce Canyon, tour of Antelope Canyon in Page, baseball & NFL game in San Diego) really needs tickets booking in advance so we will just sort out when we get there &/or closer to the time.
I have a $25 off $35 restaurant.com certificate purchased for this place in Lake Havasu City and am eyeing up a couple of others in Anaheim & San Diego but haven't made my mind up yet. Also have a Groupon for 5 Blockbuster Express (the self-serve DVD vending machines they have in supermarkets etc) rentals which cost us $5 - there are a couple of rental kiosks near where we're staying in San Diego and as the house where we're staying has a DVD player we thought it might be nice to get a couple of films to watch in the evenings. Not seen any other amazing bargains yet but we still have about 7-8 weeks to go so I'm still keeping my eye out!
I think that's about it. Getting so excited now I can't wait to finally get away and have a break - only 53 days to go!!0 -
I have also been toying with the idea of a day at Sea World as there is a good $20 off coupon available online at the moment, but I'm really not sure whether it's worth $50 (reduced price) each when we've already been to the Orlando version several times and I don't think they'll be running fireworks or any of the evening shows (Shamu Rocks etc) because we'll be going out of season. If anyone has done both the Orlando and San Diego parks what did you think - is it worth it?
We've been to both. We've spent 8 or 9 days at the Orlando park as
DD is Orca mad, so it was a 'must do' for us in San Diego. The San Diego park is more compact, much easier to get around and so you can get much more done in a single day.
We actually preferred it to the Orlando park.
I suppose whether its worth it or not depends on how 'into' marine life you are and how much you enjoy that kind of atraction. For us it was well worth it.
Have great trip.:)2.22kWp Solar PV system installed Oct 2010, Fronius IG20 Inverter, south facing (-5 deg), 30 degree pitch, no shadingEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endMFW #4 OPs: 2018 £866.89, 2019 £1322.33, 2020 £1337.07
2021 £1250.00, 2022 £1500.00, 2023 £1500, 2024 £13502025 target = £1200, YTD £690
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur0
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