Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread

mysparrow

Now you've made me super-jealous!!:p

You must do a trip report when you get back...

Vikki_74

Oh what a shame, we won't be at bryce until 19 September so will miss the full moon by about a week travellerboy if you do manage to get a place on one of the hikes it would be great to hear back what it was like - it sounds amazing.

Regarding the mule trip, my husband is a bit nervous about doing it at all (had a bad experience riding a donkey as a kid apparently!) so i'm not sure we'll make it on the half day tour, might have to settle for the shorter version. I'm still working on him though so who knows!

I have read good things about hiking the narrows at Zion before but to be honest had ruled it out as I'm not sure I'm up to it - I broke my ankle pretty badly about 18 months ago and am still a bit wobbly on uneven ground etc so wasn't sure I could handle hiking up a river! How strenuous did you find it? I'd hate to do myself an injury and ruin the rest of our trip but it does look like a cool experience - do you think it would just be possible to do just the first bit then turn round and go back again or would there not be much point?

P.S. mysparrow I'll add your links and suggestions to the first page of the thread when I'm back home, not heard of some of these things anywhere before and think they're great!

mysparrow

Glad to help - I love trip planning, especially SW USA! I think this is a great thread you've started, shame it can't be a sticky like you wanted.

I'm not a great horse rider by any stretch but this operation is so well run I don't think there's much to worry about. They assign horses/ mules to you depending on nerves & experience. Everyone rides in a line with the guide at the front instructing you. I felt really secure. There were some steep parts but the mules know what they're doing - you just need to trust them! I know that's a tough thing to convince someone who's had a bad experience though.:o

Really sorry to hear about your ankle & understand why you need to be careful. The rocks are slippy in places & it isn't a smooth river bed. Having said that there is a place to hire appropriate gear from http://www.zionadventures.com/gear-rentals.html
$19 gets you shoes, socks & a stick for a day. I wore walking sandals (merrells I think) & was fine but for a weak ankle the hire boots would be my choice. I think you could probably ask their advice on whether you'd be ok. The stick would definitely help.
The actual start of the walk to get to the river bed is all paved (as they say in America!) & it's still a lovely, very easy, walk to do wthout getting your feet wet. You could then just try a little bit like you say & see how you far you could get comfortably.

travellerboy

Has anyone used the coupons from restaurant.com for meals - is it a true discount? Having read some, quote - 18% Gratuity added prior to discount and excludes tax and gratuities. Some also say must be shown before you order the meal.

It makes me wonder if the meal is off a different priced menu and whether it will be the bargin you thought?

wdyw

mysparrow wrote: »

You're welcome & I'm really jealous of your trip! I wish I could afford to go every year.
I see you mentioned the mule trip at Bryce canyon - we did the 1/2 day peek-a-boo trail & it was just amazing - definitely aim for the 8 am one as it just gets hotter & hotter as you reach the bottom.
http://www.canyonrides.com/bryce_canyon_rides.html
The other thing at Bryce that I so wanted to do is the moon hike. We just didn't have the time. Apparently when there's a full moon & a clear night the canyon hoodoos (rock towers) take on lovely colours. They take you on a guided trip into the canyon at night. It sounds fab. You just need your visit to coincide with a full moon!
http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/fullmoonhikes.htm

On the days around the new moon, they also get the telescopes set up for star gazing and on the full moon walks they usually have the telescopes up for you to see the moon in its full glory. THe night tours are fun, but the colours are nothing special.

The "mule trips" from Bryce are actually a mixture of mules and horses for those who look down on riding mules!

Vikki_74

travellerboy wrote: »

Has anyone used the coupons from restaurant.com for meals - is it a true discount? Having read some, quote - 18% Gratuity added prior to discount and excludes tax and gratuities. Some also say must be shown before you order the meal.

It makes me wonder if the meal is off a different priced menu and whether it will be the bargin you thought?

I can only speak from experience of the few places we've tried, but we never ran into any problems with being ripped off in any way and the discounts are genuine.

I would guess the automatic 18% gratuity is at least partly so that people don't "forget" to tip on the full pre-discounted price of the meal. As that's only fair (the waitress has done the same amount of work whether you have a coupon or not) and we would normally tip 15-20% anyway I've never thought that was a problem. A couple of times we actually left a bit more of a tip on top if the service was good as we felt a bit guilty about having had a ton of food for only $15-20!! If service anywhere was so abismal that I didn't want to leave a tip I would tell them, but never had to deal with that in any of the places we've tried.

Re. why some places ask for the voucher before you've ordered, I would imagine it's so they can check with r.com that it's valid before you order. That does seem to be very restaurant specific so maybe certain places have had problems in the past? Again though, was never a problem for us. You can usually find menus online if you want to have an idea of what to expect before you go if it's a concern.

One thing I would say is that it's important to know what you're actually buying before you get involved. I've seen many people on the Vegas thread get confused and think they're just getting say a $25 gift voucher so will get effectively a free meal, not understanding that it's actually $25 off a $35 spend or whatever. Still a good deal in my book but not quite the same as eating out for only the couple of $$ which the vouchers cost to buy!

travellerboy

Thanks, I'll give it a pun. One of the restaurants is part of the hotel I've booked for an overnight stop.

2manybooks

One of the most awesome things I have ever seen was the night sky at Bryce Canyon. We had a fantastic clear night (no moon) and went out to the edge of the canyon , lay down, looked up, turned off the torch and it was unbelieveable, just so, so beautiful.

What was really funny though was you could see the torches of other little groups of people bobbing along, stopping, going out, followed by the sound of them gasping in awe with the occasional "F£%&K ME" thrown in.

I would love to go back, but can't drive and the only way of going between the canyons seems to be a group tour - I don't play well with other people and timetables on holiday

pazza2000

We are doing a West Coast road trip in a few weeks time. Renting a car for 15days and if paying at least $9.99 for GPS direct from the rental agency, surely there would be a cheaper option than $150 that I could arrange from here in the UK before we go?

Vikki_74

If you already have a UK sat nav you can buy USA maps to use with it. I think we paid about £40 or so last year from Ebay - they come downloaded to a memory card which you just slot in. Another alternative would be to buy an american sat nav system when you get there, I'm pretty sure I've seen that the basic models are only about $100 in Walmart so would work out cheaper than hiring one for a longer trip. With either of these options you could always sell on again using Ebay once you're back, or just keep for another trip.