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

Murphy_The_Cat

nige_saver wrote: »

I'm thinking of a taking a two week road trip taking in the the following in late August early Sept this year, any advice would be gratefully appreciated.


Sedona

Scottsdale

Two nights in Sad Diego
Return to LA

Cottonwood is oodles cheaper than Sedona and gives you easy access to places like Jerome & Blazing M Chuckwagon & an easy trip to Sedona with some fantastic views.

Scottsadle didn't do it for me !

Have you considered flying back from San Diego with BA, direct and saving a drive back to LA (& having to use LAX)

End of August/Early September will be baking hot in Arizona !

Rahven

Hotels for our trip now all booked, yay! Bless them, one B&B in San Fran is upgrading us cause it's our honeymoon, how sweet is that. We were more than happy with the place and the free parking they offer already. We managed to get a nice enough Lake Tahoe room with a view of the Lake and a hot tub for a very reasonable price and in Pismo we have a view of the ocean. This makes me very happy
Next up is Car Hire, buying luggage, and then we're pretty much done


Update:
Car hire sorted - Netflights worked out at a very good price for what we wanted, all insurance included (except for what is already covered by our travel insurance) plus no one-way fees for hiring at Vegas and dropping off in San Fran

pippaloou

I'm planning a trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas in September and have been looking at booking the flights- are flight prices likely to drop at all, or is it best to just bite the bullet and book now?

We're planning to book a rental car to drive down the coast to LA and then to Las Vegas (picking it up when we leave SF rather than at the airport), would anyone who's done this trip recommend a particular car model/rental class? Currently considering mid-size SUV (Ford escape or similar), but is this a bit big for just two of us?

Thanks!

Murphy_The_Cat

pippaloou wrote: »

I'm planning a trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas in September and have been looking at booking the flights- are flight prices likely to drop at all, or is it best to just bite the bullet and book now?

We're planning to book a rental car to drive down the coast to LA and then to Las Vegas (picking it up when we leave SF rather than at the airport), would anyone who's done this trip recommend a particular car model/rental class? Currently considering mid-size SUV (Ford escape or similar), but is this a bit big for just two of us?

Thanks!

hmm flight prices.
I've been watching flight prices to the US for a while now, and the only way seems to be up !

Carwise, I always prefer bigger rather than smaller and more luxurious rather than spartan. Its not very MSE, but I'd rather have a Ford Escape/Jeep Kareoke/Lincoln TownCar over a 'standard' hire car any day of the week.

Vikki_74

Rahven wrote: »

Hotels for our trip now all booked, yay! Bless them, one B&B in San Fran is upgrading us cause it's our honeymoon, how sweet is that. We were more than happy with the place and the free parking they offer already. We managed to get a nice enough Lake Tahoe room with a view of the Lake and a hot tub for a very reasonable price and in Pismo we have a view of the ocean. This makes me very happy
Next up is Car Hire, buying luggage, and then we're pretty much done


Update:
Car hire sorted - Netflights worked out at a very good price for what we wanted, all insurance included (except for what is already covered by our travel insurance) plus no one-way fees for hiring at Vegas and dropping off in San Fran

Wow, sounds like you've got a lot sorted, well done!

Who is your Netflights booking at LAS with? Only ask because we booked our car through them last year using Thrifty and had some problems...booked a luxury car and were told after a lot of arguing with the staff at the LAS Thrifty desk that they don't actually have luxury vehicles for hire so we basically couldn't have what we'd paid for! In the end Netflights sorted it out when we got home and gave us a partial refund, but it was pretty stressful whilst we were there.

Oh and they were really funny about us taking the car out of state - they caved in the end but were trying to insist that because we booked with Netflights who don't charge a one way fee (apparently Thrifty do if you book direct with them) we could only have a car with a California licence plate, so very restricted choice of vehicles.

Not saying don't use them as some of the problems were really due to Thrifty's staff, just something to be aware of. We were very grateful that we were only trying to sort things out after a short internal flight - I think if I'd just come off a long haul flight from the UK I would have been a complete mess!

Rahven

Hello!
The car is with Dollar. That sounds like a horrid situation to be having, no-one likes arguing on holiday! Fingers crossed we get ours alright :S When we were booking I took a screenprint of all of the terms and conditions - do you reckon it might be worth printing it out and taking it with us?

Vikki_74

I would take a copy of everything just to be on the safe side - it didn't do us any good as they physically couldnt give us what we'd paid for, but at least it gives you something to stick in their face and argue with! I always do the same with hotel bookings...there's no real need to have everything printed off but I like to take a copy of all our reservations just in case something happens, especially if I've booked through a third party site.

northwest1965

Rahven wrote: »

Hello!
The car is with Dollar. That sounds like a horrid situation to be having, no-one likes arguing on holiday! Fingers crossed we get ours alright :S When we were booking I took a screenprint of all of the terms and conditions - do you reckon it might be worth printing it out and taking it with us?

Our car was with Dollar....no probs with collecting Vegas and dropping off SF:)

Rahven

northwest1965 wrote: »

Our car was with Dollar....no probs with collecting Vegas and dropping off SF:)

Hooray! I do think I'll print the stuff off just to be safe. Will at least stop me worrying

Any particular recommendations of places to eat in Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, Carmel/Monterey anyone? We'll eat most stuff, tho not massive fish eaters (willing to give it a go if it's awesome!)

JPR

[QUOTE=Rahven;51281165

Any particular recommendations of places to eat in Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, Carmel/Monterey anyone? We'll eat most stuff, tho not massive fish eaters (willing to give it a go if it's awesome!)[/QUOTE]


Carmel
I went here in the eighties and it was good food for not bad prices. No idea how it is now but quite fun:

http://www.hogsbreathinn.net/