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

Murphy_The_Cat

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

What didn't you understand in my statement that Amtrak was 3 times the price of the Greyhound fare??? It takes some work to get to the conclusion you seem to have drawn from that so well done you for your efforts.


That said I'll leave you to what you clearly feel is your special thread Murphy and jackieblack where you can continue to feel smug and superior to everyone who doesn't share either your experience, your photographic memory or your point of view. Thanks to everyone for all the helpful advice. Take care and happy travelling.

Greyhound fares seem to be from $18 to $24, depending on restrictions. Amtrak is $45 (you seemed to be mixing your $'s with your £'s earlier on). For a lot of the year, Amtrak seem to charge $36 for the trip.

The Amtrak service is a train, not a bus.
& it isn't 3 times the price.

Enjoy your extended stay in LA. It sounds like your sort of place.

I've got a discount code for Amtrak that would get you a free Business Class upgrade and a discount off the fare, but hey ho, I'll pass it on to someone who would appreciate it.

jackieblack

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

Apologies for not memorising every post on this fairly long thread. It has never been a requirement before on this forum - perhaps there's a new rule I haven't been told about.

There is a wealth of information on this thread, a huge amount of which is on the first page. A simple search often produces the answers people are looking for and takes very little time and/or effort.

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

I really don't understand why it seems to be such a problem for a member on a moneysaving forum to try to get the best value for money when travelling.

Cheapest and best value are not always the same.
While cheapest is a statement of fact, best value is quite subjective.
Often people who have already experienced what someone is enquiring about will offer their views on this.

jackieblack

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Enjoy your extended stay in LA. It sounds like your sort of place.

:rotfl:

Golden_Anemone

I won't name you as requested but thank you for your PM and for your support. I had no idea the ignore function existed. :cool:

Vikki_74

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I've got a discount code for Amtrak that would get you a free Business Class upgrade and a discount off the fare, but hey ho, I'll pass it on to someone who would appreciate it.

You can pass it my way if you like Murphy Unless it's California route specific...no West coast trip for us this year, we're going to Wisconsin of all places!!

Murphy_The_Cat

Vikki_74 wrote: »

You can pass it my way if you like Murphy Unless it's California route specific...no West coast trip for us this year, we're going to Wisconsin of all places!!

Unfortuinately it is California specific. Its part of a 'car free' initiative that is being run in specific areas, for certain times.
The idea being to encourage people to use the train services.

Murphy_The_Cat

Vikki_74 wrote: »

no West coast trip for us this year, we're going to Wisconsin of all places!!

Don't forget to let us know how you get on. I know very little about Wisconsin, but I'd love to know more.

I'm touring Florida this year. Not my #1 choice, but for a family holiday, we'll have a great time.

Aphrodite

Hi all, just spent a few hours reading through this thread, some really useful information, many thanks!

I was wondering if anyone had any advice about the following:

We're flying out to San Diego on the 8th July to go to comic con which starts on the 11th. We were going to spend those few days before it starts in and around San Diego (I'm guessing we can pop across into Mexico fairly easily as well?).

Then it's Comic Con for 5 days (11th-15th) and we currently have accommodation booked from the 11th to 17th July. I'm not sure if we'll need the two extra days after Comic Con to stay in San Diego? Is there a large amount to do or will the few days at the beginning be enough?

We are flying back from San Diego on the evening of the 21st of July so we have from the 17th-21st to do a mini trip somewhere. We would quite like to go to Las Vegas (but only for a day or so, we're not particularly into gambling), Death Valley and the Grand Canyon. However, I'm aware we probably won't be able to do all these as they're all about 5 hours driving from each other! I'm the only one that drives which makes a little bit of difference and we have to go back to where we started which could be a little time wasting. We have looked at some internal flights and this could be a more sensible option at least one way?

Does anyone have any advice about how to see as much as possible with minimum stress (big ask I know!).

Thanks!

jackieblack

Well we loved San Diego and could easily fill those days, but it really depends what kind of things you enjoy.
There are some beautiful beaches around that stretch of coast and fantastic surfing/kayaking etc. La Jolla is great.
SeaWorld
San Diego Zoo
USS Midway
Coronado is lovely - Hotel Del Coronado is there and worth a look around if you're interested in movies etc
Whale watching
and lots more

We didn't bother popping into Mexico as we'd heard it can take longer to get back into the US than the time you actually get to visit. Also, there'd just been an outbreak of dysentery (:eek:) in Tijuana when we were in SD.

But if you feel the need to journey further afield there are plenty of flights to Las Vegas from San Diego, I believe the flight takes just over an hour. You could rent a car there and drive to the Grand Canyon (you'd need a night at GC or just outside) or you could take a helicopter or plane from LV for a 'day trip'. Some land in/at GC, some just fly over.

And if you see Leonard, Sheldon, Howard or Raj at Comic Con, say 'hi' for me

Vikki_74

We absolutely LOVE San Diego - spent 3 nights there in 2010 and another 5 last year and would happily go back for more.

The zoo is great, as is Balboa Park where it's located. We still haven't had time to do Sea World or the USS Midway but have done a few other fun things:

Narrated boat cruise
Whale & dolphin watching trip
Self-drive speed boat tour
Downtown food tour
Baseball game
Drive-in movie
Old Town trolley tour

Sure there's more but I'm struggling to remember now - I really should get round to posting a bit of a trip report one of these days

I think you could quite happily spend all your time there and not be bored, especially as it'll be so busy for Comic Con, but if you did want to travel further afield then jackieblack's advice is spot on.

Depending on your interests you could also venture out of SD but stay a little closer than Vegas...LA maybe (I'm not the biggest fan but there is plenty to fill a short stay) or elsewhere along that stretch of coast. Palm Springs area and Joshua Tree NP are an easy drive (think it took us a couple of hours) - would be too hot for me in July but so would Las Vegas