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

vanilla8

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

Local Planet magazine this month has a very nice feature on the natural wonders of Utah.

Oddly enough, mine arrived today in the same post as a big bundle of leaflets maps, guidebooks etc from the Utah Tourist board. They're highly recommended - register on-line here: http://www.utah.com/visitor/contact_us/info_request.htm and they'll mail you a big bundle of useful maps and other stuff.

How long did they take to arrive, leave next Wednesday :j

Vikki_74

bilty wrote: »

Hello, hoping someone will be able to help me, planning a trip next year at the end of May, so far our plan is to Fly into San Francisco drive to LA and then to Las Vegas. Is this too much in 10 days. Husband wants to do the Grand cannon and i would like at least 1 day in Vegas. how easy is it to plan yourself.

Very easy to plan yourself!

I would say what you've suggested is just about possible in 10 days. I'm another who's not a fan of LA although think it's worth a quick stop just to see the Hollywood bits...kind of feel the same about Vegas if I'm honest. I'd probably do:

3 nights San Francisco
2 nights somewhere down the coast
2 nights LA
Internal flight LAX to LAS
3 nights Las Vegas / Grand Canyon

An overnight at the Grand Canyon is ideal if you can fit it in, but depends on flight times, how much changing of hotels you want to do etc.

For internal flights, look at Southwest or JetBlue, and not necessarily from LAX - I got really good prices a couple of years ago flying to LAS from John Wayne airport up near Anaheim for example. Or if you have Tesco Clubcard vouchers consider redeeming them for Avios points - the flight from LAX to LAS only costs 4,500 (less than £20 in Clubcard vouchers, even cheaper when they do bonus points) plus a couple of pounds in taxes, flying on American Airlines but booked via British Airways. I've driven from LA to Vegas and its doable but not very exciting and does take a good chunk of time.

Dirk_Gently_2

vanilla8 wrote: »

How long did they take to arrive, leave next Wednesday :j

A good couple of weeks, I'm afraid.

Dirk_Gently_2

blindman wrote: »

Very easy to plan it yourself.

For 10 days:

Arrive SFO-2 nights min
Drive south to say San Luios Obsibo-Overnight at least one night
Miss out LA-Too big and it's a dump
Drive to LAS Vegas-300 5hr drive- boring miles
Spend minimum 2 nights here
Visit GC from here -overnight if possible.

Lots of other ways:

10 days with those cities involves loads of driving or internal flights.

Enjoy

That looks sound to me - an alternative to save time, if you can afford it, is to do a flight to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. Saves an awful lot of driving and you get to see the canyon from the air, as well as flying over Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.

I did a great combined a couple of years ago with Scenic Airways. Flight to Grand Canyon. helicopter down to the river level, boat trip on the river then helicopter back up and bus tour to another part of the rim with lunch there. Absolutely stunning, and the view from the helicopter as you suddenly rise over the canyon rim is something I'll never, ever forget.

Not that cheap, but there are a variety of tours available from LV, and as you're short of time it might be worthwhile.

Vikki_74

Dirk that Grand Canyon trip sounds amazing - how much did it cost if you don't mind me asking?

Personally I was a bit underwhelmed by the GC; felt like I was just looking at slightly different views of the same big hole in the ground after a while, possibly because we went after visiting Zion and Bryce Canyon which to me were a lot more interesting. I'd like to give it another chance one day though and something like you did sounds a bit more interactive with the whole environment so might make it more interesting to me.

jackieblack

Vikki_74 wrote: »

Personally I was a bit underwhelmed by the GC; felt like I was just looking at slightly different views of the same big hole in the ground after a while,

I felt exactly the same, once the initial 'WOW!' had worn off, the rest of the visit was just slightly different views of the same big hole in the ground

blindman

jackieblack wrote: »

I felt exactly the same, once the initial 'WOW!' had worn off, the rest of the visit was just slightly different views of the same big hole in the ground

That's why you should try to see it from Torroweap :cool:

jackieblack

blindman wrote: »

That's why you should try to see it from Torroweap :cool:

" Acrophobes may want to avoid this overlook "
:eek: Not for me, I'm afraid

Dirk_Gently_2

Vikki_74 wrote: »

Dirk that Grand Canyon trip sounds amazing - how much did it cost if you don't mind me asking?

Personally I was a bit underwhelmed by the GC; felt like I was just looking at slightly different views of the same big hole in the ground after a while, possibly because we went after visiting Zion and Bryce Canyon which to me were a lot more interesting. I'd like to give it another chance one day though and something like you did sounds a bit more interactive with the whole environment so might make it more interesting to me.

Sorry about the delay in replying - long weekend in Edinburgh....

The tour is here : http://www.scenic.com/airplane-tours/grand-voyager-tour
Looks like it's $449 per person. A lot, but my reasoning is if you're only going to see the place once then you might as well do it properly, and this give you a whole day trip and some absolutely fantastic experiences.

There are a variety of other trips on that site, too. Good company to go with too, I'd definitely recommend them - the only problem was getting my wife to disclose her weight to them so they could assign helicopter seats

blindman

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

A good couple of weeks, I'm afraid.

Got mine today after only about a week:cool: