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

vanilla8

Hi all, I went to a few national parks on our trip in June- Sequoia,Bryce,Zion and Yosemite(we only drive through Yosemite this time en route back to SFO)
We bought an 'America the Beautiful' yearly pass- which is access to all National Parks for a year for $80.
We will not be going back in the next year to get any more use out if it, so if anyone is interested in having it please PM me, there's space for one more signature on the back (you are allowed two) so you would be able to use it. It runs out in June 2014.
I'm not out to make money but would like to recuperate some money and send out to someone recorded delivery- say for £20

northwest1965

Anyone interested in Vegas....don't forget Channel 5 tonight 8.00pm. World's Busiest Hotel is the Venetian. Superb place!

northwest1965

blindman wrote: »

Yes-Last years trip

Only worth it if you're passing by TBHO. (on your way to or from Page).

Best light for photography is in the AM as in the PM you are looking into the sun.

Small dusty car park, then a steep sand\rocky climb, then a 1/4 mile downward trail to the edge of the bend. No hand rails!

Stop and gawp for maybe 10 mins then back to the car.

If you are reasonably fit you'll be Ok but if it's HOT, it's a slog -Both ways.

Take water.

Thanks! We wondered how much time to allow. Possibly 1hr 30then including walking there.

Damm! I just saw your photos again. The Wave looks beautiful:)

Crispy_Ambulance

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Crispy, if it helps at all. I booked in the Christamas seat sales.
Flying Man - SLC, topping at IAD and returning
Santa Barbara to Man (changing at LAX & FRA) with United
for £708 each with very family friendly flight times (I could have reduced it by £5.00 flying out at 6.00 in the morning)
I never saw any prices lower than that for the trip -- but they did fluctuate quite widely. It certainly wasn't a consistent increase in fares.
IIRC, only Virgin fly to LV from Manchester and no airline can get you close to the American West Coast without a connection from Manchester.
My suggestion would be to dismiss the idea of the Virgin flight and research a full service airline that is part of a global partnership i.e Star Alliance. Don't get to hung up on the price, as convenient flight times/connection have a value all of their own :beer:

Thanks Murphy (I've been stuck in the land of no internet *cough* Workington for the weekend).

I thought £500 might be a tad optimistic - thanks for the info. It's really hard to know what a realistic price is - I didn't want to keep waiting and waiting for them to drop and then realise that I'd already missed the best prices. Our glorious leader Martin says to check from 11 months before you want to go but I wasn't sure if there was a "golden window" or if it's just luck if you get the very lowest price.

Manchester would be my preference to fly from and I had thought that Vegas would be a cheaper option, but maybe not. I'd rather not fly to LA as we have no desire to spend any time there, but it could be worthwhile if the prices are good enough. We're in South Yorks, so Birmingham and Heathrow are a reasonable distance.

I don't mind indirect and the kids are old enough for it to be manageable (famous last words!).

Crispy_Ambulance

blindman wrote: »

I see from another thread your Kids are 11 and 14 and you can leave at the end of July.

That sounds expensive!

Always hard to gauge flight prices this far out for popular times\places BUT I think £500 is unrealistic.

Airlines have sales at various times BUT rarely do the school term times feature in cheap prices

Indirect flights are cheaper-But with kids etc can be tiresome.
HolidayPirates seem to find the "unusual" or mistake fares-Not sure if they could fit the bill for your family though.

My stab at prices could be about £800 direct and if you're lucky £650 with one change.

BTW
I agree with MC that too many "Holes in the ground" with the kids will be boring for them. No matter how awesome some of the holes are

Yep, we're stuck with going end of July. I'm happy to take them out of school usually but the youngest finishes primary school in 2014 so it isn't fair to take him out early. Plus Mr Crispy doesn't have much flexibility about when he's allowed to take his leave. I'm just going to have to keep looking and when a price doesn't make me cry, book it! And then, of course, not check them again!

Murphy_The_Cat

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

Manchester would be my preference to fly from and I had thought that Vegas would be a cheaper option, but maybe not. I'd rather not fly to LA as we have no desire to spend any time there, but it could be worthwhile if the prices are good enough. We're in South Yorks, so Birmingham and Heathrow are a reasonable distance.
I don't mind indirect and the kids are old enough for it to be manageable (famous last words!).

Hi Crispy

Heathrow would considerably increase your options of direct destinations (if not pricing options).
One idea to consider is to flly into, or out of a smaller regional airport. The upside is that is could save several hundred miles of driving at the start/end of your holiday and could possibly be cheaper than ending at/staring from a major hub. The downside is that its an extra flight. FWIW, commencing from our return journeyfrom a regional airport (Santa Barbara) was a very positive thing.
If you're flying from MAN or BHM be openminded about taking a connecting flight in a european airport -- you may find that flying via Frankfurt/Munich on Lufthansa (A Start Alliance partner with United) opens up a whole new world of connecting flights/ticket prices than flying via LHR. The flying time from FRA/MUN will be longer, but if the connecting times work well, the overall journey time may be similar.

ref LAX, whilst its noones favourite airport, it is only an arrival/departuree airport and not somewhere that you're (hopefully) going to spend long in. Last month I cleared Immigration/Customes/rechecked my bags within 30 minutes which was, in my opinion, outstanding.

northwest1965

Just a quick question.

When you hire a car, do you pay extra, in the event of breakdown. We did last year, were we right?

Crispy_Ambulance

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Hi Crispy

Heathrow would considerably increase your options of direct destinations (if not pricing options).
One idea to consider is to flly into, or out of a smaller regional airport. The upside is that is could save several hundred miles of driving at the start/end of your holiday and could possibly be cheaper than ending at/staring from a major hub. The downside is that its an extra flight. FWIW, commencing from our return journeyfrom a regional airport (Santa Barbara) was a very positive thing.
If you're flying from MAN or BHM be openminded about taking a connecting flight in a european airport -- you may find that flying via Frankfurt/Munich on Lufthansa (A Start Alliance partner with United) opens up a whole new world of connecting flights/ticket prices than flying via LHR. The flying time from FRA/MUN will be longer, but if the connecting times work well, the overall journey time may be similar.

ref LAX, whilst its noones favourite airport, it is only an arrival/departuree airport and not somewhere that you're (hopefully) going to spend long in. Last month I cleared Immigration/Customes/rechecked my bags within 30 minutes which was, in my opinion, outstanding.

30 mins? Wow! I'm still getting over about waiting 2 hours at Orlando last year!

I'm a bit confused about Star Alliance - I had a look on the website but remain a bit confused. Do you need to book through them or is the linking up just something that airlines automatically do? I'm happy to go via Europe - whichever is the best value and most convenient option for us.

I have had a look at some connecting flights - they don't seem to have very long between connections on some of them - if you've booked the whole journey as one ticket, do they sort you out if there's a delay with the first leg and you miss the second one?

visidigi

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

I have had a look at some connecting flights - they don't seem to have very long between connections on some of them - if you've booked the whole journey as one ticket, do they sort you out if there's a delay with the first leg and you miss the second one?

As long as its one ticket all the way through then yes, they are obliged to get you to your destination should you miss a connection.

They don't quote connections they don't believe they can't make.

The 40 minute one at Schipol makes me sweat everytime I'm on it.

ILOVEHOLIDAYS

hi been reading this forum for months and managed to convince my OH to book the road trip and we go in 5 weeks....I know its not a year long planned trip but we are staying for 17 nights for a taster and hopefully return and stay longer in places we find to love....a couple of questions id like to ask if someone can help.

After Death Valley we are gonna stay in Bishop overnight then head to Yosemite. Do you head over highway 120 or 108. it looks like H120 is where the park entrance is but im not too sure.

We are doing the loop from LA-GC-LV-DV-YNP-SF-LA. It mentions tolls how do they work over there? from reading I think the tolls are the national parks which you buy the pass for but my OH is not convinced. Also can you explain how the golden gate toll works aswell?

I know when we go to Orlando you can buy a toll tag which we paid upfront for and we could use the toll roads as much as we wanted.

I have my itinerary I can post if anybody wants to nosy over it and give me some tips.

thanks :beer: