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

trevor8

Hi I wonder if anyone could help we have booked a flight going to San Francisco on May 2014 and flight back from Vegas 16 nights later.We are a 50 year old couple the wife is keen on 4 or 5 nights in san Francisco and would like to do LA but I am keen on a national park etc
I wonder if anyone could help with a suggestions of things to see and go to thanks sorry for the long question:)

northwest1965

Are you having a car? Have you researched which park? I presume Yosemite is the one you want to go to?

blindman

trevor8 wrote: »

Hi I wonder if anyone could help we have booked a flight going to San Francisco on May 2014 and flight back from Vegas 16 nights later.We are a 50 year old couple the wife is keen on 4 or 5 nights in san Francisco and would like to do LA but I am keen on a national park etc
I wonder if anyone could help with a suggestions of things to see and go to thanks sorry for the long question:)

Loads of ideas on this thread so take a while to read it and then get back with Q's

I would stay
3 nights SFO (Golden Gate, Alcatraz,) [No car needed]
and
3 nights Vegas (Avoid weekend if possible and do a Big show) [No car needed]

In between I'd do
Hire car:
2 nights Yosemite-Book early
(I'd avoid LA at all costs:cool:)

Then the rest is in this thread.

blindman

x_missymoo_x wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm hoping some of you may be able to help me out! I've started reading the previous posts and also some more recent ones, but there is almost too much information!

Cheapest one I've found is LHR to SFO 6-26th Aug for £861 return, having read (and seen for myself!) that flights to LAS are more expensive.

Thanks in advance

IMHO you are looking way too early-though booking for a group of 6 + needing flights in August is not going to be cheap:eek:

Set up a fare alert in Kayak and maybe look once every fortnight otherwise you'll go nuts!

Open jaw flight into SFO and then out of LAS maybe suit you needs but getting 6 people in a car SFO-LAS may be a challenge.
(Unless 2 are kids).

August in Vegas will be damn hot. Avoid weekends if possible as hotel prices go up-But in August they tedn to be cheaper anyway IIRC.

You a have time to read the whole thread, see if anyone has priced fares in August in previous years to see if there's a figure you may want to aim for.

Sales are in Xmas\Jan-But August flights-if they do go down- may not be had until April.

Indirect flights may be cheaper but can add hours onto a long enough journey.

Good luck.

bilty

This thread is fantastic, we have now booked our flights for next may, staying in San fransisco for 3 nights then hiring a car and driving to Yosemite park and Vegas for 3 nights. We are thinking of staying in Yosemite Village for 1 night then onto Lee Vining or Toms Place for a night then Furnace Creek. Does this sound like a good plan? Also any recommendations for a good map?

northwest1965

bilty wrote: »

This thread is fantastic, we have now booked our flights for next may, staying in San fransisco for 3 nights then hiring a car and driving to Yosemite park and Vegas for 3 nights. We are thinking of staying in Yosemite Village for 1 night then onto Lee Vining or Toms Place for a night then Furnace Creek. Does this sound like a good plan? Also any recommendations for a good map?

Have you mapped it on google maps to start with:).

Have you bboked Yosemite, if not, do it NOW:rotfl:.

Don't know about Lee Vining or Toms, they don't seem that far from Yosemite, could you not do on the 2nd day and then head for Death Valley? If Furnace is booked, Stovepipe Wells is pretty good.

gracie10

x_missymoo_x wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm hoping some of you may be able to help me out! I've started reading the previous posts and also some more recent ones, but there is almost too much information!

I'm looking to go away as part of a group of 6 next August to see family in San Francisco and also in Vegas. I've been checking flights for a few weeks now and they have been gradually dropping, but I wanted to check with you regulars whether you would book them now or leave it a bit longer. I've read some comments that flights tend to go down around Xmas time, however because they are peak times then others are saying there will be no deals to be had!

Cheapest one I've found is LHR to SFO 6-26th Aug for £861 return, having read (and seen for myself!) that flights to LAS are more expensive.

Thanks in advance

This August we flew into La then back from Vegas and are flights were about £815 each, but this was with slight discount with virgin miles and money. Seems like a good price to me. We booked last September for this August.

vegasvisitor

Looking for some advice from anyone who has drove from Phoenix to Vegas with stop-offs.

We are looking to fly to Phoenix next September, then stay a couple of nights at Scottsdale, then onto the Grand Canyon. We are thinking of stopping a night at Flagstaff or Sedona, then onto Laughlin for a night, then driving to Vegas. I would also like to include London Bridge (Lake Havasu), and Oatman and of course the Grand Canyon. We will then drive on to Vegas for the rest of our 2 week trip (we have been in Vegas many times - so that part is easy).

Does anyone have any suggestions at all here? Any hotel recommendations, places to stop, time required, anything I might have missed?

We are likely to be jetlagged and up early in the mornings, so a lot of the driving will be done early morning, so we could do a 2 hour journey and still be there for 9 for example. We are likely to set out early and get breakfast along the way.

lazyjack

lesley74 wrote: »

Looking for some advice from anyone who has drove from Phoenix to Vegas with stop-offs.

We are looking to fly to Phoenix next September, then stay a couple of nights at Scottsdale, then onto the Grand Canyon. We are thinking of stopping a night at Flagstaff or Sedona, then onto Laughlin for a night, then driving to Vegas. I would also like to include London Bridge (Lake Havasu), and Oatman and of course the Grand Canyon. We will then drive on to Vegas for the rest of our 2 week trip (we have been in Vegas many times - so that part is easy).

Does anyone have any suggestions at all here? Any hotel recommendations, places to stop, time required, anything I might have missed?

We are likely to be jetlagged and up early in the mornings, so a lot of the driving will be done early morning, so we could do a 2 hour journey and still be there for 9 for example. We are likely to set out early and get breakfast along the way.

Would definitely recommend Sedona if you've not been there, it really is a nice place to visit. There's a good Pink Jeep trip in Sedona too.

The route we took from Sedona to Oatman was up to Flagstaff, head west on I40 for approx 60 miles then divert onto the stretch of Route 66 through Seligman and Kingman. I believe it's the longest remaining stretch of the original road. There's also a good tourist info centre in Kingman (Powerhouse Visitor's Center), might be worth a look. Oatman is quite a strange place but also somewhere that you need to see for yourself !

vegasvisitor

Thanks Lazyjack. I'll look into that route up to Oatman, although I have a feeling it will be too much of a detour for my Laughlin/London bridge part - it might have to be done after them.

I'm a bit curious if it matters whether we stay in Sedona or Flagstaff - we will be out in the car at the canyon etc, so would potentially be seeing both. Also, we will leave Phoenix/Scottsdale early so will probably be at Sedona or Flagstaff at 10am, hopefully that will give us enough time to see the Canyon and whatever else there is that day, so the next day we can drive off to the west for London Bridge etc.