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

John259

Seldom_Seen_Kid wrote: »

We are planning on flying from Las Vegas to San Francisco for a few days

Have you ruled out driving? Yes, it's quite a long way which would eat up time, but on the other hand you could visit Death Valley and Yosemite - if they appeal to you of course. UPDATE: Google Maps tells me it's about 600 miles from Las Vegas to San Francisco via Death Valley and Yosemite.

I live in Leeds

I'm not up-to-date regarding flights but it might be worth checking whether you can fly from a local airport via Schiphol (Amsterdam). In the past I've done this several times from Norwich Airport and found it a far less stressful experience than messing about getting to Heathrow or Gatwick,

Seldom_Seen_Kid

I have ruled out driving. I am not a very confident driver in general, and my wife does not know her left from her right. I know we are missing out on some great experience, but we just do not fancy driving.

Regarding the flight, apologies but I have not explained myself clearly. We already have flights book to Las Vegas from Manchester (and back). This gives us about 2.5 weeks in LV / USA, and so we are planning on flying from LV to SF and then back to LV about 4 days later.

John259

Seldom_Seen_Kid wrote: »

I have ruled out driving.

Fair enough. Just for the record and probably more for the benefit of other readers I'd assess driving in the USA and Canada in summer like this:

Rural: mainly extremely easy due to excellent roads and extremely low traffic levels, but distances are huge.

Urban on normal roads: mainly easy, but often slow due to numerous junctions controlled by traffic lights.

Urban on freeways: stressful, sometimes extremely stressful, due to lots of fast moving traffic and the need to change lanes for directional purposes. In big cities it's vital to have a good human navigator or a GPS.

Sorry I can't help with your flights question.

northwest1965

Seldom_Seen_Kid wrote: »

I have ruled out driving. I am not a very confident driver in general, and my wife does not know her left from her right. I know we are missing out on some great experience, but we just do not fancy driving.

Regarding the flight, apologies but I have not explained myself clearly. We already have flights book to Las Vegas from Manchester (and back). This gives us about 2.5 weeks in LV / USA, and so we are planning on flying from LV to SF and then back to LV about 4 days later.

Have you looked at Virgin America? Delta or Southwest. All fly direct in 1hr30

blindman

John259 wrote: »

Some thoughts about the Grand Canyon:

Don't remember anyine asking?

First, a bit of pedantry - this post is specifically about the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in northern Arizona, not any of the other Grand Canyons such as that of the Yellowstone in Wyoming.

As this is a thread about Southwest USA it ought to be obvious:cool:

Next, I must apologise if some of this information duplicates that in previous posts in this thread.


Opinion:Don't remember anyone asking?

Please stick to the thread topic-makes life easier and simpler.:cool:

Or stick to your own thread ?

blindman

Seldom_Seen_Kid wrote: »

I need to send some time reading this thread, but in the mean time my general question is :

We are planning on flying from Las Vegas to San Francisco for a few days, and I was just wondering if there was anything I needed to look at regarding airlines.

Basically, I live in Leeds and normally fly Jet2 or Ryan Air on european city breaks. I follow the rules, and I am general happy with the flight against the cost.

Baggage rules\costs and which airport you can fly into. SFO or Oakland

Transport to downtown. BART is usually best.:cool:

northwest1965

blindman wrote: »

Baggage rules\costs and which airport you can fly into. SFO or Oakland

Excellent point about the baggage costs
i.e Virgin America

MAIN CABIN GUESTS

Main Cabin guests may check up to 10 bags for a fee of $25 each. Bags one through ten may weigh up to 50 lbs. Guests who have purchased the fully refundable Main Cabin fare may check the first bag up to 50 lbs free of charge. Bags two through ten may weigh up to 50 lbs for a $25 fee each.

gracie10

Can anyone give me any advice please. First part of our trip flying into La, then looking to drive down to San Diego but not sure what places to stop. Long beach, Huntington, Newport or Laguna Beach? Will have a 10 and 7 year old with us, so would ideally like to be on the beach. Ideally 3 or 4 nights. Has anyone rented houses before rather than hotels? Thanks.

Bri1

Seldom_Seen_Kid wrote: »

I need to send some time reading this thread, but in the mean time my general question is :

We are planning on flying from Las Vegas to San Francisco for a few days, and I was just wondering if there was anything I needed to look at regarding airlines.

Basically, I live in Leeds and normally fly Jet2 or Ryan Air on european city breaks. I follow the rules, and I am general happy with the flight against the cost.

We are flying to Las Vegas with BA from Leeds this month, BA shuttle to Heathrow, then direct, (through ticket) worked out way cheaper than driving & parking car at Heathrow which we have done before

blindman

gracie10 wrote: »

Can anyone give me any advice please. First part of our trip flying into La, then looking to drive down to San Diego but not sure what places to stop. Long beach, Huntington, Newport or Laguna Beach? Will have a 10 and 7 year old with us, so would ideally like to be on the beach. Ideally 3 or 4 nights. Has anyone rented houses before rather than hotels? Thanks.

Look at VRBO

Used them a few times, always OK.