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

PeacefulWaters

Another question.

Are there any specific bank brand ATMs that don't charge a withdrawal fee in Arizona or California?

(Halifax Clarity Card, so no local overseas partner).

northwest1965

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Another question.

Are there any specific bank brand ATMs that don't charge a withdrawal fee in Arizona or California?

(Halifax Clarity Card, so no local overseas partner).

You may get charged for a withdrawal. We use a Caxton and while there are no withdrawal fees with them, some ATM's charge.

It does state on Halifax site
"Whilst we won't charge you a cash advance fee for the Clarity Card, some independent cash machine providers may charge a fee for their service."

Do you get charged for using the credit card from the moment you withdraw cash. Have you looked into Caxton or Fairfx? You just load with $'s (the rates are pretty good) and just hand the card over as normal (no fees). We use ours, even for small spends.

PeacefulWaters

northwest1965 wrote: »

You may get charged for a withdrawal. We use a Caxton and while there are no withdrawal fees with them, some ATM's charge.

That's what I'm getting at. Which ATMs don't charge? (e.g. TD Bank in NYC).

Do you get charged for using the credit card from the moment you withdraw cash.

Yes, but it works out at 3p per £100 a day. We will clear any cash transactions via wifi before getting home.

Have you looked into Caxton or Fairfx? You just load with $'s (the rates are pretty good) and just hand the card over as normal (no fees). We use ours, even for small spends.

Halifax Clarity beats them (and also pays us £5 a month for spending £300 a month in non-cash transactions). But thanks.

This link gives some helpful driving tips in a very informal way:
http://www.caldrive.com/index.html

Wendell_Pierce

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

This link gives some helpful driving tips in a very informal way:
http://www.caldrive.com/index.html

Really interesting and detailed driving comments there.
Funny how so many times we read that driving over there is easier, more relaxed than UK etc and I guess for the most part it is - but I do recognise a lot of the pointers in this, well worth a look for driving in LA particularly.

PeacefulWaters

Moreorless finalised our route now.

Day 1: Phoenix - Walmart - Beaver Falls (night drive)
Day 2: Sedona drive though, Meteor Crater, Winslow, Grand Canyon (afternoon and morning there)
Day 3: Flagstaff monuments, Peach Springs, Vegas
Day 4: Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Vegas again, Pahrump Station (possible Death Valley ghost town)
Day 5: Death Valley, Mammoth Lakes
Day 6: Yosemite, Fish Camp
Day 7: San Francisco, Santa Cruz (night drive)
Day 8: PCH, Ventura Beach
Day 9: LA, Palm Desert (night drive)
Day 10: Joshua Tree, Blythe Desert Giants, Phoenix

Expect to hit the roads before 8am each morning. Anticipate ending most drives before 6pm with a couple of exceptions, so overall 50/50 split between driving and walking.

Hope the wife chips in with her bit behind the wheel!

John259

That looks magnificent and you'll see some really wonderful places. Just a couple of comments:

I looked up Beaver Falls, Arizona on Google Maps and it appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Are Google trying to fool me, or is that perhaps a typo? Just checking.

The choice of overnight stop between Santa Cruz and Palm Desert is very tricky. It's a question of balancing the Pacific Coast Highway with Los Angeles.

Santa Cruz to Ventura via the Pacific Coast Highway is about 380 miles. It's a relatively slow road, and it would be nice to have enough time for some stops along the way, for example at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and also to see the elephant seals. So ideally it would be better to stop overnight further up the coast, maybe Cambria, Morro Bay, or San Louis Obispo (SLO will probably be the least expensive choice for accommodation). However, that would make the trip on the next day to Palm Desert too long for any real sightseeing in Los Angeles. A difficult decision. FWIW it is possible to drive from SLO to Palm Desert via Lancaster and miss Los Angeles completely but I guess that option would be ruled out for you.

Anyway, best wishes for a great trip.

PeacefulWaters

FWIW it is possible to drive from SLO to Palm Desert via Lancaster and miss Los Angeles completely but I guess that option would be ruled out for you.

Not my decision that one!

Thanks again for helping fine tune things. I'll take another look at the PCH thinking but LA is non-negotiable.

Santa Cruz to Ventura via the Pacific Coast Highway is about 380 miles

I got 300 miles, albeit cutting off the coast between Morro Bay and Ventura Beach.

Murphy_The_Cat

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Moreorless finalised our route now.

Day 1: Phoenix - Walmart - Beaver Falls (night drive)
Day 2: Sedona drive though, Meteor Crater, Winslow, Grand Canyon (afternoon and morning there)
Day 3: Flagstaff monuments, Peach Springs, Vegas
Day 4: Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Vegas again, Pahrump Station (possible Death Valley ghost town)
Day 5: Death Valley, Mammoth Lakes
Day 6: Yosemite, Fish Camp
Day 7: San Francisco, Santa Cruz (night drive)
Day 8: PCH, Ventura Beach
Day 9: LA, Palm Desert (night drive)
Day 10: Joshua Tree, Blythe Desert Giants, Phoenix

Expect to hit the roads before 8am each morning. Anticipate ending most drives before 6pm with a couple of exceptions, so overall 50/50 split between driving and walking.

Hope the wife chips in with her bit behind the wheel!

Hello PW
I've not google mapped your entire trip, but that looks like one hello of a lot of driving - your photo almbum could end up looking like "these ae the places that we drove through, past or saw, but didn't get the chance to explore"
Its eminently doable, but it reads like an endurance test, rather than a enjoyable holiday.
Do you have the option to (say) extend to 14 days or fly back from LA ?

p.s I've got some suggestions to make PCH even more enjoyable, but they would mean dropping LA (which wouldn't be a hardship)

John259

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

I got 300 miles, albeit cutting off the coast between Morro Bay and Ventura Beach.

Yes you're right. Dunno where I got that other figure from, almost certainly my mistake.

duchy

My own feelings on LA are having driven to the Chinese Theatre and picked up an open top coach tour to do the Homes of the Stars tours -which included a lot of the "sights" and quite a few movie locations that there really wasn't much else to see in central LA. If we went back again I'd stay out at Santa Monica for the beach or at Anaheim for Disney.