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

duchy

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I know that Amtrak isn't the quickest form of transportation, but the stations are (usually) centrally located, rather than being on the outskirts and you don't have the rigmorral of a 2 hour checkin, security, baggage checks and being jammed into a tiny plane seat.

I'm actually flying it one way and Amtrak the other.
Chicago to Kalamazoo is one of those short but stupidly expensive flights which makes using miles make sense so it ended up as £3 in taxes for the flight and Amtrak is around £30 for the return leg.

Murphy_The_Cat

duchy wrote: »

I'm actually flying it one way and Amtrak the other.
Chicago to Kalamazoo is one of those short but stupidly expensive flights which makes using miles make sense so it ended up as £3 in taxes for the flight and Amtrak is around £30 for the return leg.

Blimey squire - are you travelling up front, or with the prawn sandwich brigade in Biz ?:D
I'd never heard of Battle Creek ar the Amtrak route and I had a mooch on Amtraks site and came up with $27 for a 3 hour trip, which seemed splendid value.

duchy

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Blimey squire - are you travelling up front, or with the prawn sandwich brigade in Biz ?:D
I'd never heard of Battle Creek ar the Amtrak route and I had a mooch on Amtraks site and came up with $27 for a 3 hour trip, which seemed splendid value.

£238 "cheap" fare one way....and the plane is so small it's one class .
It's looking fairly booked so I'm sort of hoping it might be overbooked and I can get VDB and fly later or train it there as well (as you say the Amtrak fare is cheap). Putting that £238 one way Chicago to Kalamazoo in perspective - my Gothenburg to Chicago return was only £250 (plus Ryanair placement flight £20)

No prawn sandwiches for this budget traveller

Murphy_The_Cat

duchy wrote: »

£238 "cheap" fare one way....and the plane is so small it's one class .
It's looking fairly booked so I'm sort of hoping it might be overbooked and I can get VDB and fly later or train it there as well (as you say the Amtrak fare is cheap). Putting that £238 one way Chicago to Kalamazoo in perspective - my Gothenburg to Chicago return was only £250 (plus Ryanair placement flight £20)

No prawn sandwiches for this budget traveller

I meant £30 for the Amtrak :beer:

duchy

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I meant £30 for the Amtrak :beer:

Yes I know $30 versus £238 though amazed the plane is so full

I'm really looking forward to trying the train.....and staying on the hotel boat in Gothenburg - certainly adds a bit of variety !

blindman

duchy wrote: »

Yes I know $30 versus £238 though amazed the plane is so full

I'm really looking forward to trying the train.....and staying on the hotel boat in Gothenburg - certainly adds a bit of variety !

Do you think you 2 could get a room
and let others get back to the thread

Cheers.

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

Do you think you 2 could get a room
and let others get back to the thread

Cheers.

gallygirl

Oh, glad I've found this thread .

We've just booked an almost three week trip in Oct/Nov, itinerary as follows, in and out from different airports:
Day 1 Arrive San Francisco
Day 2 San Francisco
Day 3 San Francisco
Day 4 San Francisco > Davis, Sacramento
Day 5 Davis, Sacramento
Day 6 Davis, Sacramento
Day 7 Davis, Sacramento > Yosemite West
Day 8 Yosemite
Day 9 Yosemite West > Mammoth Lakes
Day 10 Mammoth Lakes > Furnace Creek
Day 11 Furnace Creek > Las Vegas
Day 12 Las Vegas (Grand Canyon Trip)
Day 13 Las Vegas
Day 14 Las Vegas > Hoover Dam > Needles (Colorado River)
Day 15 Needles
Day 16 Needles > Barstow (via Route 66)
Day 17 Barstow > Los Angeles
Day 18 Los Angeles
Day 19 Los Angeles
Any thoughts? Davis is to visit friends. We'll be in Yosemite 24th to 27th Oct so road SHOULD be open unless previous records are broken :eek::eek::eek:.

Hotels so far:
SF - Taj Campton Place, great deal on Expedia
Yosemite West & Barstow - Airbnb
Mammoth Lakes - The Village Lodge
Furnace Creek - Furnace Creek Ranch - I see it's had good reports on here
LV - probably Trump (we're using Avios points here and in LA)
Needles - Best Western Colorado River
LA - Anaheim, something near DL and an Amtrak station.

Would appreciate thoughts & advice, thanks

Jimmithecat

Just in early planning stages for a trip next year - flying into San Francisco flights are currently £1200+
I am flexible on airport destination as am happy to take internal flights - any suggestions on reducing the price?

PeacefulWaters

Jimmithecat wrote: »

Just in early planning stages for a trip next year - flying into San Francisco flights are currently £1200+
I am flexible on airport destination as am happy to take internal flights - any suggestions on reducing the price?

I doubt they'll get higher, so don't rush in. When are you hoping to travel?

For the last two years I've paid £1,000 each for July business class flights from Dublin in the BA sale (December), including car hire. Exchange rate may nudge that up slightly these days.

Price up Phoenix, Vegas, San Diego, LAX, San Jose for flights too. Often much of a muchness but occasionally one routing becomes much cheaper. And if you're driving a loop (are you?) the start point doesn't really matter.