3 US Cities

kevhky

Hello to all

Im planning on visiting 3 us citys in sept 2012 La, san Francisco and vegas, flying from Manchester.

A quote ive received from Kayak is approx £1700 thats for 2 adults £850 each flying with Us airways throughout..

My questions are

Does this sound like a good / very good or poor price, is it worth waiting, are there any specials with certain airlines, voucher codes etc etc ......

Does anyone have any advice as to which route they would think is best to take ie where to fly to first and which to leave from to get back to Manchester for instance taking into consideration time zones

Any advice would be great

Thanks

Kevin

jackieblack

Can you fly direct to all three destinations from Manchester? If not, this may influence your choice.

Personally, I'd do LV,SF,LA
LV first - 24 hour city so lots to do while your body clock is still adjusting, then to SF so you can then drive the PCH south to LA (This means you'll be on the coastal side of the road so on the easier side for views and vista points) and you can get a couple of beach days to chill out at the end of your trip.
But go for whichever route suits you best, depending on what you're planning to do in each city and whether you'd prefer that at the beginning or end. If you are looking to do lots of shows/nightlife etc in LV then you may prefer not to do this first - we struggle with late nights at the start of our trips until we've adjusted to the time difference.
Lots of car hire companies do no fee one way drop offs between Nevada & California and they are all in the same time zone so no issues there.

Caz3121

When we did it earlier this year we flew to LAX, had a couple of nights in Santa Monica then drove to Vegas, week in Vegas then flew to SFO for a few nights. If we had longer we would have done more driving to see a bit more outside of the cities. Only issue I found with our route was the shock change in temperature between Vegas and San Fran

ferf1223

I think it depends on what you want to do each place...jackieblack is absolutely right that Vegas would be a good starting point as it's a 24-hour city so no issue with being awake at 4am the first day or two...but if it was us doing this trip, we would do Vegas last...since Vegas is a lot more compact, though again - depends on what you want to do in and around Vegas - it might mean less driving around once you get to Vegas, and in that way may be more relaxing to have it at the end rather than the beginning...though with all there is to see and do in Vegas it can be a pretty frantic stop - we're usually exhaused by the time we leave and we've been quite a few times...but others spend a lot more time relaxing around the pool, etc. than we do.

And jackie's point about shows/nightlife is a good one...the only time we've been to shows in Vegas our first couple of nights we have struggled to stay awake...I actually dozed off at Bette Midler when we went to see her the night we arrived.

kevhky

Thank for all the info

Well we done Vegas two year ago we spent a week there and loved every minute, we done absolutely loads that week inc Canyon which was awsome, so for that reason i only intend to go for maybe 3 nights and fly back to manchester from there..

I was also intending to fly between all 3 cities as never drove over there before and a little scared lol, although the car hire would probably work out cheaper i would think as youd have no transfers between airports

Are the roads dead easy over there as ive viewed routes on tomtom and it does look like your pretty much only on 1 or 2 roads

LA is this the place the car is a must

Thanks for all your comments

Kev

markandkate

We booked internal flights from Sfo to Vegas separately and much cheaper. You can also book single trips such as return to SFo, internal flight ( south western) Vegas, Vegas to LA then one way drive or the other way round more flexible and likely to be cheaper

ferf1223

in general driving is very easy in the US, though you may find supplements on rental car fees for being under 25 bump the price up...some cities you will really benefit from a hire car (I think LA is one, others think it's fine on public transport)...somewhere like New York you wouldn't need a car...so again, until you know where you want to go it's difficult to know if you can get away without having a hire car.

kevhky

markandkate wrote: »

We booked internal flights from Sfo to Vegas separately and much cheaper. You can also book single trips such as return to SFo, internal flight ( south western) Vegas, Vegas to LA then one way drive or the other way round more flexible and likely to be cheaper

Hi mark, so book the internal flights all seperately and you found it cheaper this way, mind you im not trying to scrimp on things here but if i could save a few bob whilst doing so its definately a plus point.

Is there plenty of public transport in Sfo to get around did you find

Also in LA as ive heard the attractions are all spaced miles apart is a car needed or is there some decent trips

Kev

jackieblack

You won't need use of a car while you're in LV or SF, and parking is expensive in alot of hotels in SF & LA.
Public transport (buses/trams/trolleys) is good in SF and a ride on the cable cars is a must anyway.

Personally I think the drive down Rt1 is worth hiring a car for, and it's an easy road to drive on.

If you definitely want to finish in LV, how about flying into SF, picking up a car the day you leave, spend a couple of days driving down PCH (lots of interesting places to stop on the way) and then you'll have the car, if you want it, while you're in LA. Then return the car in LA and fly to LV.

We've never bothered with a car in LA, but the city is vast and attractions are spread out so maybe think about which areas you want to visit and plan accordingly.

Doshwaster

I would also recommend booking the internal flights separately as it will give you much more flexibility and the option of using the regional low cost carriers on the West Coast (have a look at Virgin America, SouthWest and Jet Blue)

Also, try to avoid changing on the East Coast. Flying New York/Philly/DC to LA on a domestic service isn't fun. Far better to cross the US on an international service such as BA/Virgin from LHR or KLM via Amsterdam.

Personally, the only good thing about LA is the airport but I love San Fran. Vegas is a love-hate place, you'll either want to move on immediately or will want to stop there forever.

kevhky

jackieblack wrote: »

If you definitely want to finish in LV, how about flying into SF, picking up a car the day you leave, spend a couple of days driving down PCH (lots of interesting places to stop on the way) and then you'll have the car, if you want it, while you're in LA. Then return the car in LA and fly to LV.

Thats sounds like a good plan Thanks

As youve obviously travelled up the rt1 is there plenty of places to stay for the night and do you have to book in advance in these places

Doshwaster - i will definately look at those airlines you mentioned, do you think its worth waiting to see if prices drop after xmas as im not intending travelling untill Sept 12

Kev