West Coast of America

lalamb

jackieblack wrote: »

With children, and it being August, I would forget Las Vegas.
There is plenty to fill 3 weeks just in California, I'd start with a few days in San Fran, then to Yosemite then back to the coast and drive down the PCH to San Diego.
There are lots of places worth stopping at for a day or two (or three, in some cases ) on the way, one of our favourites was Monterey (whale watching & aquarium).
Lots of people stop in LA for a few days (Disneyland and Universal Studios).
There is lots to do in San Diego and the surrounding area. You could easily spend a week there.

Thanks for that.

We are definitely looking to include Disney, Universal and Seaworld whilst out there. Maybe Vegas would be better in a few years for just the two of us. Definitely given me some things to consider, thank you.

elantan

thanks for starting this thread, we go to west coast u.s.a this year and whilst we are spending 7 days in vegas ( no i aint into gambling or the expensive shows either) we are travelling for the other two weeks, were thinking death valley, yosemite park, sanfran lake tahoe and redwood before flying back home from san fran

thanks also to caz i have saved that thread to have a good read through

Vikki_74

lalamb wrote: »

Edited to add: OMG That thread you linked looks brilliant, lots of reading to be done there, thanks again!

Glad you and others are still finding the information useful

If you don't mind, it'd be great if you could re-post your question or any others you have on that thread to keep it bumped up near the top of the forum. The board guides won't make it a 'sticky' and as nobody's posted for a while it's kind of disappeared down the list.

Thanks :beer:

gem75

lalamb wrote: »

Ideally we would fly out to Cali and then get our return flight from Vegas but there is no direct flight from Vegas to Manchester is there?

Virgin fly direct from Vegas to MAN but as far as I am aware there is no direct flight from MAN to LAX so you will either have to go BA and change at Heathrow or use one of the American carriers from Manchester and change somewhere in the States.

gracie10

we are planning this for next year in august to. Flying into LA then driving up the coast to San Fran and then yosemite, death valley and ending up in Vegas. My two girls will be 8 and 5 so don't be put off taking your kids, they will have a great time. Yes it will be very hot but also a great adventure!!

jackieblack

My daughter was 12 when we went to Las Vegas as part of a longer trip.
No way would I take a 5yr old or an 8 year old, and most definitely never in August :eek:

murphydog999

Another one planning a west coast trip this year - too much too see and so little time!

I don't know whether it's worth mentioning, but flying to Seattle saves 1.5 hours flight time and is £500 cheaper each (business) for us. The thought would then be to Amtrack it down to San Fran stopping off in Oregan along the way. (A cheap, scenic, comfortable way to see some country.) Then pick up a car from there.

nickj_2

i did the west coast around 20 years ago with my best friend - we started and finished in LA, went to san frans then did the yesomite etc forests , death valley , vegas , grand canyon , san diego and then back to LA for 3 days and did disney , universal studios etc , this took us 21 days and we covered around 3500miles and we were both totally knackered at the end ,

i think if i were to do it again i would start at san fransisco and end either san diego or LA- the coast road from LA to SFsco is beautiful but it takes ages , although you can go by freeway which would be quicker , it's around 450 miles and if i remember rightly not the sort of road to motor along
generally we statyed in travelodge / motels which were great , make sure they have a pool if you do this or we camped , some great sites esp 1 we found with a thermal spring

claire16c

Caz3121 wrote: »

my flights are all booked with miles so as far as a good deal, yes, we are flying business class for taxes only so around the same fare as an economy ticket :beer:
Have a look on kayak for flights when they are available and use multicity - it will let you search flying out to one airport and back to another

it is a fab thread and has been my bible when planning for CA

Just out of interest how much are you paying with which airline?

Im flying to Hawaii in business with miles and paying £180 - so no where near an economy ticket ( nearly all of that is to leave the UK, tax to leave the US is barely anything).

Last year I used some miles to fly from LA to London and then back to Toronto via JFK. The taxes leaving the US were about £5 or something, and coming back they were £60ish due to our lovely government taxes- with American Airlines. But BA wanted £110ish - if I used my AA miles on one of their planes. It seemed weird to me the taxes were so different, its like theyre making it up!

Alan_Bowen

The reason flying with BA on miles is so much more on long haul flights is because they charge you 'taxes fees and charges' including a huge fuel supplement. Other airlines just charge the actual taxes payable, having said that I would take BA over any US based airline every time