Utah, Nevada & California

Murphy_The_Cat

Utah, Nevada & California Similar to a lot of the SW America trips, with a bit of the unusual dropped in for good measure.

In July this year, the Cats (big Cats and 9 & 6 year old kittens) are going to SW America for our hols.
We've loosely got this itinerary pencilled in and I'd welcome feedback from anyone who has done a similar trip.
4 Nights Salt Lake City
252 miles
2 Nights Cedar City
175 miles
1 Night Las Vegas
170 miles
1 Night Death Valley
221 miles
1 Night Bakers Field
121 miles
5 Nights San Luis Opisbo
94 miles
Flying back from Santa Barbara

The flights and car are booked. Other than that we haven't committed.
Las Vegas is going to be simply somewhere to break the journey/ have a brief mooch around.

neilbond007

I'd drop Vegas and drive the extra miles. Cedar City to Death Valley Junction is only 272 miles. I drove from Washington to Cincy last year (close to 500 miles) in a day. Took from 8.30am to 5.30pm. And that was with plenty of stops as we had our 14 month old and 3 month old!

Santa Barbara is worth a night too. Very pretty downtown area

ailuro2

Vegas is a good contrast though - I'd keep it in there, the 9 year old might appreciate looking round somewhere like the Venetian hotel, the ship show ( free) at Treasure Island and stuff like that. Where else can you find a hotel that has a rollercoaster ride round the outside of it? ( The New York New York hotel)

We're going to SW this year too - Utah,Nevada,Arizona flying into Phoenix and out of Las Vegas with a loop round to monument valley snd everything in between.

We're planning a couple of days in the middle where we can chill out and rest - moving on every day gets tiring.

Have a blast, there's tonnes to do!

richardw

Hope you've booked flights on the US to Europe leg on an EU carrier so you can claim compensation if things go wrong and it's the airlins's fault.

Murphy_The_Cat

neilbond007 wrote: »

I'd drop Vegas and drive the extra miles. Cedar City to Death Valley Junction is only 272 miles. I drove from Washington to Cincy last year (close to 500 miles) in a day. Took from 8.30am to 5.30pm. And that was with plenty of stops as we had our 14 month old and 3 month old!

Santa Barbara is worth a night too. Very pretty downtown area

That is something that we were considering doing. LV isn't a child friendly place at all (IMO), but a one night stopover to look at the feature hotels and general OMGness that is LV, as alluro suggests may just sway it in the end. We're looking at a real combination of driving, culture, sporting stuff, rafting, beaching, sightseeing etc so LV would fit in to that quite nicely.
The place that we're initially fancying in Death Valley is just over 300 miles from Cedar City, which I think is to far this time. Driving longer distances isn't a big deal to me, but for a family holiday, I need to bear in mind that not everyone enjoys eating up lots of miles at a time.

I've been to Santa Barbara in teh past and I agree with you completely - its a lovely place. If you're ever tempted to take the Amtrak from SB to SLO, thats a nice run out as well.

Murphy_The_Cat

richardw wrote: »

Hope you've booked flights on the US to Europe leg on an EU carrier so you can claim compensation if things go wrong and it's the airlins's fault.

Blimey, you're a beacon of hope and positivity, aren't you :beer:.

I've taken the precaution of the 4 of us flying home on different airlines, on different days. Just in case 3 of the planes crash, the Cats name will live onwards.:p

richardw

Flying SBA-LAX, LAX - FRA, FRA - MAN is far more risky than just two legs.

Murphy_The_Cat

richardw wrote: »

Flying SBA-LAX, LAX - FRA, FRA - MAN is far more risky than just two legs.

Its on a through ticket, with the same carrier/Alliance airline and I've got relaxed connections at LAX & FRA.
I wouldn't be so keen on the idea if I'd done it as 3 seperate tickets:beer:

DesertWind

I would deffo do the night in Vegas with the kids in tow. The free Pirates show and the Volcano thing should keep them amused and as has been mentioned a rollercoaster on the New York part is fun.

DesertWind

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Blimey, you're a beacon of hope and positivity, aren't you :beer:.

I've taken the precaution of the 4 of us flying home on different airlines, on different days. Just in case 3 of the planes crash, the Cats name will live onwards.:p

I hope you are also taking the precaution of you all eating in seperate resteraunts during the holiday. You can never be too careful :rotfl:

duchy

I liked Salt Lake City -lovely the way you can see mountains wherever you are. Park City is fun with the bob sleigh on grass thing and the towns up there arenice for mooching.

Look at the Orleans for Vegas-nice pool, food choices are huge and loads cheaper than the Strip (eg buffet breakfast is $7 and it's excellent) -even has a creche and a 90 lane bowling alley and a cinema. Nearest thing Vegas has to a child friendly hotel and the rooms are big with plenty of room for four. Parking is easy too-and you have the choice of the free shuttle if you don't want the hassle of Strip driving.