Advice - multi-centre holiday Vegas, San Fran & Rockies

blindman

gavlap wrote: »

Hi Superhoop
I have done the route 3 times and done it a few different ways so I'd say itreally depends on your preferences.

I work for eShores and we specialise in trips like this so if you want more help, please give us a call. I’m Gavin but any of us here can help. By speaking to you, we can listen to what you enjoy and what you don’t like doing, so make recommendations to an itinerary which suits your particular interests.

We’re part of the Co-op too so our prices are very competitive.. promise you won’t be disappointed .

Hope we do get chance to help, Gavin

I'm sure your intentions are good BUT you're not allowed to advertise on MSE:o

jackieblack

cubegame wrote: »

Whatever you decide, avoid tour operators like the plague.....they'll screw you for the price.

Not necessarily, although I'm sure this is true of some.

We've often booked fly-drive packages via a TO cheaper than / as cheaply as we could have put together independently.

Best to price up both ways and see which works out best value

DesertWind

jackieblack wrote: »

I agree, GC has the 'wow' factor when you first see it but Yosemite is simply spectacular. We spent 3 nights there and it's one of the places we'd love to go back to one day.

I agree about Yosemite. It is just stunning. I remember seeing it on a day trip from San Francisco and ended up frustrated that I did not have more time there. Stayed 4 nights on another trip and I still want to go back. It is the most stunning scenery I have ever seen. I rate it higher than Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. It is a nice drive from San Francisco.

DesertWind

jackieblack wrote: »

Not necessarily, although I'm sure this is true of some.

We've often booked fly-drive packages via a TO cheaper than / as cheaply as we could have put together independently.

Best to price up both ways and see which works out best value

It is a question of if you really need a tour operator to book a trip in the USA. Thanks to the internet putting together holidays to places like the USA and Australia has never been easier. I supose some people like the security the tour operator gives them.

jackieblack

DesertWind wrote: »

It is a question of if you really need a tour operator to book a trip in the USA. Thanks to the internet putting together holidays to places like the USA and Australia has never been easier. I supose some people like the security the tour operator gives them.

Plus, if you're booking a long way in advance as we do (restricted to travelling in school holidays) you only need to pay a deposit on booking and the balance a few weeks before travel. For a family, that can make a big difference to the affordability.
We always price up both ways and if there is no saving to be made, use our TO (Trailfinders) for both convenience and the extra protection, but if we can do it cheaper ourselves book independently We only ever book a fly-drive and then arrange all our accomodation independently anyway.
I agree that the internet has made this alot easier.

DesertWind

jackieblack wrote: »

Plus, if you're booking a long way in advance as we do (restricted to travelling in school holidays) you only need to pay a deposit on booking and the balance a few weeks before travel. For a family, that can make a big difference to the affordability.
We always price up both ways and if there is no saving to be made, use our TO (Trailfinders) for both convenience and the extra protection, but if we can do it cheaper ourselves book independently We only ever book a fly-drive and then arrange all our accomodation independently anyway.
I agree that the internet has made this alot easier.

I used to use Kuoni a lot before the internet days. Mind I was a biot more abitious then in choice of destinations. Now I pick the easy options of USA, Australia or New Zealand. I agree though if it cheaper then why not use the tour operator as it does give you some protection if things go wrong.

weezy_gal

I did a trip like this for my partners 40th birthday, we did I think 10 nights in all, and visited Chicago, Las vegas and San Francisco.

I did it all myself, was much more fun trying to get it all organised. neither of us drive when we're in the US (we're just too scared haha!) we flew into Chicago & back out from San Fran with Virgin, it worked out quite reasonable with them. I booked all the internal flights with United which added an extra £200. but driving from Vegas to San Fran is do-able with a stop in LA if you want to.

if you want to do it with a tour operator I would suggest perhaps getting in touch with Virgin Holidays they do alot of multi centre US holidays with Cars included etc.

if you're going to go to Vegas I can Highly recommend The Palazzo hotel, stayed there a few times and it is such a nice comfortable hotel, the rooms are all suites always makes me go wow no matter how many times I go there.

glenbois

We did 3 nights in San Francisco but only 2 days worth of site seeing due to flights and it wasn't enough. We did 5 full days in vegas and it wasn't enough and we also had a bit of a road trip (8 days) in between and didn't get to see enough of what we wanted.

I would just prioritise what it is you actually want to absolutely do without each day becoming a chore - we did 200 to 300 miles maximum per day when on the road trip and it was fine - any more and it wouldn't been a holiday.

Chose what you want to do and plan around that and believe me when I say it, that you will want to go back and do the other things you didn't prioritise this time. For example I wanted to do San Fran, Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles and a few other national parks in utah/arizona/colorado etc... we wended up flying into San Fran, catching a flight to Flagstaff, drove from there to Grand Canyon, do a few national parks and drove into Vegas and flew out of there. Point being next trip will be Los Angeles, coastal road up to San Francisco, over to Yosemite, Death Valley a few nights in Vegas and back down to San Diego - the only places we have already been to are San Fran and Vegas.

Each to there own and all that but prioritise and see what's practical in the timescale - one thing I wouldn't change is flying out on a thursday morning and flying home on the 15th day i.e. Friday in the afternoon and arriving back in the UK on the saturday.

Helen_R_2

Virgin Holidays do a really good 14 night package for San Fran, Vegas and L.A which last time I checked was cheaper than DIY packages. I've been to Vegas 3 times now (even though I'm not a big gambler) and the first time we went on a helicopter ride to the gran canyon which was nice but the 2nd time we went out to Red Rock Canyon in these little scootercars (the company is scoot city) and it was soooo much fun, much better that the helicopter ride which was 3 times the price.