Usa Escorted Tour

CUPCAKESUE

Hi

Me and my daughter are thinking of booking one of the USA escorted tour trips for Jul/august 2015 for my special birthday We have to go on these particular dates as she will be 15 and still at school

We have been looking at Titan Travel, Cosmos and Virgin. Has anyone got any tips or recommendations they can offer us, perhaps if you have been on one of the tours with any of these companies and what to expect,

Many Thanks

daveyjp

My parents did a tour of Canada with Travelsphere. It was a great way of seeing from East to West coast over 3 weeks, but they were ready for a holiday after it as it became an endurance test towards the end.

John259

CUPCAKESUE wrote: »

We have been looking at Titan Travel, Cosmos and Virgin.

Sorry, I've no experience of these but I did find a few relevant videos on YouTube which might be useful to you. Apologies if you've already discovered them.

Titan Tours have their own channel on YouTube, username Titan Travel UK with quite a number of videos.

A search on YouTube for Cosmos Escorted Tours USA brings up various videos, some made by the company and others made by their customers.

I couldn't find anything for Virgin but perhaps I'm not using the right keywords.

mum2one

I've had some brocheres fro Travelsphere, they look competative, xx

Bri1

We have always loved the freedom of booking everything ourselves, with our own transport so we can plan & deviate at will if we want to & go at our own pace, from what I have seen of the escorted tours you miss so much of the real place just been shunted around like cattle trying to cram too much in to a short time.

John259

^^^ Agreed 100%, but it might not be an option for the OP.

It would be very interesting to work out the total cost of an escorted tour versus a DIY road trip. If you were happy with using budget motels and less expensive restaurants, I suspect the difference might be sufficient to help pay for an extra person's airfare if you need them to act as a driver - provided of course you can think of someone suitable.

vivatifosi

I did a tour with Virgin. Two weeks, 4 states, west coast. Generally very enjoyable. Comments:

1) You have to go with the majority in terms of where to eat, which would not necessarily be where you would choose. The coach driver may get a kick back from taking you there (such as their meal free), so you may not get a choice of everywhere either.

2) In a couple of hotel locations we were a long way from anything and felt like we were stuck in a room for several hours and couldn't get out. In one instance we tried to get a taxi but nobody would come out as it was too far from the nearest town. This was not in the middle of nowhere - it was outside Scottsdale!

3) If I did it again I'd choose different luggage - something with several compartments so that I didn't have to pack and unpack as frequently.

4) We were fed up with the one family that turned up late - every day.

If we did it again we would do it by car, but back then we hadn't driven as much in America and found the distances a bit daunting.

zagfles

Bri1 wrote: »

We have always loved the freedom of booking everything ourselves, with our own transport so we can plan & deviate at will if we want to & go at our own pace, from what I have seen of the escorted tours you miss so much of the real place just been shunted around like cattle trying to cram too much in to a short time.

Yes, the US is one of the easiest places in the word to drive especially the West. I've compared notes with someone who went on an escorted tour and they missed out on so much because they didn't dare let people go exploring anywhere in case someone got lost or didn't come back in time, so it was basically seeing things from a coach window. Was ridiculously expensive too.

John259

Can I suggest that possibly the best place to fly to in the west for a nervous or first time driver would be Las Vegas?

Even if Sin City doesn't appeal to you, the airport access road network is much simpler than Los Angeles or San Francisco, as is escaping from the city into the country.

In the east, Washington Dulles used to be easy if you were heading west to Front Royal and the Shenandoah National Park or Waynesboro and the Blue Ridge Parkway - but I think the whole area around Dulles has been built up a lot in recent years so that might no longer be the case.

In general terms, outside big cities driving in the USA is extremely easy due to good roads, good signposting, and low traffic levels.

Normal roads in big towns are easy, but slow due to frequent stops for traffic lights.

However, freeways in big cities are stressful due to having change lanes for directional purposes in heavy fast moving traffic. A good human navigator or GPS would be vital here.

There are numerous videos on YouTube which include footage of driving in the USA. Try a search for road trip or have a look at a few of the trucking video logs made by Sergie Dratchev or Trucker Josh.

In addition, the California road trip videos on YouTube made by Phil, Emma and Ben include some road footage and plenty of coverage of places including the Pacific Coast Highway and Yosemite.

blindman

CUPCAKESUE wrote: »

Hi

Me and my daughter are thinking of booking one of the USA escorted tour trips for Jul/august 2015 for my special birthday We have to go on these particular dates as she will be 15 and still at school

We have been looking at Titan Travel, Cosmos and Virgin. Has anyone got any tips or recommendations they can offer us, perhaps if you have been on one of the tours with any of these companies and what to expect,

Many Thanks

Have you been on escorted tours before?

If that's your thing then I've seen good reports for Titan and Cosmos.

As others have said the USA is so easy to DIY if you can drive.

No need to be nervous-If the Americans can do it-Us Brits have no problem :cool:

CUPCAKESUE

Many thanks for all you comments.

Im not a very confident driver in the UK so the USA would petrify me thats why we were thinking of an escorted tour.

I should imagine its very tiring cramming so much in within the specified time.

I do like thei idea of the Florida and Orlando tour which may not be so tiring,.

I think I would live out of suitcase rather than keep unpacking.

Thanks