Usa Escorted Tour

John259

CUPCAKESUE wrote: »

Im not a very confident driver in the UK so the USA would petrify me

It really is as stress-free as people have said. To avoid freeways in big cities you could use normal roads (but slow) and use an internal flight to a regional airport in a smaller town and pick up/drop off the car there. Those would be good ideas if you were mainly interested in the national parks and the country, less practical if you wanted to visit big cities.

For big cities such as New York, Washington and San Francisco, you could stay in one hotel and use public transport to get around. The same is true in Las Vegas. In many cases tours to nearby places are possible - the Hudson River railway line from New York, or a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas.

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

There is very definitely the potential for that, but there are also ways of avoiding it by restricting yourself to a limited area, for example southwest Utah (Zion, Bryce, Cedar Breaks), or in the east the Blue Ridge Parkway - just two ideas out of many possibilities.

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

It's possible to visit and stay in the Orlando area without a car. The other obvious places to visit in Florida are Kennedy Space Center (near Orlando) and the Florida Keys (considerably further away).

Is there no chance of you talking a friend who can drive into joining you?

John259

If you'd like to see what driving is like in a small-to-medium sized town in the USA, try searching on YouTube for:
driving through bishop california
Bishop is on US395 in Owen's Valley, east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

[Deleted User]

We went with Archers Direct, they are the direct arm of Cosmos but a bit cheaper. We did the parks and canyons tour and loved it, good middle of the road hotels (dont believe trip Adviser reviews, we would stay in every hotel again) very modern coach, good guide and a great trip. we have since gone with Archers twice more. Nice mix of people probably 50% british and the rest from lots of differant countries

tori.k

Orlando/florida is really easy to drive, probably due to so many tourist's it's quite laid back im a reluctant driver but prefer driving in the US than the UK, the block layout of the roads is really good it's hard to get lost, traffic moves quite slowly compared to the UK even if you miss your turning there are Uturns in the road every half mile or so on most roads everything is sign posted so well I managed with just a tourist map despite meaning to pick up a cheap sat nav and im notorious for getting lost usually.
TBH I only driven round a 20mile radius of where I live wont even consider even driving to Plymouth yet had no trouble in Tampa (busch gardens) or the toll roads to Kennedy space centre

Mrs_Soup

I can see why you want to do an escorted tour as I wouldn't be keen to drive overseas either (can just about manage France with some trepidation). I have travelled with Titan and found then good but at 30ish and 40 my hisband and I were the youngest people on the tour by some margin so your 15 year old would likely be even more so. Did get slightly fed up with the tour guide after three weeks but that will depend who you get. This wasn't USA either although my parents have done Titan to the Western US.

[Deleted User]

I also would think the age group on a tour would be 50 to 70+

cubegame

CUPCAKESUE wrote: »

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 tours

You could easily fly into some out of the way airport which has car hire and avoid cities totally whilst having an amazing holiday.

The standard of driving is also generally MUCH higher than in the UK.

John259

Another idea:

Using a combination of a transatlantic flight and an internal flight, fly to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This airport must have one of the all-time simplest possible access roads (take a look on Google Maps; the airport is to the north of the town).

Then you've got the absolutely wonderful Grand Teton National Park to explore (loads of great things to do including the boat ride over Jenny Lake and the hike up to Inspiration Point), plus Jackson town to look round for a contrast. There's a good range of accommodation and eateries in the town, or if you want to splash out then you could stay at Jackson Lake Lodge in the park.

If and when you feel sufficiently confident then you might want to drive north to the southern part of Yellowstone, or in good weather venture over the Teton Pass into Idaho - but there would be no actual need to do either unless you wanted to.

For more information, photos and videos (you guessed it! ):
The US National Parks Service web site
Wikipedia
Google Maps/StreetView
YouTube
(When searching, specify Jackson Wyoming to avoid confusion with Jackson Mississippi)

Now, will the system let me post a link to a photo? Let's have a go:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetons_from_Jenny_Lake.JPG

Bri1

Driving in the US is a doddle compared to the UK, the place is made for cars, proper sized parking spaces for monster trucks :-), wide roads, Have driven from SF to LA to SD in CA a few times, New England, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, all with no problems, if you can drive in France & the UK, this will be just a breeze, a cheap Walmart Sat Nav is a must especially in Cities

zagfles

Bri1 wrote: »

Driving in the US is a doddle compared to the UK, the place is made for cars, proper sized parking spaces for monster trucks :-), wide roads, Have driven from SF to LA to SD in CA a few times, New England, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, all with no problems, if you can drive in France & the UK, this will be just a breeze, a cheap Walmart Sat Nav is a must especially in Cities

Agreed, though like with anywhere be aware of the foibles in the driving rules, such as some state ban overtaking stopped school buses, or carrying alcohol anywhere but in the boot. I think u-turns are always illegal too.

But the road signs tend to be in plain English rather than symbols, so far easier to understand than eg the yellow diamond in France or understanding that town border signs indicate a 50kph speed limit.