California & Vegas Fly Drive

jackieblack

I always book direct with hotels, they take credit card details just in case you don't turn up but unless you choose a cheap pre-pay rate, you don't pay until you check out and most are cancellable with quite short notice with no penalty, sometimes up to check-in time on the day you're due to arrive, some 24-48 hours before, so if your plans change you can just cancel and rebook elsewhere

John259

Regarding the route, you could do San Francisco > Yosemite > Monterey > Pacific Coast Highway to the Morro Bay area > Los Angeles > Las Vegas > San Diego (or San Diego before Las Vegas).

or: San Francisco > Yosemite > Tioga Pass and US395 to Bishop or one of the other towns on US395 > via Death Valley to Las Vegas > Los Angeles > San Diego. (But the Tioga Pass is closed by snow from around December to around May or June.)

Both are good choices with a combination of different types of cities and different types of scenery.

If you book the car rental through an agent outside the USA then you can probably avoid a one-way rental drop-off fee between any two locations in California, Nevada and Arizona.

When booking the flights into one airport and out from another look for open-jaw or multi-city options which are almost always a lot less expensive than separate one-way flights.

You can use Google Maps to experiment with routes and check distances. You can also use it to search for motels and it will give you some idea of how rates vary between the different chains. Then look on the chains' web sites to check the actual rates when you're travelling.

Because of changes due to factors such as weather, wild fires and changing your mind it's best to only book the first night, then book online on the day or a day or two ahead over weekends. All but the smallest of towns in the USA have motels and restaurants.

For Yosemite I prefer to stay some distance away so as to get lower rates and avoid having to book in advance, but other people prefer to stay in the park.

On the Pacific Coast Highway there's very little accommodation between Monterey and Cambria.

PeacefulWaters

Done two trips like this now. John posted some really helpful hints.

We booked flights and car together with BA both times - excellent prices at the time of booking. Second time starting in Dublin to benefit from cheap business class flights in a sale (Dec/Jan c£1k each plus getting to Dublin). Small deposit needed up front.

Start point was selected by cheapest airport to fly to. Phoenix first time, Las Vegas the second time. Designed a loop from there, returning the car to the same location. It should be possible to end your road trip at a different airport. LA, San Francisco and San Diego should be other considerations for start point.

Our route last year was my favourite. We rather crammed things in to 12 days due to work commitments, so if you can slow it down a little with two and three night stops occasionally you'll probably enjoy it even more than we did. And my word we enjoyed it (in October).

Phoenix to Grand Canyon South (via Sedona and Barringer Crater)
Vegas

Pahrump for Death Valley to Mammoth Lakes (too long a drive - should have stayed in Panamint for the night sky)

Yosemite, staying at Tenaya.

San Francisco

Monterrey for Seven Mile Drive and Pacific Coast Highway

Ventura Beach (should have stayed at Morro Bay to reduce the travel time)

Saw Malibu, LA and Hollywood but stayed cheaply in Palm Desert.

Back to Phoenix (dull drive).

Loved it all. Make sure your car size will take your luggage. We went that way round to have the Pacific Ocean nearest us from the highway!

We booked all our accommodation in advance. It suited us, but as you can see above I was over-ambitious with a couple of our daily drives so didn't have a bail-out option. Breakfast, wifi and free parking available in the price at even the cheapest motels in most cases.

I'd aim to do no more than 4/5 hours a day road time. It is easy driving on the whole outside the cities. We got a U.S. sat nav for £38 off amazon.

Do it. Enjoy it!

NiftyDigits

We did this trip recently. Was fun. We only booked accommodation for the first destination, San Francisco(Lombard Street). I was concerned that the trip was going to lighten the bank balance, but actually it was as cheap as chips, as we often stayed at motels along the way. Really didn't like the idea of a 'mainstream' hotel charging me US$60 per day for parking and then another US$50 for Valet Parking.
Our accommodation along the way ranged from US$60 to US$140 inclusive of parking. I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course, we followed the Pacific Coast Highway route.
Not keen to share my favourite places to stay, but a special place that we found along the way, was the Borg's Ocean Front Motel. Location, location, location. You can use that for Monterey/Carmel.
For Malibu Beach/Santa Monica, we stayed at the Wilshire Motel. So much more interesting than a soulless hotel. We met some pleasant and interesting characters.
I'm so glad that we weren't stuck into a fixed itinerary. You might find a place along the way that looks perfect for you for an impromptu stay.. In the end we decided to skip Las Vegas altogether. We walked over to Mexico(Tijuana) and found the best Taco stand in town. The locals kept asking us how we managed to find it. Everyone friendly and helpful. Horrible queues to get back into the US, but we managed to skip the queue a bit.

Hope you have your fee free plastic sorted, rather than waiting for the last minute.

We flew into San Francisco and out of Orange County. You might choose to fly into SFO and out of San Diego.
When we arrived in San Diego, there was literally not a single hotel room available in town. No exaggeration. We had to leave town in order to find a place to sleep. Still fun.
Our original flights were relatively inexpensive.
We paid for a Sat Nav...which we didn't actually switch on throughout the trip. Didn't need it. A simple map sufficed. though we did miss turns a couple of times. Made the trip more interesting.
Next time, I'll just make do with my Windows Phone GPS, if necessary.

codo

We are doing a similar trip in a few weeks time. We have booked directly with all the hotels as we were looking for accommodation for a family of 5. Most hotels have secured the bookings with a credit card but payment not required until check out and all can be cancelled upto 24hour before check in. The only accommodation that required payment was the hotel in Yosemite which required the first night fee but again can be cancelled 24 hours before.

General advice we got was to not hire a car until leaving San Francisco as parking is difficult and expensive but as we were flying return to LA this wasn't an option but there are a number of inns/accommodation on Lombard Street that offer free parking.

Enjoy the planning.

dazanteney4

Thanks everyone, we are looking around to see what we can do. My OH would prefer a little luxury when in SF and LA, we can get hotels in Vegas pretty cheap (£160 for 3nights) so i'm happy with that.

Spursman180

glentoran99 wrote: »

I think you can, but why do you need to book through Expedia? you can sometimes get better deals booking direct with the hotel, for example we got free dinner and breakfast in Vegas and the hotel was cheaper than expedia

It's a honeymoon trip and no doubt your expenses elsewhere will be somewhat large. One advantage I found with booking through Expedia and paying up front when you book is that you have locked in the price and will not be subject to changes in the exchange rate or card charges if you don't have one of the 'true rate' cards?


I have also found that if your not up to standing your ground in the car hire locations the add ons can soon pile up. booking through Expedia covers all your bases and allows you to not be hoodwinked by this extra cost or that one.


Also there are no mileage costs in Cal/Nev/Ari to pay on a one way hire.

LilElvis

If you are going along the Pacific Coast highway then the Aquarium at Monterey is excellent.

I would skip Solvang and go to Hearsts Castle near to San Simeon - an amazing, weird place with a lot of history. Booking is probably essential as it is a guided tour with limited places. Evening tours are also available. There is very limited accommodation nearby so I would definitely book that too.

Skip 17 mile drive - you can't see much from the car and takes a disproportionate amount of time.

If you want to go to Alcatraz definitely book it in advance as it can be booked up days ahead. Go to book when you are there and you might miss out.

If you do decide to go to Yosemite you will need to book accommodation well in advance as it is very limited and a place just outside the park entrance (SF side) is a 2 hour drive to the main sites.

Buy a Thomas map book of California. Invaluable!

A word of warning re the weather! San Francisco is much cooler than even the surrounding Bay Area. I used to live in the area and honeymooned there in April - it poured with rain for 5 days out of 7, and this isn't unusual.

In San Francisco I would stay near to Union Square rather than near the piers as it is far more central and has more/better quality restaurants nearby, including Chinatown. The Nikko is very good - they even upgraded our Expedia booked room to a suite when they found out it was our honeymoon.

In Vegas get a hotel on the strip. A cheaper hotel off-strip isn't cost effective when you have to get taxis backwards and forwards all day. Though there are a myriad of hotels it is best to book in advance as large conventions or sporting events can see it full - even the grotty motels.

dazanteney4

Ok thanks. Let's check the web and see if i can get good priced flights!

zagfles

We've nearly always just turned up at motels rather than pre-booking. It might be worth pre-booking major cities and definitely in National parks (accomodation inside the parks is usually limited and books up months in advance), or if you're going at peak holiday times.

But if you're going off-peak it's easy to just turn up and find somewhere, and you have the flexibility. Always haggle - they almost always give you a discount if you ask.