Touring holiday to Nevada, California & Arizona

bafty_crastard

Hope you have a wonderful trip Looking forward to hearing about it.
9 weeks tiill we go :j

RichTeaBiscuit

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Thank you one and all for your kind words and positive contributions. I'll look upon my trip as a MSE research exercise for ideas and not as an excuse to laze around in my favourite holiday destination.

cheerio

Excellent idea. Have good trip, hope all goes to plan.
Five months and counting till our roadtrip

Scoobychick

I'm a bit late but have a great time and be sure to post up any tips for those of us that are still counting down the days!

duchy

No post from Murphy from the Admirals Club at Chicago-so hopefully they made the connection

MOLLYBRUSH

Also late, but thanks for your all your help on here. It has been invaluable. Just in case you get to check in at any time - Hope you have a FANTASTIC time and that it's a bit warmer than here. Very windy and cold in the midlands today! Only 3 weeks on Friday before I go too. Yippee!!

Scoobychick

Just a quick update that may be of use to some people but after Murphy told me I couldn't use a TomTom windscreen mount I went searching on the web for alternative options. I eventually was pointed in the direction of a couple of forums, one based in the States where various people pointed out that whilst it is illegal to put anything on the windscreen in California it's not enforced when it comes to SatNavs.

torbrex

Scoobychick wrote: »

Just a quick update that may be of use to some people but after Murphy told me I couldn't use a TomTom windscreen mount I went searching on the web for alternative options. I eventually was pointed in the direction of a couple of forums, one based in the States where various people pointed out that whilst it is illegal to put anything on the windscreen in California it's not enforced when it comes to SatNavs.

Thanks for the update I was going to take mine but have decided just to drive 'blind' as usual, I never have a route planned as such anyway.

Murphy_The_Cat

duchy wrote: »

No post from Murphy from the Admirals Club at Chicago-so hopefully they made the connection

Did we balls ! some Muppet at Manchester closed the aircraft door wrongly, we wer an hour late leaving, missed the connection and took a re route via Dallas to LAS. All in all, a 25 hour journey.

I'll have to get offline B4 Mrs Cat catches me ! having so good a time, it should be against the law.

MTC

Scoobychick

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Did we balls ! some Muppet at Manchester closed the aircraft door wrongly, we wer an hour late leaving, missed the connection and took a re route via Dallas to LAS. All in all, a 25 hour journey.

I'll have to get offline B4 Mrs Cat catches me ! having so good a time, it should be against the law.

MTC

Hey MTC, what a bummer (as I believe they say over there ). Still I guess you made it there eventually, glad you're having an excellent time now and I hope that the flight is all but a distant nightmare :j

malid

Scoobychick wrote: »

Thanks chaps, I really appreciate the time you've taken to help :cool:

The hire car is already booked and we're keeping it - I can't bear the thought of not having a car. We're both total and utter petrolheads so having a 'Stang is awesome for us (fingers crossed for a free Shelby 'Stang upgrade) :rolleyes: I used to have a convertible when I lived down south and spent many a weekend driving up and down the M1 to North Yorkshire so I know what I'm letting myself in for but thanks for your thoughts

My latest plan is to book a hotel near SFO (Red Roof Inn perhaps with a view of the airport - we like planes ) and when we don't drive in to SF take the BART instead, the hotel offer a free shuttle service to the airport to catch the BART. We both have mixed feelings about SF but want to see Alcatraz (will pre-book), the Golden Gate Bridge and USS Hornet. Neither of us are townies, we both prefer the country so staying in big towns doesn't appeal much whereas out of the way places in the middle of nowhere does

I'm liking the idea of staying a few miles out of the busy areas (Williams looks just like the town in 'Cars' the movie ) so thanks for the suggestions of Williams and Flagstaff.

I didn't know about the law in CA forbidding the sticking of things on the windscreen so I'll get a dash/vent mount for my TomTom, thanks for that warning :cool:

We've decided to buy most of our maps and guides when we get there and as we travel, I love maps anyway so the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned.

I've been looking at Hotwire and Priceline too but don't think I like the idea of not knowing where I'm going to stay. We haven't really set a budget as such but are aiming for somewhere between £20 to £50 a night for a double room in anywhere that appeals, big flashy hotels aren't really our thing, clean and simple (with WiFi access ) does it for me. The B&B idea sounds quite cool though, I'll look into prices.

Just one more thing, my other half works for the AA so maybe we'll get even better discounts Oh and he was speaking to a chap the other day who had pretty much done what we are doing and spent 6k
We'll have to watch ourselves carefully

Just a quick edit to say that I think I've found the perfect solution for the TomTom here http://www.buybits.com/product/sku_3122.aspx

:eek:

Hi Scoobychick

Just catching up with this thread and saw your queries. Would definately have a car but when it's hot, it's very hot so be careful with convertible (make sure you have enough room for bargains you may buy!)

Alcatraz is a must and you will need to book in advance. Wander around Fisherman's Wharf highly recommended as is Clam Chowder. Also try some 'home made fudge' - shop somewhere opposite boat to Alcatraz.

We have done a similar trip and have stayed in both Williams and Flagstaff. An alternative on route is Needles. We stayed at this hotel last year. It has an indoor pool; strange you may think but it was good given the heat -
Best Western Colorado River Inn
2371 W Broadway
Needles , California
92363-2106,United States
Phone: 760-326-4552
Fax : 760-326-4562

Good place to eat here is the Wagon Wheel.

Stopped off in Sedona also last year but arrived during terrible thunderstorm unfortunately and cut short our stay at
Best Western Arroyo Roble Hotel & Creekside Villas
400 N Highway 89A
Sedona , Arizona
86336-4214,United States
Phone: 928-282-4001
Fax : 928-282-4001
This was unusual weather so don't be put off as we've stayed previoulsy and it has been great. Good place to eat is the Cowboy Club - margarittas to die for!

We stayed 'outside' the GC but you're only talking a couple of miles so no hassle. We stayed at the Best Western Squire Inn.

(By the way, just coincidence that these are all Best Western. We booked all our hotels through different third party sites or direct; whichever was cheapest and looked good enough. £20 is a bit on the low side and some areas will be more expensive than others - e.g. Sedona more than LA area but Send me a message if you want info. We have always been a family of 5, 4 or 3 - less as boys have grwon older and opted out - and have never spent £6k but not stinted and had a great time).

Re phone, if you're happy to go without texts and your own mobile, great value for dialling from hotel/public phones is a phone card from 1st4Phonecards.com. The Stars and Stripes one is the best deal.

Really envious, have a fab time. :j