Touring holiday to Nevada, California & Arizona

boatman

Instead of using the highways between Anaheim and Vegas how about going to Palm Springs>Twentynine Palms>Amboy>Kelso>Cima then on to Vegas. Just done it, lovely empty roads, and great views not stuck on the highways.

blindman

blindman wrote: »

Did this trip over 2004/5 New Years.

Arrived in Phoenix, toured around Tucson, flew to San Fran drove down the Big sur stayed at LA then on to Phoenix.

Did not have kids in tow...

Guides:
I use Fodors forums to search for itineraries (register to ask a question)
Usually a good source of local knowledge.

There's the usual Tripadvisor forums as another local knowledge source.

There's Igougo as well.

Books: I always use Lonely Planet. They have a Southwest USA book.
MSE tip Get it from the library

Hire car:
You've found the free one way rental, I've used Airline network several times, no problems.

MSE Tip
Book the smallest car that you all (+ luggage) can fit into. Refuse the hard sell for the upgrade. You may get an upgrade anyway.
Works for me with the smallest economy cars.

American Airlines.
Not sure if you want to try this.
AA regularly oversell their flights.
They ask for volunteers to be bumped to the next flight or upgrade passengers to the next cabin if they're overbooked.
You (as a family) will NOT get an upgrade to the next cabin.
However if you can factor in an extra day on your return (International) flight you may want to volunteer to be bumped. They have paid my wife and I a $700 travel voucher (each) twice.
Domestic flight bumping is poory paid ($200 I think)
Doesn't always happen if yours is a connecting International flight.
(Your inbound flight is from where?).

Hotels:
My favourite topic.
Use either Hotwire (probably better for the family) or Priceline (Only guarantees 2 adults in a room-though can have 2+2 in most hotels).

Do this at least for your first hotel on arrival (?) and maybe the last.

I think you've seen this handy guide

Where to go:
Well each to his own and my kids have grown up:

Southern UTAH

Monument Valley
Dead Horse State Point

SouthWest Map

Saguaro NP Huge Cacti

Titan Missile base Cold war missile bunker

Pima Air museum Loads of aircraft in the dessert


Tombstone Re-enactments of the gunfight

HUGE wind Farm at Palm Springs Weird.

For the lazy....Post #6 on the first page of this thread.

bina72

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Hi Magyar


A trip on either the Grand Canyon Railway

I did the GCR trip in August 06 & I loved it! If you can afford it get the absolute first class ticket. It has the end carriage so you can stand outside. The seats are very comfy & it is limited to about 20 people. They do nibbles there & back, including free soft drinks/ coffee. They also do cocktails for a few dollars (buck's fizz & mimosa). They had country singers wandering the train too (with their latest CD for sale in their pocket!).
On the way back you get a free glass of bubbly (fizzy apple for the kids). They do a 'cowboy hold-up' too - the train is stopped & you are robbed at gunpoint for small change. These are the same cowboys that put on a show for you in the hour before the train leaves - it's good fun to watch.
I would say if you don't love steam trains you might not get much out of it. The scenery is very flat, with scrubby trees & bushes, the occasional farm & maybe a bit of wildlife. It's very slow too, I think the max speed was 30mph (the speedometer is displayed in the carriage). I really enjoyed the trip as it was so relaxing, and we had a massive thunderstorm to entertain us on the way!
I wouldn't recommend the coach class, it looked more like 'cattle class'.
Your time at GC is also very limited so if this is your only time to see it I wouldn't do it this way. Far better to drive & stay to watch the sunset.

Enjoy!

Murphy_The_Cat

bina72 wrote: »

I did the GCR trip in August 06 & I loved it! If you can afford it get the absolute first class ticket. It has the end carriage so you can stand outside. The seats are very comfy & it is limited to about 20 people. They do nibbles there & back, including free soft drinks/ coffee. They also do cocktails for a few dollars (buck's fizz & mimosa). They had country singers wandering the train too (with their latest CD for sale in their pocket!).
On the way back you get a free glass of bubbly (fizzy apple for the kids). They do a 'cowboy hold-up' too - the train is stopped & you are robbed at gunpoint for small change. These are the same cowboys that put on a show for you in the hour before the train leaves - it's good fun to watch.
I would say if you don't love steam trains you might not get much out of it. The scenery is very flat, with scrubby trees & bushes, the occasional farm & maybe a bit of wildlife. It's very slow too, I think the max speed was 30mph (the speedometer is displayed in the carriage). I really enjoyed the trip as it was so relaxing, and we had a massive thunderstorm to entertain us on the way!
I wouldn't recommend the coach class, it looked more like 'cattle class'.
Your time at GC is also very limited so if this is your only time to see it I wouldn't do it this way. Far better to drive & stay to watch the sunset.

Enjoy!

OBVIOUSLY :rotfl::rotfl:the train trip would only be for my 4 year old sons fun and enjoyment, rather than for his Daddies!!!!!!!
After checking the Canyon Railways website, they appear to be a bit more restrictive in the way that they treat younger children than the Verde Railway - but I'll have to look closer as it looks like [STRIKE]I'll [/STRIKE] my son will really enjoy it.

As we're staying in Flagstaff/Sedona are, each is very easily accessible.

As for the length of time that we're spending at GC, I feel that with the age of my children, they just wouldn't 'get it' after the initial wow.
Plus, it gives us an excuse to come back another time :j

blindman

I hope Mrs Cat, a 15 month old and a four year old enjoy the Titan Missile base and "Boneyard :rotfl:

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

I hope Mrs Cat, a 15 month old and a four year old enjoy the Titan Missile base and "Boneyard :rotfl:

Ansolutely - I hope that they enjoy it as well :rotfl::beer::j, plus, like wise, going around the aircraft carrier USS Midway should be a treat for all of as well.

All joking to one side, its quite challenging to find things that all four of us will actively enjoy, or at least get some pleasure out of -- while still making sure that it remains a family holiday.
One thing that we absolutely abhor is the idea of sitting by a pool for day after day and wasting our precious holiday time.

Murphy_The_Cat

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

If anyone is interested, here's a (preliminary, but fairly realistic) guide as to what we're doing.

Flying AA from Man - Ord - Las Vegas for two nights. Pick up hire car
Las Vegas via Hoover Dam - Sedona (2 nights)
then going to Staying / touring around Phoenix area (3-4 nights) (+ visiting the Inlaws)
then driving to Tuscon for 3-4 nights.
Dropping the hire car at Tuscon airport and flying to San Diego with Southwest.
Pick up next hire car and staying in a villa in San Diego for a week.
Driving up to Long Beach (area) for two nights.
Driving to San Luis Obispo for 3 nights (hopefully taking the Amtrak to Santa Barbara for a day trip).
Driving the Big Sur, stopping at Monterey fro the aquirium, before ending up at Santa Cruz (ish) for one night.
Fly from San Jose - Ord - Man

OK

things have changed in a positive way and the itinerary is becoming firmer.
This is the latest version.

Flying AA from Man - Ord - Las Vegas for two nights. Pick up hire car
Las Vegas via Hoover Dam - Flagstaff (2 nights)
Scottsdale (3 nights)
then driving to Tuscon for 4 nights.
Dropping the hire car at Tuscon airport and flying to San Diego with Southwest.
Pick up next hire car and staying in a hotel in San Diego for 4 nights.
Driving to Palm Springs (3 nights)
Driving up to Santa Barabara (2 nights.)
Mrs Cat & MTK may take the Amtrak whilst MTK2 and I drive
Driving to San Luis Obispo (3 nights)
Driving the Big Sur, stopping at Monterey fro the aquirium, before ending up at Morgan Hill for one night.
Fly from San Jose - Ord - Man

I've had a great time firming up on this itinerary and I've been REALLY surprised how room rates/tartiffs can vary enormously - sometimes on the same class of accomodation on the same street. With us being away for 24 nights, our lodging costs are likely to be a bit 'ahem' costly (Florida prices, it ain't).
At this stage, we're going to be staying in a real combination of places - B&B's (some of these are great fun, if you've never tried it, really rcommended), motels, renting houses, hotel, condo, Inns and even possibly a farm.

A few posts back, t1nk3r asked where I was getting my villa suggestions from.
I've found that this place (especially)
and this place to be very handy.

Also when booking accomodation, trip advisor is a VERY useful tool.

and the list of things that we hope to do keeps getting longer !

Bean_Counter

MTC - thanks for posting the details of your leg work. Just to let you know that they are of interest to those of us looking to do something similar but not really knowing where to start for arranging bookings etc.

Keep up the good work!

Murphy_The_Cat

Bean_Counter wrote: »

MTC - thanks for posting the details of your leg work. Just to let you know that they are of interest to those of us looking to do something similar but not really knowing where to start for arranging bookings etc.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks Bean Counter, I'm getting a real kick out of planning this trip (likely to be the last BIG trip that we do for quite a while) and that other people are getting some help from it then all the better.

I'm also getting some conflicts on money saving / holiday issues. e.g. to fly from Tucson to San Diego will cost about £175 for the 4 of us and another £25-£50 in car hire (depends how its worked out), but call it £200odd and will take a couple of hours at the airport, an hour in flight and an hour at t'other end, or we could drive Tucson - San Diego (apparently not the most stimulating trip) that will take about 6-7 hours (415 miles) and the only cost will be fuel, which will be about £30 if we get a Hemi 300C. Plus, if we arrive early (via the plane) we can't check in to our next place for a few hours, or, would a boring drive through the desert be a chance for the rest of the cats to catch up with some kip/watch some films in the car.

Do we really NEED a car whilst we're in Las Vegas ???? if not, that'll save us £50 that could go towards the Southwest flight

Dilemmas, dilemmas :rotfl::rotfl:

blindman

Do we really NEED a car whilst we're in Las Vegas ????

No

Tuscon to Sandiego
Personally I'd drive as you can do it at your own pace etc.
So long as the kids have DVD's to watch in the car.

May not be the most enthralling drive, but you are your own boss (well except for the Mrs of course)