Planning USA Trip

duchy

I do tend to agree - no matter how spectacular the national parks can be for a first trip a mix of city, beach, rural and small town is probably better.

OP the thing with California is outside of San Francisco the transportation system pretty much assumes that people will drive from place to place so you are likely to find driving is cheaper and gives you more choices.

I wonder if using a tour for part of your trip would work ? Something like Trek America or Contiki -where you'd be part of a group -with a coach driver - but the age range for the tour would be 18-35ish . Just a thought that it would avoid having to do a lot of driving yourself or even that the itineraries might give you some ideas about what is do-able driving yourself.

duchy

blindman wrote: »

And then of course we will fly LHR-DUB as the final leg :cool:

Of course

PeacefulWaters

I found driving 4-5 hours a day every day in California, Nevada and Arizona extraordinarily relaxing, combined with visits to some fabulous places.

Other than having to shift bags from car to motel room every night / morning it was no problem!

Phoenix
Sedona
Grand Canyon
Vegas
Death Valley
Mammoth Lakes
Yosemite
San Francisco
Monterrey
Big Sur
Malibu
Hollywood

Each to his / her own. I'll probably do a similar route again one day and if I do I'll spend more time in San Francisco and Yosemite, remove Hollywood / LA and Vegas altogether and ensure a stop on Big Sur at Morro Bay and get at least a day in Joshua Tree and San Diego.

Bodders11

Blindman - how come it works out cheaper for you to fly to London first whilst I fly to Dublin? Ha.

I am a fan of nature but I do think one national park will be enough. As Duchy suggests, a balance of the city, rural, beach and small town would be absolutely perfect.

I would have no problem with driving but fear 5 hours per day isn't my idea of a holiday. Trek America sounds like a good idea so I'll take a look at this. If I can drive somewhere in California every say 3 days and Base myself there and then limit daily driving to simply get to sites for that day it would be ideal. That way I can at least unpack my suitcase for a few days as I won't want to change motel every night. San Francisco, Los Angeles, a beach area??, San Diego??, a national park?might be some locations I'd look to stop at for around 3 nights each. Please advise if you think there are 3-5 locations I could base myself as opposed to one given the size of the state.

richardw

Thinking of doing this in business class

Tuesday fly LGW-DUB 19.30ish Ryanair flight
Stay in hotel at DUB
Wednesday fly DUB-LCY 7.30am ish flight
Do full day at work, then fly LHR-JFK 19.55 flight

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

blindman

Bodders11 wrote: »

Blindman - how come it works out cheaper for you to fly to London first whilst I fly to Dublin? Ha.

I am a fan of nature but I do think one national park will be enough. As Duchy suggests, a balance of the city, rural, beach and small town would be absolutely perfect.

That way I can at least unpack my suitcase for a few days as I won't want to change motel every night. San Francisco, Los Angeles, a beach area??, San Diego??, a national park?might be some locations I'd look to stop at for around 3 nights each. Please advise if you think there are 3-5 locations I could base myself as opposed to one given the size of the state.

Southwest USA thread is a good place to look for ideas.

I fly to Dub on a separate flight, so I can start my "proper" itinerary from there.
I want to fly with Virgin (UC ) so have to route back through LGW to do so.

blindman

richardw wrote: »

Thinking of doing this in business class

Tuesday fly LGW-DUB 19.30ish Ryanair flight
Stay in hotel at DUB
Wednesday fly DUB-LCY 7.30am ish flight
Do full day at work, then fly LHR-JFK 19.55 flight

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Ryanair do not do Business class

Are you not coming back

richardw

The bit starting DUB would be business class.

The return would be LAX-LHR-LGW/LCY-DUB

blindman

richardw wrote: »

The bit starting DUB would be business class.

The return would be LAX-LHR-LGW/LCY-DUB

I was only joking

Sounds Ok to me, I take it you will not make it for the LCY-DUB leg?

The only caveat is that if the Ryanair flight is cancelled is there another after that or is this the last flight of the day?

PeacefulWaters

blindman wrote: »

Ryanair do not do Business class

Are you not coming back

Biz Flex!