Not sure of the best order would to visit these places?

richardw

AnotherJoe wrote: »

...If you are flying (say) Manchester - Toronto - Washington - New Orleans - - Key West - Miami - Manchester on one ticket and through your own fault you miss (say) Key West - Miami...

It's generally not money saving to do things that are 'through your own fault' anyway.

John259

If you can drive, then do so. It will improve the quality of the experience immensely, opening up the possibility of seeing smaller towns, the open country and the wonderful national parks. IMHO all these are astronomically superior to the cities.

Busy freeways in some of the bigger cities can be a bit daunting but otherwise there's nothing to fear.

dondo

Just to chuck it in the mix- what about using the railways for some legs/ Not sure how tight your timetable is but I used Amtrak to travel around the US (although it was 20 years ago!) and found the trains very comfy and you saw some great scenery en route. And on some routes wouldn't of thought there would necessarily be a huge amount of difference in the time it took vs. flying if you consider that the stations are normally in city centres so don't have to travel out to airports and be there an hour or 2 beforehand?

duchy

I often see "Oh if you can drive in the UK you can drive in the US"

And yes legally you can .......but some people simply don't want to !

I don't enjoy driving in the US - I've done it both in Ca and Florida and have come to the conclusion if I'm not enjoying it to the point it detracts from my holiday then it's a stupid thing to do.

The only part of the OP's trip that a car would make a difference to is the Keys - the rest of it is all very do-able without compromising anything.Even there it's still not out of the question. ersonally I think the double drive is a bit boring and even if I was going by car one way I'd fly back or vice versa.
Yes she will need to pick her hotels carefully with regards to proximity to public transport - and be aware of how Uber works but a bit of research never hurt anybody and often enhances the trip as the more you research the more choices pop up -sometimes things you may have missed with a more spontaneous trip.

Do you ready NEED a car on holiday might make a good standalone thread.

(I'm off on Wednesday -I'll be using amtrak, domestic air, local train transit -and possibly Uber for one journey although their is a suburban train option . Other places I've managed fine without a car include Utah, NYC, Boston, Phoenix, Vermont, Chicago, Cleveland, Vegas all of which have good public transit - Certain laces are more car-centric -I wouldn't fancy doing S Cal without a car -but then LA traffic is so vile -it wouldn't be my cup of tea anyway.)

callum9999

I agree about the car. Though I wouldn't dream of going to the US and not going to the national parks (in which you'd need a car for almost all of them bar Yosemite), nowhere they are going requires one.

There are also loads of buses and shuttles going between Miami and Key West.

katies_mum

Wow! lots more advice and great info thank you.

I can appreciate about driving and that yes, we will miss a lot but I am just on comfortable and the thought of driving on the other side of the road scares me to death and then that would ruin our holiday as I would be worried about it all the time.

We used Amtrak last year - San Diego to LA and it was really great. Would definitely consider this again if it worked for us.

In previous years we have visited NY and Chicago and used the local
buses and trains as we did last year when we traveled about, it has always worked very well for us. The best buses we have been on are in Chicago.

Has anyone traveled between Miami and Key West on a bus or coach with luggage? it would be nice to do the drive one way as long as I don`t have to do th driving!! lol.

Have a great holiday duchy.

duchy

It'll be like any other coach - luggage stashed in the luggage compartment underneath.

I actually think that cocooned in your car often means you interact less and see less especially in towns and cities and using public transport you get more of the local flavour and tend to talk more with the locals. This to me is as much of a holiday experience as seeing the tourist attractions.

There's plenty of coach tours to Yosemite for when the day comes you want to visit there.

katies_mum

Yosemite is on our list to do! there is always next year.

Last year we flew to Grand Canyon South on the tiny plane...now that was an experience (the flight I mean) the Grand Canyon South was amazing and so worth it.

I`m going to be buy this afternoon researching...

cubegame

katies_mum wrote: »

I can appreciate about driving and that yes, we will miss a lot but I am just on comfortable and the thought of driving on the other side of the road scares me to death and then that would ruin our holiday as I would be worried about it all the time.

You'll barely notice being on the other side of the road as you'll be on the other side of the car. Add in the fact it'll be an automatic (no problems having to get used to changing gear with the other hand) and the roads are so much wider and you'll be wondering what you were worried about within 30 minutes.


Then you can worry about where you want to go, rather than where the public transport can take you or how long the coach tour will let you look at something interesting before moving you on to the obligatory gift shop stop!

callum9999

duchy wrote: »

It'll be like any other coach - luggage stashed in the luggage compartment underneath.

I actually think that cocooned in your car often means you interact less and see less especially in towns and cities and using public transport you get more of the local flavour and tend to talk more with the locals. This to me is as much of a holiday experience as seeing the tourist attractions.

There's plenty of coach tours to Yosemite for when the day comes you want to visit there.

I would never do a coach tour to Yosemite - public transport is far too good to warrant that.

First time I took the Amtrak from San Francisco, second time I flew from Las Vegas to Stockton then took Amtrak the rest of the way.