Any tips for planning/booking a multi-centre US holiday?

hamcaster

Hi,

I'm getting married next year and planning a trip to the US for our honeymoon. We're hoping to go for two weeks and see New York, Vegas and LA while we're there (roughly 4 nights per place, which leaves a couple of days leeway for an extra night in places if the flight times mean we don't get the full 4 days there)

We're fairly flexible on dates, departure airports, which order we visit the cities etc. But when I try to research it online, I'm just getting overwhelmed! It seems the easiest way would be to just pick the departure airport, specific dates etc and go with it, but then I might be missing a good deal which would leave a couple of days later.

Has anyone booked a similar trip? How did you go about it?

richardw

Where in the UK are you?

When are you getting married?

Do you want to sunbathe in LA?

Murphy_The_Cat

how long is a piece of string ?

hamcaster

Sorry, I meant to include that in my post.

We live in the Highlands, so the only local airport is Inverness which has limited (and expensive) international flights. So we're flexible, since we can drive to any Scottish airport or fly from Inverness to Manchester (I think) or London.

We're getting married on 1st July 2017, so looking to fly out a few days later if possible.

We'll be doing the usual tourist stuff in LA - Universal Studios, Hollywood Walk of Fame, tour of the stars' neighbourhoods etc. A day of sunbathing would be nice too though!

bigadaj

You can put a multiple leg trip into skyscanner, varying the airports as you go, in terms of departure and potentially which order to do the trip in.

Americas a big place, are you convinced you want to do all these three in one go, it's a five hour flight from east to west coast. Spending the time in California might be an idea, though Vegas isn't too far, if be tempted to ditch New York if I were you.

John259

Have you considered visiting one of the national parks? They're wonderful places and might be more appropriate for a honeymoon than busy cities. You don't have to do any hiking to enjoy the parks, you can see a lot just by driving, taking the free shuttle buses, and a few very short walks (less strenuous than walking round a shopping mall).

Here's a link to a map which shows where they are:
http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/info/parks-map.gif

Murphy_The_Cat

hamcaster wrote: »

We're getting married on 1st July 2017, so looking to fly out a few days later if possible.

hamcaster
you may be a touch early to get the full choice of available flights. Maybe in a week or so, all of the airlines will have flights for the period that you're looking for.
A BA seatsale has just started this week

Using Aer Lingus to link via Dublin, BA to link via Heathrow & KLM to link via Amsterdam, opens up a huge choice for you.
Momondo is a very wide reaching flight search engine (but watch out for the meag long layovers !) & google flights is very user friendly.

When you get a few minutes, write down your 'must do's', 'really want to do's', 'want to do's' and 'would like to do's'
Once you've done that you'll have a much clearer idea of where abouts in America you'll be going to.

& start saving seriously now - unless the exchange rate moves to a more UK friendly direction, your credit card is going to get a reall battering !

Doshwaster

bigadaj wrote: »

You can put a multiple leg trip into skyscanner, varying the airports as you go, in terms of departure and potentially which order to do the trip in.

Alternatively, it can often be cheaper and more flexible to book the trip as an open jaw (i.e return from a different airport from which you arrived) and then sort out the internal flights independently using low cost carriers.

I would also stick to one coast then go back another time to do the "other side" or even some of the overlooked bits in the middle. Coast to coast flights in the US aren't fun (think of a 6 hour Ryanair flight!) so are best avoided.

Murphy_The_Cat

Doshwaster wrote: »

I would also stick to one coast then go back another time to do the "other side" or even some of the overlooked bits in the middle.

good advice -- its a big country with absolutely loads to see and do.

dawyldthing

Id get a return to New York then get internal flights from New York as its one of the main hubs. If you check Priceline , skyscanner or hotwire for flights you could get a good deal

dawyldthing

https://www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights/man/nyca/170606/170620/airfares-from-manchester-to-new-york-in-june-2017.html?adults=2&children=0&adultsv2=2&childrenv2=&infants=0&cabinclass=economy&rtn=1&preferdirects=false&outboundaltsenabled=false&inboundaltsenabled=false&qp_prevProvider=ins_month&qp_prevCurrency=GBP&qp_prevPrice=359#results 6th to 20th June flights Manchester to New York £360