San Francisco - Las Vegas Road trip..

bafty_crastard

RichTeaBiscuit wrote: »

Hi,

There's quite a few of us road-tripers on here,

Bafty who'd you get your flights with? Thunderbird Lodge has vacancies for the date I have penciled in but I know time is against me to get things booked.

We're going with Delta. Booked them in January for the first 2 weeks in July. Unfortunately they're not direct - we go via Atlanta but only £1400 for the 4 of us. Everyone else was looking for at least £2000 which is crazy just for flights.

blindman

Just in case you need these.

Hotwire guide

Priceline guide

Murphys Thread

West Coast trip tips

Murphy_The_Cat

And if you go to RoadTripAmerica the trip that you (& I !) are planning comes up a few times as well -- lots and lots of good advice in there.

Nobjocki

One observation I would make is not bothering to book your hotels in advance.
The US is a country designed for car users so there are literally millions of cheap hotels and motels wherever you go - rather than tie yourself into certain hotels and having to do a certain amount of driving on each day I would recommend playing it by ear.
There will always be room at the inn.

Murphy_The_Cat

Nobjocki wrote: »

One observation I would make is not bothering to book your hotels in advance.

Are you sure ?
Quite a few people have said that the accomodation in Yosemite (& a few other places) can book up quite quickly - especially if there is a Public Holiday.
But for somewhere like Florida, I agree with you.

colmil

Whilst I would generally agree about not booking rooms first, we did a similar trip a few years ago, flew into San Francisco and everywhere was full, tried Sausilito, too, lovely little place north of SF, still nothing, ended up about 20 miles north in a grotty motel which stunk of smoke!

Bear in mind that you will have a long flight and tempers might fray, ours did!

We went the other way to most posters, SF down Highway 101, Santa Barbara, Monterey etc., then across to Palm Springs, then on to Las Vegas,whee we flew home.

A friend of mine did the same trip but had to go back to SF on a round trip, a waste of time and money!

I would suggest about 4/5 nights in Las Vegas, it it totally brilliant and you don't need to gamble, there is a lot to see!

I am really envious, I can still remember driving down the Strip in my people carrier, unforgettable!

Have a great time everybody!

jencan

Sounds like a great trip how did it turn out? Im disappointing to not see a follow up.
I make a similar trip annually and spend most of my time in Vegas.

JenCAN
Las Vegas Nevada

franklally

We made a similar trip this summer and had a great time.:j

To save time we took a couple of internal flights (los angeles - las vegas & las vegas - San Fran) it saved us a lot of time and they were very reasonably priced ($ was at an excellent rate then)

malid

Nobjocki wrote: »

One observation I would make is not bothering to book your hotels in advance.
The US is a country designed for car users so there are literally millions of cheap hotels and motels wherever you go - rather than tie yourself into certain hotels and having to do a certain amount of driving on each day I would recommend playing it by ear.
There will always be room at the inn.

My family and I have done similar trips to the one you're proposing many times since 1990. At the start, we always use to just plan a rough route and itinerary and turn up and check out motels; we always found somewhere. However, given the options opened up by the internet, for the least trips (we went in 2007 and hope to go August/Septembet this year) I have booked everything in advance. It's been great (time consuming but that's part of the excitement) checking out various places, looking at reviews and then looking at what site has the best price. I would recommend you do this. If you book through a site/agent that allows cancellations, you can always change your mind if you don't like the place or want to change your plans. We did in 2007 (we had planned 3 nights in Sedona - highly recommended - and there was a terrible thunderstorm and bad weather forecast for a couple of days - highly unusual - so we cancelled two nights and a planned jeep ride and moved on to Scottsdale early). I have contributed to lots of threads on this type of holiday so have a look in my posts. Have posted info on car hire too. Murphy the Cat has given you a link to some sites.

Enjoy - you will :j

By the way, when you arrive in the USA you will have to note where you are staying the first night so be warned if you're just going to take a chance on accommodation

funkyfin2000

we are doing a smiiliar trip in may this year!

cant wait!

Staying at th eblue butteryfly in at yosemite, mcnallys lodge in kernville and furnace creek ranch in death valley then las vegas, then palm springs, then san diego and finally LA!!!

Have it all planned and most places apart from vegas booked
!!!

Rich