Pacific Coast Highway advice

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

Oh and whatever you do do not leave your cars unattended with any items on display.

If you are doing any of the national parks (Yosemite, Sequoia, etc), do not leave food, drinks, or toiletries in the car - Bears can and do rip cars open to get to anything with a scent, even toothpaste.



http://www.killsometime.com/videos/9156/Bear-Mangles-Car-Left-With-Food-In-It

Even a hardtop won't stop a bear.

Thank you for all the wonderful advice so far.
Do you feel the budget I mentioned is sufficient (£2800pp) for travel, accomodation, car hire and spending money seems realistic or so do we need to manage expectations a little more?
I was hoping £1200ish for the trip then around £1600 as spends for 2-3 weeks.

Budget question is a difficult one, because it really depends on what you want in terms of accommodation etc. Good thing is that so much accommodation is available in the US, from budget to fantastic. Not sure if its just me but the last couple of years it seems to have got a bit more expensive for hotels over there - especially in big cities. The exchange rate is obviously one reason for this.

I think you need to be looking to budget £550-£700 for flights. From your £1200, that leaves £500-650 left for accomodation. If you go for 18 nights (for example) that's £28-36 each per night. That's not impossible, but you might need to up it a little - especially in the big cities. You still have car hire to go on top of that too.

Spending - £1600 over 18 days is around £90 a day which I think is reasonable Some days you'll spend more than others obviously, but the US is as cheap or expensive as you want it for eating and drinking. Park tickets will have a little dent in that budget.

A good thing to do is to make a spreadsheet or similar with a rough idea of an itinerary and price it up for this September - that'll give you an idea. Although the it's a bit late for the cheapest flights for this September - as well as early booking rates on some hotels - but again gives you an idea.

In terms of tips for the trip:

- If you want to Stay in Yosemite, you'll need to book early as accommodation there is very limited. It's all controlled by the National Parks Service too - it's not particularly cheap. There are towns just on the edge though which make it more doable.

- Hearst Castle is definitely worth a visit if you have time. It's not far off PCH about half way between San Fran and LA. Takes a couple of hours.

- Another poster said they found the LA-San Diego stretch uninspiring. I very much liked it - but that's the joy of travel! The drive itself is pretty mundane, but there's a few nice places along the way. San Clemente was a great lunch spot, Oceanside was lovely - spent a night there.

-San Diego is fantastic - allow time for Mission Bay, Coronado and Downtown!

Costs in California are much higher than the US average.

We spent a few days in LA on our way elsewhere, and then stayed again on our way home. We did this in order to see the Griffiths Observatory/Park, the Hollywood sign and Mulholland Drive trips, the Paramount Studios, Melrose Drive and Beverley Hills, and buy some clothes. Nothing was inexpensive.

Our hotel was $200 a night with breakfast and parking, so good value by LA standards. Meals were the same price as the UK but - and this is the killer - you have to factor in the obligatory 20% tip, so eating out is more expensive than in Europe. The jeans (Levis) were marginally cheaper than the price at Costco, but all the styles were on display so we bought some anyway.

The rental car business is a bit dodgy, with the salesman saying your preferred car isn't available or would you like an upgrade (at extra cost of course). You also have to pay extra for standard things like sat-nav, and the cost is out of all proportion to the actual car rental. If you are a confident driver, you might not need one; we used to live in the US and thought we'd be OK without one, but opted for it on our second visit three weeks later. (We'd actually been in Baja California -which is part of Mexico, where the driving standards are legendary, but we felt more at risk in LA than anywhere on our Mexican road trip).

I hope this doesn't sound too negative. Go anyway and enjoy your holiday, just be prepared to spend much more than you think. As for accommodation at $25 per night, even campsites cost more than that.