[Closed] california holidays - Fly + drive

We did it about 10years ago. We booked in San Fran (it's where we flew to), and Yosemite (accommodation gets booked up) The rest of it we made up as we went along. Dunno if we we lucky, but it was all really relaxed, never struggled to find anywhere to stay, and that was pre-mobile internet.

Best Holiday we ever had 🙂

I'd fly to SF, bugger about up there for a bit (Yosemite etc) and drive down to LA on highway 1 - more opportunity for spotting the nice bits of coast as you're on the other side of the road (oh, and veering off the road and crashing to your doom)

Then fly home from LAX - don't think I'd do the trip both ways

Inland in the big sur area looks nice - wish we'd stayed there for a few days

(Virgin lets you take a bike for free - and I bloody hate BA)

America still loves discount coupons. If you pull into rest areas(motorway services) you can pick up some books and save some money. Otherwise get to know the Motel chains like Howard Johnson, Days Inn and the like, there are plenty of places. Just book on the web as you go, so a netbook/tablet/smartphone will be your friend.

just in the process of looking at booking my holidays for june/july

For this year or next? I ask because we were looking at something very similar for this year: fly to San Francisco, see relatives and then go driving to see the sites, however, the cost of the flights are now very steep.

Manchester to San Francisco changing at Heathrow is coming in a £1100 per person, compared to £700 per person if booking 6 months+ in advance. Crap exchange rate + booking 'late' = expensive flights.

Thinking of postponing now until next Easter.

I did LA up to san fran and onto lake tahoe and back down via Yosemite and Death Valley and Vegas a few years ago and was the best holiday I've ever done. I loved the costal drive myslef.

Def book yosemite and sf in advance as said above. You can Just wing the rest. You can pick up booklets in Denny's dinner with local motel offers. Also book your Alcatraz visit in advance if you know your sf days.

If you are biking make sure Tahoe is on your list. Some stunning trails around there. Also North Star bike park is worth a look.

how hard will looking for accomodation on the hoof be

It's a piece of cake in the US, unless you are looking for accommodation inside national parks etc. I don't think I've ever booked a hotel in the US apart from at airports, but then again I'm usually at either end of the season not in the middle. America is just about the easiest place in the world for spontaneous road trips I reckon.

If you have time you may find it cheaper (and more fun!) to fly to the mid-west and drive. I checked flights to Chicago in June/July a month or two back, and they were £600 ish.

Tips for the trip:

Everyone wants to go to the big name places, Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon etc etc, and they will be busy. However the entire country is packed with amazing stuff, you don't need to visit the hotspots. Just driving about on normal roads in some places is an amazing experience. Browse www.nps.gov and the relevant state websites ( http://www.parks.ca.gov/ for state parks in CA for instance) and look for places to go. Also buy the Rough Guide to the SW USA.

Bryce Canyon, Canyon du Chelly, Zion Canyon, Badlands, Arches, monument valley etc etc. I'd also strongly recommend packing (or buying when you are there, it's cheap) lightweight camping gear. Almost all state/national parks have camping, and it's often really nice woodsy stuff rather than a field. Much better being by a campfire than in a motel.

i can book a flight and a car for 3 weeks on those days and leave at 9am on the monday and return at 10pm on the sunday for 950 per person which i thought was reasonable- aberdeen to LAX swapping at LHR. SF bumps the price up alot and doing SF to LAX one way + car hire adds a **** load.

I have friends i want to meet in bakersfield hence why i want to go inland - but its a bit of a suburbia dump though and i do want to spend time on the coast as well.

ive been to cali before with work and driven around a significant part of the state -

the plan was to aquire a new tent from REI or the like while we were there both to bring home and to use while we were out there for camping/ hiking aboutin national parks - how ever not done much research into that yet - i had to wait till i had my holidays confirmed, due to the nature of my work being adhoc until they were signed off by the boss i was bookign nowt.

I flew to LA, hired car, drove E and N stopping to see the sights. If I did it again I'd try to price seeing LA a day or two, then internal flight to (say) Palm Springs and hire car there. And doing the return that way. Saw Palm Springs & Mt San Jacinto, Joshua Tree, Bryce & Grand Canyons, lots more, did some lovely walking.

We've got this:

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And it's bloody brillant. And fits in a bag to get home on the plane.

I'm surprised at the costs of the flights, I've flown from Edinburgh to Portland in September for the last five years and it's seldom been more than £600.

My brother stayed in LA for a spell, I didn't like it much at all. San Francisco is a much friendlier place.

Stay at the Bear Valley Inn in Olema just north of the city in the PointReyes National Park. Loads of good beach and trail walks. hang out in Point Reyes Station.

I'd drive up the coast to the Oregon State line and check out the Redwoods. It may be another 200 miles. Check out Point Arena and Mendecino on the way. Go and check out Crater Lake too.

Tahoe isn't far away.

We did it over Christmas.

Stayed in LA for two weeks then drove down to San Diego.

Found getting suitable accommodation surprisingly hard (but we did have specific requirements as we travelled with young children). But if you are not fussy, I reckon it will be a doddle getting places to stay.

We found that by saying we were from out of town we got 'local' discount in supermarkets (they all seem to do loyalty schemes so if you are a local and not on their scheme you pay more, but they allow us Jonny-foreigners the same local discounts).

Found the highways great fun - especially the 'two or more' lanes with limited entrance exit points.

If you need anything like children's car seats, look at buying them from Amazon out there if you can - hiring one for 2 weeks costs more than buying one outright!

Have a look at car hire away from the airport as well. Sometimes you get large variations depending on locality of the branch you use - even with the same companies.
I'd say book your key destinations and wing the rest. I've roadtripped and just having a netbook meant we could plan a couple of days in advance depending on how we felt / diversions / new things to see. Just using Google to see what hotels were close to where we wanted to be and booking through websites was effective. It helps if you have a relaxed view on accommodation and know that some places are just night stops. Saying that - the US hotel/motel room standards are way higher. Much better equipped and much bigger.
Forgot to add - if you have a TomTom etc over here, see whether you can load the USA maps on it. Can be cheaper than buying / renting.

Internal flights are pretty cheap too. Nothing stopping you hopping on a shuttle to miss a bit of boring highway driving.

What about flying into LA, then a couple of days later flying up to Vegas? A night here and a car trip to Grand Canyon if you like walking etc. - would deffo recommend planning ahead for that one though.

absolute piece of pi** - get yourself a lonely planet guide.

We've done it a few times, without doubt the best holidays we've ever done

dont think we could be any more relaxed towards hotels , couch surfing with randoms on our way round nz and oz. - our only stipulation is that it needs to be reasonably clean.

Id rather drive than fly- i fly ALOT with work and i see alot of airports and seat backs. I'm there to relax and airports and flying does not relax me. - ive driven a fair bit in the states - california and houston , LA at rush hour was a doddle compared to houston.

I already know about the sat nav - last time i hired a car for work the sat nav for 2 weeks cost more than the car hire , but due to policy i couldnt expense the buying of a sat nav despite it being half the price of a hire, but it then became an asset or a taxable benifit and that wasnt allowed or some bullshit.

we are trying to stay away from vegas tbh - it holds no attraction for us.

Have a look at car hire away from the airport as well. Sometimes you get large variations depending on locality of the branch you use - even with the same companies.

Beware this. I was convinced airport car hire would be a lot more expensive than hire in small town local destination. It wasn't, it was about half the price.

Internal flights have never been cheap when I've looked.

For car seats etc - Walmart 🙂

Saying that - the US hotel/motel room standards are way higher

Not IME. At least, not at the budget end of the market. If you have hotel points from work or something you can get some nice business people hotels though. And some shite ones... Hampton Inn and Suites in Des Moines, Iowa is really nice - helpful tip for you 🙂

Also I much prefer Rough Guide to Lonely Planet.

SFO is WAAAAY nicer than LAX for flights, IMO.

Also, the area around LA is just a mass of freeways, as far as the eye can see. Hardly inspiring! So, go to Nor-Cal, and/or head immediately south from LA, getting out of town as fast as you can. (Newport Beach was rather nice for lunch)

ill go double check the prices on SFO , as the airport HAS to be better than LA..... might be worth a small premium !

Almost ANY airport is better than LAX, IME. Even the BA F-Lounge is mediocre at best!

We pre-booked most, but halfway thru the vacation phoned up and rearranged all the places. Still stayed at the same places, just on different nights to the original intention.

Think on the ESTA immigration form you need some destination address? So pre-booking the first arrival night helps (but you'd probably want that and maybe the last night sorted anyway).

nope SFO deals are stupidly priced - 1300+PP at expedia and 2100 + PP on BA for flights and car

Are you looking to fly from aberdeen? Regional airports to transatlantic is usually very expensive. Drive to London.

yes im looking to fly from aberdeen

Its cheaper for me to fly to london and back both time and car/parking costs.

although i dont mind driving - this country sucks at roads

So how much are flights from Heathrow?

Santa Cruz as a place to ride and run is fantastic. Run on West Coast Drive and watch the surfers. Ride in Wilder National Park, or further out at Demo Forest for some great trails.

bout 60 quid less PP

Really? So still over a grand each per person?

Watching Trail-Rat's post with interest as we too have been thinking of doing a simialr thing.
Anyone know California rules on childseats and height/weight/age?

found answer here http://www.chp.ca.gov/community/safeseat.html
My 2 boys will be OK with std seatbelts

no.

Aberdeen london LAX + car hire for 3 weeks = 950 pp

london LAX + car for 3 weeks = 890 pp

london san fran is 979 per person - still have to get to london though.

hmmm for some reason - and i swear it wasnt this morning but aberdeen SFO and a compact car is 1001 ....

my prices above are for an intermediate.

what you think - dont really want a compact but am i better hiring a compact and upgrading at the desk / haggling for a deal with the woman whos trying to upsell - or just hire an intermediate at point of booking ? often with work i get upgraded as a matter of course as a frequent hirer with avis.

i want to keep our luggage out of sight in the boot you see.

hmmm for some reason - and i swear it wasnt this morning but aberdeen SFO and a compact car is 1001 ....

Check your cookies. Flight booking companies are cheeky like that...

yeah yeha - but normally the prices go up NOT DOWN !

at 1001 ill likely book it and try bully boy tactics to get upgraded to an intermediate.

although i best run the change of plan via the mrs - and then phone BA and see what the crack is with good flights to book and use my points to get WT+ for at least the return leg.....flying over night on the way home and landing in aberdeen at 21:50 on sunday night - going to work on the monday....

Oh.. car hire included, I see.

For a trip of that duration, try buying car hire from a US website, don't select the CDW and then buy CDW cover from www.insurance4carhire.com. CDW doubles the cost of car hire almost.

whne i first costed this trip i used the big 4 rentals (im keeping it simple for stupid) us websites and the car cost nearly as much as the flights - these packages do on the surface anyway seem to be the cheapest way to cover all my bases with the least hassle.

then buy my sat nav.

was going to hire an RV but very restrictive when it comes to national parks and going into cities - although we are not city people theres something special about visiting certain cities.

We did a similar trip last September... all we booked in advance was the flights to San Diego, and out of San Francisco - accomodation etc. we just turned up, or booked online a day in advance.

I took a small Netbook with me, so that we could book/research hotels a day or two in advance whilst on the road if we thought it necessary (wifi is available in most places).. booking.com is highly recommended for this.

Also booked our hire car through rentalcars.com - which we booked whilst we were there using wifi in the Avis office at San Diego airport - Avis wanted to charge nearly £1,000, compared to the price offered by rentalcars.com.

Some places which are busy in high season (LA, Yosemite etc) might require a bit of forward planning, but generally, if you dont mind having to drive round once you arrive somewhere in order to get a room, then you'll be OK. Often, the best places you stay, are the ones you just happen upon by accident!

If you want any advice on specific hotels/motels that we stayed in, then just pop me an email, and I'd be happy to help.

Hols.

Some state/national parks offer 'back country' camping btw, which is ace 🙂

yeah thats definantly up our street.

some running and some hiking in the back country.

taking minimal with me as well as i plan to stock up on my hiking gear while im out there - need a new tent as the last one (after being used every day for 6 months ) has gone porous - even fabsil didnt help and the alu poles have cracked/split/beenrepaired in several places. the only issue is ill need to make sure its rain proof - the big agnes (american brand) tent we had at dusk till dawn was about as waterproof as a newspaper hat.

and some new jeans - america seems to be the only place i can find reasonable priced decent quality 32waist 34 leg jeans.

So wait - how many are going?

I'd get Marmot tents every time. Brilliant and light, and properly designed too. A lot of American ones only have a fly over the top part of the tent, allowing lots of splashing from the ground.

I'd look at booking through Trailfinders - last year we paid £3k for two of us, including BA flights, 14 days car hire, and 14 days of 3-4 star hotels in Vegas, SF, Yosemite, Grand Canyon etc.

Looked at booking myself through Expedia etc and couldn't get close.

Also I'd definitely book Death Valley accomodation early. On the evening we arrived (pre-booked), another couple arrived without pre-booking. Hotel was booked up so the other couple had to move on. Next hotel with accomodation was 50 miles away on unlit desert roads...

just me and the mrs.

no little rats yet.

Still seems expensive - hiring an SUV?

We used Holiday Autos UK for rental - they offer a higher level of insurance than buying directly from the Hirer (Alamo in our case) which meant we didn't need to buy additional CDW insurance or anything.

We also bought it via Quidco so got cashback...

29 Nov 12 holiday autos £846.56 – £101.59 Paid 10 Jan 13

Oh, just checked Expedia for late June -> July - got over £900 for the flights alone, so I guess you are getting a good deal!

TR, BA have always been excellent for me when I've rung up and said, "I want to book WT+ flights both ways, and then use miles to upgrade. What's the best flight to do that on?"

If you're a BAEC member, they seem to treat it as a personal challenge to make sure they get you the best deal as well! 🙂

Interesting thread as we are doing something similar this summer as well. Flying into SFO and returning from SEA. Contrary to the popular choices we are starting in the south and driving north. Only thing booked so far are the flights. Still waiting to see where we want to go / see while we are there before we look at where we might stay. Leaning towards having three or 4 "base camps" from which we do the sight seeing / experiences and then just do a couple of bigger drives on a fewer days. Already beginning to think we could be coming back again in a year or two as we will have found some amazing places that we feel we need to visit again / spend more time at.

going to go see trailfinders on saturday afternoon to explore options.

aiming to book by monday anyway