Just looking at the possibility of a fly drive to the States or Canada for the two of us. Probably have approx 2 weeks maybe a few days more. We normally arrange our own holidays, is it best to do this for a fly drive? Any recommendations on routes and accommodation? In terms of accommodation are campers more expensive? What accommodation would you recommend, we are not looking for anything too expensive but don't want to share in a hostel either so mid-range i guess. Any recommendations would be really appreciated.
Dunno about any of that, but out of the two destinations I've been to Vegas and wouldn't go back if you paid me. The entire place is designed from the ground up to extract as much money as possible from you.
But Vegas is a good start point for a fly/drive going to the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Zion National Park, Arches, Moab. Some fantastic driving roads in southern Utah like Route 12 (also a great bike touring road).
https://www.visitutah.com/articles/the-all-american-road-scenic-byway-12/
Only a couple of days drive from Yosemite via Death Valley as well.
But I agree not to plan on spending much time on the strip.
We did similar a few years back. Flew into SF, few days there. Drove to Yosemite, stayed about four nights. Drove over the Rockies to Death Valley, then on to Vegas. Then on to the Grand Canyon via the Boulder Dam. Took about three weeks in all, could easily have done the same trip in six weeks, loads to do.
Vegas is indeed a cess pit designed to extract money from the stupid and/or vulnerable. But, it's also bonkers and definitely worth seeing once for the sheer spectacle (just once, mind). We arrived late one evening, had a whole day and one further night there, left early the next day. That was enough.
Yup, the touristy bits of Vegas are grim imo but plenty of great stuff around it and a good start point for a road trip.
When are you thinking about going? Summer temperatures are not conducive to any sort of physical activity.
We did Utah, Colorado, New Mexico last year. Really good trip. Loads of variety in terrain, people, weather, food, activities. It's easy to drive around which is good as the distance can be huge. Easy enough to find motels that are nice enough. We didn't book much. Either did a phone search on the way or winged it on arrival. I wouldn't bother with a camper.
If you want to actually stay in Yosemite valley check out the accommodation options and probably book sooner rather than later. In fact, consider that for any of the better known national parks if in peak season.
As a couple we've been lucky enough to do:
A fly drive to Canada (Vancouver, Glacier National Park, Lake Louise & Moraine Lake, Kootenay National Park, Vancouver Island) with a hire car and mid range hotels. This we booked ourselves.
A fly drive to California (San Francisco, Sonoma / Napa valleys, Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Monterey) with an RV. This was through Trailfinders for the RV hire, flights and hotels bookending the trip. We booked campsites along the way ourselves.
Both trips were about 2 weeks. I would say hire car + hotels are great for visiting lots of stuff / attractions; the RV was great to be able to wake up, open the door and feel like you were 'in' nature. Driving a compact RV in towns in California was no bother really, so if I was doing it again there wouldn't be much between a car + hotels or a camper. Cost wise they probably work out similar, with worse mpg in a camper vs hire car, but lower cost of RV/ campsites against hotels. I loved Canada, but California would probably get my vote if we are fortunate to go back to N America again. In fact, Sonoma valley would definitely be on the list, you can hire bikes and cycle between vineyard tastings 😉
If you do rent an RV, try to find a local operator with good reviews, Cruise America had to be pushed hard to provide us with acceptable service, but we may have just been unlucky with the San Francisco branch.
I used these for inspiration (but not booking) https://www.bon-voyage.co.uk/destinations/california_holidays
Finally I would definitely recommend driving a big distance to a place, stay there for 2-3 days being a tourist and exploring, then drive another big distance to the next base. Don't try to drive every day staying in a different place each night, it will quickly get wearing. Best advice I was given by my brother who lives in BC.
Hope that helps!
We did LA out to Vegas via Joshua Tree, then up through Death Valley, then Napa, North California then worked our way down the coast.
We didn't stay in Vegas - just did a day there, which was enough for me. If we hadn't been close anyway I probably wouldn't have bothered.
Best bits for me were Napa Valley (beautiful and drank some great wine at Stag's Leap), staying in Marin County right on SF Bay and riding Repack, Yosemite, the Pacific Coast Highway and the interesting bits of LA.
One of the best trips we've done.
JP
Vegas is like Blackpool, but without the class.
We are here at the moment, spent a couple of days in Vegas, yes it's tacky and vulgar but you have to see it.
Take a cab to freemont Street in downtown Vegas I promise you that your jaw will drop it is mental.
Did a tour bus around yosemite today and it is fabulous.
Off to san fransisco tomorrow for 5 nights then driving down the west coast highway to los Angeles.
Don't take any notice of the Nay sayers on here form your own opinion.
Vegas is a good place to fly into. Car hire is perfectly set up, hotels are cheap.
Sure it's got all the crap but its a unique city in the mojave desert.
There are loads of things to see and do, as well as really impressive mountain biking just on the outskirts. The area is quite staggeringly beautiful too outside of the city.
Just don't spend too long on the strip.
We have to go in summer, and work around the heat.
I find the place fascinating.
As for national parks, worth a look for there are just as many interesting state parks too.
Thomas Cook get you to Vegas in just over 9.5 hours and that really opens up your options for Western USA.
Oh avoid the weekend, it's a better place in the week.
Chalk and cheese. Done both. If I was to swing one way, it would be Vegas and a big drive to Denver via the big hole in the ground and some mountains, with some green chilli sauce thrown in. No need for a camper - motels can be cheap, especially if you negotiate. I'd not book in advance either. Big miles though. Vegas is not what you'd ever expect. Go with an open mind. Oh, and watch your speed.
Canada tends to be more of an itinerary type place. Vancouver to Banff / Jasper etc.. If you ever meet anybody who says they have been to Vancouver, you can pretty much guess where else they went to that holiday. Still a great place - hot springs comes to mind.
Don't discount a drive out from Portland / Seattle as a third choice. Of the three classic big driving loop holidays, Portland every single time. Big beaches, odd towns, mountains......
We did Canada....
See roger Mellie point about distance/stopping
Car/hotel round Nova Scotia , enjoyed this most of the trip, some lovely bits and experiences , would do this again
Rv vanc/ rockies/vanc loop - deffo wouldn’t do this again but the icefields parkway is one of the most scenic drives ever ( we did get unlucky, snowed in for 4 days, toilet blocked thanks to previous users putting lots of items in it .. and in comparison to our uk Motorhome it was twice as big and ‘smaller’ with less facilities)
Vanc - which for me was ok at best
Car/hotels on vanc island - pretty good
It was our first big, preorganised holiday
Mistakes
- far far too much driving/ distance covered/ too many moving days
- prebooked means if you like it you have to move on too soon and if you don’t you’re stuck
- didn’t do enough own research (all aspects)
Tips
Beware rv mpg
Check site internet facilities
Rv stops/hotels where you can walk/bus to town(the bit with facilities)add flexibility
You can’t park an rv everywhere
See tip about distance/non drive days
In cities check parking availability/costs
In Canada you get internet and phone calls in tourist offices
The rv advantage is you can cook in (*check cooking facilities in uk we have rings, grill, oven, microwave, fridge etc our hire one was very basic)anywhere and much easier to do own food prep but you need to stay at rv sites and drive around in a large vehicle, also after a few wet and windy days an rv can get quite small and limited washing drying facilities, roads are huge so driving it was easy, check where you want to go/stay and see how it maps with rv sites( or sites you can train bus to cities etc), have a think about what facilities you want in it and check hire and running costs vs hotels/ eating out
the icefields parkway is one of the most scenic drives ever
Where as I thought it was very over rated and the approach through the highway of years was much more scenic. -how ever as you had snow I guess that helped with the scenic.... When I rode my bike through it it looked like a mix between a desolate waste land and a landfill site at ground level.
Been to Vegas wouldn't go back. Likewise LA
San Francisco , Yosemite and north up to mammoth etc were pretty cool and although close to San Francisco don't bypass Marin county.
We did SF, Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Monument valley, Grand Canyon then Vegas and flight home.
As other have said Evhas bizarre but good for 1-2 nights.
Yosemite stunning and good low and.hihj level hikes. Zion amazing congrats of green lushness and rock. Bryce just bizarre but stunning and v quiet. Grand Canyon v touristy at South Rim but still epic and 30 min hike down from rim crowds thin rapidly.
May good time to go - will be crazy hot in places in midsummer!
RV can be expensive, especially if doing a one-way hire. We take camping gear and hire a car (may have to pay for 1 extra bag on the flights, but far far outways cost of RV). Even hiring a car and motelling it is cheaper than an RV, so depends (1) what time of year you are going and (2) if you want to stay in the National Parks. July/August are blisteringly hot in the south, desert areas (Utah, Arizona, central California) so you don't really want to RV or camp those. Whereas Yosemite and other mountain ranges get snow from October through ~May/June.
With 2 weeks, a nice paced drive would be Vancouver Island and Vancouver city, but activities can be expensive - look at the Tofino/Ucluelet Wild pacific Trail, bear watching and whale watching from the channel, multiday kayaking etc.
If you are looking for summer, I can highly recommend Yellowstone and Grand Tetons for hiking, wildlife and geology. With 2 weeks you could add a few days at Glacier NP or whitewater rafting in Idaho.
Or just stick to the Utah canyon area and really see it well (do day hikes or look at backpacking permits, mountain biking in Moab etc). Flights in and out of Vegas are cheap and you can get out of the city quickly.
For the Utah area second half September is a good time to go. Post Labor Day holiday USA crowd thins out and temps are a bit lower. We've been in Vegas mid June and mid September. June daytime temps were uncomfortably hot but just nice in September.
Going before summer heat could work as well but watch road opening dates in the Sierras if you want to go to Yosemite. The Tioga Pass from the east into Yosemite can open late May.
So trendy to hate Vegas, but it is fascinating - especially coming to it from the weird country of Death Valley. Many years ago now, but we just spent a weekend there and most of that in the waterpark, which is brilliant. Also, as someone said, you get to stay in an amazing luxury hotel for the price of a cheap B&B. Experience it, once, I reckon. You don't have to throw your money away!
Time of year may be relevant, we went to Arizona in August a couple of years back, inspite of all the father in laws comments about it being a 'dry heat' it was baking and because it was so humid it was also storm season, rained heavily most days and when it wasn't raining the heat was oppressive.
I did however get to watch a storm on the other side of the Grand Canyon from the Arizona side, an unforgettable experience. Also, when it rained so hard we got stuck in a town (Bisbee) we'd parked outside the town brewery, so it wasn't a hard place to kill time. It was also fun to watch the road surface getting washed down the road. The only time I've ever seen a jacked up F350 make sense.
I've also road tripped in Canada a bit too, I have a hankering to go back and see more of Vancouver Island, but not just yet.
MartynS off of this parish and I did something like this years (like twenty years, eek) ago. Flew into San Francisco, spent a few days there, then picked up a hire car and did Kings Canyon/Sequoia, Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, meteor crater, Bryce Canyon, by which stage we were pretty natured-out so we headed to Vegas for a couple of nights. We didn't have any accommodation booked, just used motels and a couple of hostels.
Honeymoon in Utah: Flew to Vegas with 1 night booked at the mandalay bay and a hire car from the airport. Got in, chose a big car rather than a mustang, which was much better for camping out of, enjoyed the heck out of our room, quick swim in the morning, then off to Utah after stocking up with food, 2 weeks of holiday booze (You guys having a party?! - Erm... yes?) and a couple of camping bits
- mainly gas, which you can't fly with.
We flew over with camping gear and went where we fancied on the day. Pretty much bezzed it straight over to Moab, spent a few days mountain biking and took a trip down Wes****er Canyon in a row raft, then mooched back West via places and parks we wanted to explore, so we weren't finishing with a long, possibly stressful drive to make a flight. Final choice was a) spend an evening in Vegas or b) stop at Cedar Breaks for a walk and then cook up the last of our food watching the sun set over this:
If you've got limited time and you want an outdoors/natural wonder sort of trip, don't feel like you "should" spend any more time in Vegas than you want to. It's nicely placed to fly to and from, and the booze is cheaper than Utah.
FlyDrive – Yosemite/Las Vegas or Canada
Yes, sounds great!
As above: Vegas is a great jumping off point, and you can easily get a car or RV there. Driving RVs around there is pretty good; it's the right part of the world to take it tbh, with lots of big wide roads and other folks in an RV. You should check out your accommodation for when you're there, before booking flights though. National Parks fill up fast (and tbh some like Grand Canyon southern rim aren't all that for overnight stays) if you want to camp.
Canada is also a great choice, but you'll need to pick a place. West is great (Vancouver/ Calgary/ Banff/ etc), but like Arizona can get very busy in the summer, so check accommodation on possible routes. It's probably not as well suited to a large RV as around Vegas/ California, but you could totally manage with a smaller one.
A very different option would be to fly to Montreal (say) and drive east to New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland. It's probably less immediately arresting, but an amazing trip.
We've done Highway 101 which was cool. Went from Portland all the way down to Laguna Beach. We prebooked everything on booking.com and made sure everything was cancellable, just in case. Took two weeks with nice stops in Newport (Oregon Aquarium), Klamath, Fort Bragg (railway), San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Solvang.
In a few weeks we're going back to do the top part of the 101 up from Newport to Seattle, few days in whistler and some time on Vancouver island. Again everything is prebooked, but amendable. Cannot wait.
Have you thought about Hawaii? It's all amazingly beautiful, hire a jeep if yer on big island - all the tourists do. Fly into LAX, potter about for a few days, go on to Kona or Maui. Sheraton in Kona is superb. If you stay for part of a week, its MUCH cheaper than arriving/departing on a saturday. Oahu/Honolulu is ok, but really its just a mini LA. The Modern just off waikiki beach is stunning, cripplingly expensive for cash, but we got it cheap as chips though avios - again not staying for a full week was the key. Fly back the same way so the stupendous time differences don't wreck you.
Something I've noticed recently is that food and accommodation in the US has become really quite expensive, to the point that we carefully considered hiring an RV this time. I still think hotels are marginally cheaper, but only just. It used to be different, particularly with one way hire.
(btw we do all this with three kids, (5, 4 & 1) in tow, yes we are mad)
So trendy to hate Vegas, but it is fascinating – especially coming to it from the weird country of Death Valley.
It is fascinating Dez, but for me, for all the wrong reasons.
We did a bus trip from Phoenix to Vegas. (Amtrak and Greyhound Ticket, about £400 for the month).
The trip was amazing. All the clichés you can imagine (young girl running away from home with all her possessions in a bin bag, Route 66, all the towns I remembered from road movies and westerns, weird enough to make a lasting impression, so many stories.
But Vegas was just nasty.
Being offered prostitutes and cocaine everytime you get a cab grows old very quickly.
The casinos are just bigger American versions of UK betting shops, full of sad, desperate addicts and wide eyed tourists.
The best thing about the place, as said, was the waterpark and a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon, both good value and well worth the effort.
