We did a similar trip. San Francisco, L.A., then Vegas. Had a brilliant time but wouldn’t do it again. A lot of the places we visited are exciting through the novelty of going for the first time. I don’t think if we went again I’d enjoy it half as much. I’d advise you to do the lot. The other posters are right, Hollywood is a bit of a dump but the novelty of been on the walk of fame & all that is great. Have the morning there & go round Beverley Hills or up in the hills to see the sign or all the huge mansions & views later. It’s all a bit surreal seeing sights that you’ve only seen on films & TV series. Driving in L.A. is crazy. We were staying south of L.A. and it was mentally knackering going up to the north of the city. Motorways are 5 & 6 lanes wide at points & there’s no lane control. The safest place to be is often in what we would describe as the fast lane over here. And it’s the closeness of the junctions too, often 2 or 3 a mile in the city. But driving outside of the city centres is brilliant. The drives from San Francisco to L.A. & L.A. to Vegas are breathtaking at times. We did Disneyland there, as other posters suggested it’s not as good as Florida & you seem to queue a bit longer but we still had a good time there. I’d say it’s worth a day there if you’re into it like we are. Loved San Francisco, Alcatraz was great. We went in the day time & dropped on a nice, clear day so the boat trip was great. I’ve heard a few recommend going at night but the views & scenery were great & I’m happy we did what we did. Had clam chowder on the pier watching the seals. Did a bus tour of the city as well that also took you over the golden gate bridge. I’d recommend that. It’s pretty easy to walk round the city as well. Most of the touristy bits aren’t that far apart although there are some serious hills. I obviously knew there were some hills due to the cable cars & Lombard Street but I’ve never known a coastal city as hilly. If you fly to San Francisco get the train into the city from the airport. We got robbed blind by taxi. I think that was part of the reason we were happy to walk so much as well. It’s the strangest city I’ve ever been to weather wise as well. One minute you’re roasting in the sun & the next the cloud comes over & with the wind as well you’re shivering. Also be prepared to think you’ve landed in Beijing. I had no idea that 35%ish of the population is of Chinese origin. Couldn’t believe it when we landed in the airport, it felt like 95% of people in there were of East Asian appearance. Chinatown is incredible though, seems to go on for miles. We aren’t gamblers but enjoyed Vegas. There’s nowhere like it. Even just walking through the different hotels we found amazing. The place is huge. You don’t appreciate the size of it until you decide you want a coffee from the other side of the main strip & it takes you about 15 minutes to get there. I went right to the back of the MGM to see the famous arena for the boxing & it felt like I walked a mile. We did the Grand Canyon by helicopter & landed in it for lunch & champagne. Another brilliant experience, bit scary if you’ve never been in a helicopter like me but glad I did it. I don’t know whether we just got lucky or not but I was a bit hesitant to commit to booking the helicopter trip when talking to the tout (due to been scared rather than trying to haggle) and ended up getting it a good price. The other two couples on the same trip paid far more than us although I can’t remember the figures involved. Enjoy it, even if you never want to go back I bet you’ll have a great time just through the novelty & experience of it all. I’d recommend anyone goes there at least once just to see it
I’m going to have to take your word for it as we absolutely could not cope for a single second in that heat. It hit 40 degrees in Rome when we visited and that was bad enough when we could nip into air conditioned buildings. Death Valley can hit 49 degrees at that time of year.
I've been cold in Death Valley, genuinely cold. Furnace Creek Ranch, one of the few places you can stay inside the National Park, has a swimming pool heated by hot springs, it's more the temperature of a bath really, and when I got out and the water evaporated off me I was shivering. The room we had was cool, outside the bar they had this mist making thing that cooled you down, it was quite pleasant. It was August when we went and well into the 40s but it was much more comfortable than when I went to Rome in August. We drove east from Death Valley to Vegas, through Death Valley Junction and stopped in a place called Pahrump to get fuel (and Twinkies!). It's about 60 miles that leg of the journey, desert and rocks the whole way, temperature in the high 40s, sun beating down. We didn't pass a single car going in either direction the whole way, no houses, just a couple of buildings at Death Valley Junction. We did pass a naked man on a bike though.
We're going to try a Yankees match next month. Will be hard to stomach as a Blue Jays fan, but going for the game day experience . And hopefully a ginormous hot dog
Done it a quite few years ago. Depends what you like really, in regards to time spent where, and whether kids are involved or not. San Fran is great, spend more time there. LA plenty of places to go and do stuff. LV was ok, best for Grand Canyon etc. only so many slot machine you can do
Gosh the BBS crew have got some coin ,thinks it’s Scarborough for me ,good happy holidays for everyone,wherever you go
Hey mate, I work in travel and plan trips to California as part of my job. Have also lived in California and been lucky enough to travel the state a number of times. There's already some great advice on here, but wanted to add that the flights should not be more expensive returning from a different destination. You may be searching two singles, which would indeed be more expensive as they are on two separate tickets. Most websites have a 'multiple flights' option which allow you to search flights into one location and out of another. Would do Highway 1 north to south, definitely cycle the Golden gate bridge, stop in Napa, Yosemite, Carmel and Santa Barbara, not spend that long in LA - it really isn't worth it, drive to Vegas allowing you to stop in Death Valley etc en-route and fly home from Vegas if poss.
Hmm, just added random dates in August to Skyscanner and I'm getting similar costs for both. Into SFO on the 8th and out of LAX on the 22nd is £761 with Delta
It probably won't affect you even if you choose to go, but the King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are closed after the recent storm damaged the main road (180) that goes there. They currently expect to open parts between now and June - but that could overrun depending on how bad the damage is.
Into SFO 18th Aug from LBA and back on 31st Aug is £634. All above same but leaving from LAS is £952. (Was showing nearly £1200 yesterday but we’d included SFO to LAS flight at around £100 on the search too.)
Take some tunes … almost feel young watching this. Saw them at the Leadmill can’t 81 ish give or take a year
Is that storm damage caused by climate change caused by people flying all over the world to see stuff before it's destroyed by climate change?
Didn’t you say something about sitting next to someone on a flight back from Belfast once? Sure you’ve posted about Germany a couple of times too (think it might have been Fired’s thread about the volcanic ash grounding flights?)
Snow. Lots and lots of snow. And rain at the lower levels. The mountains areas are still below freezing with higher than normal snow levels for this time of year.
Vegas is Kwalerty btw. I've been 3 times in the last 12 years and will try to go back this summer. Anyone who says its like Blackpool is craaaaaaaaaazy
Ohh, I've been all over the place, mostly through work. In fact I flew to Belfast and back yesterday. "Hypocrite" does spring to mind, though I do tend to have holidays in the UK these days. It was more a mischievous comment really, though sooner or later, we're all going to have to take into consideration our travel emmissions, if we believe what they say about climate change.
