USA : West coast/California fly/drive suggestions?

[tangerine_sedge]

I've promised the family a holiday next year along the West coast of the USA, but I'm struggling to find exactly what I want in the various brochures that I've got from the travel agents.

I'm looking for a planned holiday (flights/car/route/pre-booked hotels) starting in San Francisco and ending in LA. Ideally this would be a 10-12 day trip, allowing time in San Francisco and LA to see the sights/visit amusement parks etc.

I have no intention of 'doing' Las Vegas, as I have been to Blackpool and refuse to accept that anywhere else in the world can be more glitzy than the golden mile. Also, I've driven through Cheddar gorge and similarly have no desire to visit the grand canyon.

Can anyone who's bought a similar 'package' recommend the company they used? Am I best off going to an independent travel agency and getting them to put me a trip together?

Finally, I know that it's probably better to organise and plan this myself, but laziness and the desire not to book several nights in the Bates Motel is sending me towards a pre-packaged tour in the first instance.


TLDR;

Fly/drive
California / Pacific coast
San Franciso -> LA
10-12 days
Budget ~£8k <-- st! that's a lot of money
4 people (2 adults, 2 teenagers)

[Roo]

I've always just done everything myself. Flights/car/hotels. It's part of the fun.

I can't see why you wouldn't want to see Vegas and Grand Canyon

[MuffDaddy]

We used Trailfinders for flights, so long as you have either a car or a hotel for each day you get a good discount.

This year we did a family trip La Jolla > Oxnard > Monterey > San Fran

And a boys trip La Jolla > San Diego > Palm Springs (avoid) > Santa Barbara > Santa Monica

Both were fantastic although I'm not a massive San Fran fan. I'll be doing San Fran to La Jolla on my own in November. Possibly on a Harley.

[anonymous-user]

tangerine_sedge said:

Am I best off going to an independent travel agency and getting them to put me a trip together?

Finally, I know that it's probably better to organise and plan this myself, but laziness and the desire not to book several nights in the Bates Motel is sending me towards a pre-packaged tour

We did a two week bike tour around that area which included the PCH from San Francsico to LA.
It ain't that far to be honest and unless you like just sitting around there isn't a great deal to actually do between the two cities apart from admire the view. Laguna Seca is just outside Monterey though....worth seeing what's going on. Ditto the Hollywood Bowl for LA.
In terms of planning, I booked everything independently including the Harley.
A small two-man outfit just off the Strip in Vegas charged us $900 for unlimited mileage and no geographical limits over two weeks, against the big franchised operators like Eagle Riders who wanted literally three times that.
For the hotels and motels I got on to Booking.com (and checked out Trip Advisor) and sought out decent enough places that I'd have no qualms about staying at again. We had a mixture of cheapy motels, top end executive hotels and even a cabin in the woods in Yosemite. I like using booking.com as they operate a reservation policy, as opposed to payment upfront, often with as short a cancellation period as 24hrs so if your plans do change you can cancel for free.
Yes there was a risk we were booking a dump, but if it turned out thus at least we wouldn't have a tour company to get angry with and could deal direct with the establishment. I found self-booking far more satisfying as I got to tailor every last detail and saved a wad of a cash in the process. A lot of places will have specials going on (even if pre-booking) that often makes them cheaper per night than going through an agent. We got a night in The Luxor for $44 for example.
I'd say do a bit of research, find out where you want to go and what you want to do then book it all yourself.
It's your holiday, not the tour operator's.

[tangerine_sedge]

Buggerit! I was half-hoping that someone could recommend a decent pre-packaged job that would suit my lazy nature. My assumption that booking it yourself would be cheaper has been proved true.

Oh well! It looks like I'll have to spend a few days with Google to get the job jobbed...

[jackal]

Hi, i did this last year, 2 weeks with the kids, sf to sf including monterey, santa barb, santa monica, san diego, death valley, palm springs, yosemite ...

We wanted separate rooms or interconnecting rooms in each hotel and trailfinders and the like are useless for this. It was much easier to find places myself using google and tripadvisor.

I can pass on hotel recommendations if you like. We had an incredible time and so will you.

[tangerine_sedge]

Roo said:

I've always just done everything myself. Flights/car/hotels. It's part of the fun.

I can't see why you wouldn't want to see Vegas and Grand Canyon

As stated, I've spent a night in Blackpool and visited Cheddar Gorge. I can't believe our colonial cousins could better that(*)!


(*) Note : I don't want to cram too much into one trip, and will use these as bargaining chips for going back at some time in the future

[jackal]

And yeah, give vegas a miss and GC is a long long way out

[tangerine_sedge]

jackal said:

Hi, i did this last year, 2 weeks with the kids, sf to sf including monterey, santa barb, santa monica, san diego, death valley, palm springs, yosemite ...

We wanted separate rooms or interconnecting rooms in each hotel and trailfinders and the like are useless for this. It was much easier to find places myself using google and tripadvisor.

I can pass on hotel recommendations if you like. We had an incredible time and so will you.

Jackal, I'd appreciate some recommendations - please post them here (for others to share) or send me an IM/members email or whatever it's called.

TIA.

[jackal]

On ipad right now so tricky but send me a mail and ill get to it soon

[Roo]

Aaah, see the reasoning behind missing Vegas and Grand Canyon.

Vegas isn't that far from LA though.

[mike80]

We're doing LA to Santa Barbara to Monterey to SF in just over three weeks. I will let you know how it goes!

Booked everything separately.

[g35x]

We just did San Fran -> LA last week, 5 day trip.

Flew into San Fran, stay at Big Sur the first night in a place called Ventana Inn, amazing scenery and driving roads in that neck of the woods so ensure you leave plenty of time to make lots of stops. You'll be stopping every few mins to take pictures on HWY#1 so the drive takes 2-3 times longer than you think.

We went on from there to a Paso Robles which is a great town and stayed at a place called Hotel Cheval which was awesome. That's a wine region with maybe 100+ vineyards to visit .. great place to spend a day.

Then we went onto Santa Barbara and stayed at Bacara which is a resort style place. Didn't think Bacara was good value for money but it was reasonably nice overall. Santa Barbara itself though was great, real vibrant bar scene and a great restaurant called 'Lark'.

[anonymous-user]

mike80 said:

We're doing LA to Santa Barbara to Monterey to SF in just over three weeks. I will let you know how it goes!

That's not really very far for three weeks. Or are you taking some leisurely stop overs?

[Roo]

Crossflow Kid said:

mike80 said:

We're doing LA to Santa Barbara to Monterey to SF in just over three weeks. I will let you know how it goes!

That's not really very far for three weeks. Or are you taking some leisurely stop overs?

I assume he means in three weeks time, not that it's going to take him three weeks.

Unless he's doing it by push bike.

[mike80]

Haha, we're going in just over 3 weeks, sadly not for 3 weeks...

[anonymous-user]

[Matt Harper]

Crossflow Kid said:

Motorbikey stuff.

You wore chaps and bandanas, didn't you - and gave the low wave. You did, didn't you....

[happygoron]

Did similar a few years back. If I recall correctly our itinery was San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Monterey, highway one, Los Angeles (Disney and Universal). All were good except la isn't the nicest. Universal Studios was though. Booked all through virgin, with a bit of research ourselves. May be worth giving them a call.

[anonymous-user]

Matt Harper said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Motorbikey stuff.

You wore chaps and bandanas, didn't you - and gave the low wave. You did, didn't you....

No and no, did not - and no. No, didn't.
Sorry.