California/Las Vegas Roadtrip Honeymoon

[Truckosaurus]

67Eleanor said:

...In Las Vegas head out to the LV Speedway. The Shelby factory is there and you can do a factory tour...

Not anymore, they've moved down to the bottom of The Strip near the Town Square outdoor mall thing (tours still take place though)

[Craikeybaby]

I'll certainly check that out!

[Craikeybaby]

Booked into the Georgian in Santa Monica, after my folks said they'd pay for some hotels as a wedding present! Result. We're now looking at Vegas hotels, we've pretty much narrowed it down to the Encore or Paris.

[Craikeybaby]

Booked a red room at the Paris Las Vegas, hopefully it'll be better than our last trip to Paris in France!

After a recommendation earlier in this thread I've also booked the Mammoth Creek Inn in Mammoth Lakes, so only two hotels left to book.

Still no signs of an upgrade being available on our flights.

We're also just back from our Scotland road trip, which proves that Here Maps isn't the best choice, we couldn't get on with it at all, so need to look for another solution. The old fashioned paper road atlas got used a lot, so will see if I can buy a Californian version.

[Blib]

I use my standard windscreen Tom Tom device while in the States. Of course, I had to buy the map. £40ish, iirc.

[BigBen]

I have taken to getting a 3 PAYG sim card as it includes US data (up to 1G or something for about a tenner) then using Google Maps

[Craikeybaby]

Blib said:

I use my standard windscreen Tom Tom device while in the States. Of course, I had to buy the map. £40ish, iirc.

Unfortunately I don't have one of those, as have always used either a road atlas, or my phone.

BigBen said:

I have taken to getting a 3 PAYG sim card as it includes US data (up to 1G or something for about a tenner) then using Google Maps

Thanks, I'll look into that as I should be able to unlock my iPhone by then.

[Craikeybaby]

Hopefully booking Yosemite and San Francisco hotels tonight, any reccomendations, especially for San Francisco?

[anonymous-user]

We liked The Tuscan down near the Wharf, within walking distance of Pier 39 (Disney-on-Sea) although that part of town isn't to everyone's taste.
Free wine tasting every evening at 6pm though

[acd80]

Craikeybaby said:

We're also just back from our Scotland road trip, which proves that Here Maps isn't the best choice, we couldn't get on with it at all, so need to look for another solution. The old fashioned paper road atlas got used a lot, so will see if I can buy a Californian version.

I was out in California in October for a work trip. I used this vent mount

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenu-Airframe-Portable-Car...

and this

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/copilot-premium-us...

I had zero issues with it - it was brilliant and you can use it offline so no data charges.

[Craikeybaby]

Crossflow Kid said:

We liked The Tuscan down near the Wharf, within walking distance of Pier 39 (Disney-on-Sea) although that part of town isn't to everyone's taste.
Free wine tasting every evening at 6pm though

Thanks, I'm guessing that area of town is lively. I've also been advised to look at the area between Union square and Chinatown.

[Craikeybaby]

acd80 said:

I was out in California in October for a work trip. I used this vent mount

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenu-Airframe-Portable-Car...

and this

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/copilot-premium-us...

I had zero issues with it - it was brilliant and you can use it offline so no data charges.

Thanks, that is what I was planning on using before I downloaded Here. Will try it on a trip in the UK first.

[anonymous-user]

Craikeybaby said:

Crossflow Kid said:

We liked The Tuscan down near the Wharf, within walking distance of Pier 39 (Disney-on-Sea) although that part of town isn't to everyone's taste.
Free wine tasting every evening at 6pm though

Thanks, I'm guessing that area of town is lively.

It seemed pretty busy during the day and early evening. When we got back from Alcatraz around 10pm it was pretty quiet though. Depends what you're after I guess? We had the Alcatraz night tour booked so The Tuscan was good for that too, plus being near the waterfront it was dead easy to navigate to on the bike.

[LarryLamb]

Craikeybaby said:

Hopefully booking Yosemite and San Francisco hotels tonight, any reccomendations, especially for San Francisco?

Cedar Lodge in El Portal is a good cheapish stop for Yosemite. About 40 minutes outside the central valley. Depends if you want to actually stay in the valley, your options are limited.

Can't help with San Francisco, live here, visit, but never stay :-)

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks, I think we'll be pushing our luck getting somewhere to stay in the park at this stage. Somewhere cheaper outside the park should help us up the budget for San Francisco.

[anonymous-user]

We stopped at Lake View Lodge in Lee Vining. Nothing fancy compared to Vegas or SF.
We had a little chalet, almost like a static caravan, for about $40. Cheap'n'cheerful but was actually a welcome break from normal hotels and motels. The only time we self-catered too. Got everything for a BBQ at the general store and cooked out on the verandah as the sun went down.
ETA Seem to recall it was less than an hour to Tioga Pass.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 23 April 13:39

[Craikeybaby]

We've booked the last two hotels for our trip! Wawona Hotel, for Yosemite and Hotel Triton in San Francisco.

Just got to buy a new case, pack and get married before we go now

[LarryLamb]

We were at the Wawona a couple of weeks back - not to stay, just visiting and getting the shuttle to Mariposa Grove. Looked great - really old fashoned looking. We'll consider staying there next time.

[Frio3535]

Stayed at the Wawona two days ago, very nice. A good hike up to the overlooking dome is 2min drive away. For me the Madonna Inn in San Louis Obispo is worth re-thinking hotel plans.
We are using a map app called co pilot, worth a look. Edit - think it was £7.

Edited by Frio3535 on Tuesday 28th April 00:37

[Craikeybaby]

That's all good to hear about the Wawona, all I was going off was a review in an older thread on here.

We would have liked to stay in San Luis Obispo, but with only a limited amount of time we had to skip some places out.

I've checked out CoPilot, it seems like the first country is free, but at £7 it probably worth testing it out here first.