California/Las Vegas Roadtrip Honeymoon

[Frio3535]

£7 sounds like a fair bit but from my perspective the map is on my girlfriends iPhone and thus she is in charge of navigating which allows me to drive and take in as much as her. It's found us some great restaurants we would otherwise have missed and it's really easy to change routes/destinations/search for things if you're feeling spontaneous. It's enhanced our trip so far and its paid back its £7.

That said it depends on your proposed route, if you're on the main roads you could get away with anything.

You're not missing out passing by SLO, we stayed for the hotel and used it as a base for the surrounding area.

Edited by Frio3535 on Tuesday 28th April 16:47

[piers1]

I am hoping for some suggestions please...

We are flying with Virgin, cannot book flights until September so the planning is starting...

So route thoughts,

Fly into Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fransisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Hollywood, back to Vegas.

Two or three weeks? Two weeks and reduce visits, or three weeks and possibly get "overdose" of new things but get more time in each for relaxing.

We are going with two sons, 12 and 15 years old in August, using a big SUV.

Really want to see everything, but don't want to overdo it either, really do need a nice holiday before the boys get too big.

Appreciate any thoughts, the two/three week question is really the big one at this stage and can build from there once flights are booked.

TIA

[Matt..]

I think it somewhat depends on your kids and how you think they'll get on. That route will have a fair amount of outdoorsy days and if you're into hiking (even just short ones) then I think you could easily do the 3 weeks. At least there aren't too many big drives.

For the full route you'll want to add somewhere between Death Valley and Yosemite though. Eg. Mammoth lakes.

If you do the full route you might want too look at Zion too. It's got some fun hikes (eg. The narrows one up a river).

[Craikeybaby]

We were aiming for 2 weeks, but even after cutting off Lake Tahoe and the Grand Canyon we needed to add a few extra days on, but still wish we could spend a few extra days, especially in Mammoth Lakes.

[PurpleTurtle]

I've travelled quite extensively in California and visited Las Vegas a few times, including 3 nights on honeymoon.

I won't bore with the great things to do as you can just read the thread, but what I would advise against is staying at The Flamingo in Vegas.

My parents had stayed there many times in the 90's and spoke highly of it, and whilst the room was nice, the pool area has since they stayed been transformed into some godawful spring-break style 'DJ pool' full of jocks chucking American footballs about, DJ's playing the ste-est of ste R'n'B at ear bleeding volume all day and only having piss-poor Bud Lite or Miller Lite to drink. Absolutely abysmal place to stay, if like us you just wanted to laze by a quiet pool in the sun.

[Blib]

I'm currently sitting in the terminal at Boulder City. We've just completed a tour consisting of fan aircraft light to the point edge of the western end of the canyon, overflying the Hoover dam. Then a helicopter flight down to the floor of the canyon. Next a short boat ride up the Corado river before flying up out of the canyon to a waiting bus that took us to the Skywalk.

A great trip with Papillon helicopters. I highly recommend it. Although, the Skywalk wasn't as spectacular as I had expected and with hindsight, I would have given it a miss

Edited by Blib on Sunday 12th July 21:02

[Craikeybaby]

Just over a month to go now! In between all the wedding preparations I'm getting quite excited about this trip. Unfortunately I haven't been able to use my Virgin flying club points to book an upgrade yet, but I'm checking for availability a couple of times a day.

[piers1]

This prompted me....

Re Vegas hotels...I am going with my wife and young teenage two boys, anyone recommend a nice hotel? They all look fantastic with rave reviews, but personal experience is always good

Pool especially

[Blib]

The Venetian has several good pools to choose from. New York, New York has one main pool, with very little shade and booming 'house' (?) music blaring out incessantly. Anyone would think that the NYNY management was trying to drive the punters back into the casino.

[Truckosaurus]

The thing to check if taking teenagers is what restrictions there are on the pools at your hotel, as a lot of the strip places are turning their nicer pools into dayclubs and you either have to pay $$$ to get in and/or there is a 21 age limit.

Even lower tier places like the Flaming-O now charge to use the pool (and >21 only) pretty much everyday in the summer.

[Blib]

Master Blib is 13 and was allowed in the pools at both The Venetian and NYNY a couple of weeks ago.

Pool entry was free at both locations too.

[Craikeybaby]

This time in two weeks we'll be on the plane!

Any last minute tips from people who have been over there recently?

Still not upgrade available from Virgin though.

[XFDreamer]

I just got married in Vegas. It was fantastic!

We had a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon with Papillon, well worth the expense.

If you fancy a decent steak without breaking the bank try Ruth's Chris Steak House at Harrah's Casino. We mentioned we had just got wed and they really looked after us with free Champagne and desserts.

Have fun!

[Craikeybaby]

XFDreamer said:

I just got married in Vegas. It was fantastic!

We had a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon with Papillon, well worth the expense.

If you fancy a decent steak without breaking the bank try Ruth's Chris Steak House at Harrah's Casino. We mentioned we had just got wed and they really looked after us with free Champagne and desserts.

Have fun!

Congratulations!

[XFDreamer]

Craikeybaby said:

XFDreamer said:

I just got married in Vegas. It was fantastic!

We had a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon with Papillon, well worth the expense.

If you fancy a decent steak without breaking the bank try Ruth's Chris Steak House at Harrah's Casino. We mentioned we had just got wed and they really looked after us with free Champagne and desserts.

Have fun!

Congratulations!

Thank you.

[RAClNG SNAKE]

Is a 7 day West coast trip worth it?
We only have a week available which is a worry because our last trip to the US was for 14 nights and that seemed about right given the length of the flights.

[David Beer]

The shortest I have done was 10 days, it was my first to the west, nearly 20 years ago. I guess it depends on flight costs etc, personally any time in the west is worth it. Did this summer for four weeks, booked this Xmas and next summer, so you can see I like the west!

[LarryLamb]

Craikeybaby said:

This time in two weeks we'll be on the plane!

Any last minute tips from people who have been over there recently?

Still not upgrade available from Virgin though.

Bring your fireproof underpants, it feels like the whole state is burning right now! Yosemite this weekend was very hazy due to the smoke from Sequoia 3 hours south and Kings Canyon NP now fully closed and evacuated. Air quality all over is quite poor and ash falling on cars from 150 miles away.

[Turbodiesel1976]

piers1 said:

This prompted me....

Re Vegas hotels...I am going with my wife and young teenage two boys, anyone recommend a nice hotel? They all look fantastic with rave reviews, but personal experience is always good

Pool especially

If its your first trip to Vegas I'd recommend the Bellagio, its bang in the centre of the strip and combines the 'Wow' factor with being a lovely hotel - pool areas are relaxed, casino is tasteful and I won $1,200 there on a 'The Hangover' themed slot machine so its my luckiest casino in Vegas. If you're not so worried about location, Wynn Las Vegas is probably the nicest casino hotel on the strip, stayed there a few weeks ago and it is pure luxury - make sure you get a room with a strip view and you won't regret it. Also it has a lucky casino for me as won a thousand bucks on the Buffalo Stampede slot on my last day there, talk about a way to end a Vegas holiday! Also the Wynn buffet is the nicest I've experienced in Vegas, in general the Wynn impresses on every front and the tripadvisor reviews reflect this.

[Craikeybaby]

LarryLamb said:

Craikeybaby said:

This time in two weeks we'll be on the plane!

Any last minute tips from people who have been over there recently?

Still not upgrade available from Virgin though.

Bring your fireproof underpants, it feels like the whole state is burning right now! Yosemite this weekend was very hazy due to the smoke from Sequoia 3 hours south and Kings Canyon NP now fully closed and evacuated. Air quality all over is quite poor and ash falling on cars from 150 miles away.

I have seen that on the news, good to hear what it is actually like on the ground though.

This time next week we'll have just taken off!

Now that most of the wedding is organised, we can finally spend some time thinking about the honeymoon again, my homework for this week is to read the Las Vegas and San Francisco threads on here for a start!

Can anyone reccomend places to go wine tasting? We were possibly thinking a tour from San Francisco, after we have dropped off the hire car, so we can both enjoy the wine - does such a thing exist?