Noob flyer ? for 2010 DL/Calif trip.

[holcomb-mania]

My goal is a trip to the West Coast to hit San Francisco for 3 days, Yosemite for 4 days, and DL for 3 days (w/ one day of LA sight-seeing). That's the plan. It's becoming a very complicated plan.

Naturally, I plan on renting a car. However, my noob flyer question is this: can I fly into SFO, then drive to Yosemite & Anaheim, and fly out of Ontario/LAX? Can I build some kind of itinerary online to check pricing/flight times? I haven't figured that out yet. Or, should I work with an agent or the airline directly?

Thanks for your help. I will be here asking many more questions in the next 18 months!

 

[holcomb-mania]

Further research turned up dropoff fees of $500 for not returning the rental to SFO (for example). That right there may nix the deal. I'd rather drive back up to SF from Anaheim than eat that.

 

[bumbershoot]

Different drop-off places charge different prices for this sort of thing. Different companies charge differently.

There's a Transportation forum on these boards, and I bet if you crafted a specific post and put it over there, you might get some really good info!


I've been traveling on my own for ages, so I don't use travel agents. But for a first-timer, you might consider using a good, recommended-by-friends, agent. Or if you belong to AAA, go there (though know that they don't always know Disneyland, so take the advice you get about that with a grain of salt, LOL) and have their travel agents help you.


You'll also want to check out the cost of renting the car and driving (with gas and drop-off fees taken into account) vs flying out of SF or even San Jose. There was someone who recently got a GREAT fare on Jet Blue from Sacramento (a very cute airport) to Long Beach airport near Anaheim. That sort of flight might be better than what you're planning with driving, IF it makes sense to get to that airport.

As I'm sure you have noticed, there are so many options!

For some reason I thought that airport rentals would be better about one-way rentals, but definitely check the out-of-airport sites as well. Know that Alamo has a place right in DownTown Disney, so that would be really convenient for a drop-off point, if you could rent from an Alamo in SF that would let you drop it off there. Then you could take Super Shuttle or Disneyland Express (for LAX and SNA) to the airport when you leave.


And don't forget that there are MORE airports than just LAX and ONT! Santa Ana=John Wayne=SNA is one airport, there's also Burbank and LBG in the area as well.