Planning trip to California, need your advice!

[Booknut]

Can anyone recommend a good tour company for seeing California? Or have any of you done any 'mini' tours when out in California?

DH and I are thinking of going for 10-12 days next November or December and we want to spend a day each at Disneyland and Universal and we'd like to spend a couple of days each in LA, San Francisco, San Diego and see the Grand Canyon and Vegas.

Would we be better to do this on our own or with a tour? Would love to hear of your experiences, thanks!

 

[yorkshiregirl]

Hi
DH and I did a book it ourself 3 week tour in 2004. We flew to LA and back from Las Vegas.
We visited DL, went up the coast to San Francisco, across to Yosemite National Park and then a long drive over to Zion National Park, visited the Grand Canyon and then our last few days were in Las Vegas staying at the Bellagio Hotel.
We loved it and had no problems with car hire, hotel bookings etc.
We stayed in a cabin in Yosemite but otherwise we stayed in hotels. I used peoples recommendations on here for the Howard Johnson in Ananheim and Tripadvisor for other hotels.
It was a good way to see the 'real' America and at our own pace. Petrol is cheaper compared to our prices and we had a Chyrsler 3M which was a magnificent beast, particularly when driving through the forest at Yosemite down to Panamint Springs just before Death Valley where we stayed overnight.
Titan Tours do some good escourted tours.
Any more help just ask away.

 

[wayneg]

Try the company below if you dont want to drive but I think it will be a very expensive way of doing it.
We were there for 8 nights in Oct stayed oposite Disneyland and drove everywhere, not as pleasurable as driving in Orlando but its not dificult if you have satnav, Dollar offered it to us but we had our own.
Traffic congestion is crazy, took us 45 mins to get to Universal but over 2 hours to get back.
Personally I dont think 10-12 days is enough to take in Vegas and San Fransisco, The 8 nights we had was not enough to fit in Knotts Berry farm.
We bought a city pass for £100 each. 3 days in Disneyparks, and 1 day in each of Universal, Seaworld, & San Diego zoo
We want to do the other 2 places but will fly to them another year not drive from LA. but I complain driving more than 2 hours would rather fly.
I think there are tour operators that do West coast tours but you would be better calling in and seeing a travel agent to see your options.

Distances between
LV-SF 563miles
LV-LA 272miles

Was told trip from LA to SF can take upto 6 hours if traffic is bad.

http://www.viator.com/destProdSearc...5&section=ttd&destinationID=272&categoryName=

 

[Danauk]

I personally would book the trip yourself, we do. I also think that 10 - 12 days isn't long enough for all you want to do. A few years ago we did Vegas, Arizona and San Diego. We spent 2 weeks there altogether, 2 nights in Vegas, then off to stay with my friend for a week in Arizona where we went to the Grand Canyon, then we went to stay with her mum in San Diego for a few days (we went to sea world, the zoo and the wild animal park as well as having a day in Mexico and a day at the beach) before going back to Vegas. We spent 5 days in Vegas altogether and we still didn't get to see everything (and we are not gamblers so we didn't spend much time in the casinos).

We are planning a similar trip for our next USA holiday. We are doing 5 nights in Anaheim (3 days at Disney, one day at Knotts Bery Farm), then off to Six Flags for 2 nights (we love coasters!), then on to Hollywood for 3 nights to do the studio tours inc Universal, then off to Vegas for 5 nights. We have found that it is a lot cheaper to book everything ourselves. We booked flights through Virgin and then booked the hotels etc ourselves. If you do your research on hotels and you know what you want it is pretty easy to do. That is what we are doing this time.

We drove everywhere last time. San Diego to my friends house in Arizona was a 9 hour drive, but it was OK. Our next trip we won't be driving as much, but we will be driving in between places.

Have a great trip whatever you decide to do.

 

[Claire L]

California alone is a huge state and you will need plenty of time to explore, here are the nights we spent on 2 previous trips -

2003 San Francisco to LA
5 nights San Francisco
3 nights Carmel
2 nights Pismo Beach
2 nights Santa Barbara
9 nights Newport Beach

2006 San Francisco to Las Vegas
5 nights San Francisco
3 nights Lake Tahoe
3 nights Yosemite
3 nights Barstow
3 nights Grand Canyon
4 nights Las Vegas

For both trips DH drove and the 2006 trip covered just over 2000 miles and had two days were the drives were 7 to 8 hours long. The second trip we had a Jeep which was ideal for the high mountain roads and comfortable as well, with plenty of luggage space and easy for loading/unloading!

We still want to go to San Diego but that will have to be in a few years time!

Back in the early to mid 90's I did several coach tours with Jetsave and Cosmos, both were great to use if a) you didn't want to drive and b) there were huge distances to cover in a short time. There is a 12 day tour with Cosmos but it doesn't include San Diego and only has one full day for LA.

Be warned that weather in Nov/Dec can be cool in Southern California and very cold in Northern California.

Claire

 

[Chilly]

We went in 2005 for 2 weeks. Flew into LA for 6 nights, went to Disney for 2 days and Universal for one. Went on a bus tour and had a relaxing day. Then we took an internal flight to Vegas where we stayed for 3 nights then another flight to San Fran where we stayed for 5 nights.

I booked everything seperately on all different websites. I booked the flights all in one go direct on Uniteds website and the internal flights could have cost as little as just £50 each more, mine cost £70 each more in the end as I picked better flight times for me. Driving between each place would have cost a lot lot more than the internal flights.

 

[jools]

I think 10 to 12 days may not be long enough for what you want to do. We did a similar trip (many years ago) and it took us 3 weeks. We just booked flights and car hire and booked accommodation as we went along or route.

We did LA, San Diego, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosimite, SF, LA.

Claire I noticed you went from SF to Lake Tahoe. We are going there this coming Easter how long did the drive take you from SF?

 

[Andy B]

We were in the West this Easter. Yes plan yourself.

I recommend the Candy Cane Inn in Anaheim right next to the Parks.

 

[AlanUK]

Moving this over to the CB as it's not really significantly Disney holiday related

 

[Booknut]

Thanks for all your advice everyone! We're torn between a trip to California and WDW with a cruise...DH thinks I have an illness when it comes to Disney but I noticed on someone's signature it said 'If lovin' Disney is wrong I don't want to be right' and I guess that's how I feel

For those of you who have driven around California did you really like it and would you go back? I've just spoken to some colleagues over the past few days who say they are glad they went but would not go back again, especially to LA which they seemed to agree was not a nice place.

And do you need 2 days to do Disneyland or is 1 day enough??

 

[Chilly]

I doubt I would go back to LA. I found 2 days to be the perfect amount for my Disneyland experience. The first day was spent in Disneyland but it shut at 5pm. The second day was spent in Calafornia Adventureland then back over to Disney to do fav things again and see Fantasmic with the park open till 10pm I think that night.

 

[Andy B]

I did go back from 1982 to 2006 and took our children with us this time. I would go back again but then we do have my SIL in San Francisco.

Disneyland is now two parks with the Californian Adventure and so will need two days.

 

[chrismoo]

And do you need 2 days to do Disneyland or is 1 day enough??

2 days minimum. 1 day would really be pushing it.

 

[Claire L]

Yes you need two days to do both of the parks justice. As for driving in LA DH said he found it good, especially with the car pool lanes, the only thing to look out for is the exit ramps can be on the left instead of the right!

Claire

 

[paulh]

Best driving tip we got for Clifornia was pick a lane (3rd one in was best as inner lanes tend to merge a lot)and stick to it.We did Disney hotel 3 nights, vegas 5 nights,Knots berry hotel 3 nights, disney hotel 2 nights then airport hotel 1 night.Found driving ok after finding right road from airport to disney.
Paulh

 

[Tammy Stringer]

We had a fabulous 3 weeks in California August 2005 - including Yosemite, San Francisco and LA amongst other places.

If you look at our website http://freespace.virgin.net/kevin.stringer/index.htm August 2005 it will show you where we went and what we enjoyed.

You'll have fun whatever you decide, I'm sure

Tammy