USA Adventure Advice!

[meryll83]

Hey people,

I'm looking for some holiday booking advice, so I'm sure this is the place to be

Not for some time yet, but our next holiday after WDW next year, we would like to see some more of the big ole US.

We would like, if possible, to include:
New York (around 4/5 nights)
Niagra Falls (day trip)
Then over to the West coast to do:
Anaheim (to do the 2 Disney parks, maybe a couple of nights)
Los Angeles (possibly to do Universal, see Hollywood etc, maybe a couple of nights again)
Las Vegas (at least 4/5 nights here)
Grand Canyon (day trip / overnight ranch stay)
Maybe San Diego (couple of nights again)
Maybe wine country, somewhere? (day trip??)
Maybe San Fransisco (couple of nights again)

In no particular order, thats what we'd like to see, with the maybes at the end there.

I know various tour operators do tours, but nothing seems to be exactly what we're looking for, and we probably wouldn't want the fully escorted ones, unless there's plenty of free time to do your own thing.
Would this be megabucks if we asked a travel agent to package our itinerary for us?
I just feel that doing it ourselves would involve a lot of flight bookings and a lot of travelling time, and might be a tad complex.
Perhaps we are best on a tour, but have to sacrifice some of the places we want to see?
Neither of us are particularly keen on driving abroad, so we would like the convienience of planes, coaches, shuttles etc to get us around.

What do you guys suggest??

 

[raph_b]

I've been to LA and didnt like it at all. I wouldn't recommend LA to anyone. The only part I liked was Santa Monica.

Never been to San Fransico but I hear its beautiful there. I'd love to go one day.

Vegas is amazing! What you expect but a million times better!

I have to say that my favourite place in the US is New Orleans - I absolutely loved it there. Although I went pre-floods so I don't know what it's like now.

If you want to go to Niagra falls you could consider a few nights in Toronto?

I lived in Toronto for a year and its an amazing place, I would highly recommend paying it a visit

 

[jackieleanne]

Im the same apart from Santa Monica I wasnt all that impressed with LA but I loved Vegas and San Fransisco. I found that at Disneyland they are a lot less aimed at tourists and more at locals and the staff etc where no where near as friendly and as nice as at Disneyworld and when we went it was full of just single large groups of teens on their own.

 

[Lizzybear]

Your plan sounds great I booked our trip this year separately and found it really easy, I was a bit nervous at first having so many bookings but i've tried to be as organised as possible with the paperwork and kept a separate note of relevant confirmation numbers (word document) so fingers crossed all will go smoothly I think doing the same trip through a travel agent would have cost an awful lot more and I have much more flexibility doing it myself in terms of making any changes and in the variety of flights and accomodation. I'm planning on booking our east coast trip for next year separately too.
Although we're hiring a car I do know people who have done US tours without one.. One couple who got around from state to state using Greyhound buses and the Amtrak train and used public transport/taxis/walked locally. I know there are other companies who do coach shuttles/transfers, particularly in southern California, but i'm not sure on specific names. I just did a quick Google search and found a few links that might be useful:
http://www.catransit.com/links/calinks.html
http://www.amtrakcalifornia.com/rail/go/amtrak/index.cfm
http://www.greyhound.com/
Obviously there are numerous internal flights too but I think i'd only do that for NY to California, it'd be a shame to miss the beautiful California scenery by flying Happy planning!! I really enjoyed organising our 'California adventure'

 

[Danauk]

We too booked our trip that we are going on next week by myself. We are staying at 4 different hotels in different places, but we are hiring a car. I think if we were to find a company that could have booked what we wanted for us it would have cost a lot more that it is doing (and this trip is by no means cheap!!), plus the need to use public transport I felt would have made journey time and travel time longer and for us more hastle.

I found booking the trip really easy, I kept a ring binder with all the details in for each day - I used plastic wallets and had one per day, plus seperate word documents as back ups. If you can manage it I am sure you will have a fab time.

 

[meryll83]

Thanks for the responses everyone. It seems like booking it ourselves is the way to go then to keep the costs down as much as possible.
I'm sure I'd be fine doing this to be honest, just gotta hope there aren't any flight delays I suppose!

Can anyone recommend sites for booking hotel accommodation and internal flights in the US?

I need to do a lot more research into buses / shuttles and where the pickup locations are I think to save costs on internal flights quite so much, but I'm just looking for a good starting point which you guys are providing

Oh and Danauk, have a fab trip!!