UK couple Road Trip virgins...please help!!

[Jason Close]

This website is already giving me plenty of ideas to start planning my trip but more help would be fantastic.... Would it be much dearer to fly into LA, pick up a car and use it to travel about and drop it off in San Francisco, then get the flight home from there? If it is then could someone please come up with a few stage planning suggestions for a trip from LA, going to San Francisco, dropping down to Las Vegas and then back to LA....all in 14 days, with a couple of nights in each major city? If anyone has already done this trip, or one similar, could you please email me your itinery, costings etc?? All help is much appreiated, we will be going out in September 2005!! dusty911@hotmail.com

[Syv]

Easily can be done ROUND-TRIP (back to L.A.) in 14 days.

Suggestion:

Day 1 - arrive LOS ANGELES
Day 2 & 3 remain in Los Angeles

Day 4 - leisurely coastal drive #101 and #1 up to SAN FRANCISCO

Day 5 & 6 - remain in San Francisco

Day 7 - to YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (about 4-1/2 hrs drive)

Day 8 - remain at Yosemite

Day 9 - to LAS VEGAS (about 7-1/2 - 8 hrs drive from Yosemite via #120, #264, #266, #95)

Day 10 & 11 - remain at Las Vegas

Day 12 - to GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK (about 5-6 hrs drive)

Day 13 - remain at Grand Canyon

Day 14 - drive back to LOS ANGELES (about 8 hrs drive)



If you need to be back for your flight "ON" day 14 - you could vary days stayed at each city to still have time to see the Grand Canyon & Yosemite National Parks

- OR -

you could arrange a HELICOPTER RIDE TOUR from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon as a one-day trip instead of driving there.

[UK]

Hi Jason,

You have a lot of flight options which I'll briefly explain.

1) Flying into one airport and out of another is called an open jawed flight. The cost is (in the example you use) half of the return airfare to LA plus half of the return airfare to San Francisco.

2) When you buy a return transatlantic ticket you qualify for a free stop over. Thus you could fly to Las Vegas, see Las Vegas and surrounds. Fly to LA. Fly home from San Francisco for the same price as 1) above. Las Vegas is the free stopover in this example, but it could equally be Denver or New York.

3) The thing to watch out for when doing an open jawed flight are drop off charges for picking up a car in one place and dropping off in another. However, you may well get away with picking up in LA and dropping off in San Francisco without drop off charges.

I hope that this helps.

There is an lot more on

http://www.uk-2-usa.com

[Jason Close]

The messages so far have been brilliant. The link on the uk-to-usa is particularly good. What would make my life a little easier (as I am always browsing online)m would be a few more links about the 'open Jawed' flights would be great. Virgin atlantic do a set 'Fly-Drive' deal, but you are obviously stuck with their accommodation and timings. Their price is approx. £1100 English Pounds, per person. So I need to make sure that the other systems are just as cheap, if not cheaper. Keep the good info coming, I very much appreciate the help. Thanks again to those who contributed so far. Jason

[UK]

Jason,

The best predictions I have read are that the dollar is set to further weaken against the pound. What that means for the traveller to the USA from the UK is that you are likely to get the best deals on fares by buying direct i.e. not from a brochure like Virgin. The reason for this is that companies like Virgin had to budget for their prices several months ago to allow them to get the brochures printed. They are then committed to a price in pounds. Whatever happens to the pound:dollar exchange rate they have to absorb. So they play safe on their guesses on what will happen to the exchange rates. They make extra money when the pound gets stronger against the dollar (like now) they make less when the pound weakens. Therefore go to the brochures when the pound is weakening and go direct when it is getting stronger.