Aussies to West Coast

[shirohniichan]

I had no idea there were Redwoods that far south. Good to know.

The park isn't heavily promoted. There are also redwoods further south in Big Sur, but the stands aren't as large as those in Del Norte County. If you don't have time to drive that far north, they're certainly worth a visit.

Big Sur Chamber of Commerce web page about the redwoods

[CC OZ]

Hi All.....

Well we are back.

As promised, here is a quick roundup of our trip.

Day 1 through Day 4.
Flew in to LA, picked up hire car. Drove straight to Walmart Anaheim to pick up our mobile phones, esky (chilly box) and other supplies. Booked into accomodation early and headed for Disneyland. Did the Disneyland thing for 3 days which I thought was enough, although the kids may argue.

Day 4 we drove to San Diego to Sea World which was brilliant, then drove back to Anaheim. Didnt get to see anything else in San Diego because of a crammed schedule.


Summary and tips. Very happy to have the rental car from the start to do general shopping and get around. Driving on the right side took a bit of getting used to . At every intersection I would say to myself "Hard right" or "long left" to know where to point the car when I was turning. This helped enormously. It seems everyone just keeps up with everyone regardless of the speed limit, especially on the freeways. Between LA and Vegas I cruised on 80MPH plus just keeping up with the traffic. Also, dont expect anyone to get out of the fast lane. You have to go around them.
Grocery prices at Food 4 less was very cheap compared to Aus.
Good decision to drive to and from San Diego on a tight schedule. Saved on packing up time and reduced the driving time to Vegas.
We bought 3 critical items from Walmart Day 1. Mobile phones from Net10 for $30. A toasted sandwich maker for $9 and a chilly box (esky) for $13. These three items saved us literally hundreds of dollars over the next two weeks and were fantastic!!! More of that later.

Day 5 to Day 8.

Drove to Vegas via Barstow. The outlet centre at Barstow was disappointing as with the current Australian dollar, we didnt see any bargains at all. Continued on to Vegas for the first afternoon night. What a great town!!! We walked the strip and saw the sights. Everything was bigger and better than I thought. Only one night I snuck down to play the tables. Won about $400 and left. It was good to be in front. Drove out of town to head to Oakhurst near Yosemite. On the way we stopped at the outlet store a few milesout of Vegas. This store was brilliant with very cheap prices. Much cheaper and better than Barstow.


Travel tips.
Visit the outlet centre south of Vegas. Also, unless you are staying at MGM grand, I wouldnt bother with the monorail. It taked about 10 to 15 minutes to wind through the MGM to get to the monorail, and then at the end its a fair walk from the monorail back to the strip. Try the shuttle bus instead.

Day 8. Left Vegas and headed for Oakhurst via Mojave, Bakerfield, Fresno.
This drive took us about 6 hours plus. Interesting sights along the way. The wind farm near mojave was impressive. Otherwise it was a very easy drive. Again, sat on about 70-80mph the whole way. Pulled into Oakhurst. What a very nice town! People were very friendly and it had the cleanest and nicest supermarket I have ever seen. Very enjoyable stop over after a longish drive.
TIP. Would greatly recommend staying at Oakhurst. A short drive to Yosemite.

Day 9.
Left Oakhurst and headed to Yosemite. This was my favourite part of the trip. Yosemite was the only place that knocked me off my feet with awe. The views were spectacular and the weather perfect. The snow in the upper areas was cool on our sunburn from the previous days at Disneyland and Seaworld. We drove through Yosemite and headed to San Fran in one day. We did a few trail walks and had lunch in the valley with squirells as spectators under neath one of the fabulous waterfalls. Brilliant!! Off to San Fransisco.



Day 10 to 12.
What a fantastic town San Francisco is. Even though it poured rain on and off we saw a lot. We did a tour which took us everywhere, then the next day we went exploring through the city. We fell in love with this town and will go back for sure.

Travel tip.
Dont pick up a cable car ride from the wharf. It takes over an hour to get on. Get a bus near the top of the crookedest street (Lombard st )and pick the cable car up on the way through. You may have to hang out the side, but this is fun!!!





Day 12.
Off to Monterey. A bit of rain on the way hampered some of the sights, but it was clear at Monterey. Did bike rides along Fishermans wharf and the Cannery and did the 17 mile drive that afternoon. It was very misty and we did not see much so we thought we would do the 17 mile drive again the next morning as a warm up to Big Sur. Nice town.
Travel Tip. Rent a bike and do a ride along waterfront.

Day 13.
Day 13 turned out to be appropriately unlucky. After the end of the day we nicknamed Big Sur as "Big Blur" We saw nothing. I mean nothing. A pea soup fog/mist covered to entire Big Sur. It finally cleared a little where we saw elephant seals on a beach. Im not even sure how far down that was.
Whilst we were disappointed, we understood that nature is nature.



Drove to Pismo beach. I am so glad we stayed at Pismo beach and not San Luis Obispo. Nothing against SLO, just that Pismo is right on the water and the motels along the cliff are fantastic with great ocaen views. We walked along the pier and ate out in town.
Travel tip.
Dont attempt to do the highlight of your trip on Day 13.
Do stay at Pismo Beach.


Day 14.
Drove to LA. Stayed at Hollywood only 3 minute walk from Kodak theatre etc etc. Did the walk of fame thing in about 30 minutes. Got sick of people trying to give me their own rap CD, then asking for money for something I didnt want. We then drove around Hollywood Beverly Hills, Rodeo drive, out to Venice Beach. Very interesting place. Some interesting characters out there, and an eye opener for the kids. Plenty of homeless, but none causing trouble. More people trying to give me 'free' rap CDs.
Travel tip.
Dont think you have to stay right at Hollywood to do all the sights because all the sights can be done in about an hour. Unless you are doing Universal studios, you can stay elsewhere and maybe even tack on the Hollywood part of your trip as a day trip from Anaheim if you are doing Disney.
Also, when rap singers shove CDs in you face, simply tap you ear and say "Im deaf" in a high voice.

Day 15.
Did a whirlwind day at Universal studios which we finished about 4pm. We drove straight to LAX which took exactly an hour. Dropped off the car, shuttle bus to Airport with plenty of time to spare for a 10.30pm flight. Better to be late than early. Climbed aboard one of Qantas's finest A380s and back we are home.



General Tips.
PHONES.
We picked up 2 phones from Walmart for $30US which allowed 300 minutes free calls. (Net 10) We were able to call each other and also make international calls to landlines back home (couldnt work out making international call to mobiles). At then end of the trip we had a combined 200 minutes left. We literally couldnt use all the credit. We began handing the phones to people at the airport to ring loved ones just to use up the credit.
By all means take you mobile from home to make text messages, but the value in these phones was great.
CHILLY BOX (esky)
We filled this with drinks, cheese, ham, and other food to make toasted sandwiches when we could be bothered or were too tired to go out to eat. This was invaluable.
TOASTED SANDWICH MAKER.
See above.
DRIVING.
As stated earlier, just keep up and you should be fine. Remember...hard right, long left.
FOOD.
The portions are huge!! After 15 days we still were ordering too much. And entrees in America are what we call main meals in Australia. Appertisers are what we call entrees.

Oh well thats about it. We did what we set out to do.

And finally huge thanks to THE GREAT AMERICAN ROADTRIP FORUM. The research and advice I received to plan this holiday was invaluable. Hopefully this report can impart some advice to others setting off on a whirlwind trip of California/Nevada.

[Southwest Dave]

Welcome back CC OZ, good to see you here !

Thanks for popping by with the update and tips, Sounds like you had a great time !

[PNW Judy]

Thanks...I'm so glad you had a great time.

Come again!

[shirohniichan]

Great report!

You make my own "backyard" sound interesting!

I'm glad to read you and your family enjoyed your trip. And thanks for the tips-- I don't usually visit outlets, but I may drop by the one outside of Vegas to see if there are any deals.

[CC OZ]

Great report!

You make my own "backyard" sound interesting!

I'm glad to read you and your family enjoyed your trip. And thanks for the tips-- I don't usually visit outlets, but I may drop by the one outside of Vegas to see if there are any deals.

We found Billabong, Quicksilver and Addidas gear very cheap!! (And two of them are original Australian companies!!)

[dennis_of_perth_oz]

thanks for the tips cc oz, it's great that you enjoyed your west coast holiday, we're going there in september as well on a nearly identical itinerary as yours, though we're doing la/hollywood/universal studios for the first 4 days, drive to anaheim and do disney for 3 days, then drive to las vegas and stay there for 4 nights. After vegas we're going to san francisco and stay there for 3 nights, then back to LA. we're still debating (another family is with us) whether to drive or fly from las vegas to frisco and frisco to LA. Just wanna ask bout few things though:
* did you hire a van? (cuz there are 8 of us altogether), what car rental company? any tips bout car hire/extra costs that needs to be clarified(gps,insurance,petrol etc)
* any good stopovers on the way to vegas (lunch,shops, etc)
* driving tips, anything to avoid

I used to drive on "the wrong side" years ago back in Phils. i'll just have to re-adjust my brain again when i get there.

cheers,

[PNW Judy]

And the Roadtrip America forums!

thanks for the tips cc oz, it's great that you enjoyed your west coast holiday, we're going there in september as well on a nearly identical itinerary as yours, though we're doing la/hollywood/universal studios for the first 4 days, drive to anaheim and do disney for 3 days, then drive to las vegas and stay there for 4 nights. After vegas we're going to san francisco and stay there for 3 nights, then back to LA. we're still debating (another family is with us) whether to drive or fly from las vegas to frisco and frisco to LA.

If you have the time, definitely drive. There's some beautiful country in-between those cities. You'll want at least two days for each drive.

Just wanna ask bout few things though:
* did you hire a van? (cuz there are 8 of us altogether), what car rental company? any tips bout car hire/extra costs that needs to be clarified(gps,insurance,petrol etc)

Questions about car rentals can be tough to answer as prices vary so much, even with the same company. It all depends on the type of vehicle, the pick-up/drop-off locations, and the dates of travel. Your best bet is to visit the websites of the major car rental companies, plug in the information, and see what the quotes are. As an international visitor, you will typically get some pretty decent rates. In fact, you might check with booking your car through a local travel agent as we have heard many international visitors state that they get better deals that way.

You can hire a bigger van for eight people but you'll really want to scope out the space available for luggage and ensure that there's sufficient room for your needs.

You will want to coordinate with your local car insurance agent to determine what kind of insurance you'll need to purchase, if any, to be appropriately covered.

* any good stopovers on the way to vegas (lunch,shops, etc)

Barstow is almost half-way and usually makes a good place to stop. Some interesting Route 66-type stuff around there but I can't make a specific recommendation.

[dennis_of_perth_oz]

thanks pnw_judy, that was a really quick response, regarding driving to frisco from vegas, we're going to talk it over this weekend and hopefully finalize the itineraries and book the accomodations.

cheers

[PNW Judy]

We're willing and able to help you plan your trip to make it the best it can be.

Feel free to start a new thread about your trip. You're likely to get more responses.