Terrific stuff, thanks!

We've done Grand Canyon before and for some odd reason I had a hankering to do either Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Southwest Airlines is a great bit of advice as they are unquestionably cheaper especially when you add in or rather take away the $25-50 a bag charge other carriers apply. They also have a really good schedule and brilliantly charge less for direct flights on the basis of less fuel burnt I guess rather than more for the convenience as is the practice with other carriers. They've also been brilliant in helping us with queries. Can't recommend them enough.

US191 and WY530 was exactly the kind of tip I was hoping for so thanks again. We're a bit tight on time so flying SFO-LAX works for us as we've done LA before. Personally I loathe the place but the three females want to do the Stars and see the Hollywood sign hence a fleeting visit and out to Pasadena for the night, dictated by outrageous accommodation costs in LA. Our last road trip (God I wish I'd known about this website then!) did a loop out of LA to San Francisco, Golden Gate via Death Valley, Yosemite, Vegas etc etc etc so we're up for the coast road SF to San Diego this time.

The car hire tip looks interesting too. I'm currently booked through a work concession but it does include one way charges so worth a look, thanks.

New Orleans airport looks like a monopoly stitch up on transport but life is like that. Lump it I guess! For the benefit of others looking at the same thing, the steep price of transport into town seems to be more than offset by the daily robbery charges for parking at hotels so doesn't seem so bad after all.

San Francisco we've done before and stayed in Oakland as accommodation is only mildly stupid prices rather than off the scale in SF itself. The BART (local trains, think London Underground) is dirt cheap and about 15 minutes into town, frequent trains.

I've really noticed how much more expensive accommodation is this time round but then you want to go to the popular places in July / August what did you think was going to happen??!!

Any tips for things to do in the cities? Include the obvious as they may not be obvious to me?

Thanks again for the great info to date and in advance for any more.

Kind regards