California Road Trip with a Child. (56K NO NO)

Associate
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My 21 month old is not a big fan of cartoons or TV, she will watch cat videos on YouTube for 20 minutes but that's it. I like the idea of a road trip but I'll probably wait until the youngest is a bit older before doing something like this, didn't realise Disney on the West coast was rubbish though - thanks for the warning!
 
Don
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How did you find the driving over there? I'm just over to Portland just now for a month with work and will be getting a rental car shortly. I dislike driving at the best of times to be honest, so not too keen on this other side of the road thing.

I did write about the driving but in a nutshell, I don't think you need to worry at the other side thing. Once you're in the car you won't notice and it all seems normal, it gets to the point where thinking about driving on the left seems strange.

I'm not sure what Portland is like, open roads and freeways were a breeze to be honest, city driving I'd say I needed to concentrate more with getting in the correct lanes etc

I'm a confident driver though, not sure if that makes a difference but it didn't bother me whatsoever.
 
Don
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From my calculations you spent £5.5k?

Did you feel you underspent, or could have saved any money in certain areas? Just trying to get a feel of budget.

I think you could have done it cheaper, for example we left it quite late for the flights whereas others have got much cheaper by getting the tickets months in advance.
I think the hotels we stayed at were of a good standard, my wife did a lot of research to get good, clean hotels with wifi and breakfast.
The hotel in San Fran was of a good standard in the middle of the centre but because we were there for five days we wanted a nicer place to relax in.

Soending money we didn't scrimp, my wife spent $200 in the Disney shop and got a lot more Sophia, we basically had around $130 a day to live on. We used the credit card a couple of times at the end, two nice meals and I bought a Google Nexus.

Hope that helps. I don't think it would have been enjoyable constantly cash counting and cheaping out on meals etc, we pretty much had a paid lunch and tea every day, we never made our own sandwiches or anything.
 
Man of Honour
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From my calculations you spent £5.5k?

Did you feel you underspent, or could have saved any money in certain areas? Just trying to get a feel of budget.

You can do it for less - we spent £3k and that included a Mustang Cabrio as the rental car. We did 16 days and included Vegas as well. That was with a good deal on the flights though - £470 each - so you'd need to add a bit more on now for flights. We are not really 'foodies' therefore not many meals out in restuarants and we don't drink, which is probably where most of the savings come in.
 
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Associate
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10 May 2007
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Nice, done a similar trip myself a while back.

I'd love to do another US road trip but my OH can't stand Americans so I can't see it happening.
 
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