Help plan my belated honeymoon to the US! (OP updated 11/08/19 FINAL VERSION!)

[TW]Fox said:
He's not driving to the Canyon he's flying.

On that note, careful - make sure your tour actually goes to the proper Grand Canyon. Many of them do not especially with helicopters. We took a fixed wing flight to the South Rim, which is where you want to go.
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This is good advice. All kinds of stories about rip off trips.
 
[TW]Fox said:
On that note, careful - make sure your tour actually goes to the proper Grand Canyon. Many of them do not especially with helicopters. We took a fixed wing flight to the South Rim, which is where you want to go.
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I think it sounds like quite a good one... was booked for us but this is it:

https://www.maverickhelicopter.com/tour-wind-dancer.aspx

Seems like the 'copter actually flies down into the Canyon and lands at the bottom somewhere from what I can tell... I heard from someone who has been with them before that they do a really nice pass over the strip itself at night on the way back as well

Royal Fleet said:
Days 6 & 7 - stay in Yosemite. Heaven on earth. I note you are staying in Fish Camp. I would highly (highly!) recommend spending some time in the main Valley. We went in August and it is busy but never overbearingly so. As mentioned elsewhere Zion is awesome but probably doesn't fit the itinerary unless you shorten the actual coast leg.
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I'm yet to plan what we're going to do in Yosemite but I figured we would head into the main Valley on both days and do a few different hikes/bike rides or whatnot... Agree Zion seems incredible, would love to do a trip through Utah/Arizona someday
 
Don't think any helicopters are allowed to actually land in the proper Grand Canyon (It's Native American territory and they don't allow the choppers on) so they land in one of the larger canyons just off the main one, when we went 2 years ago this is what happened to us but it didn't detract from the actual wtf moments and experience one bit.
 
Skip venice beach and santa a monica (just like a more expansive skegness/blackpool :) with less weridos and head out to Joshua national park instead.
 
Okay a couple weeks later I've been researching some more and planning, have updated the OP with my current thinking...

Not many changes to Vegas as that was previously the most fleshed out bit, so just a few tweaks there, but now have fairly detailed plans about as far as Monterey. It's starting to come together I think! I'm slightly fearful of how expensive all of the activities etc. are going to cost, but:
  • As a once-in-a-lifetime trip, the rule of YOLO kind of applies; we've spent so much to actually be able to go, don't want to limit ourselves by penny-pinching the whole time (that said, we're obviously not going to be eating cavier for dinner every night either!)
  • It seems like quite a large number of the things we're doing can be booked online in advance saving an average of maybe 20% in a lot of cases, which will really add up!
  • We've got a Virgin Credit Card that's rated pretty good for travelling, 0% for 12 months on purchases including abroad with 0% fees, the limit on it is higher than (I hope) we'll need but it means we won't run out of cash if we've grossly underestimated the costs!
  • I'm still thinking there's a good chance that we're going to save a lot on the basis that neither of us are really drinkers and both have very modest appetites. Reading reviews and looking on menus for some of the places we know we might be eating it looks like we could practically share a single appetizer between us!
In researching Yosemite I'm now super excited about it as I think it'll be one of, if not the highlight of the trip. A few horror stories about how busy the park can get, but I'm hopeful that because we're going very slightly outside of peak-season it might not be quite so bad (ironically before the trip got postponed we were going in August 2018, which might have been way worse!)
 
Definitely get yourself a Go San Diego card!

You'll need a good 6 hours to do all of the zoo - it's COLOSSAL.

Belmont park is good for the rollercoaster, beach and just walking around. Unlimited rides are included with the card.

The USS Midway is also a must. Parking right next to it is $10 for all day bit you'll be there for at least 3 hours, if you get around it quickly. It's quite a sight. We also did a cruise from the harbour next to the Midway, also included on the card. Lasts for an hour and departs every hour from 9am.

We did a food tour with Bite San Diego - 5 different stops along a 4 mile walk in which you see the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy, both of which are stunning. You'll eat Italian, Indian, Pizza, all sorts. That was about $40/person but will last you a good 5 hours.

Plenty more ideas to come :)
 
Well another update - I think the OP now holds the final itinerary... we're not going to stick to it religiously but I think it's a good balance of things... we may be packing a bit of a lot into some days but there are some thing we're not too precious about doing so if we need to skip them we can do...

el_dazza said:
Definitely get yourself a Go San Diego card!
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I looked into this and added up the cost of everything we're doing and I'm just not sure whether we would get enough value out of the card to make it worth it
 
uncle_rufus said:
Well another update - I think the OP now holds the final itinerary... we're not going to stick to it religiously but I think it's a good balance of things... we may be packing a bit of a lot into some days but there are some thing we're not too precious about doing so if we need to skip them we can do...



I looked into this and added up the cost of everything we're doing and I'm just not sure whether we would get enough value out of the card to make it worth it
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If you can't get value then fair enough. The coaster at Belmont is surprisingly fast but amazing. It's a lovely area to walk around too on a sunny day. La Jolla is stunning also. Made a short visit there to the aquarium which was disappointing but the views over the bay were outstanding.
 
Looks like a really good itenary - please update me with how you're trip is once you return.

We're doing something simlar next year, so would love to hear about your experience.
 
Having been in may and gone to muscle beach/the skate park in LA, I can honestly say avoid them in favour of driving around mulholland drive either in your own car or on a scenic bus route.

Muscle beach and the route to it is unfortunately full of homeless people/drug users.
 
uncle_rufus said:
In researching Yosemite I'm now super excited about it as I think it'll be one of, if not the highlight of the trip. A few horror stories about how busy the park can get, but I'm hopeful that because we're going very slightly outside of peak-season it might not be quite so bad (ironically before the trip got postponed we were going in August 2018, which might have been way worse!)
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I'm just coming to the end of a 12-day stay in Yosemite with the family (tomorrow is our last day :( ) after a few days in San Fran. We have been staying in Yosemite West, which is about 25-30 mins closer to the valley than you will be in Fish Camp.

Most of the larger waterfalls are still flowing pretty well, but it's getting to the point in the year where everything is starting to dry up. Mirror lake was well past its best, although it was still a nice walk around it - particularly at the top end where we spent a while having a dip in the river (flippin freezing mind...). The Mist Trail is great - but I'd suggest going up rather than down it as it is very steep and slippy in places. We went up the Mist trail and up further through 'little Yosemite Valley' towards Half Dome (the kids did the whole Half Dome trail/climb but our old knees/lungs would never manage it all :D ) and then came back down via the lower section of the John Muir trail - but that took us a solid 8-9 hours! The full Half Dome trail/climb took the kids nearly 12 hours :eek:

Dog Lake up near to Tuolumne Meadows, together with Lembert Dome on the way back down was a highlight for us, but it's a good few hours to walk that loop and enjoy the lake so you may well struggle to fit that in on your travel day into the park, and it will be 2 hours each way to get back up there from Fish Camp.

Parking in the valley itself can be a nightmare - particularly at the top end near Curry Village and the so I'd highly recommend getting up early and getting into the valley before it gets too busy. Also, don't underestimate just how tough some of the trails can be in terms of what you can realistically expect to fit into 3 days, especially at 6000-8000ft of altitude (although I'm sure you are a good deal younger and fitter than me and the mrs!)

Anyway - here's a few photos from the last few days to whet your appetite :D

McGurk Meadows:

mcgurk.jpg


Mirror Lake:
mirror.jpg


Dog Lake:
dog_lake.jpg


Yosemite Valley itself:
valley.jpg
 
The Craig said:
Having been in may and gone to muscle beach/the skate park in LA, I can honestly say avoid them in favour of driving around mulholland drive either in your own car or on a scenic bus route.

Muscle beach and the route to it is unfortunately full of homeless people/drug users.
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What's wrong with homeless drug users? :p

I'll keep it in mind; we weren't really planning to dwell along that route for a long time, as we'll need to get downtown fairly promptly to fit everything in that day... if Venice ends up being super scummy we'll likely just walk without stopping at all or just jump in an Uber from there instead of walking back

Selekt0r said:
** snip **
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Awesome pics :) We aren't expecting there to be much water at all, I doubt it'll be any less spectacular though...

I believe I read that the John Muir trail is an option if we wanted to cut out the Mist Trail descent at the end - we figured we would make a call once we get to that point based on how tired we are (also maybe by the time we go there will be even less spray etc. from the falls making it less slippy?). The reason we're going 4-mile up and Panorama/Mist down is because 4-mile is meant to be a bit easier and the lower half of that trail doesn't really have much in the way of views (so if you do it going down you eventually run out of nice views and the end is a bit anticlimactic) and also because it gives us the option of bailing out after the shorter half of the hike and taking the bus back down!

We're hoping that since we are going in September we'll be just out of the peak season and won't have quite so much trouble with overcrowding/parking/etc but we'll have to see what happens; fingers crossed!

We're in relatively good shape I think, do a good bit of walking at home and have got decent kit, walking boots etc. The 4-mile to Panorama/Mist is meant to be incredible so hopefully we will manage it, then the 2nd day we're planning on sticking to the shorter, flat trails in Mariposa and the main valley as I expect we'll be sore from the 1st day. Google seems to think 1hr 30mins to get to the Valley from Fish Camp so I figured we'd try to get on the road by 08:00 ish at the latest
 
Done a very similar journey for our honeymoon, albeit in reverse!

Would highly recommend the Cracked Crab restaurant in Pismo Beach and whilst it doesnt sound like drinking is your thing, we crammed in a wine tour for the day in Paso Robles
 
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