Road Tripping in the USA!

-Ad- said:
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh :)

We arn't lashers, more of a boring couple drowing their sorrows with fine food and wine :D

Think more chilled wine bars with tapas and restaraunts than Wetherspoons on a Saturday ;)
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I would like a wee gamble but Im guessing that kids arent allowed in the casino's at all so I wont be doing any.

[TW]Fox;19181934 said:
Parking in Vegas is dead easy. All the hotels have free self parking.
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Thats great, thanks for that, and all the help you have given me, made my trip a wee bit easier and definetely a lot easier in putting my mind at rest over a few things that stressed me out.
 
-Ad- said:
PH over the Flamingo.

Vegas is full of parking and it will be vallet. But once your car is in the car park you won't use it much in Vegas unless you want to drive around to see something. But a taxi will also do that and you can drink.

For San Fran I highly recommend this place:
http://www.marinamotel.com/

Each room has a garage to park your car in, which is one hell of a luxury!

It's also in the Marina District which is frankly brilliant. About 10 mins walk down to the water front where you can see the Golden Gate and another 10-15mins down to Fishermans Wharf and the tram system. But teh best part is all the cracking wine bars, restaurants and shops literally around the corner from the hotel. Great area that has a nice young professional vibe and isn't full of scummy fat tourists!
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Ive gone ahead and booked that for two nights, Im guessing it will end up being the most expensive place we stay the whole trip!

£225 for two nights but Im guessing that will be money well spent to save the hassle and parking.

Just out of interest, do the hire cars come with sat navs at hertz?
 
San Fran was one of the most if not the most expensive hotel stop over. But the garage and location made up for it. Plus you'll be spending the whole of your day out and about anyway.

On the children in a Casino, it's fine as most of the places only have exits through the casino labrynth. But no children watching the tables, playing slots or sitting with you. Pretty sure that's a big no no.

Honestly I would say buy a sat nav out there. Hertz charge something like £9 A DAY, so for a decent length trip just pop to a Best Buy and pickup a Garmin for £80. Hertz wanted over £100 to hire one for our first trip out there. You can then sell it on to someone back over here, or use it when you go back soon. We used ours for 2 trips and the gf's parents are borrowing it this summer too.
 
Yea, you sometimes get free Hertz Neverlost if they've got no cars left without it. You can usually get free Sat radio this way as well.

I got both :)
 
Metalface Mark said:
Fox, the only thing that is concerning me is my first night in LA with a car, can I ask where you stayed your first night, whether it had parking and was it far from the airport? I dont get in till near 11 and it will have been a 16 hour trip by that point if theres no delays so im assuming ill be near exhausted and struggling to function, I dont want to be struggling to find somewhere that first night with two tired teenage girls in tow.
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Bit late but we stayed in Santa Monica. Plentyof places right by the beach! Only 10 minutes away but we really wanted to get away from LA proper!
 
Vanilla said:
Bit late but we stayed in Santa Monica. Plentyof places right by the beach! Only 10 minutes away but we really wanted to get away from LA proper!
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Cheers, I booked the place that fox recommended, we dont get in till nearly 11 so im sure it will be after midnight before we are away from the airport and the rental place so I didnt want to drive too far!
 
We also stayed at LAX when arriving on Air NZ (get out circa 10pm) as it's less hassle.

Staying in Santa Monica the night before you fly home is the best last night choice!
 
The first night Im in the Candlewood Suites, Ive still not booked anything for Vegas yet, I may just leave that one to chance as Im still not 100% sure we will go there. I booked the marinamotel for two nights in San Fran, and for the last four nights im in the Wiltshire Grand hotel in LA as its close to the exhibition centre that the expo is on at.

Ive got 7 out of 14 nights booked up in total so far :)
 
Cool, I liked the Candlewood Suites.

Nice and easy to get to as well - jump on the Hertz shuttle from the airport, pick the car up, and it's a 10 minute drive :)
 
[TW]Fox;19211619 said:
Cool, I liked the Candlewood Suites.

Nice and easy to get to as well - jump on the Hertz shuttle from the airport, pick the car up, and it's a 10 minute drive :)
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Yeah that was the appeal, you said it was easy to get to :)

I just cant really decide whats for the best on where to go as we really only have 9 nights of proper roadtrip, I dont know whether to head to Vegas or head to somewhere like Arizona, I do quite fancy going to visit Tombstone in Arizona, but its a 621 mile trip, so I think its probably taking us a bit too far out, and going to Vegas does seem to give a more circular route back to vegas by going to San Fran.
 
9 nights of Road Trip is enough to do LA to Vegas, through Death Valley, into Yosemite National Park, into San Francisco and back down to LA provided you dont stay more than 2 nights in any one location and you realise its quite a bit of driving.

I'd probably just do one or two nights in Vegas, and head on up to San Fran.

One spanner in the works at the moment is that Tioga Pass - which is where you'd go from Death Valley to Yosemite - is still closed for winter. When are you going? It should be open any time now.
 
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