Thanks.
Looking at around £520 to Orlando with Norwegian. Is it likely to get any cheaper than that, bearing in mind the whole devaluation of the sterling thing?
Road Tripping in the USA!
- Thread starter [TW]Fox
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Thanks.
Looking at around £520 to Orlando with Norwegian. Is it likely to get any cheaper than that, bearing in mind the whole devaluation of the sterling thing?
I remember seeing some £350-£400 flights with Norwegian and TC to Florida but this was probably 12 months ago now, I wouldn't count on it going down much lower than £520.
Does the £520 include the seat selection, baggage and meal as that's an extra £50 per person per flight I think.
Looking back through the thread it seems San Diego is a popular choice so I may reconsider. The current plan is
Day 1 land and spend the night in LA
Day 2 LA
Day 3 Drive to grand canyon
Day 4 grand canyon
Day 5 drive to Vegas and Vegas stuff
Day 6 Vegas
Day 7 Vegas
Day 8 drive to yosemite
Day 9 yosemite
Day 10 yosemite
Day 11 drive to San Francisco
Day 12 San Francisco
Day 13 San Francisco
Day 14 PSH stay in carmel
Day 15 PSH stay in San Luis obispo
Day 16 drive back to LAX
I guess I could skip LA and spent the first 3 nights in San Diego, and spent 1 less night at yosemite?
It's your trip so do the bits you want to see and do - but San Diego was for me and my wife our favourite city (so much so that we went back for a week last year as part of another road trip).
The climate was perfect, Coronado Island is a great beach and place to visit. Downtown SD has loads of really cool bars and restaurants to sit outside at and have a few chilled drinks. The Zoo is obviously world famous and Seaport Village is also great.
When I went I did pretty much the exact route and trip you are doing, but I had 21 nights so spend the additional 3 in San Diego.
It does, yes. Their headline figures are so much lower than the other airlines until you take that into consideration!
I'd say that price is 'fair' then, not OMG must book today great. It depends if you want to risk watching the prices for another few weeks and potentially saving a bit or losing a bit. In the grand scheme of things £50 each way on flights is a tiny figure compared with the amount the whole trip will cost.
What's the current best approach for getting a suitable SIM card / data package for states?
Only really need it for a bit of data for some googling while on the move, but my personal contract I'm on is terrible for roaming outside of EU.
I'd prefer to not have to faff with shops on arrival in USA, so would like a SIM from UK.
I've got a spare phone so preference would be to use it as a tethered hotspot in the car.
Only really need it for a bit of data for some googling while on the move, but my personal contract I'm on is terrible for roaming outside of EU.
I'd prefer to not have to faff with shops on arrival in USA, so would like a SIM from UK.
I've got a spare phone so preference would be to use it as a tethered hotspot in the car.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Agreed. But if I can save £50 on the flights then I can better justify spending a bit more on the next hire car class up
I'm happy to wait a bit longer as long as there's no risk of the flight being fully booked!
I used Three a few years ago (£12.50/month - 200mins, 5000 texts and unlimited data). It didn't give me 4G over here though but I'm not sure if that was due to the phone not supporting US 4G.
Three doesn't have 4G LTE roaming anywhere, and they don't permit tethering either while abroad.
You could get the T-Mobile tourist SIM which is $30 for 3 weeks and has 2GB of fast data plus lets you tether - https://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-international-tourist-plan
The main downside is that T-Mobile service is patchy outside urban areas. Also depending on what phone you have it may not support the LTE bands they use.
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+1 and networks are vigilant when you're abroad. I allowed my friend to tether in Croatia last year and received a text message from Three within about 10 minutes warning me stop tethering.
Perhaps my expectation for tethering was a little too high - we only really need 3G to get by - am mostly thinking for things like using Uber, or finding details while out away from hotels etc.
The T-Mobile one may be a good shout as our first stop isn't too far away from a store. Else may just get a Three SIM for a month and deal with it.
The T-Mobile one may be a good shout as our first stop isn't too far away from a store. Else may just get a Three SIM for a month and deal with it.
I was in New York over the christmas/new year period and I found the 3G roaming on Three to be perfectly adequate for Google Maps/Uber/looking up restaurant menus and so on. Probably wouldn't use it for too much heavy browsing because it feels like the speed varies but for looking stuff up while having a coffee or whatever it was fine. Google Maps works decently with a spotty/slow connection, just make sure your compass is calibrated!
I don't tether so have no idea about that but over the past 3 years I've used 3 Feel At Home on both coasts of the US (Boston, NYC x2, Washington, San Diego, LA, Vegas, Phoenix, San Fran, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City and all the rural places in between) and have never really had any issues. It's seemed perfect for typing a location into maps, googling to research somewhere to eat, checking out TripAdvisor, WhatsApp, Twitter, FB, IG etc....
I've never tried to stream 4K Youtube whilst tethering in Death Valley though...
Olly is correct in saying the T-Mobile SIM will probably be quicker and might have better signal but I've never found it an issue to warrant looking at other options personally.
I've never tried to stream 4K Youtube whilst tethering in Death Valley though...
Olly is correct in saying the T-Mobile SIM will probably be quicker and might have better signal but I've never found it an issue to warrant looking at other options personally.
What because your standards as to acceptable service must be so low that the roaming is bound to be acceptable too?
Just about everywhere you go over here has free wifi too. I did a 30 day/7500mile road trip around the states booking hotels the day before we arrived, etc, all without data.
Another option I have found is H2O wireless, it runs on the AT&T network but better value than AT&T. You can buy the sim cards on ebay and amazon.
I don't know if you have seen a few posts back but the PCH will be closed at Big Sur for the rest of the year so you will need to go down the 101.
Its expected that parts of the PCH will be open north and south of Big Sur but they will essentially be dead ends as there is no route inland around the washed away bridge. You'll just need to factor it into your itinerary.
I don't know if you have seen a few posts back but the PCH will be closed at Big Sur for the rest of the year so you will need to go down the 101.
Its expected that parts of the PCH will be open north and south of Big Sur but they will essentially be dead ends as there is no route inland around the washed away bridge. You'll just need to factor it into your itinerary.
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Thanks, that's disappointing. Looks like a best case scenario to maximize PCH driving is to cut in at Lucia although the road is partly on a cliff edge and doesn't look wide enough to accommodate 2 cars!