Road Tripping in the USA!
- Thread starter [TW]Fox
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Nice, shame you didn't squeeze the Moab area in but I guess that would mean sacrificing Page.
Soldato
Thinking about letting Trailfinders do all the booking for me apart from a car. Any thoughts from anyone or experience?
I save a little on flights and hotels but works out about the same myself. Though I might get upgraded on some hotels being a honeymoon couple (I HIGHLY doubt it)
Anyone had a car from Trailfinders before?
I save a little on flights and hotels but works out about the same myself. Though I might get upgraded on some hotels being a honeymoon couple (I HIGHLY doubt it)
Anyone had a car from Trailfinders before?
Soldato
We had trail finders do our honeymoon as they have a gift list type thing. It can be a bit of hard work getting what you want unless it is very straight forward, each time they have to produce an itinerary which you view online and then phone to change things around. We didn't get any upgrades by being marked as a "Honeymoon Couple" on the bookings but we did get some freebies (Chocolates, wine etc) at some of the hotels.
I wouldn't use them again purely because booking US stuff is so easy and there is a never a shortage of choice when it comes to accommodation. ultimately you have so much more choice and can infinitely tweak it yourself. Organising US road trips and doing them is a lot of fun. I love doing it, just a shame I can't afford to go on any at the moment
I wouldn't use them again purely because booking US stuff is so easy and there is a never a shortage of choice when it comes to accommodation. ultimately you have so much more choice and can infinitely tweak it yourself. Organising US road trips and doing them is a lot of fun. I love doing it, just a shame I can't afford to go on any at the moment
I did my trip through Trailfinders including car and I found them to be really good. I planned a rough trip with them and then went home and priced it up myself. I was hardly saving anything booking it all myself, plus they offered a wedding gift list.
Car was with Alamo at LAX, Convertible Mustang or Similar. I was a bit worried I'd end up with a Chrysler Sebring and when I walked out to the car park there were no mustangs! So I gave one of the attendants $20 and asked him to fetch me one which he did.
I honestly can't see the point in using somebody like that? You can do better yourself and you get total control over every aspect of your trip. There is no way Trailfinders will do things like put you with the best rental company to give you a good chance of a decent car, etc etc. You'll just get booked into half decent hotels in central locations each time which is fine if you've got an unlimited budget and don't care but controlling it yourself can mean better hotels for less money and more flexibility.
It's really not difficult to organise these trips yourself, and you can pocket trailfinders profit margin as your savings. It's not as if they are going to get exceptional deals you can't match or beat with brokers etc anyway.
Out of interest why East Coast?
IMHO the Western half of the USA is much better - and there are many many different road trips out there, from Colorado and Utah to California to the Pacfic Northwest.
I'm a total hypocrit obviously because it looks like its east coast for me this year as well but.. I'd always rather go West, especially with 3 weeks. It's just better IMHO. East is nice but West is always epic.
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the various East Coast trips I've done but mostly because I was 'In America' rather than specifically awesome bits.
Soldato
[TW]Fox;25610081 said:
I agree not really difficult but just worked out about the same due to my trip time being June-July. Looks like they have saved some money on flights for me hence I said plan the rest.
I would still book cars myself and some aspects
I cannot see why Trailfinders would have access to lower flight prices than any of the other many flight brokers will. I would be amazed if you couldn't match or beat a flight price Trailfinders have offered.
The planning is part of the fun of these trips anyway. Do it yourself! You can board the plane with only a single nights hotel accomodation and a rental car booked, not that I'm recommending that but thats how easy it is to plan US road trip holidays, you can even do it on the fly!
The planning is part of the fun of these trips anyway. Do it yourself! You can board the plane with only a single nights hotel accomodation and a rental car booked, not that I'm recommending that but thats how easy it is to plan US road trip holidays, you can even do it on the fly!
Ooops - I meant West :S I lived on East coast so dont need to go back there.
Glad to hear it
3 weeks around the West will be completely awesome.
Soldato
[TW]Fox;25610173 said:
Please by all means give it a go
London > Vegas 22/06/14 direct pref.
LAX > OGG (Maui) 09/07/14
OGG > HNL 15/07/14
HNL > LHR 19/07/14
Just to confirm, we did the planning, we went in for thoughts on hotels etc
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Big gamble, there is some proper junk in Hertz Luxury and unlike Alamo you don't get to select your own car from a lineup. If you are going One-Way you often have little choice as the others tend to ramp the price up but make sure you ask for something else if they try and palm you off with some of the crapper Luxury Cars (The Buick Enclave is a Vauxhall Insignia for goodness sake, Luxury?!).
Soldato
[TW]Fox;25623446 said:
Is it?! It's an SUV and looks nothing like it!
It has wood (well, "wood") trim and a bit of chrome anyway, that's luxury to the Americans
Associate
About to book the car,
Alamo and hertz are the same price £650 for three weeks premium. We would get a convertible but the thought of a Sebring is not inspiring.
Quidco is doing ten percent cash back on car hire this month. We are landing at lax at 7 in the evening so would like to get the car and out of la as smoothly as possible just to sleep somewhere on the way to grams canyon np.
Alamo and hertz are the same price £650 for three weeks premium. We would get a convertible but the thought of a Sebring is not inspiring.
Quidco is doing ten percent cash back on car hire this month. We are landing at lax at 7 in the evening so would like to get the car and out of la as smoothly as possible just to sleep somewhere on the way to grams canyon np.
I would not really recommend the Premium class, its a bit of a mixed bag really and you may end up with something thats just a better spec version of something that you'd get as a Fullsize.
It's Luxury thats worth the extra. I would not pick Hertz over Alamo if they were the same price.
It's Luxury thats worth the extra. I would not pick Hertz over Alamo if they were the same price.
Is it?! It's an SUV and looks nothing like it!
It has wood (well, "wood") trim and a bit of chrome anyway, that's luxury to the Americans
No, wrong Buick, I meant the LaCrosse