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31 Aug 09, 05:04 PM |
#1
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Apprentice Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 05
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Sarah and Rachel do Hawaiifornia, July 2009 - Intor
Hi everyone! I don't post much on the Dibb (mainly due to having no forthcoming Disney trips planned ) but I wanted to share our recent trip to California and Hawaii
I wrote this pre-trippie before we left and never got round to posting it, so here it is in the place of our intro: The cast: Me (Sarah), 24 – Disney addict (of course, this being the DIBB and all), holiday planner extraordinaire and almost-teacher* Rachel, 21 – Lover of sleeping in late and not doing a lot else. Partial to a little Disney and an almost-graduate.** Oh, and my little sister. *I’m now a fully qualified primary school teacher! **Rachel is now a graduate with a job! Here is a picture of us: I’m on the right. Don’t mind the outfit, it was Halloween! Background: How did this trip come about? Well it just kind of…did. Rachel graduates from uni this year, and finish my PGCE and (hopefully) qualify as a teacher in July, so its kind of a celebration of both of those. My SO can’t get any time off work in the summer, and I can’t take any time off in term time so things weren’t looking good for us going away together, plus he HATES warm weather. That’s right folks, he doesn’t like warm weather OR Disney, where as I am outside trying to get a tan as soon as a glimmer of sun breaks through the clouds. Ahh well, I’m working on him Anyway, Rach obviously has a lot of free time after graduating (thanks, terrible job market!) so we decided the summer was the perfect time to go on a girlie holiday together. Buttttt, where to go? Our first thought was Vegas, which we have both been to (separately) and loved, but flights were looking sooo expensive for July and then Rachel decided that she wanted to go travelling around the US in 2010 with her friend and Vegas would likely be a stop on their route, so she didn’t want to repeat it this year. Then we thought, hey – the world is our oyster, why not go on a blow out holiday to Australia?! I went travelling there in 2004 and would love to go back and Rach has never been. But then reality struck with the price of flights, and its winter there in our summer anyway, so that idea was shelved. Our next thought was California. We have both been, I went in summer 2004 and 2007 and Rach went in spring 2007 and we both LOVE it there but we have seen pretty much everything. So that idea was shelved too… …..Or was it? I couldn’t stop thinking about California and then Rach pointed out that she had never been to San Francisco and really wanted to go and then we looked at Hawaii on a map of the states and it didn’t look that far away, right?!?! Sooo, San Francisco and Hawaii it is! We can’t WAIT! (Continued in next post)
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Edited at 05:24 PM. |
31 Aug 09, 05:07 PM |
#2
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Thread Starter
Apprentice Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 05
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The flights:
At first, we priced up flights to and from San Francisco, with an internal flight to Hawaii but it was looking prohibitively expensive. Then I tried some multi-stop flights and came up with £750 for Heathrow-San Francisco-Honolulu-LA-London on US Airways…with stops in Minneapolis both ways, but still, BARGAIN! Unfortunately, before I got to talk to Rachel about it the price increased by £100. Not too bad, but I thought I would give STA Travel a call before I booked and try and make use of the fact that we are both currently students. They came up with £807 each but with direct flights on United apart from the way back from Hawaii, but you have to stop due to the distance, anyway. So we booked! Rach will be staying with me and Dbf for her graduation ceremony anyway, so on 12th July we will get the train down to Heathrow. 13th July – London Heathrow – San Francisco 20th July – San Francisco to Honolulu 29th July – Honolulu-Chicago-London Heathrow I think we will stay overnight at Heathrow again when we get back, since we will have been travelling all night and all day and will be knackered! Next, where are we going to stay?
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31 Aug 09, 05:15 PM |
#3
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Thread Starter
Apprentice Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 05
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Hotels
Hmmm, this was going to be a tough one, since we are on a pretty tight budget for such a big trip…. HONOLULU I concentrated on Hawaii first, since I have been to San Francisco before and feel more confident on the best areas to stay etc. I had a look at the hotels on Waikiki beach and nothing in our price range was really grabbing me. Then I saw the Waikiki Circle Hotel (resortquesthawaii/haw...yGroupId=25563) on Trip Advisor and it had amazing views of the beach AND it was in our price range. We booked an ocean view room and started to get sooo excited about the holiday! Drinks on our balcony watching the sunset over Waikiki Beach? Yesss please! Of course, then I started to obsess over the hotel and read numerous reviews on Trip Advisor which said the best rooms were ocean FRONT rather then just ocean view. Hmmmm. I woke up early one Saturday morning and decided to see if we could change the reservation. Luckily, we had booked direct with the hotel and were able to upgrade, woo hoo! SAN FRANCISCO SF actually proved harder than Waikiki to find a hotel for. It being summer, most of the hotels are really expensive, and I didn’t want to risk being in a dodgy area since we are 2 girls travelling alone. Finally, after much obsessing and annoying of Dbf (who is not even going on the trip, bless him) I decided to try Priceline (priceline) to see if we could bid and get a bargain. YAY it was worth the gamble! I got the Tuscon Inn on Fisherman’s Wharf (tuscaninn/) for £65 a night – half what was being advertised on other websites. For our last two nights in San Francisco, I got the Hyatt on Fisherman’s Wharf (fishermanswharf.hyatt/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp) for £80 a night, again, less than half the rates on other websites Why two different hotels in San Francisco? I hear you ask. Well, I went to Yosemite National Park in summer 2004 and absolutely LOVED it and was sure Rachel (who has never been) would too, so we decided hire a car and drive out there for 2 nights during our San Francisco week. YOSEMITE For Yosemite, we have booked the Wawona hotel (yosemitepark/Accommod...wonaHotel.aspx). However, I’m thinking of changing it to somewhere outside the park because the Wawona is not in Yosemite village itself, and a little bit out of the way of our route in from San Francisco. Our parents have very kindly offered to treat as to both the Heathrow hotels, which have yet to be booked but that’s next!* * We booked the Radisson Edwardian for both nights later. Next? What are we going to do?
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31 Aug 09, 05:17 PM |
#4
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Thread Starter
Apprentice Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 05
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What will we be doing?
We haven’t booked anything for while we are there yet, and probably won’t book too much to be honest – partly because my sister is probably questioning my mental health after seeing my obsessive planning behaviours first hand and partly because we are going to try and have quite a relaxed time and wing it a bit. We have (of course ) talked about some things we want to do…. San Francisco: - Alcatraz (I’ve been before, but Rach wants to do it and the views across the city are amazing) - Ride the cable car - Hire bikes and cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge - SHOPPING! Yosemite: - Drive to Inspiration Point - Drive to Glacier Point - Walk to the bottom of the lower falls - Mirror lake - Maybe hike to Vernal falls? Hawaii: - Pearl Habour - Snorkelling at Hanauma Bay - “Lost” locations – maybe hire a car to see these? - The north shore of Oahu – probably hire a car for this too.
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Visited 1995 1996 1998 2000 2004 2005 2006 2015 2018 2023
Edited at 05:46 PM. |
1 Sep 09, 08:46 PM |
#5
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Serious Dibber
Join Date: Mar 05
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Yay another trip report about California! Looking forward to hearing about your trip!
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1 Sep 09, 09:18 PM |
#6
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Imagineer
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Sounds exciting...off to read the rest.
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2 Sep 09, 08:52 PM |
#7
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Guest
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I know im going to love this report! Me & DH went to SF & Hawaii last year, were both big fans of Lost & absolutely loved it!
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19 Sep 09, 05:40 PM |
#8
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Imagineer
Join Date: May 06
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This sounds fantastic, can't wait to read all about it
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Kathryn |
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20 Sep 09, 07:54 PM |
#9
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Imagineer
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This sounds promising
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26 Sep 09, 11:17 PM |
#10
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Imagineer
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fab start, off to read more!
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