West Coast California and Las Vegas -'Highs and Lows' Report

[Pedro]

Just got back from a West Coast USA trip with my wife, daughter (14) and son (10). Had a fabulous time and I know I won't get time to do a full trip report so thought I’d post a few ‘highs and lows’ which I hope you enjoy:

Itinerary
3 nights San Francisco – Radisson Hotel, Fisherman’s Wharf
radissonsanfrancisco/index.php
2 nights Monterey – Hotel Pacific
hotelpacific/
5 nights Laguna Beach – Vacation Village
vacationvillage/
4 nights Las Vegas – Venetian Hotel
venetian/

Hired a car after San Francisco and drove between all the other locations.

Flights
Manchester – Chicago O’Hare with BMI then on to San Francisco with United
Las Vegas – Chicago with TED then on to Manchester with BMI

Highs
Everything on time, no delays. Aircraft, leg room, flight entertainment, service etc all v.good.

Lows
Huge security queues at Chicago, not well managed. Had 2 hrs transit time on way out but only ended up with 10 mins to spare for connecting flight

Trains between terminals chaotic

Champagne Moment
On disembarking the Vegas-Chicago flight, pointed out the cockpit to DS (10 yr old). The Pilot overheard and said “come on in and have a look around”. He sat him in the Captain’s seat, put his Captain’s hat on and let me take some photos. Explained a lot about the controls and was really friendly and welcoming. Very nice touch.

San Francisco
Highs
First view of Alcatraz from San Francisco Bay

Hotel in great location, right on Fisherman’s Wharf so all main attractions within easy walking distance. Large room, minimal noise. Result

Sour dough clam chowder. Local delicacy poured into a round sour dough bread loaf made into a bowl with the inside scooped out. Delicious!

Seafood. If you’re a fan it’s awesome

Pier 39. Great for kids and good shops too

Alcatraz tour. Had a former prison officer from 1949-51 in our party. In his 80’s now but fascinating to listen to

Cable cars and the views from top of steep roads down over the Bay were amazing

Saw the famous ‘Bush Man’ in action. Jumps out from behind branches and scares the whatsits out of tourists. He was outside a café bar we were in, kids loved him
youtube/watch?v=JKfNo...elated&search=

Lows
Weather. Stayed dry but freezing cold in morning and evenings. No other complaints. Loved the place, everything and more we’d heard about it

Champagne Moment
Bike ride over Golden Gate Bridge. Hired bikes at Fisherman’s Wharf, rode along the coast, up to and over the Bridge with amazing views. We stopped half way on the Bridge to watch a US Navy vessel sail below. The sailors in white uniform stood ‘at ease’ all around the vessel. Downhill on the other side to quaint little town of Sausalito. Approx 8 mile total ride then took ferry back across the Bay after lunch. Marvellous.
blazingsaddles/sf_bike_ride_maps.html

Monterey
Highs
Touching the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life. Did this ceremonially. Must be having a mid-life crisis!

17 mile drive. A bit tame at first but coastal stretch beautiful. Pebble Beach Golf Club awesome but somewhat racey at $505 a round. Great clubhouse and views over 18th green

Bubba Gump’s shrimp restaurant. Any fan of Forrest Gump should go. Clever themeing, even the restrooms

Picturesque coastline. Pretty harbour and marina with fishing pier. Watching sardines being caught by the dozen on simple rods with mackerel feathers. Even though the industry died decades ago, still some fish around

Playing ‘boules’ on a dirt track on the way back to the hotel from Fisherman’s Wharf where the balls are left unlocked and unsupervised in a container free of charge for the public to use. I can think of many places where this would not last five minutes

Lows
Can’t think of any but I suppose having to leave after only two days and not getting time to see the Aquarium. With hind-sight would have extended stay here and reduced time in LA or Vegas.

Champagne Moment
Cannery Row. Especially having read John Steinbeck’s novels set in Monterey. Lots of history, fabulous shops, bars, restaurants
monterey/mc4/mc4h.html

Laguna Beach/LA
Highs
Baseball at Dodger Stadium and seeing the LA Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies. We booked tickets months ago and loved the experience

I’m sure the girls would say the shopping. Superb mall at Laguna Hills

Vacation Village a great location on Laguna Beach. Walked straight out of apartment block onto private stretch of beach where attendant provides loungers, chairs, towels, umbrellas, kids sand toys and even boogie boards to ride the waves. Property just right of centre on opening page on this link
lagunabeachinfo/

Could have been put off accommodation by a lot of negative Trip Advisor reports. Worried us a wee bit but glad we stuck to our own instincts. I think a lot of visitors have unrealistic expectations of VV because Laguna is such an upmarket resort. They expect 5 star quality but it is a 3 star property albeit in prime location right on the beach. We had a two bedroom apartment which was clean and extremely spacious. Staff very friendly and helpful.

Boogie boarding the Pacific rollers which were pretty awesome at times

Sunsets from the apartment across the Pacific. Stunning.

Lows
Horrendous traffic queues in all directions around LA city

Not getting to Hollywood on the day we planned. Abandoned due to traffic

Champagne Moment
New York Yankees were in town (the Man Utd of baseball) for three sell-out matches against LA Angels of Anaheim. Called at the stadium on the off chance of some returns but the lady at the ticket booth laughed and told us they were sold out weeks ago. As we walked back to the car, a guy ran over saying the lady wants us to go back. She just took a call returning two tickets for tonight’s game ! Amazing luck so we got to go to Angel Stadium as well. Great atmosphere and Angels beat the Yankees in a tense finalé

Las Vegas
Highs
Venetian Hotel. Opulent 5 star luxury, all rooms are suites. Amazing but so big and vast, we barely got our bearings in four days

Watching high rollers play the roulette tables. Scary

Madame Tussaud’s in the Venetian. Unlike London, you can touch and have your photos taken with any of the models. A number of interactive rooms such as taking a putt next to Tiger Woods and hear the crowd roar when the ball goes in. Also a very scary Chamber of Horrors with live actors that jump out at you! mtvegas/chamber.html

The Strip at night. Sheer size, scale, glitz and lavishness of hotels and attractions

Dancing fountains at the Bellagio. Spectacular. Beautifully choreographed to both pop and classical music. Plays every 15 mins. Night time best when lit up and not so hot

Roller coaster at New York, New York Hotel. Looks a smooth tubular type such as Kraken at Seaworld in Orlando but it’s the biggest bone-shaker ever!

Imax 3D theatre at the Luxor Hotel. Saw the Deep Sea film narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. Educational, entertaining and inspirational. Best 3D quality I’ve ever seen, seriously.

Lows
The heat. 110 degrees of burning hot sun every day. Fortunately, easy to keep out of it as all the attractions are indoors. For a family of four, taxi’s are the best way (cheapest, fastest, air conditioned) to get around

The gauntlet of Mexicans/Hispanics (male and female) handing out fliers for prostitutes and strip joints. Majority leave you alone when with kids but one nearly got punched as he tried to get my 10 yr old to take one!

Not getting to Fremont St Experience. Ran out of time.

Champagne Moment
Helicopter trip to Grand Canyon. Booked the 1st Class ‘Grand Celebration’ with Papillon. Collected by stretch limo from hotel, taken to VIP terminal at McCarran airport. 40 mins flight passing over Lake Mead, Hoover Dam before descending 4,000ft into the Canyon. Incredible views and it’s only when you see a familiar object, such as another helicopter looking the size of a bee, you get some perspective of just how huge everything is. Spectacular beyond words.
papillon/popris/show_...114&lang=en-US

Well that's all folks. Hope you enjoyed reading about a great family holiday and one we enjoyed so much. It set the scene in splendid fashion to turn the grand old age of 50 during the flight home to Manchester !

Bye for now
Peter

[Cal and Dave]

wow what a fantastic time you have had. We stayed at the radisson at fishermans wharf, and thought it was great too! We had a view of Alcatraz.
Infact we went to most places you did, and it has brought it all back, and makes me want to go back

the angels game sounded good?

did you do disney at LA too?

[purple myra]

wow... what a fantastic trip! glad you had so many highs and your son must be really puffed up about being in the cockpit..not many people will get to do that nowadays.

[Guest]

Great report the venetian looks awsome! Hopeing to go to Las vegas in few years for 40th, tempted to stay there

[Guest]

brilliant trip, we have done vagas but we would like to do california, thanks for sharing

[Guest]

Wow what a fab trip. How lucky were you getting your tickets to see the New York Yankees! Glad it was a good match.

[Jools]

What a fabulous holiday. We are doing a similar trip next year so I'll have to take a good look at the links you have posted. I'd love to 'bike the bridge' but it's a long tiome since I cycled anywhere. Would you say it's not too difficult for beginers?

The helicopter to the Grand Canyon looks amazing

[Guest]

Wow, sounds like you had a fantastic time, I have visited all the places you mentioned and can relate to all you said , we thouroughly enjoyed it, so much so we have done it 4 times now. Loved the drive from SF to Vegas, stayed at some fantastic places, Yosemite National Park was also Fab.

[Maz]

Thanks for the report - sounds a fab holiday. We went 10 years ago and loved it - though we set off in brilliant sunshine from SF down the road to LA, and the fog came in at Carmel and ruined the view! Means we have to do it again me thinks!

[Guest]

wow, what a great report!

my cousin gets married in the venetian next week, after reading your report i am sure she will have a great stay