CA - Possibly, Maybe, Now Definitely! Possibly the Final Itinerary!
 

Well, after all the changes and with less than 2 months to go, we think our final itinerary will be this (always subject to change! )

(Edited for changes with 4 weeks to go! )
(And edited again with 2 weeks to go... )

31/08: Fly MAN-LHR-SFO (BA/VA), drive to Pismo Beach, overnight at Hilton Garden Inn
01/09: Drive via Malibu to Marina del Rey, 5 nights at Global Luxury Suites.
02/09: Poss hop-on/off bus tour
03/09: Visiting WB Studio Tour, Hollywood etc
04/09: Nothing planned, just chilling around the pool
05/09: As per 4th!
06/09: Drive to Las Vegas. 5 nights at the Polo Towers
07/09: Las Vegas
08/09: Drive to Hoover Dam in morning. LV remainder of day.
09/09: Grand Canyon. Thanks to MIL, she has treated us all to a flight to the South Rim.
10/09: Las Vegas
11/09: Drop car at LAS and fly LAS-Oakland (Southwest Airlines). Arrival approx 11:00 so hoping to get half a day sightseeing around San Francisco. 4 nights at the Hilton Union Square.
12/09: Possible morning in Sausalito.
13/09: Alcatraz Tour booked for morning. Afternoon sightseeing.
14/09: Nothing planned as yet.
15/09: Morning in SF. Flight SFO-MAN (VA) departing 17:30.

Fingers crossed, no more major changes now... famous last words (again! ).

Edited - another tweak, this time changing our Las Vegas accommodation to the Polo Towers as the original Hilton booking was a little too far out for walking around... surely there can't be any more!

And then with just over 4 weeks to go, it makes sense to throw a few more changes into the pot!

Having realised that Pismo Beach may be a little ambitious given that we don't land at SFO until 3pm, the chief planner (me) has now decided that Monterey is a better option at around 2 hours drive from SFO.

As our hotel in Pismo Beach was fully refundable, it meant that changing location wasn't a problem, so having quite a few Hilton points available, I have now booked the Hampton by Hilton at Monterey - just $26 to make up the shortfall in points.

And on top of that, when we were flying into LA, we had booked an SUV as Joanne had always fancied driving one. However, with the change of flights to SFO, the price of SUVs with the one-way rental fees were coming in at around £450 so we ended up with a Nisson Altima.

However, yesterday saw one of the price tracking sites coming up with a decent offer on a RAV4 for £330 (including additional driver) and picking up from the airport, so booking this through Quidco knocked around £26 off the price.

Right - fingers crossed, that's it. All we have to do now is get ourselves to Manchester on the 31st, sit back and relax...

Wow, it all sounds great and not long to go now.
Carolynne

Notice that you are only a week or so behind us - hope you have a good time as well.

Thanks. We went last year with our two sons and had an amazing time. This year it's just me and hubby, different route, flying in to LAX and ending in SF. :grin:
Carolynne

That was our original plan - fly into LAX and back from SFO until the cheap PE fares into and back out of SFO came up!

Another tweak - as I had failed to remember that the Friday we will be driving down to MdR is the start of the Labor Day weekend, traffic will be fairly manic so I took the executive decision to change our booking to the Hilton Garden Inn at Pismo Beach.

Although a 3-1/2 hour drive from SFO, it does give us a good chance of avoiding some of the traffic problems nearer to LA.

And a second change is that thanks to my MIL, we will be flying down to the Grand Canyon South Rim rather then the 9 hour round trip drive. A much better option, but something that would have been prohibitively expensive to have done without her kind offer to pay for us.

Have a great trip... Looking forward to reading the report on your return:)

Looking forward to reading Tony. I always enjoy your trip reports. Hope you have a super time.

Thank you both. No further tweaks, but there's still 4 days to go!