Cost of trip

[Cherrypie]

Hi all I just wondered what you thought might be an average cost of a west coast trip.
There are 5 of us (me, DH and 3 girls 16,15, 12).
Flying ideally from Manchester but would fly from London for better routes.
2/3 days sfo
2/3 day road trip ( car and overnights)
2/3 La /Hollywood and universal
5/6 nights Anaheim Disney ( pref Disney hotel but not ideal of cost)
Uk summer hols flights?
Any ideas?
Thanks

[billbarbara229]

I very much doubt it will be possible at least this year as UK folks are not allowed tbh I wasnt impressed we cruised to Hawaii last year and stayed 4 nights in Longbeach is wasnt like the adverts and neither was Los Angeles very built up noisy and not very nice beach You had to travel outside miles to get away fro the hubbub

[cornishfrogboy]

The exchange rate is currently at 1.23 or near. It has been moving both ways. We are a family of 4, 2 adults and boys of 17 , 14. We tend to stay in Prem Inn quality hotels, so 3 stars U.K. standard, always try to get 3 beds and generally seek free breakfast whenever possible. I can give you two relevant examples of purchase (regretably not use though) and both recent as well as a similar exchange rate.

Observations.
1. West Coast flights, even directs seem much better value than anything going into MCO. I have priced up on 20 or more occasions over the past 5 or so years and target £500. I tend to look at such a plan in terms of A to B... and then B to A, often finding variations of more than £150pp in reversing the route. Yes, people like to go N to S and be on the right hand carriageway for the views, but I ain’t paying another £600 for it when it is a two lane road and the S to N may have less traffic on it due to the traditional preference of N to S.
Of the major airports, LA seems to be cheapest, followed by SFO and then the often expensive San Diego. I would recommend that if getting to San Diego, driving your last day up to LA thus having the options to stop in La Jolla (Scripps Oceanography), Legoland and then consider a last night on the amazing RMS Queen Mary. We then drove to Santa Monica on the last morning and did a really good LA/Hollywood tour from there before flying out of LAX that evening.. saving on that occasion £120pp over San Diego minus £169 to stay the night in a former State Room on the Queen Mary.
Research pays and that trip report (albeit uncounted) is in my signature.

2. You do not have to stick to the big 3 airports plus Tacoma (Seattle). On one of our trips (cancelled March one), we realised that San Luis Obispo has a great little regional Airport (bringing in the Madonna Inn and Pismo) that serves major airports and can cut out driving that you might not want to do. We Intended driving down to S L Obispo, dumping our hire car, flying to Tacoma and then driving a further distance to see friends in Vancouver before flying home. The reason was that we didn’t want to go to LA as the PCH south of Pismo is not as good as much of the rest as it skirts inland round Vandenburg AFB.. and we were unimpressed with LA last time. There are doubtless other regionals that can be used in a similar way.

3. We now always book hotels with a free cancellation policy. My wife used to laugh at my research, planning and spreadsheets. She wasn’t laughing as I clawed back every penny (bar £144 on which I am now taking the chargeback route for), when we fell through in March.

COST.
As I said, 2 plans with four travelling on the terms already stated. Both trips can easily be viewed on the California pre trip reporting section of the DIBB (In detail and with relevant Photos ) in a single entry. I believe that both are on the front page as this section sees less traffic than some others. These reports even cover the Hotels booked and why.

The March / Easter hols one came to £4900 at the time that I pulled the plug along with the suppliers in the small number of bookings that had no free cancellation. That price included all trips other than Horse riding at the Madonna Inn. I did of course save on accommodation in Vancouver. I had $5000 spending money, but would expect to bring plenty of that home for another year. We tend to eat free breakfasts, cheap in the day and a Longhorn/ Bahama Breeze standard 2 course meal in the evening, probably with 2 Cocktail for my Darling Wife... if I am driving afterwards.

Example 2, for this August was a little, but not much more, £5225. factors were..
1. I needed 14 night’s accommodation as I don’t have a friend to board me for free.
2. There are no internal flights (SL Obispo to Tacoma was £274 for four).
3, Car hire was cheaper than Cars hire as I only needed one and whilst changing State, was not changing Country into Canada. I book a Quashkai or similar.
4, Hotels in Phoenix and Tucson are good value, whilst anything near Hollywood, Universal, Warner Bros or the PCH will cost you lots more.
5. Lower standard accommodation in San Francisco is very, very expensive and often there is no Breakfast thrown in. Areas such as Tenderloin, Mission and some of Nob Hill were not considered. Oakland (by the Bridge) is pleasant, decent value and has very regular BART trains (think London Underground) to Embarcadero and Union Sq. It is a decent, level walk from Embarcadero to Fishermen’s etc. That Hyatt was £960 for 4 nights, bay view and breakfast with 3 beds. I believe you can get extras. In SFO, few provide extra beds an you end up booking multiple rooms at multiple cost.
6. Thankfully, there is no 6.

SUGGESTION.
Read my trippie, then read my two Pre trippie’s. It is pointless my detailing them here... then read this more thoroughly as it may make more sense. You will note that whilst my trippie covers many of the premium attractions, my two pre trippies are a bit more out of the box. This is because having visited Orlando 9 times in 14 years, we increasingly reduced retreading our old steps with each vacation. If you look at my most recent trippie, Boston etc, we only spent 9 of 21 In Orlando and on many days, drove straight out of town to other things.

Manchester? I can’t help you. Heathrow is our nearest viable airport and in any case, the only reason I have ever visited the North West is for prison visits or statement taking/ interviewing suspects.. (I was a career DC in Cornwall).

I sincerely hope that this helps you. In summary, costs are very generally like this.
Flights can be good value, even directs.
Hotels will cost a fair bit more like for like than off site Orlando.
Food costs a bit more (Cali taxes).
Car hire is about the same.
Theme parks and attractions generally play less of a part, but from more franchises, Whale trips, Cycling, Hearst Castle etc etc etc.

Top best things..
Alcatraz
Dylans Ultimate cycle tour inc Muir Woods and Sausalito.
Whale watching.
San Diego in general.
RMS Queen Mary for a night afloat(ish).

[Cherrypie]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

The exchange rate is currently at 1.23 or near. It has been moving both ways. We are a family of 4, 2 adults and boys of 17 , 14. We tend to stay in Prem Inn quality hotels, so 3 stars U.K. standard, always try to get 3 beds and generally seek free breakfast whenever possible. I can give you two relevant examples of purchase (regretably not use though) and both recent as well as a similar exchange rate.

Observations.
1. West Coast flights, even directs seem much better value than anything going into MCO. I have priced up on 20 or more occasions over the past 5 or so years and target £500. I tend to look at such a plan in terms of A to B... and then B to A, often finding variations of more than £150pp in reversing the route. Yes, people like to go N to S and be on the right hand carriageway for the views, but I ain’t paying another £600 for it when it is a two lane road and the S to N may have less traffic on it due to the traditional preference of N to S.
Of the major airports, LA seems to be cheapest, followed by SFO and then the often expensive San Diego. I would recommend that if getting to San Diego, driving your last day up to LA thus having the options to stop in La Jolla (Scripps Oceanography), Legoland and then consider a last night on the amazing RMS Queen Mary. We then drove to Santa Monica on the last morning and did a really good LA/Hollywood tour from there before flying out of LAX that evening.. saving on that occasion £120pp over San Diego minus £169 to stay the night in a former State Room on the Queen Mary.
Research pays and that trip report (albeit uncounted) is in my signature.

2. You do not have to stick to the big 3 airports plus Tacoma (Seattle). On one of our trips (cancelled March one), we realised that San Luis Obispo has a great little regional Airport (bringing in the Madonna Inn and Pismo) that serves major airports and can cut out driving that you might not want to do. We Intended driving down to S L Obispo, dumping our hire car, flying to Tacoma and then driving a further distance to see friends in Vancouver before flying home. The reason was that we didn’t want to go to LA as the PCH south of Pismo is not as good as much of the rest as it skirts inland round Vandenburg AFB.. and we were unimpressed with LA last time. There are doubtless other regionals that can be used in a similar way.

3. We now always book hotels with a free cancellation policy. My wife used to laugh at my research, planning and spreadsheets. She wasn’t laughing as I clawed back every penny (bar £144 on which I am now taking the chargeback route for), when we fell through in March.

COST.
As I said, 2 plans with four travelling on the terms already stated. Both trips can easily be viewed on the California pre trip reporting section of the DIBB (In detail and with relevant Photos ) in a single entry. I believe that both are on the front page as this section sees less traffic than some others. These reports even cover the Hotels booked and why.

The March / Easter hols one came to £4900 at the time that I pulled the plug along with the suppliers in the small number of bookings that had no free cancellation. That price included all trips other than Horse riding at the Madonna Inn. I did of course save on accommodation in Vancouver. I had $5000 spending money, but would expect to bring plenty of that home for another year. We tend to eat free breakfasts, cheap in the day and a Longhorn/ Bahama Breeze standard 2 course meal in the evening, probably with 2 Cocktail for my Darling Wife... if I am driving afterwards.

Example 2, for this August was a little, but not much more, £5225. factors were..
1. I needed 14 night’s accommodation as I don’t have a friend to board me for free.
2. There are no internal flights (SL Obispo to Tacoma was £274 for four).
3, Car hire was cheaper than Cars hire as I only needed one and whilst changing State, was not changing Country into Canada. I book a Quashkai or similar.
4, Hotels in Phoenix and Tucson are good value, whilst anything near Hollywood, Universal, Warner Bros or the PCH will cost you lots more.
5. Lower standard accommodation in San Francisco is very, very expensive and often there is no Breakfast thrown in. Areas such as Tenderloin, Mission and some of Nob Hill were not considered. Oakland (by the Bridge) is pleasant, decent value and has very regular BART trains (think London Underground) to Embarcadero and Union Sq. It is a decent, level walk from Embarcadero to Fishermen’s etc. That Hyatt was £960 for 4 nights, bay view and breakfast with 3 beds. I believe you can get extras. In SFO, few provide extra beds an you end up booking multiple rooms at multiple cost.
6. Thankfully, there is no 6.

SUGGESTION.
Read my trippie, then read my two Pre trippie’s. It is pointless my detailing them here... then read this more thoroughly as it may make more sense. You will note that whilst my trippie covers many of the premium attractions, my two pre trippies are a bit more out of the box. This is because having visited Orlando 9 times in 14 years, we increasingly reduced retreading our old steps with each vacation. If you look at my most recent trippie, Boston etc, we only spent 9 of 21 In Orlando and on many days, drove straight out of town to other things.

Manchester? I can’t help you. Heathrow is our nearest viable airport and in any case, the only reason I have ever visited the North West is for prison visits or statement taking/ interviewing suspects.. (I was a career DC in Cornwall).

I sincerely hope that this helps you. In summary, costs are very generally like this.
Flights can be good value, even directs.
Hotels will cost a fair bit more like for like than off site Orlando.
Food costs a bit more (Cali taxes).
Car hire is about the same.
Theme parks and attractions generally play less of a part, but from more franchises, Whale trips, Cycling, Hearst Castle etc etc etc.

Top best things..
Alcatraz
Dylans Ultimate cycle tour inc Muir Woods and Sausalito.
Whale watching.
San Diego in general.
RMS Queen Mary for a night afloat(ish).

See more...

Thanks so much will have a read of your trippies x

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by Cherrypie

Thanks so much will have a read of your trippies x

See more...

The pre trippies may help you more.

[smithlane]

We went last July/Aug for 3 weeks, family of 4 with two teens aged 16 & 14. Our itinerary was

3 nights San Fran
3 nights Monterey
1 night Solvang
2 nights LA
3 nights Buena Park
5 nights Oceanside
1 night Bakersfield
3 nights Yosemite

The exchange rate was approx $1.25 at the time and for absolutely everything we spent £12,078. This was made up of

Flights and car with BA - £3146. Indirect to SFO with Aer Lingus via Dublin on the way out then direct home from SFO to LHR. Our car was a Ford Explorer group with Avis. We got a very nice VW Atlas (Tourareg)

Accommodation -
San Fran - Columbus Motor Inn - £794
Monterey (it was actually Pacific Grove which is next door and just stunning!) - Air BnB - £808
Solvang - Svendsgaard Lodge - £100
Los Angeles/Hollywood - Apartment through Booking.com - £321
Buena Park - Radisson Suites - £259
Oceanside - Air BnB - £1113.80
Bakersfield - Whispering Meadows - £135
Yosemite - Curry Village camping - £445

Extras -
Alcatraz - £149
Cable car - £22
Whale Watching - £160
Paddleboarding - £105
Bike hire x2 (San Fran and Santa Monica) - £200
Warner Bros Studio Tour - £220
Knotts Berry Farm inc. all day dining - £319
Surfing - £128
Rafting - £91
Starry Night Tour - £32

Food - We ate out approx twice a day. Twice we had dinner from Walmart and once from Whole Foods, the rest was the usual mid range chain restaurant. Kids 90% of the time were off of the adult menu.
£3153

Petrol - not bad considering we did a few miles short of 2000
£306

Parking - parking is not cheap in most cities, you'll pay roughly $15-$20 each time. Thankfully our hotel in San Fran had free parking as most charge upwards of $50 a night!
£166

I think that's everything! Any questions just ask, I also did a trippy that may help with your planning. Have a great time, it's been our favourite holiday by miles

[dave]

We had booked the following for this August before flights with VA cancelled🙄
2 adults 1 teen (14)
Flights originally direct Manchester to LV, out econ classic, back PE £900 (tax, fees only) plus a lot of air miles but at time of booking flights would have been £3600.
2 nights Caesar’s palace £260
2 nights Hyatt regency San Diego, club level, £500
3 nights L.A. Millenium Biltmore, club level, £500
9 nights Hilton grand vacation LV 1 bed suite $1500 inc resort fees
Int SUV £500
Hoping to rebook flights with VA for next July if their still going🙄

[scottishgirl1]

I am so impressed with the detailed costings, I am really bad at keeping records of spending

We have done West Coast trips 3 times over the years as a family of 5 and would say it is the cost of accommodation for 5 and theme park tickets that drive it up

Other than that, flights were previously less competitively priced than Orlando and food was never too bad but obviously we were not eating steak every night as DS does on the DDP. Car hire was slightly more expensive than Orlando as well and cars were sometimes not so nice but not prohibitively so.

I could give you some ideas of hotels for five if you want from ones we have stayed in and ones we still may try! We usually try reasonably priced ones with a bit more space and a dibber julia has a fab west coast trip report running currently for a family of 5 that may help

[danisleigh]

We have booked for this August and hope to rearrange for next summer. Hotels were a big expense for us, we booked
3 nights ceasars palace Vegas £360
3 nights Anaheim £400
3 nights universal Hilton LA £680
2 nights on the PCH £370
2 nights Yosemite £500
2 nights San Fran £370

The car was £420 for 11 nights for an SUV, flights direct with BA about £700 each including reserving seats. Theme parks and other tours set us back another big chunk. Can’t wait to go though, so sad to not go this year but I do want the full experience as it’s our first time.

[dave]

Originally Posted by danisleigh

We have booked for this August and hope to rearrange for next summer. Hotels were a big expense for us, we booked
3 nights ceasars palace Vegas £360
3 nights Anaheim £400
3 nights universal Hilton LA £680
2 nights on the PCH £370
2 nights Yosemite £500
2 nights San Fran £370

The car was £420 for 11 nights for an SUV, flights direct with BA about £700 each including reserving seats. Theme parks and other tours set us back another big chunk. Can’t wait to go though, so sad to not go this year but I do want the full experience as it’s our first time.

See more...

All the planning to do again🙄