West coast

[Guest]

Thinking about 2010 0r 2011, for a trip to include anaheim, san fran, hollywood. I dont know where to start, like who to book with, would Aug be a good time of year to go?. Due to kids ages I'd be looking at 5 adults and 2 childs prices. I'd just like to price different idea's and have some thing to think about. Any hints, tips or advice would be very gratefully received.
I'd be flying from manchester if that makes any difference.
Thank you in advance.
Julie.

[Mazzy]

Hi Julie, we did West Coast in August 2007, our two were 13 and 17 when we went. We're only 15 mins from Manchester airport but we actually flew out from Heathrow with Virgin as we wanted a direct flight, and then flew over to Orlando after our West Coast trip, had a few days there and flew back into Manchester.

Our itinerary was:
San Francisco
Monterey
Disneyland
Los Angeles

then flew over to Orlando at the end of the trip.

The weather in San Francisco was quite cold, lol, and foggy, but we still enjoyed it, Monterey was a bit warmer, then LA was very hot but not humid, and Orlando was very hot AND humid, so it got hotter as we went on!

I only booked the flights with Virgin Atlantic, the hotels I booked myself. I'm a member of the AA over here and that got me the triple A discount on the hotels.

For Hollywood we stayed at renaissancehollywood It's a great hotel, has a rooftop pool, some rooms have a view of the hollywood sign. It's right there in the middle of it all, the Walk of Fame is right outside, so is the Disney Soda Fountain, the Chinese Theater and handprints, and also tours go from there as well. Also, Universal is only a 10 min drive away or one stop on the subway.

In Anaheim we stayed in a Disney hotel, the Grand Californian, we found the room too small though and if we went back would stay at the Disneyland Hotel instead. The location was fab though, right next to the park. Disneyland is very special as Walt was actually there, they keep a lamp burning in his apartment above the fire station on Main St, in his memory, it's definitely emotional seeing that, well it was for me!

Hope that helps a bit, any questions just ask.

[ali-s]

We went August last year, San Francisco, Monterey, San Diego and Anaheim. I spent alot of time on Tripadvisor- they have forums for all those areas and I found answers to just about all my questions without having to post them !
Have a play around on Expedia - you can check flight prices and who flies from where-different routes/stop overs etc. Go to flight only, advanced options I think ?
when you have decided when and where, book your flights as soon as pos- my flights were well under £500 adult when I checked oct 07, when I was ready to book in Jan 08 the same flights were almost £700

[travelmam]

We are going to Anaheim this year.
We lookat different TA's to find a good price, but we ended up booking through charter travel thanks to the dibbs and their helpful advice.

We had a great price with them.

As to where to go it all depends on what kind of things you like to do.
I would just search the web and on here for ideas.

[scarecrow]

we're going with Virgin from Heathrow, via Manchester. our connecting flights to LHR from Manchester cost us 230.00 return for 2A 1 child in August, with VH, to give you an idea. I didn't think this was too expensive.

I think if you fly direct from manchester, you will have to change somewhere in the states.

[DG34]

We are looking to go in August - school holidays i'm afraid!

Flights are expensive at the minute about £1550 for 2 adults and 1 child. Into San Fran and out of San diego

Is that about right for this time of year?

[Guest]

ive paid 2700 for august from Manchester with a 3 nights stopover in nYC for 2 adults 2 kids. prob very expenisve but i wanted that route. lots of us planning west coast so lets keep the info coming!

[alijolly]

Originally Posted by DG34

We are looking to go in August - school holidays i'm afraid!

Flights are expensive at the minute about £1550 for 2 adults and 1 child. Into San Fran and out of San diego

Is that about right for this time of year?

See more...

We went LA/LV/SF last at the beginning August and we are going again this August. We found by leaving going until the end of August we saved a fortune on flights, we only paid £1600 for 5 adults booking as soon as the flights became available with Virgin Atlantic. That is flying in and out of LA this time although it was only slightly different to do LA/SF or San Diego.

The weather in August is lovely, SoCal has such a great climate it never seems to get overwhelmingly hot. San Francisco was cold and foggy even in August so be prepared for a variation in temperatures, we knew it was colder and thought we had prepared but ended up buying extra sweaters.

[Guest]

a question for Mazzy! We want to spend some time in LA to do Universal, some beaches (santa monica?) and a one day in Hollywood/Beverely Hills. I see you stayed in Hollywood. How easy is it to get around LA to do the above while staying in one place? As we will have quite young kids I quite fancy staying in Santa Monica on teh beach and driving to Universal/hollywood etc for trips. What do you think?

We will then move on to Anaheim for 3 0r 4 nights.

[DIBBadmin]

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