D i y

[tonymc]

Also worth setting up an account with one or more of the cashback sites (Quidco for example) where you can often get 10% or more cashback on your bookings with the likes of hotels.com, Expedia, booking.com etc. Also works for car rentals and flights. On our recent west coast visit, we managed around £250 cashback from our flight, hotels and car bookings.

It may also be worth considering renting a condo if your plans are fairly fixed. We have just returned from 2 weeks on the west coast and had one bed condos on a complex in Marina del Rey (near Santa Monica), and in a block just off the strip in Vegas.

Both times they were cheaper than a hotel room, but gave us a separate bedroom, full kitchen facilities, a sofa bed in the lounge for our teenager, and laundry facilities.

We booked these through hotels.com and Expedia respectively, but also looked at Airbnb, Flipkey/Trip Advisor etc. It is worth noting though that condo rentals generally have a much more restrictive cancellation policy (e.g. either no refunds or 50% refund up to 7 days before arrival) than hotels (often cancellation up to 2 days before arrival for a full refund).

If you do book a hotel on a cancellable rate, use the likes of Kayak or hotels.com to set up a price watch as some sites do offer a price guarantee up to the cancellation window. A few years ago, we got £200 back from hotels.com after finding the same New York hotel cheaper.

[4fromsuffolk]

Thank you.

Condo sounds like a good idea as all sharing a room sometimes is a little too much!

[red cuillen]

You'll love the west coast, hopefully. So much more to do than Florida and there is something special about visiting the original Disneyland.
There is a cold sea current along the coast, so in April you can expect some sea fog, but can still be hot inland, especially in the desert, but not as bad as August and it's a dry heat! Cooler in the evenings too, so more variety needed in your suitcases!