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Old 18 May 19, 03:50 PM  
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#1
star89
Getting Excited
 
Join Date: Jan 12
Mobile Family trip summer 2020 advice

Hi
We are looking at a family California adventure for next year - 2 adults and 2 children (14 and 11)and I am looking for some advice/help.

Firstly, it will need to be summer holidays - what’s the average price for direct flights into San Fran and out of Las Vegas in
mid July/Aug?

Secondly, we are going to do Disney for 3/4 days - would it be ok to stop out of Disney itself and would we still be able to get on rides with out hours of queuing (thinking of how Florida Disney can be)or would it be best to stop in Disney so we get magic hours?

Thirdly, is there enough for kids to do in Vegas and does the fact that they cannot go on the casino floors make getting around the hotels to see the other activities difficult?

Fourthly, apart from San Fran, La and Lv, anyone recommend any other must stops along the way?

Thanks in advance 😊
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Old 18 May 19, 06:08 PM  
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danisleigh
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We haven’t been yet but have booked flights with Thomas cook for next summer. We fly into Vegas and out of San Fran 22nd August to 7th September and the cost was £600pp and that is premium on the way home.
We are doing 4 nights in Vegas, 4 in Anaheim, 2 in LA, 2 nights on the PCH, 2 in Yosemite then 2 in San Fran.
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Old 18 May 19, 06:44 PM  
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Rafiki22
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Originally Posted by danisleigh View Post
We haven’t been yet but have booked flights with Thomas cook for next summer. We fly into Vegas and out of San Fran 22nd August to 7th September and the cost was £600pp and that is premium on the way home.
We are doing 4 nights in Vegas, 4 in Anaheim, 2 in LA, 2 nights on the PCH, 2 in Yosemite then 2 in San Fran.
Can I ask if you are DIY'ing the hotels? I am thinking of something similar but never been so its a bit scary when you don't know how long it takes to get there. Sounds amazing!
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Old 18 May 19, 08:18 PM  
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danisleigh
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Originally Posted by Rafiki22 View Post
Can I ask if you are DIY'ing the hotels? I am thinking of something similar but never been so its a bit scary when you don't know how long it takes to get there. Sounds amazing!
Yes we are booking them all ourselves. So far we have only managed to book San Fran and have booked it on a cancellable rate but in September I imagine I will be able to start getting prices for all of the rest. We haven’t been before but I find it really exciting planning something new but the dibb definitely helps getting great tips and advice 👍
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Old 19 May 19, 12:12 PM  
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jdouds
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Hi would suggest you look at flying to LA, usually more option so usually cheaper. We paid £520. Would definately suggest you stop at Santa Barbara ,Monterey for whale watching and aquarium which is fantastic. On the way up the coast stop at San Simeon to see the elephant seals. After San Fran then 3.5 hours to yosemite 2/3 night would be ideal. Leave via tioga pass and onto vegas, you could if you wish stop at Death Valley for a night. Lots for kids in vegas
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Old 19 May 19, 02:56 PM  
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cornishfrogboy
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I would be looking long and hard at the trip reports of others and as a family deciding what are 'must do's', might do's and 'Don't do's. From that you can formulate a cunning plan and build on it.

We did our first trip last Easter and were confined to 14 nights due to the School Hols. We all agreed that it was the best of our 9 US visits to date.. and by a country mile. We did not do LV as it did not interest us and did not do Yosemite due to possible remaining snow and also the 14 day time constraint.

Absolute highlights for us were...

SFO,
1. Alcatraz.
2. Dylans ultimate cycling tour that covered theseafront, cycling the bridge, Sausolito and also Muir Woods.
3. Seeing Lombard St
4. Riding a cable car.

Monterey
Madonna Inn at San luis Obispo
Reagan Library in the Simi Valley
6 Flags
Oceanside
A night on the Queen Mary
A Hollywood tour...

And no1 of all... Dan Diego, a city that I knew little about before commencing planning, but fell in love with.

My trip report is 'California N to South at Easter' and I am suggesting that it will help because the whole trip is unusually on the one thread, rather than a thread per day. It may give you a 'start point' from which to build and that was my intention in compiling it that way. I would suggest that you then look at the numerous other threads that go deeper into particular locations that may interest you. Some of those are excellent.

We were initially wary of going outside our Florida comfort zone, but it was the best thing that we ever did, a fantastic vacation. DIY works just fine!
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Edited at 03:08 PM.
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Old 19 May 19, 05:33 PM  
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star89
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Getting Excited
 
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Mobile

Thanks all.
How much ‘average’ would I be looking at for flights in to San Fran and out of Vegas peek summer period for 2 adults, 1 teen and 1 child? I can’t get an idea on line as most companies that offer fly drives only seem to offer in and out of the same destination.
Can any one also recommend any one who I could ask for a quote for, for this and one where you don’t pay upfront but pay so many weeks before you fly?

Thanks everyone
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Old 19 May 19, 06:32 PM  
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cornishfrogboy
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It is difficult to find competitive flights this far out for flydrives with BA (Usually competitive and with CDW on the cars) beyond around 12 May 2020. With this in mind, I have resorted to my personal favorite (Google flights) and looked for this year.

How.
1.I use Google flights because when you get deeper into research and start seperating into the individual legs, their are a lot of tools. you can have a bar graph od day to day best prices. You can get the best price on each day for the researched flight appear within the calendar. You can search for alternative nearby airports of both departure and arrival at the touch of a button. in short it is brilliant to actually sort out both the best day to start and finish your vacation and the best airports to use.

2.when you have this information, you have a good idea what to put into the search engine for a 'multiflight' search, dates and airports.

3. When you have a result, you compare it with the same parameters on Kayak, Opodo, Expedia, Kayak and any others that you can think of.

4. When you have the best deal and, say it is with Delta, then you try the same search as a multi city on their site.

5. When you have that price, you try a telephone contact and then try to get them to match or beat those best prices. whilst they might not be able to beat them, they may offer seat selection, baggage etc in order to deal with you there and then. This has worked for me.


Now. Your question. I have not searched in depth because it is an estimate for you to work on. I have looked for this August in order to give you a 'Ballpark figure'. I have estimated you as a couple, a child of 12-15 and one sub 12 (Children don't pay Air Passenger Duty (APD) on outbound flights whilst Adults do).

If you flew London to Las Vegas and then returned from Los Angeles to London, out on 09 August and back on 29th...

1.Direct out of LHR with BA (10 hours) and then back from LAX to LHR with a stop in Phoenix (13 Hours) comes to £2487 booked through American Airlines.

2.If you wanted direct both ways with BA (through American codeshare) £3200.

These would have been flights only and thus cash up front through Credit Card.

If you want to pay by installments, then you need a Flydrive. As I said, BA have not yet released Fydrives out to August 2020. If that was what I sought, then I would work through steps 1 to 5 and then discuss this over the phone or alternatively, do the research before going on the BA site and seeking the Flydrive when I knew the likely cheapest dates.

Hope that helps.
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2005 onwards.. lots of times!

Index of all my Trip and Pretrip reports..https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...6#post15662196

Edited at 06:52 PM.
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Old 19 May 19, 07:17 PM  
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Sew109
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This is where we stayed in October great hotel massive rooms like apartments with Sofas and everything was about a 15 minute walk (5 minute Uber) from the park that felt safe close by to Cheesecake factory etc would stay there again
clementinehotel/?utm_sou...k-localconnect


I had my 9 year old with me in Vegas she loved it and did not feel restricted though once or twice whilst I was sorting stuff in the casinos she had to move slightly to be on "the right bit of carpet" . We got free tickets for the Secret Garden at Mirage and Shark reef at Mandalay as well as a "free" room at Park MGM and couple of free buffets for playing the free app Popslots separate accounts for me and the wife but you have to stay at a MGM resort to get full advantage.facebook/PopSlotsCasino/

This time we flew to Denver and back from LA we did it all in 12 days which was not enough really but we have done it before.
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