Where to start cost ideas etc

[Tinkertangled]

Planning on a 2019 summer road trip - family of 2 adults 2 kids (10 and 9) San Fran to LA to Vegas.
We know what we want to see:
Alcatraz, Golden Gate boat tour, Disneyland, Universal and the Grand Canyon.
Are the usual ticket companies ATD etc cheapest or is it cheaper to buy out there?
SF hotels seem pretty pricey I haven’t found any under £800 for 3 nights is that right or am I not looking in the right places?
What type of budget would you allow for food?
I was thinking of booking flights and car separately which is what we do when we go to Florida. For those of you with experience is this the best option or would a fly drive be better?
TIA!

[pompeyboy]

We found a BA flight and car package worked out cheaper than just flights, also into SF and out of LA was the same price as a return to SF. Also if you book a flight/car package you can just pay a deposit rather than the whole amount at booking.

We booked the first 3 nights in SF through BA too as their prices were pretty good compared to the usual booking sites.

SF is expensive hotel wise but you should be able to get a decent hotel cheaper than £800.

Try putting some dates in for this summer to get an idea.

[Tweety1]

Book hotels as soon as you can on refundable rates. We go in July and i have cancelled and rebooked a few times, tbh though they have either stayed the same and at the minute seem to be increasing!

[MichelleT]

We are doing the same trip this summer covering all the places you have mentioned, we are a family of 4 and managed to book miles reward flights into San Fran and home from Vegas. We have booked the car seperatly through virgin and to give you an idea the cost for three weeks for flights, car & hotels is approx £5k.

We are staying at hotel Zoe in San Fran which had a great rate of £433 for 3 nights but this was a non-refundable rate, all our other hotels are cancellable rates which is recommended as your plans can change - ours is still not 100% in place and it’s not that long off now

[jdouds]

Hi we found it cheaper to fly in and out of LA and then did a circular route. Santa Barbara , Monterey , San Fran, yosemite , vegas and Palm Springs. How long a trip are you planning .

[georgemac]

Have a look at trip reports for some ideas.
AirBnB might work out cheaper for a family than a hotel - we have mot stayed in one yet, but other Dibbers have, I am keen, my wife not so keen.

We did the same trip in 2015 - we had 13 nights and it was a tough squeeze.
Food maybe slightly more expensive than Florida - but you can always find decent affordable food.

[Tweety1]

Originally Posted by MichelleT

We are doing the same trip this summer covering all the places you have mentioned, we are a family of 4 and managed to book miles reward flights into San Fran and home from Vegas. We have booked the car seperatly through virgin and to give you an idea the cost for three weeks for flights, car & hotels is approx £5k.

We are staying at hotel Zoe in San Fran which had a great rate of £433 for 3 nights but this was a non-refundable rate, all our other hotels are cancellable rates which is recommended as your plans can change - ours is still not 100% in place and it’s not that long off now

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We got reward seats like you such a saving
We will be there at the same time and I saw your other post so many things to see so little time! Just to throw another one in there(which I didn’t know about) there is the Reagan museum which looks amazing and would be en route. Don’t forget the WB Studio tour aswell

[Guest]

I'm looking at a very similar trip for next year - 2 adults, 2 kids for two weeks in August. I'm finding that Airbnb is massively cheaper than hotels for my trip - particularly for San Francisco and Monterey

[MichelleT]

Originally Posted by Tweety1

We got reward seats like you such a saving
We will be there at the same time and I saw your other post so many things to see so little time! Just to throw another one in there(which I didn’t know about) there is the Reagan museum which looks amazing and would be en route. Don’t forget the WB Studio tour aswell

See more...

Yes there’s just so much to see and do a second trip will be a must I think

[tocpe321]

We did a California road trip last year and it was excellent. We flew into/ out of LAX and we got a fantastic short-lived BA fly drive deal. A kind Dibber put a thread on that alerted us. The deal was in September for the following August. For 4 of us with a Group W SUV we paid about £2,200.
A week later it had more than doubled in price.

If you can get a similar deal then yes I would definitely buy a combined package, but I would shop around and see how separate bookings compare.

For San Francisco we did a search on Trip Advisor and put in free parking. We got a price that we were happy with and stayed at the Cow Hollow Motor Inn. Definitely recommend it. There are other sister Motor Inn hotels in San Francisco.

We paid under $900 for 4 nights so certainly not very cheap, but with free parking it was even better value. San Francisco parking can be very expensive.

I would say that cost of living, as well as hotels, are more expensive on the West Coast. You can offset the cost with cheaper options like In n Out burger or Denny's, but it definitely won't be a cheap holiday.

In terms of tickets we generally pre-bought, although we didn't do Disney or Universal.

This is a link to a summary of our trip which will hopefully help with ideas including attraction tickets.

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1046701

We stayed in California, so I can't answer regarding Las Vegas, but there is loads of information on the Dibb. daytonababe is very helpful with Las Vegas and general West Coast information, but I think she is away at the moment.

Happy planning