First Road Trip to the West Coast

[Lolly90]

Hi Everyone!

So with just over 6 weeks to go till our West Coast road trip I thought it was time to start the pre-trip report. I done one of these last year for our NYC/Florida trip but never got round to writing the full report I still have all my notes, so I'm still hoping to get it done at some point very soon! (this is now complete )

This will be our 3rd visit to the USA together and I think it's going to be our favourite trip so far!

Who's Going -

Me - Laura - Almost 25 - Most looking forward to Yosemite
Boyfriend - Mark - 24 - Most looking forward to Vegas

This is us on our most recent holiday to Tenerife in May

When We're Going -

15 Nights, from 28th August to 12th September

Back in January I was very eager to get the flights booked, so we ended up paying £705 each, which is quite a bit more than we wanted to pay but I didn't want to wait any longer. We're flying direct from Heathrow to San Francisco with Virgin and back from Las Vegas to Heathrow with Delta. Our flight on the way back is indirect, with a layover in Detroit. I've never flown indirect before but I'm hoping we won't get any delays and it will help to break up the long journey.

Where We're Going -

We'll be flying into San Francisco, where we'll spend 3 nights before picking up our hire car.

Next up is Yosemite for 2 nights, I'm really looking forward to this part of the trip and hope to get some amazing photos, just like this:

From here we'll be driving back towards the coast and taking the Pacific Coast Highway, spending 1 night in Monterey and 1 night in Pismo Beach.

Our next stop will be Los Angeles for 4 nights, we'll be doing the typical sightseeing and spending some time at the beach.

The final 4 nights of our trip will be spent in Las Vegas, we have so much we want to fit in here but can't wait

Thanks for reading!

Updates -

• Where We're Staying
• What We've Booked - Part 1 - Part 2
• What We've Got Planned - Days 1 to 4 - Days 5 to 8 - Days 9 to 12

[smedley]

Looking good so far interested to see which hotels you've booked.

[Lolly90]

Where We're Staying -

San Francisco

Beresford Arms Hotel - 3 nights

This was probably the hardest choice to make, the hotels in San Fran are just so expensive. It's located not too far from Union Square, so that should be handy for travelling around. I'm still not 100% happy with our choice but we aren't planning to spend much time in the hotel and we got a good deal I think. We booked with eBookers, paid £315 and got about 14% cashbook too. You get free coffee/tea and pastries in the morning and cheese and wine in the afternoons, which sounds quite nice.

Yosemite

Yosemite View Lodge - 2 nights

I knew as soon as we booked this trip that this is where I wanted to stay and it was the first hotel I booked in January as I read it gets booked up quickly. I've seen the hotel recommended on here a few times and in a couple of trip reports. It's located just outside one of the entrances to the National Park and along the river. We booked with Lastminute.com, paid £258 and got £30 cashback, so not too bad. I'm hoping we get a room with a view

Monterey

Hotel Abrego - 1 night

I felt like there wasn't a lot of choice for hotels in Monterey. I'd seen this one on abiknox's trip report and it seems in a good location for getting to the pier where we'll be taking a boat trip. We paid £105 with eBookers and got £10 cashback.

Pismo Beach

Sandcastle Inn - 1 night

This is the hotel I'm looking forward to staying in the most, it's right by the beach and we have a room with views of the ocean and pier I can't wait to watch the sunset from the balcony after a long day of driving down the coast. We paid £115, again with eBookers.

Los Angeles

Airbnb Apartment in West Hollywood - 4 nights

Again, I thought hotels in L.A were quite expensive and I couldn't find a reasonably priced one in the area I wanted to stay (somewhere between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood). I read in k4ti3-x's trip report that they booked their L.A apartment on Airbnb so thought I'd take a look. I've never booked on there before but when I was looking I made sure I chose an apartment that had a few good reviews. Unfortunately the original one we booked the owner is getting rid of this month, so she moved us to a more Spanish style apartment, which isn't as nice but still in the same location and looks cosy. Total cost was a very reasonable £344.

Las Vegas

The Signature at MGM - 4 nights

This was a very hard choice, there are so many amazing hotels to choose from. In the end we went with The Signature, Mark's parents stayed here a few years ago and loved it. I like the fact that it isn't directly on the strip but close enough to walk to. We booked a balcony room and I think we got a great deal. We've paid £318, with Last Minute and got £38 cashback. Obviously we still have the resort fee to pay, which I think is about £86.

So that's all our hotels We haven't stayed in this many different hotels on 1 trip before, so I'm hoping we get on OK with all the unpacking and repacking.

Total cost of hotels (including any cashback) = £1335.00

[Lolly90]

Originally Posted by smedley

Looking good so far interested to see which hotels you've booked.

See more...

Thank you I've just posted!

[abiknox]

Great start! I was thinking the trip looked familiar and then I got a mention

Yosemite View Lodge was amazing, a bit dated but still fabulous! The baths are HUGE & if you can get a river view there is nothing better than heading out there in the morning for a bit of wildlife watching. Abrego hotel was great too, a lovely little walk down to the pier.

Hopefully you will find time to write the trippy up this time, they are so great to look back on

[Lolly90]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Great start! I was thinking the trip looked familiar and then I got a mention

Yosemite View Lodge was amazing, a bit dated but still fabulous! The baths are HUGE & if you can get a river view there is nothing better than heading out there in the morning for a bit of wildlife watching. Abrego hotel was great too, a lovely little walk down to the pier.

Hopefully you will find time to write the trippy up this time, they are so great to look back on

See more...

I will admit I have taken a lot of inspiration from your report so thank you

That sounds so nice, I've sent them a room request, so fingers crossed now!

I've actually just started my other trip report, I had the majority of it written out on a Word document already, so seemed silly not to post it

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by Lolly90

I will admit I have taken a lot of inspiration from your report so thank you

That sounds so nice, I've sent them a room request, so fingers crossed now!

I've actually just started my other trip report, I had the majority of it written out on a Word document already, so seemed silly not to post it

See more...

I was only saying to a friend earlier how incredible the trip was. You will have the most amazing time. San Fran is great, Yosemite & the PCH are stunning, LA is interesting & Vegas is the most surreal place imaginable

[sweetemotion]

What a great trip you've got planned! You'll love the Yosemite View Lodge. I stayed in one of the rooms with a view of the river, the room and balcony are very spacious too lots of room.

I stayed at the MGM last December, not the signature though. The room and hotel were really lovely

[lovedisney89]

Great Pre-trip so far.

Your trip is very similar to one I did last September but we went Vegas-LA-Pismo-Monterey-SF. We didn't fit in Yosemite as we did Disney instead. You will have such an amazing time, very jealous! The drive up/down Highway 1 is soooo beautiful.

[Lolly90]

What We've Booked (Part 1) -

I'll start off with the less exciting side of things.

Premier Inn

We've booked the Premier Inn Bath Road near Heathrow for the night before we fly. Our flight isn't till just before midday but I don't like to risk getting stuck in any traffic on the M25 and just think it's a nice way to begin the holiday anyway. We've paid £49 for the night, last year we managed to get the same hotel for £29 but this is still quite a lot cheaper than other hotels nearby.

Travel Insurance

Not at all exciting but essential. We've booked ours through Cover For You and paid £54 for the two of us, including added Catastrophe Cover.

Car Hire

We've booked an intermediate SUV for 12 days, so from leaving San Francisco to flying home. I booked through US Car Hire, as this worked out the cheapest and we'll be picking the car up from the Alamo garage on Bush Street. We've paid £503 for the car as we've once again gone for the Young Driver package. Even though I'll be 25 when we go, Mark won't be and I'm not confident enough to do all the driving. We should end up with something like this:

Moving on to the more exciting parts

Alcatraz Island Tour

We've gone for the night tour on our last night in San Francisco. We're both so excited for this, should be really interesting and looks quite scary at night. Total cost was £48.

Blazing Saddles Bike Rental

Cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge was a must for me! We managed to the get the Groupon, for 2 all day rental bikes, costing £23. Bargain

Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour

It probably wasn't necessary to pre-book this but I like to be as organised as possible. I think this will be a great way to see as much of the city as possible, as we don't have too much time. The bus is operated by Gray Line but we booked through Viator. The total cost for the 2 of us was £41, for a 1 day city loop pass.

Whale Watching Cruise

The main reason for our stop in Monterey was to go on a whale watching boat trip. Hoping that we'll at least spot a couple of whales We've booked with Princess Monterey, mainly because this offered the earliest departure time so we can make good use of our time and was also one of the shortest at 2.5 hours. Total cost was £60 for the 2 of us.

I'll update again soon with what we have booked for our time in L.A and Vegas