Fly drive USA

[RosieBdy]

Hi,
We're starting to look at holidays in USA and fancy a fly/ drive type thing.
Seen a few via Trailfinders but wondered if anyone had any other companies that they would recommend?
We're thinking West Coast to include Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite sort of thing.
Our children will be 15 and almost 17 and we're looking at 2 weeks at Easter.
Thanks!

If you can I would do it yourself. We arranged a similar thing, albeit ours was San francisco down to LA.

If you can’t do it yourself, we’ve used www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/ before and found them very good for arranging things. Good luck with the flight prices. They’re very expensive at the mo. We’re looking to go there too next year.

I've done a ton of road trips in the US and have always found it cheaper to plan and book it myself but that obviously takes time! Roadtrippers.com is a useful resource for route planning and things to do along the way. It'll also help you budget for petrol.

Thank you. Our worry with doing it ourselves is would everything be covered if we had to cancel for some reason? I'd heard that it was better to be all be with one company... but we've not had an abroad holiday for such a long time I don't know anymore!!
I've booked things separate myself many many years ago, so maybe we should explore that option a bit more!
Thanks for replying.

Yes, in one way if you plan it yourself you get exactly what you want, but as you say it takes time! I suppose that's what you're paying for.
Maybe I need to look at the difference in prices for a put together trip and one we've organised.
I'll look at that website- thanks for that!

We done NY to Los Angeles via route 66 from Chicago... Epic holiday! I would recommend doing your research and just booking it. We only booked accommodation for the large cities and flights we shopped around for on google flights. L... Car hire was cheapish but you needed to be careful over the drop off fee is usually calculated on distance from original hire so we paid a hefty couple hundred dollars for that.

If you want the convenience and don't mind paying a bit extra for them to arrange it all for you then Trailfinders are very good and if anything goes wrong then they'll sort out an alternative for you. With the West Coast US that could be a wild fire or some other catastrophe while you're there. Fires are unfortunately very common there nowadays.

We have done that route and booked it all ourselves (trailfinders insurance gave us the security we needed) We have done a lot of road trips in a lot of countries and find alternating cheap and more expensive accomodation the way to go as sometimes the cheap ones are fun or memorable and the more luxury ones more appreciated as long as you always making sure you end on something lovely or cool.

@LifeIsBusy Thank you. Route 66 is our retirement plan in a RV hopefully!
Good tips- thank you!

@zafferana Thanks- yes, that's what we thought about using a well known company- we'd have help if needed!

@jellybeanteaparty Thanks- that's a good thought about their insurance. Some brilliant tips too- thank you!

She’s thinking of Easter. That’s not wildfire season so that’s very unlikely to happen. I live on the west coast and wildfire season is late July to October.

Ah I missed that @BritWifeInUSA. Yes, Easter will be much safer and I'm guessing it will be less busy in the NPs, aside from Easter weekend itself.

Accommodation within Yosemite books up really quickly. We went at Easter (about 10 years ago) and stayed in a hotel just outside the National Park but, from what I remember, we needed to buy a pass to drive into the park itself. Also, it was still cold in Yosemite when we went - there was still quite a lot of snow on the ground and it was thigh deep in places!

In terms of accommodation, we only stayed in LA, Yosemite and San Francisco so I researched it and did the bookings myself. If you've got a more complicated itinerary in mind then it might be better to use a specialist company.

Have a wonderful trip.

Thanks all- really helpful!
@QueenOfToast I thought that might be the case with the snow, as one of the things we looked at said that one of the passes into Yosemite doesn't open until later in the year due to snow... we need to do more research I think!

Join the facebook group ‘California Dreamers and West Coast Wanderers’ for lots of amazing helpful posts about that kind of road trip. We’re doing San Francisco to San Diego for 3 and a bit weeks this summer and I booked our flights, car hire and 2 hotels through Trailfinders. You only have to book a minimum of 4 nights(?) I think to have it classed as a package holiday through that travel agent.

The reason I didn’t book all the hotels through them is they are more limited as to the ones they can offer and there were a few specific ones I wanted to go to (rush creek lodge in Yosemite and grand Californian disney hotel to name a couple). Booked this last year through them as I wanted peace of mind with the pandemic that if anything needed changing, we were covered for the main bits and they could sort it all, especially with the car hire tied into it all as well.

In hindsight, I think now that I would have booked everything separately because as long as you’ve got sensible cancellation options for everything, you’re fine. All the separate hotels I’ve booked (and a VRBO) can be cancelled close to the dates for full refund and although we have a fairly good deal on flights because we booked early, I still think I could have booked the travel agent part at a better deal directly and I would feel confident enough doing it all myself now.

Car hire in the US is absolutely astronomical at the moment, just to warn you!! That facebook page has been invaluable to me for tips and advice. You can search through the page for specific things you want help with and read back the old posts too. Thankfully it’s looking like nothing will need to be cancelled now and we go next month!

Hi OP.
Grand Canyon is a big place 😁
Closest to Vegas is the west canyon area with the Skywalk.
North ridge is quite remote.
The classic Grand Canyon is at the South Ridge area , just north of a town called Tusayan.
it was a 5 - 6 hour drive from Vegas to Tusayan , stopping at Hoover dam to walk on the bridge also stopped at Kingman and Williams for food, leg stretching, swap drivers.
if you go the South Ridge there’s cycle hire , free buses to other locations on the rim and trails.
we got the bus to the south kaibab trailhead and walked down to Cedar Ridge.
about a 4 hour round trip.
there’s lots of signs telling you not to attempt to get to the bottom and back in one day.
it’s one place I’d love to spend more time at.

Thanks @Youcanlaugh and @tanstaafl.

@Youcanlaugh I'll join that facebook group - sounds perfect!
That's really good to know about the insurance covering you - have an amazing time! Do come back and let me know how it all went and any amazing top tips!!

@tanstaafl That's all really helpful thanks. We've not done a 'big' holiday like this as a family before. Trips to a villa abroad or more recently fantastic holidays in the UK in our campervan are our usual holidays, but we promised the kids an adventure!
It's a bit overwhelming knowing where to start so everyone's help has been really useful.

We have done a couple of these trips and did the booking ourselves. As per a pp varying the type and cost of accommodation but booking eg Yosemite well in advance.It's nice to have some flexibility in timings so that you can stay a bit longer or change plans. Audley Travel do lots of this type of trip if you want a package or just ideas. I live this type of holiday , although it is tiring and can be a bit stressful it does provide an experience and lots of memories.