Advice for self-drive holiday in California etc etc

paul08

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My partner & I are off to LA in June. Have a 4 week holiday planned, with a convertible Mustang rental car.

I seem to remember a ride report a few years ago regarding a similar driving holiday but, having had a look it the list of previous threads, I cannot find it. Anyone able to point me to it?

Current plans are to drive up the coast to SF, then yosemite, Bryce, Grand Canyon etc before going back to LA

If anyone wants to mark our card or do's and don't's then any advice would be most welcome
 
Can't you just go and do it for yourself ?
Look at a map or guide book or two.
Find and discover for yourselves?
 
Can't you just go and do it for yourself ?
Look at a map or guide book or two.
Find and discover for yourselves?

I will. But, as I remembered reading the excellent Ride Report (as re-posted by MikeO in post #2) I thought that it was probably worth a re-read
 
Book motels ahead via your phone or a tablet. Before the internet got hold, you could turn up and do a deal. Not now.
 
Check carefully, the terms and conditions of the hire, especially the costs if you don’t return the car with the tank - full.
 
My advice on this is when you land and go to collect your car have a look at upgrading it to a corvette !

When we did Florida a couple of years ago we had a mustang booked for 10 days but the deal to upgrade was ridiculously cheap, about 100 quid IIRC i couldn't say no.

They wanted more than that to rent a sat nav !
 
.....They wanted more than that to rent a sat nav !

Speaking of sat-navs....
Worth checking how much they charge.
When we did a tour they wanted $10/day to hire a sat nav....works out bleedin expensive.
I bought the N.America maps on sd card and took my own sat nav.
Sold the sd card when I got back for nearly what I paid for it.
 
Speaking of sat-navs....
Worth checking how much they charge.
When we did a tour they wanted $10/day to hire a sat nav....works out bleedin expensive.
I bought the N.America maps on sd card and took my own sat nav.
Sold the sd card when I got back for nearly what I paid for it.


Best idea.:rob

You have a satnav you know, and can pre-program POIs etc before you go. Also - I think that US Car-hire satnavs may not be able to be adjusted on the move (litigation in the event of a crash).

Otherwise - pick up a cheap Nuvi from the local supermarket.
 
We booked fly drive with BA in 2016, in & out of Las Vegas, but you can book different arrival & departure airports. We travelled up to Bonneville for Speedweek in August & only booked the first night in Vegas & the 4 nights in Wendover. I bought an American sat nav off here & Rand McNally state maps off Amazon. We had a basic idea of which way we wanted to go up to & back from Bonneville but remained flexible (very unusual for me!) We used booking.com & booked accommodation around tea time for the next night, (if you left it later it seemed to sell out). We have a V6 Ford Explorer which seemed perfect for the roads & got around 24mpg. We had a great time & fitted in Death Valley, Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Lake Powell, Glenn Canyon, Bryce Canyon & Route 66 (We even met some Tossers on Tour at Bonneville).
 
Hi Paul,

I picked up a hire car in San Francisco, drove via the old Highway 1 to Los Angeles (via Monterey, Carmel etc etc) spent a week or so there, driving about and then across to Phoenix, Arizona for a couple of weeks. All very easy, no - or at least very little - different to driving about in Europe. A half decent guide book, a map of sorts and away you go.
 


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