L.A/Vegas Road Trip Help

CountingCrows

Myself & my mate are looking to head to the west coast flying into LA and leave from Vegas or maybe vice versa, driving in between.

Were hoping to take in the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and wet our whistles along the way!!

Were planning a 10 day trip around the end of July. Has anyone got any recommendations regarding flights, routes, accommodation etc??

Any help would be greatly appreciated

sicruise

I flew into LAX from dublin with aer lingus and rented a nice GMC SUV...

Here is the route we took less a few wrong turns )

The drive took about 5-6 hours including stops for food etc, its a nice easy trip after you find your way out of LA.

You'll find your own fun in vegas!! Trips to hoover dam and grand canyon can be taken in helicopter if you don't want to drive... its not too expensive (about $150)

CountingCrows

Thanks for that!

Looking around it seems like Aer Lingus are the best bet for flights. But if anyone knows any better deals/packages - don't be shy

sonners

I'm heading over to Vegas at the end of August. Have 5 days in Vegas then heading on a road trip with my two sisters for 10 days. We're taking a trip out to the Grand Canyon by helicoptor (goes over Hoover Dam also) while we're in Vegas. We're planning on driving down to San Diego from Vegas then up to LA then onto San Francisco and flying home from there.

We got our flights to Vegas with Continental and we're coming home with US Airways. travelpaths.com is a really good website, we found the best flight prices there. Also we're flying to/from Shannon as opposed to Dublin and I think that may have dropped our prices a bit. We're getting our car hire from carhire3000.ie which worked out the best for us, usrentacar also had good deals.

Hope this helps, been researching our trip for a few months now so if I can help at all just ask,
Sonya

sonners

AFAIK it depends on the car your hiring and the company your dealing with. I'm not too bad cause my sister is gonna be put down as the main driver (she's 27) and then I'll be an extra driver (I'm 23). From what I can gather being 21-25 just incurs an extra daily-rate, usually around $25/day. carhire3000.ie have a phone number on their website for enquiries, give them a call and they should be able to sort you out.

delboy2

Checkout Alamo Car hire - Used them back in April for a trip from San Fran down to San Diego via LA and they were pretty good. not sure about age restrictions though
http://www.alamo.com/

CountingCrows

sonners wrote:

I'm heading over to Vegas at the end of August. Have 5 days in Vegas then heading on a road trip with my two sisters for 10 days. We're taking a trip out to the Grand Canyon by helicoptor (goes over Hoover Dam also) while we're in Vegas. We're planning on driving down to San Diego from Vegas then up to LA then onto San Francisco and flying home from there.

We got our flights to Vegas with Continental and we're coming home with US Airways. travelpaths.com is a really good website, we found the best flight prices there. Also we're flying to/from Shannon as opposed to Dublin and I think that may have dropped our prices a bit. We're getting our car hire from carhire3000.ie which worked out the best for us, usrentacar also had good deals.

Hope this helps, been researching our trip for a few months now so if I can help at all just ask,
Sonya

Hi Sonya

Thats exactly the info I'm after I'm hoping to get booked this weekend, might pick your brains again if anything comes up.

Cheers

Ballyman

sicruise wrote:

I flew into LAX from dublin with aer lingus and rented a nice GMC SUV...

Here is the route we took less a few wrong turns )

The drive took about 5-6 hours including stops for food etc, its a nice easy trip after you find your way out of LA.

You'll find your own fun in vegas!! Trips to hoover dam and grand canyon can be taken in helicopter if you don't want to drive... its not too expensive (about $150)

If you have time, I would turn left at Mojave National Preserve and head up to Death Valley National Park. This is regularly THE hottest place on earth. Absolutely stunning scenery there. Would definitely recommend doing this as Hwy15 into Vegas is exactly that, a highway.
Oh, also take lots of water.

Darando

Did a similar trip recently, only went from LA-San Diego-San Fran.

Flew Aerlingus direct to LAX, but coming home flew American Airlines LAX-Dublin via London (very handy i.e. never saw my bags until Dublin and didnt even notice the stop-over really).- was much cheaper that what aerlingus were offering direct.

Found that ebookers had some really good prices, and was told that if you are going via London try get Virgin (very good airline).

Car hire was via Hertz (joined as a member on the website - took about 3 minutes and was only 3/4 compared to non-member!) - usually over 25 restriction but if under that you pay a surcharge per day. We left the car in San fran and flew back down to LAX on an internal flight - 50 dollar flight!!

cacio

we went on a road trip last year from Los angeles to Vegas .We had 2 weeks of the best crack in our convertable mustangs.we drove from los angels to Six flags in Valencia ,from there to Oceanside which had the nicest beach we had ever seen,from there onto Palm springs driving through the mountains with unbelievable views and from there drove through the mojave desert (i think) to las vegas where we spent the week in a rented house that was like something out of mtv cribs. I'd definately recommend getting off the highway and taking the back roads as it's so much better and makes the trip worthwhile.It looks like a long trip but even there secondary roads are better then an Irish main road and when we were driving we were only spending 3 - 6 hours traveling. if you do decide to take that route try and drive into palm springs after sunset. there's a spot on the mountains where you overlook palm desert, palm springs and cathedral city together. it's amaziing. one of the highlights for me.We drove Back on the main road from Las Vegas and it only took us a few hours but there wasnt very much to see along the way.If you get a chance try to go and see hoover Dam and get a helicopter ride over grand canyon.kicks ass.Also the americans are terrible at poker so tou will have a good chance of making some money in vegas if you can resist the house games on the way out!

boy_wonder

Would it be that cruel/unmanageable bringing a toddler and baby on a similiar trip like these. Looking to go in September but not as much driving planned.

Whadya think

sonners

boy_wonder wrote:

Would it be that cruel/unmanageable bringing a toddler and baby on a similiar trip like these. Looking to go in September but not as much driving planned.

Whadya think

My holiday plans are laid out in one of the posts above. Its me and my two sisters heading off and we were originally planning on bringing our 2 and a 1/2 year old niece with us. She's not coming because of the cost and other stuff but everything we were planning on doing could be done with her with us.

The only thing to be aware of is that its obviously going to be a different holiday, like bringing the kids anywhere it means your restricted at night time. Also, the heat in Nevada can be pretty bad. Your talking at the very least 40 degrees in September, from what I've read anyway. But depending on where your going (and of course your patience ) I dont see a problem