"Panawe" wrote in message
m...
On Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:34:52 +0000, Lauri Nurmi wrote:

On 2011-10-12, Panawe wrote:
On 10/10/2011 6:33 AM, Panawe wrote:

I would like to go whale-watching and see Yosemite and Yellowstone
Nat'l parks (and others if feasible).

As regards my itinerary - what would you suggest given that I want to
get the most out of my holiday? Should I leave Yellowstone for another
time? Even if I extend the holiday to three weeks?

You could drive less and still visit three national parks if you choose
Yosemite, Death Valley and Grand Canyon (Arizona side). Hoover Dam and
Las Vegas are along the assumed route, and might also be worth seeing.

-LN

Thanks to everyone for advice.

I'm listening and I'm wondering now about 14 days fly-drive out of San
Francisco followed by a week's package tour (a holiday within a holiday!)
to Yellowstone flying to and from SFO. I could have a rest from driving
on the Y'stone tour.

What do you think?

Or I could do the grand tour from Seattle to SF via.... stop it!

--
Panawe

Well, last year I participated in a Gray Line Alaska tour (Yukon and
Alaska). It's the first time I ever went on something like it. I'm in 2
minds. It was nice not to have to keep driving. It was incredibly
frustrating to go past things I wanted to look at and I didn't have enough
time (even if I could have found transport) to explore the outskirts of
Whitehorse or Fairbanks. The big benefit was when we got to Dawson and the
road across to Tok was washed out. They simply hired a plane and away we
went!

On balance I would only do it again if I couldn't find a way of doing the
journey under my own steam.

I had wondered about a tour for you from San Francisco to Yosemite and
Monterrey. Gray Line only do each as a one day tour (forget it). You
might be able to stitch one or more Tauck Tours together with flights (or
maybe even Amtrak) between e.g.

http://www.tauck.com/tours/usa-tours...-yys-2012.aspx
http://www.tauck.com/tours/usa-tours...r-ca-2012.aspx

Or maybe Globus http://monograms.com/us-vacations/ but I'm not sure how
you'd book some of the tours on that page. Globus are part of the same
company as Cosmos and they seem to want me work work through Cosmos because
I live in the UK and that is the page for people who live in the US. I've
no doubt it's doable but it might be a slight struggle.

It is pretty easy to organise a trip using car hire and motels. The trick
is not to do too much driving and to allow the occasional "rest day" if only
because you need to find a launderette (many motels have a machine). If
you want help try someone like http://www.nahighways.co.uk/. Anything you
see on their website can be changed/extended/shortened/sent places they
don't normally list - the tours they list are examples; they can be booked
but they don't have to look like that. I've never used them, I had a
professional connection with them some years ago and they seemed competent
but there are other similar specialists around.

By the way, what part of the UK are you in? I keep assuming you're flying
from London and that doesn't have to be the case.