trip to usa in december/january

"cora" wrote:

snippage
... Then to Grand Canyon via Kingman. Grand canyon for maybe 3
nights... should I book the Grand Canyon?

Yes, but what do you plan to do there will determine how long you
should stay. Three days might not be the right time for your purposes.
If you can't get good lodging right on the South Rim, check out the
places just south of the park entrance at Tusayan.

http://www.nps.gov/grca/grandcanyon/...im/lodging.htm
http://www.tusayanhotels.worldweb.com/index.html

... then out to Durango - Mesa Verde. Is this worth a look?

Not in December. Visitor services are very limited and that long
entrance road in can be a nightmare in icy and snowy conditions. This
area (over to Durango) is along the southern border of the San Juan
Mountains and unless you plan to do something in them, there's no
point to drive from the Grand Canyon all the way into Colorado. There
of *lots* of Anasazi ruins throughout the southwest that are much more
accessible that time of year.

http://www.nps.gov/meve/pphtml/weather.html

Then off to Page, St George for 1 night then Las Vegas for 3 nights.

That seems like a strange route to me: driving from Grand Canyon,
which is near Page all the way over to Colorado, then retracing your
steps back to Page.

IMO a better trip (if a bit longer) would a short version of the Grand
Circle Route: from the South Rim = Page = Hanksville = Capitol Reef
NP =Navajo National Monument = Monument Valley = Mexican Hat =
Natural Bridges = Hite = Boulder = Bryce NP = Zion NP = St.
George.

An even slightly longer of this route could take in Canyonlands and
Arches National Parks near Moab. This whole loop can be done in as
little as five days (more would be better, obviously) and is much more
interesting than staying three days at any one place.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...k/cg-parks.htm
http://www.us-parks.com/the_grand_circle.html

I'm leaving in the morning to head up that way, but if you want some
more ideas on such a route, do a Google advanced search on the Groups
tab, list this newsgroup, and list the keywords of Bryce, Escalante,
Capitol Reef, Zion, etc. Get a national park pass if you do this loop.


Caveat

I'd pay a lot of attention to the elevation of places you plan to go
and shoot for lower elevations and have backup plans. You could end up
with great weather and no problems at all that time of year, or could
hit an early winter storm.

We flew into Vegas for the Christmas to New Years break this past year
and rented a car and headed up to Zion NP and had incredible weather
the entire time. Our backup plan was Death Valley NP. Ended up staying
at the Desert Pearl Inn in Springdale, right outside the park and had a
wonderful time in a great Inn. The nice thing about this whole area is
that there are lots of alternate activities if weather is a problem
nearby. Just keep abreast of the forecast.

I've toured the Grand Circle several times now and it is ALL great. If
you can have backup plans and won't be disappointed if you don't get to
your first choice, you'll have a great time.

On 24 Apr 2006 20:00:40 -0700, "cora"
wrote:

Hi all
I am new to groups etc so please bear with me
We are leaving australia on Dec 6th to travel to usa. We will be
hiring a car and driving from SF to LA. About 10 days in LA/Anaheim
then to San deigo, barstow (to see Calico Ghost Town - is it worth
is??) We have 3 kids age 13, 10 and 7 so I thought it would be good
for them. Then to Grand Canyon via Kingman. Grand canyon for maybe 3
nights then out to Durango - Mesa Verde. Is this worth a look?
Then off to Page, St George for 1 night then Las Vegas for 3 nights.
From Las Vegas we plan to fly to New York and MAYBE drive to Niagara
Falls.
I am really worried about how cold it is over there in winter and also
if it would be too crowded in New York before Christmas.
The shops over here get absolutely mad pre-xmas, so I was wondering if
it the same over there.
Also I wasn't planning on booking any accommodation before I left.
probably only, Anaheim and new York. should I book the Grand Canyon?
at that time of the year.
It was suggested to me to stay in Queens and take the subway as it is
much cheaper than staying in hte centre of New York.
Also where would be the best place to spend Christmas Day, if we were
in new York.
It will be very strange not having Christmas with our family. It will
be the first Christmas EVER we have spent without them!!
Any advice at all would be much appreciated
Thanks
Corinne

Hi Corinne.

Just some first thoughts. I'm also an Aussie who likes to
drive. The first thing you should allow for is the extra
time it will take to get used to the wrong side of the road
- you'll approach every intersection a little more
cautiously, and travel at slightly slower speeds than you're
used to. And scare the people on the right hand side of the
car as you try to wipe the mirrors off with passing
telephone poles.

On the US section of my trip I drove LA-SF via Big Sur in
2003, flew to Las Vegas, took a fly/bus (VisionAir) one-day
trip to the Grand Canyon, drove New Orleans-Washington DC
and spent 3 days in NYC.

Allow more time for the driving segments. Partly for the
allowance for the wrong side of the road, partly to allow
for frequent stops and detours, partly to alleviate "are we
there yet" from the kids.

I think you should listen to the comments by those who know
what they are talking about with the weather. For example,
even in March, it was very cold at the Grand Canyon and
snowed the day I was there.

Allow less time in most of the big cities - the kids will
tire of Disneyland, Hollywood and so on fairly swiftly. In
LA, spend some time near the beaches - not to swim but for
the comparisons you'll see between places like Santa Monica,
Santa Barbara, Long Beach etc with our Bondi/Manly beach
cultures.

Give yourself more time in one big city - NYC. There is a
lot to see and do there. But don't try and drive in icy New
England conditions unless you are from Thredbo or Perisher
Valley and experienced with ice. If you want to see Niagara
- fly or AMTRAK.

Learn how to use Hotwire www.hotwire.com or Expedia
www.expedia.com and use them to pre-book major "nodes" like
SF, LA, Las Vegas, NYC. If you start checking now you will
find specials appearing at much cheaper prices. Also worth
considering for car rentals and internal flights.

If you rent a car, make sure you include all the insurance
add-ons to assess prices.

Cheers, Alan, Australia

Caveat wrote:
[...]
IMO a better trip (if a bit longer) would a short version of the Grand
Circle Route: from the South Rim = Page = Hanksville = Capitol Reef
NP =Navajo National Monument = Monument Valley = Mexican Hat =
Natural Bridges = Hite = Boulder = Bryce NP = Zion NP = St.
George.

That sequence go garbled. (Sorry, I was in a hurry.) It should read:
South Rim = Page =Navajo National Monument = Monument Valley =
Mexican Hat = Natural Bridges = Hite = Hanksville = Capitol Reef
= Boulder = Escalante = Bryce Canyon NP = Zion NP = St. George.

That would be a modified Grand Circle counter-clockwise. You could
also do it the other way, clockwise. The potential weather-related
driving problems would be at Boulder Mountain and Bryce.


Caveat

Hi all
Thanks for all the great advice. We have decided to fly to new york
for 10 days now, and then do our driving tour when we get back after
xmas. After researching new york i have found that there is so much to
see and do that I don't think we'll have much time for anyside trips.
We leave Australia on 6 Dec. I know it seems a long way off, but with
so much planning to do I'm sure it will come alot quicker that we
think.
I am planning and booking everything myself without using travel
agents. Alot of work but hopefully the time and trouble will saves us
a few bucks.
Oh, any suggestions on whether I should by American Money now with
dollar now up to US.76 c. Any predictions on whether it will keep
climbing or not.

Corinne

On 3 May 2006 23:21:58 -0700, "cora" wrote:

Oh, any suggestions on whether I should by American Money now with
dollar now up to US.76 c. Any predictions on whether it will keep
climbing or not.

If I could predict that kind of thing, I would be richer than Bill
Gates.
--
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
On 3 May 2006 23:21:58 -0700, "cora" wrote:

Oh, any suggestions on whether I should by American Money now with
dollar now up to US.76 c. Any predictions on whether it will keep
climbing or not.

There was an analyst from one of the banks this morning predicting 79 cents
by year end.

thanks for the tip on dollar rates. i felt a bit dumb after the other
comment I got