Tour Guide Wanted USA in September (1 Viewer)

[Michael.]

Hi Guys

Myself and SWMBO have just booked a MH for 28 days starting in San Francisco in mid September, we plan to do Yosemite and a bit of Route 66 and the Pacific coast highway, I was wondering if anyone has done similar and has any gems that shouldn't be missed Cheers

 

[Figaro]

Not been in a motorhome, but Lake Tahoe, Death Valley, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon would be on my list to visit, all are spectacular and places I enjoyed.
I'd avoid Los Angeles, it's just too damn big

 

[mikebeaches]

We also enjoyed Lake Tahoe in September - warm enough to swim in.

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[DABurleigh]

A photo album of our roadtrip 6 years ago may give you some ideas:

USA Roadtrip June 2017

240 new items · Album by Dave Burleigh

goo.gl

Dave (& Ali)

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

I'd avoid Los Angeles, it's just too damn big

Not much there, I drove down from Vegas we stayed at Beverly Hills and spent a few weeks doing local car shows and museums then drove back to Vegas.
Only thing we liked there was Santa Monica Pier and the walk along and back to Venice beach.
If we went again I would skip this and start at Carmel and the up the PCH

 

[Widge]

Hi Guys

Myself and SWMBO have just booked a MH for 28 days starting in San Francisco in mid September, we plan to do Yosemite and a bit of Route 66 and the Pacific coast highway, I was wondering if anyone has done similar and has any gems that shouldn't be missed Cheers

Hi
Just messaged you a link to our blog in 2016, it was just a quick diary and not intended to be an information source.

We did san Francisco to Sacremento, lake tahoe Salt lake city, zion national park, tuba city grand canyon, las vegas, death Valley, sequoia national park, yosemite then san francisco.

A few pointers.

We flew from Dublin (it was easier for us as local ryanair to dublin) but flight was a lot cheaper than paris or london. You also go through US imigration and customs before you leave dublin so landed at a domestic terminal in us. (But it was in 2016)

Us highways in calafornia are in poor condition, be prepared to have a teath rattling experience on some stretches.

Las Vegas is an interesting experience, we found a campsite in town a short bus ride from the strip.

Heading south from Vegas is the hoover dam, if you are interested in things like that the hard hat tour takes you down through the inside of the dam.

Death valley is interesting, it will probably still be quite warm in september.

For us sequoia national park was amazing especially if you like trees.

yosemite was realy nice, but a lot of things like the amazing waterfalls you wont see at that time of year, you realy need to be there in spring.

San Francisco was realy nice, years ago i did a bus tour that also included a trip on the ferry to alcatraz.
The BART transport system works well, but no provision for large vehicles at the carparks. We stayed at a big sports and horse racing site, the othe side of the bay from san Francisco that was a short bus ride from a BART station.

But this was all 7 years ago, if you have any specific questions, message me and i will try to help.

Dave

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[Otter Spotter]

Take a look at this utube site, the family have put up loads of great content

https://youtube.com/@KeepYourDaydream?si=f1tTsvRHllZsKM8f

 

[starquake]

Not much there, I drove down from Vegas we stayed at Beverly Hills and spent a few weeks doing local car shows and museums then drove back to Vegas.
Only thing we liked there was Santa Monica Pier and the walk along and back to Venice beach.
If we went again I would skip this and start at Carmel and the up the PCH

I dunno, Hollywood is a total dive, but the missus did like the Disney, Universal theme park and the tour of the Warner bros studio in LA. Both are worth a visit, with the one I'd personally prioritise being the Warner bros one for the visit to the Friends and other shows she liked... LA has unique tourist trappings to say mildly. The beaches were okay (in LA/Malibu) but I'd still visit them.

We didn't do this in a Motorhome as was ~ 8 years ago now ->> though would now probably - as the csots of hotels would skyrocket compared to doing it in a MH these days, and we're more comfortable driving larger vehicles in US now.

28 days we managed a interesting figure of 8 loop with some stopovers -> San Fran down PCH via Herst Castle (worth a visit), onto LA, then onto the Grand Canyon park( via old route 66 and Kingman) , onto Sedona (which is a overlooked national park), then up to Monument valley, then onto Moab, then back via a national park (Bryce) to Las Vegas, then out via Death Valley, Yosemite and back to SF. Bear in mind Monument valley and a few of the national parks you need to prebook, ditto Alcatraz if you want to do it in SF -> if you drive up many tours unavailable even if you can get "in".

In above the longest drive was the Las vegas to GC one, which was circa 10-12 hours in the car, with second longest being Moab to Bryce -> just bear in mind you need 2-3 days to do Moab justice as there are (2) national and (1) state park within an hours drive. I think if we planning again we'd do slower and stop off around Kingman or drop into Havasu city and find a campground there (it's beautiful around Havasu). We also didn't stop (long) in LA on above trip as we'd done the studio tour and Universal the year before on Honeymoon so just stopped for a day around the Disney area.

(We actually managed the above with 3 weeks on road and circa 3500 miles driven, the poor rental agency were not happy at their car when returned). With 28 days and a MH you can probably do it at a more relaxed pace. I wouldn't actually pickup the MH until leaving SF myself as the vehicle crime in that area is "terrible" by all accounts. Where I doubt you'd have theft issues in most of rest of US.

Unique places I'd look at if they interest you is
1/ making sure you have time to do them Justice, we'd visited Vegas before the above trip so knew we only needed 2-3 nights for highlights, shopping etc. My parents when they done a similar trip said 2 nights for them would have been plenty in Vegas as they didn't like the place -> but make the most of it when you go. Some "shows" are dark 2-3 nights of the week in Vegas, so if you must see a Cirque or musical spectacular do your research before you go. The one I can reccomend is the "Ka" show in the MGM Grand, as it's a only possible in Vegas type show, as alledgedly the stage alone is a multiple million contstruction (to explain it goes from horizontal to fully veritcal at times to allow the acrobats to perform their amazing feats. There is a RV park in Vegas at Circus Circus from my understanding, but it's worth noting thats not the safest area in Las Vegas to walk to and from, so allow some budget for cabs/Ubers (which will be about $10 to most of strip) to get out of that immediate area (in general its safe to walk in daytime however). From Resorts World down to pretty much other end of strip at Mandalay bay it's walkable, but a long walk, probably 4 miles as crow flies, but likely nearer 6-7 on foot with all the backtracking you have to do for a footpath in places. In Vegas, the places worth visiting are the interior of the Plazzo/Venetian, the Bellagio, Paris, and in my opinon at least the bar at the top of the Stratosphere (which you can go to "usually" without paying for the tower admission, just enter the seperate line for the resturaurant bar, and pay a drink for "less" than going up the tower costs).

2/ Limit driving to 5 hours maximum a day, we managed that mostly on the above itinary, and still allowed 2-3 days at the highlight spots (for example we had 2 nights at Grand Canyon). Some places like Monument valley really are best seen at "Morning" sunrise and sunset, so we only actually overnighted there, and booked a sunset tour, leaving the car in their carpark.

3/ Reseach time of year -> the pass that goes from north of Death valley into Yosemite (forget it's name) is only open from mid May onwards, totally Iced in even in April ( we went in April and missed this, and as such had a 12 hour detour via effectively the lower pass near Bakersfield in CA, when the more direct drive is only 5-6 hours), and at one point we were seeing "nearest mcdonalds, 5 hours south signs".. Opens dependant on weather and as we never drove it due to this can't say if suitable for a motorhome or not.

4/ Be careful with fuel especially in a motorhome. We nearly ran out on the LA -> Kingsman route as we failed to fuel when we should have before joining the old route 66 (where there were 2 fuel stations!) and driving roads that are so picuturesque whilst worrying about if you have enough gas to make it to the nearest town is no fun (especially knowing you are 100mi away from a gas station).

One "warning of sorts" -> if you tag Napa on when leaving SF (it's in opposite direction but some do) -> there are a lot of drunk drivers on roads around there doing wine tours, the police do stop them reguarly, but if you do plan to do Napa wine tours find a bus or small minibus tour. We were shocked at the poor driving and was really glad we booked a driver for this if only so we both could taste the wines we purchased for rest of roadtrip. Many of the resturaunts in California and Arizona at least charge tiny corkage fees (or in some cases none) in many of the nicer restaurants outside the bigger city areas, with your own vehicle and cooking onboard you may want to load up with wine before leaving SF area as the Napa area wine is excellent for the price (or was 8 years ago)..

I would also reccomend Sacramento as the first reply said, it's a great US city and the railway museum was really a nice day out ditto the walk we took around the Capitol buildings (if you can fit it in).

There are also some Ghost towns from the gold rush era between LA and the pass down to Kingsman AZ near the old route 66, if you google that you'll be able to find some that accept visitors. And don't miss the route from LA to Kingman -> lookup a town called Oatman, and it's interesting! https://www.visitarizona.com/places/cities/oatman/ -> they put on a mock gunfight during the day twice a day which we thought was real until some locals clued us into it.

The positive of US roads being the wider lanes/parking make parking a RV a far easier proposition than in UK.

We plan to do it again and pickup some stops we missed on our previous roadtrip due to not even knowing about them prior including some of the aircraft museums south of Yosemite (theres a blackbird museum) and Sutter Creek (the california gold rush town). We personally prefer smaller towns off the beaten track and just stopping when things look interesting and found Oatman just becuase we saw there was a dog leg off the interstates on the old route 66 that looked interesting. And it was, and the drive in/out of Oatman to Kingman is amazing -> best views of any route we've been on in US.

 

[starquake]

Should add what to see in Sedona, if you havn't heard it's very similar to Monument valley which we visted immediately after, but less well known to UK people, but also more developed at the base of the valley (it's a village, with roundabouts! in America!).. I was recommended by a work colleague who plays Golf as there are some amazing gold coruses with amazing views. The people in Sedona are very spiritual and unlike Monumnet valley it's not as I understant it owned by a "tribe" so as such has a very ecclectic mix of people turning up. Only warning is the Americans don't understand roundabouts so you get some tourists going wrong way around etc !

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attra...-Chapel_of_the_Holy_Cross-Sedona_Arizona.html has better pictures of the area than we took, thats just one "outlook" thats worth a drive (and is free, or WAS free in 2016) to visit.

I'm mentioning it becuase basically unless you know an American chances are you'd never hear of the place. If you like Golf book a round in advance asap for the dates you need as it books up "quickly" according the the old American boss.

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[Michael.]

I dunno, Hollywood is a total dive, but the missus did like the Disney, Universal theme park and the tour of the Warner bros studio in LA. Both are worth a visit, with the one I'd personally prioritise being the Warner bros one for the visit to the Friends and other shows she liked... LA has unique tourist trappings to say mildly. The beaches were okay (in LA/Malibu) but I'd still visit them.

We didn't do this in a Motorhome as was ~ 8 years ago now ->> though would now probably - as the csots of hotels would skyrocket compared to doing it in a MH these days, and we're more comfortable driving larger vehicles in US now.

28 days we managed a interesting figure of 8 loop with some stopovers -> San Fran down PCH via Herst Castle (worth a visit), onto LA, then onto the Grand Canyon park( via old route 66 and Kingman) , onto Sedona (which is a overlooked national park), then up to Monument valley, then onto Moab, then back via a national park (Bryce) to Las Vegas, then out via Death Valley, Yosemite and back to SF. Bear in mind Monument valley and a few of the national parks you need to prebook, ditto Alcatraz if you want to do it in SF -> if you drive up many tours unavailable even if you can get "in".

In above the longest drive was the Las vegas to GC one, which was circa 10-12 hours in the car, with second longest being Moab to Bryce -> just bear in mind you need 2-3 days to do Moab justice as there are (2) national and (1) state park within an hours drive. I think if we planning again we'd do slower and stop off around Kingman or drop into Havasu city and find a campground there (it's beautiful around Havasu). We also didn't stop (long) in LA on above trip as we'd done the studio tour and Universal the year before on Honeymoon so just stopped for a day around the Disney area.

(We actually managed the above with 3 weeks on road and circa 3500 miles driven, the poor rental agency were not happy at their car when returned). With 28 days and a MH you can probably do it at a more relaxed pace. I wouldn't actually pickup the MH until leaving SF myself as the vehicle crime in that area is "terrible" by all accounts. Where I doubt you'd have theft issues in most of rest of US.

Unique places I'd look at if they interest you is
1/ making sure you have time to do them Justice, we'd visited Vegas before the above trip so knew we only needed 2-3 nights for highlights, shopping etc. My parents when they done a similar trip said 2 nights for them would have been plenty in Vegas as they didn't like the place -> but make the most of it when you go. Some "shows" are dark 2-3 nights of the week in Vegas, so if you must see a Cirque or musical spectacular do your research before you go. The one I can reccomend is the "Ka" show in the MGM Grand, as it's a only possible in Vegas type show, as alledgedly the stage alone is a multiple million contstruction (to explain it goes from horizontal to fully veritcal at times to allow the acrobats to perform their amazing feats. There is a RV park in Vegas at Circus Circus from my understanding, but it's worth noting thats not the safest area in Las Vegas to walk to and from, so allow some budget for cabs/Ubers (which will be about $10 to most of strip) to get out of that immediate area (in general its safe to walk in daytime however). From Resorts World down to pretty much other end of strip at Mandalay bay it's walkable, but a long walk, probably 4 miles as crow flies, but likely nearer 6-7 on foot with all the backtracking you have to do for a footpath in places. In Vegas, the places worth visiting are the interior of the Plazzo/Venetian, the Bellagio, Paris, and in my opinon at least the bar at the top of the Stratosphere (which you can go to "usually" without paying for the tower admission, just enter the seperate line for the resturaurant bar, and pay a drink for "less" than going up the tower costs).

2/ Limit driving to 5 hours maximum a day, we managed that mostly on the above itinary, and still allowed 2-3 days at the highlight spots (for example we had 2 nights at Grand Canyon). Some places like Monument valley really are best seen at "Morning" sunrise and sunset, so we only actually overnighted there, and booked a sunset tour, leaving the car in their carpark.

3/ Reseach time of year -> the pass that goes from north of Death valley into Yosemite (forget it's name) is only open from mid May onwards, totally Iced in even in April ( we went in April and missed this, and as such had a 12 hour detour via effectively the lower pass near Bakersfield in CA, when the more direct drive is only 5-6 hours), and at one point we were seeing "nearest mcdonalds, 5 hours south signs".. Opens dependant on weather and as we never drove it due to this can't say if suitable for a motorhome or not.

4/ Be careful with fuel especially in a motorhome. We nearly ran out on the LA -> Kingsman route as we failed to fuel when we should have before joining the old route 66 (where there were 2 fuel stations!) and driving roads that are so picuturesque whilst worrying about if you have enough gas to make it to the nearest town is no fun (especially knowing you are 100mi away from a gas station).

One "warning of sorts" -> if you tag Napa on when leaving SF (it's in opposite direction but some do) -> there are a lot of drunk drivers on roads around there doing wine tours, the police do stop them reguarly, but if you do plan to do Napa wine tours find a bus or small minibus tour. We were shocked at the poor driving and was really glad we booked a driver for this if only so we both could taste the wines we purchased for rest of roadtrip. Many of the resturaunts in California and Arizona at least charge tiny corkage fees (or in some cases none) in many of the nicer restaurants outside the bigger city areas, with your own vehicle and cooking onboard you may want to load up with wine before leaving SF area as the Napa area wine is excellent for the price (or was 8 years ago)..

I would also reccomend Sacramento as the first reply said, it's a great US city and the railway museum was really a nice day out ditto the walk we took around the Capitol buildings (if you can fit it in).

There are also some Ghost towns from the gold rush era between LA and the pass down to Kingsman AZ near the old route 66, if you google that you'll be able to find some that accept visitors. And don't miss the route from LA to Kingman -> lookup a town called Oatman, and it's interesting! https://www.visitarizona.com/places/cities/oatman/ -> they put on a mock gunfight during the day twice a day which we thought was real until some locals clued us into it.

The positive of US roads being the wider lanes/parking make parking a RV a far easier proposition than in UK.

We plan to do it again and pickup some stops we missed on our previous roadtrip due to not even knowing about them prior including some of the aircraft museums south of Yosemite (theres a blackbird museum) and Sutter Creek (the california gold rush town). We personally prefer smaller towns off the beaten track and just stopping when things look interesting and found Oatman just becuase we saw there was a dog leg off the interstates on the old route 66 that looked interesting. And it was, and the drive in/out of Oatman to Kingman is amazing -> best views of any route we've been on in US.

Thanks the comprehensive info, I'm thinking that booking 28 days wasn't enough

 

[Michael.]

Hi
Just messaged you a link to our blog in 2016, it was just a quick diary and not intended to be an information source.

We did san Francisco to Sacremento, lake tahoe Salt lake city, zion national park, tuba city grand canyon, las vegas, death Valley, sequoia national park, yosemite then san francisco.

A few pointers.

We flew from Dublin (it was easier for us as local ryanair to dublin) but flight was a lot cheaper than paris or london. You also go through US imigration and customs before you leave dublin so landed at a domestic terminal in us. (But it was in 2016)

Us highways in calafornia are in poor condition, be prepared to have a teath rattling experience on some stretches.

Las Vegas is an interesting experience, we found a campsite in town a short bus ride from the strip.

Heading south from Vegas is the hoover dam, if you are interested in things like that the hard hat tour takes you down through the inside of the dam.

Death valley is interesting, it will probably still be quite warm in september.

For us sequoia national park was amazing especially if you like trees.

yosemite was realy nice, but a lot of things like the amazing waterfalls you wont see at that time of year, you realy need to be there in spring.

San Francisco was realy nice, years ago i did a bus tour that also included a trip on the ferry to alcatraz.
The BART transport system works well, but no provision for large vehicles at the carparks. We stayed at a big sports and horse racing site, the othe side of the bay from san Francisco that was a short bus ride from a BART station.

But this was all 7 years ago, if you have any specific questions, message me and i will try to help.

Dave

Thanks Dave

 

[Widge]

Thanks the comprehensive info, I'm thinking that booking 28 days wasn't enough

We only had the camper for just over three weeks and did far too much driving, mainly becouse of wanting to catch up with friends in both Sacremento and Salt Lake.

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[daveclare]

We have friends in California who let us use their RV. The following is just what we think about some places.

Places to avoid:

Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Sad how these places have deteriorated over the years. Full of homeless in their hundreds. There is a road linking the two which is full of hundreds of RV's and vans falling apart, with tarps over them, from one end to the other. There are also lines of homeless in tents in the streets. Throwing their waste everywhere.

Los Angeles can be a dangerous place with some really bad no go areas. We have friends who have family there and they won't go into the city to see them.

Santa Cruz, makes Blackpool look like San Tropez.

San Francisco near the Fish market. Which is also full of drunks fighting.

If you avoid the freeways. You'll come across thousands of square miles of Cannabis fields. It absolutely stinks. Even with the vents closed and the AC on.

Now for a few amazing places:

Not far from Santa Cruz are the huge redwood trees. There are some great RV sites in this area. The trees are truly spectacular.

17 Mile drive in Pebble Beach is an amazing road. You can stop right on the beach for lunch. You can't stop overnight. But on your way around you'll be able to see where some RVs stop for the night. It's a place not on the drive itself but slightly set back. Carmel is also worth a stop.

Seal Beach at San Simeon, where hundreds of seals raise their young. They have 'friends of the beach' who are very knowledgeable and helpful.

There's a nice RV park right on the beach at Pismo. Which is also worth a stay.

If your fancy a weird trip to a desert. Try a night or two in Cal city. I went off roading on bikes there. It was going to be a new city. They got as far as putting up road signs then stopped. And nobody came. The desert has taken back control. Its spooky driving the rv off road in a desert with just sand and rocks and coming across a sign saying 12th street.

As others have said the national parks are great places to stop. You'll get your membership back a few times over.

The most fuel we ever used in one week was $750. Those old V8 RV's really drink the fuel.

It'll be an amazing trip with many memories.

 

[bobnick]

Expenditure. Trust you have factored in a sizeable amount for the demand/compulsory tips.

 

[DiggerJon]

http://jonsamerica2010.blogspot.co.uk/
If you have a few hours to spare hit here is the link to my blog for a road trip I did with a good friend back in 2010. I was exceedingly fortunate in that I had friends in California, with whom I could stay, and also with whom I could register a pick up and fifth wheel, as I was unable to own a vehicle in the states.. The West Coast is full of surprises and the tourist sites are spectacular, just visiting local towns and villages. It’s also interesting and people are mostly very helpful and friendly.. I was lucky I was able to visit three times with the fifth wheel before reluctantly having to sell it. Hopefully you can enjoy it as much as I did.

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[Gaston aires]

http://jonsamerica2010.blogspot.co.uk/
If you have a few hours to spare hit here is the link to my blog for a road trip I did with a good friend back in 2010. I was exceedingly fortunate in that I had friends in California, with whom I could stay, and also with whom I could register a pick up and fifth wheel, as I was unable to own a vehicle in the states.. The West Coast is full of surprises and the tourist sites are spectacular, just visiting local towns and villages. It’s also interesting and people are mostly very helpful and friendly.. I was lucky I was able to visit three times with the fifth wheel before reluctantly having to sell it. Hopefully you can enjoy it as much as I did.

I did own an RV in the USA. You have to register a company and the company owns the RV and you own the company, quite easy really. I still get emails from the governor of Montana after selling the RV 3 years ago.
Phil

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Places to avoid:

Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Sad how these places have deteriorated over the years. Full of homeless in their hundreds.

Just shows how bad it is going in the States
We went to the Pier and had a lovely walk down to Venice beach and back then onto the Santa Monica shops for lunch and catch a film at the cinema.
Went along some of the backroads and never see any homeless people all day.
That was 10 years ago though.

Would hate to see what it is like down by the cruise terminal in Miami as about 8 years ago the coach went along near there and 2 roads were full of homeless with tents and cardboard huts
It’s a messed up country for sure!!

 

[daveclare]

Yes it's sad. We've been going for twenty five years and last year was the worst ever. Our friends say its a consequence of Reagan stopping funding for mental health. I really do think America is hiding a massive problem. Half of the shops along the once very nice main shopping street, are closed. With really, really dirty homeless people roaming around. Believe it or not there are people who look black, who are actually white. It's years and years of ingrained dirt.

We used to visit a really nice Brazilian restaurant in SM Town. Now I wouldn't go with an armed guard.

There are so many nicer places to visit. Mind you the prices have also gone up a lot in America. For example a loaf of crap factory made bread in Walmart was $6. Jam was also the same price.

They make out they're the world leaders in the modern world. They probaby are in poverty and homelessness.

But don't let this put anyone off visiting. There are some amazing places to visit. As long as you take a truck load of money.

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[Coastal Cruiser.]

Yes it's sad. We've been going for twenty five years and last year was the worst ever. Our friends say its a consequence of Reagan stopping funding for mental health. I really do think America is hiding a massive problem. Half of the shops along the once very nice main shopping street, are closed. With really, really dirty homeless people roaming around. Believe it or not there are people who look black, who are actually white. It's years and years of ingrained dirt.

We used to visit a really nice Brazilian restaurant in SM Town. Now I wouldn't go with an armed guard.

There are so many nicer places to visit. Mind you the prices have also gone up a lot in America. For example a loaf of crap factory made bread in Walmart was $6. Jam was also the same price.

They make out they're the world leaders in the modern world. They probaby are in poverty and homelessness.

But don't let this put anyone off visiting. There are some amazing places to visit. As long as you take a truck load of money.

Young lad who does some work for me went with his wife to Vegas last year, they are both vegans and he was paying over $100 for a meal
When the kids were younger we use to go 2-3 times a year to Orlando/Miami and we could get 4 steak meals and desert for less than that

 

[starquake]

Young lad who does some work for me went with his wife to Vegas last year, they are both vegans and he was paying over $100 for a meal
When the kids were younger we use to go 2-3 times a year to Orlando/Miami and we could get 4 steak meals and desert for less than that

Depends on area on price. We have a timeshare in Orlando and it’s still pretty reasonable for meals there with a meal for 4 adults and 2 kids ranging from 70 (cheapest places for a Mexican ) to 200…. I mean if you really budgeting there’s a pizza place with unlimited pizza buffet sit down in Orlando at around 5usd a head with a coupon still.

San Fran on our honeymoon near 10 years ago we were worried we had enough money for the road trip after 2 days of expensive meals. It’s still like that now. Meal at Yosemite at a similar resturaursnt of much same items was a full 1/3 of the price of San Francisco in 2015 ish.

As long as you don’t stick to Carmel and San Fran for meals which are two of the most expensive places to eat and ideally use a counter service burger or sandwich joint in those towns, even LA is quite reasonable. San Fran we liked the Fisherman’s wharf area to stay as allegedly the commercial district is crime infested now so you better with the drunks and lots of people at Fushermans ( friend went last year and hands down thanked me for that tip as he went to commercial area at night and felt unsafe ). All the bus tours for SF muster in fisherman’s wharf and are one of the cheaper tourist items in that city.

We stopped for one of best burgers we had in our lives around the Hearst Castle area after Carmel stay and the Pebble Beach drive, and it was 10 USD per person - no idea name of place except it’s at bottom of valley before you go up to the castle/estate. We didn’t find that unreasonable given the very rural nature of that area.

 

[bobnick]

Depends on area on price. We have a timeshare in Orlando and it’s still pretty reasonable for meals there with a meal for 4 adults and 2 kids ranging from 70 (cheapest places for a Mexican ) to 200…. I mean if you really budgeting there’s a pizza place with unlimited pizza buffet sit down in Orlando at around 5usd a head with a coupon still.

San Fran on our honeymoon near 10 years ago we were worried we had enough money for the road trip after 2 days of expensive meals. It’s still like that now. Meal at Yosemite at a similar resturaursnt of much same items was a full 1/3 of the price of San Francisco in 2015 ish.

As long as you don’t stick to Carmel and San Fran for meals which are two of the most expensive places to eat and ideally use a counter service burger or sandwich joint in those towns, even LA is quite reasonable. San Fran we liked the Fisherman’s wharf area to stay as allegedly the commercial district is crime infested now so you better with the drunks and lots of people at Fushermans ( friend went last year and hands down thanked me for that tip as he went to commercial area at night and felt unsafe ). All the bus tours for SF muster in fisherman’s wharf and are one of the cheaper tourist items in that city.

We stopped for one of best burgers we had in our lives around the Hearst Castle area after Carmel stay and the Pebble Beach drive, and it was 10 USD per person - no idea name of place except it’s at bottom of valley before you go up to the castle/estate. We didn’t find that unreasonable given the very rural nature of that area.

Plus compulsory demand tip

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[starquake]

Plus compulsory demand tip

TBH, Counter service places don't really require it, it's only if there is a server at a resturaurant you should feel need to do this. Disney is trying to change this culture in their parks, but failing from most Americans point of view.

My American work colleagues were quite clear to me on where versus where not to tip over the 20 odd years I've worked a few months a year there (but not in the pretty states!).

But I agree it's getting really bad, as 18% appeared to be the "norm" in NYC and SF on my last visits in 2022 up from 15% in 2017-18. It is always worth noting the state "assumed" tip % on which they are taxed, ie, if you tip below that, you are actually costing resturarant staff in some states. Ie, if you want to give an insulting tip you give about 10% now, if you tip 0% you genuinely are costing your service staff money as they will have been assumed to have got 10%.

However there are ways around ^ -> owning a Timeshare in Orlando as an obvious example, I am eligable for a discount in most places in Disney (I have a grandfathered benefit) roughly equivalent to the tip percentage, allowing the meal to come within 5% of the ticket/menu price, whilst the server gets their 17.5%, mostly the extra is taxes. The discount only applies interestingly in Table service places, not counter service, indicating that Disney themselvers don't see tipping really as a thing for non-Waitstaff.

Tipping as a culture in US, I can't agree with - on our first roadtrip we got a "do you know how to tip thing" on our first visit to Disneyland in LA at a local area resturaurant (I think it was the Cheesecake factory thats near opposite the park) - circa 2012 I think it was. Luckily not all waitstaff as as rude. I don't mind the tiping for good service, and actually in general the service we get in US is miles better than UK, and as such the higher tip % are earnt. Only this May in a small "Ihop" the service staff were filling my coffee attentively before it got low, amazing service. Where I didn't even get a second pot of coffee at many UK equivalent breakfast places and it feels rationed at many breakfast places -> a single cup, no thanks!

 

[bobnick]

One of many other things we sold up in Orlando, 2737 Emerson Drive, Quail Ridge, Kissimee. (built a villa in spain)
Got peed of with the constant demand to tip just about everybody for everything.
It's good to hear they are lighting up a bit.
Of course we do tip, in fact we tipped our 2 servers at Xmas dinner over £40.
Refreshing when one goes to a country and offers a tip for a service and they decline as happens here regulary.

 

[starquake]

But don't let this put anyone off visiting. There are some amazing places to visit. As long as you take a truck load of money.

Should also say with the food prices point from daveclare that it's genuinely in Orlando, and Cali at least cheaper to eat out from our expereince, as long as you go to a "locals" area where the prices are not too touristy (ie, don't eat around Disney Springs area, or Idrive, we usually went on the outskirts on the 192 westbound outside of the "mouses" grasp). A meal on a "locals", owners rate or even a pensioner discount (when we went with Dad!) can be cheaper than the ingredients to make such a meal... Ihop breakfasts on the pensioner rate were $8 pre tip this summer, and when you consider bread + bacon will for 2 people likely be near $20 .... and many locals tend to take the option of ordering more than they can eat so they can get leftovers for the following day.

This is true everywhere (the high price of food) as a RV'er and the price of bread and some staples are "shocking" -> it's apparently due to the high cost of moving goods around the vast country from what I've been told, and the fact the resturants do their own logistics. Cheap staples for fridge from this years Villa trip were cans of Tuna -> it was a wierd case where the Tuna (about 50c-1usd a can) for a Tuna sandwich was a third of the price of the cucumber (5 usd) to go in it! Shopping at Target over Walmart (was cheaper), and avoiding the posh stores in Cali and FL (the waitrose equivalents!)....
Orlando "local" goods were cheaper in Orlando as you would expect such as the local brands of Orange juice, I'd expect same in California. Even so, our shopping bill for a week in a Villa where we ate out "many" days was around 350 usd, when it would be about 150 gbp for same in UK.

Even going to Orlando this summer though we took a suitcase full of "importable" foodstuffs for the kids such as cereals, marmite and other such products as buying a box of breakfast cereal even in US was a $7-10 affair!. Marmite in FL was $13 btw, but is equally easy to pack a £2 marmite in your suitcase! We dont take meat or dairy as thats not personally importable... It's worth noting before we left EU, the family would take a suitcase of "chilled" meat with ice packs for rhe bi-annual Villa trip to Spain too, becuase the mother-in-law didn't like the Spanish bacon, so it's kinda a family thing.

Agree US has amazing places and we've only visited 8 states so far! And we have enuogh for another 2-3 roadtrips planned in the ones we have visited.

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[daveclare]

We liked Trader Joe's when in California. Cheaper than Walmart. Amongst the many differing food types, the caramelised pecans are more addictive than crack

The Viognier is also pretty tasty.

 

[starquake]

Yeah, if you also have a UK costco membership it works in US. And thats about the cheapest place to buy chicken, eggs and (larger) amounts of items. Big US moho, cheapest place to buy fruit/veg from our experience.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

On one of our cruises that went from Miami the coach took us to the terminal and offloaded our luggage I literally had to move them 6ft to the big trailer collecting them, just as I started some bloke grabbed them and swung them around then stood looking at me obviously for a tipnot today mate I said and we walked offthought afterwards we would probably see them later floating across the harbour as we sailed out

I am normally a fair tipper if they have done a good service but when they moan about having a low wage and live on tips it goes over my head I’m afraid, in our 30+ trips to the States we have had some crap servers but most are very good and friendly….

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[starquake]

Oh don't get us started on that one -> bag moving as a whole can sometimes be beneficial tipping wise though though not at port as a general rule in UK at least...

Example:
Only 12 months ago we left QM2 after some 25 days onboard departing in NYC. We had many bags as got on at southampton, and had 6 bags baggage total plus hand luggage plus some gifts from the Carribean (where we went prior to disembarkation).

When checking into hotel, we positively loved the idea of 10 items to the room given the pair us hardly could manage them as we got out of the Uber. As the bellhop wheeled them to reception with his tip in hand already he had a quiet word with reception, and they upgraded us to their largest suite from a normal King (we were only there 3 nights) as they took pity on us as apparently the bellhop had concerns our luggage wouldn't fit in a a "normal" room. It helped some of their leaving guests were getting on for the first leg of the world cruise as we left so they knew all about the ship! Clearly they knew the cruise passengers tip well!

Equally we've had good service with no tip wanted (best was on honeymoon when near all rooms upgraded and with sometimes a substatantial gift too (one LA hotel gifted us $200 in credit for the property, on a stay that cost us under $200))...
But as a general rule, bellhops are a good tip as they are first person you see on a property often (and they get to look after, or not, your stuff) , and good things often result from tipping them -> other than that I only tend to tip waitstaff and room cleaners

 

[DT]

On one of our cruises that went from Miami the coach took us to the terminal and offloaded our luggage I literally had to move them 6ft to the big trailer collecting them, just as I started some bloke grabbed them and swung them around then stood looking at me obviously for a tipnot today mate I said and we walked offthought afterwards we would probably see them later floating across the harbour as we sailed out

I am normally a fair tipper if they have done a good service but when they moan about having a low wage and live on tips it goes over my head I’m afraid, in our 30+ trips to the States we have had some crap servers but most are very good and friendly….

Did the same thing last March. My wife would then not budge until she saw the luggage move out on a trolley.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Oh don't get us started on that one -> bag moving as a whole can sometimes be beneficial tipping wise though though not at port as a general rule in UK at least...

Example:
Only 12 months ago we left QM2 after some 25 days onboard departing in NYC. We had many bags as got on at southampton, and had 6 bags baggage total plus hand luggage plus some gifts from the Carribean (where we went prior to disembarkation).

When checking into hotel, we positively loved the idea of 10 items to the room given the pair us hardly could manage them as we got out of the Uber. As the bellhop wheeled them to reception with his tip in hand already he had a quiet word with reception, and they upgraded us to their largest suite from a normal King (we were only there 3 nights) as they took pity on us as apparently the bellhop had concerns our luggage wouldn't fit in a a "normal" room. It helped some of their leaving guests were getting on for the first leg of the world cruise as we left so they knew all about the ship! Clearly they knew the cruise passengers tip well!

Equally we've had good service with no tip wanted (best was on honeymoon when near all rooms upgraded and with sometimes a substatantial gift too (one LA hotel gifted us $200 in credit for the property, on a stay that cost us under $200))...
But as a general rule, bellhops are a good tip as they are first person you see on a property often (and they get to look after, or not, your stuff) , and good things often result from tipping them -> other than that I only tend to tip waitstaff and room cleaners

We did a cruise from New York around the Bahamas one year, Limo turns up at the airport takes us to Hotel picks us up few days later takes us to the cruise terminal
Absolute carnage with baggage, cars and people everywhere, finally gets on the boat and heads into a tropical storm had to leave out one island and sail around
Anyways rest of cruise was really good with some lovely islands.
Came back into the cruise terminal and carnage again!! Waiting for our limo to the airport half hour later it’s starting to thin out and no limo yet in the end I walked down the road a bit and flagged down one of the taxis he said a name I said that’s us to JFK and in we gothalfway there he gets a call on his radio asking where he isasked our name and said “you are in the wrong car” to late to turn back as traffic was horrendous so he carries on to JFK….
Never did get a call back from the limo people and never booked with that agent again.
Never tipped much on that trip

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