Help me plan my US trip please [was Hilton or Marriott – best for US stays?]

[davefl]

@JDP Yes thanks, I’ve been to several parts of Argentina and will head back there as soon as time and funds allow, I don’t just go to the USA 🙂

Been lucky enough to visit 18 new countries (and revisit several previously visited ones) since the beginning of the pandemic, as well as 4 trips to the US since it reopened.

Next time I go to Argentina I intend it to be for at least 4-6 weeks and combine it with Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay as well to do it justice. Trouble is I have southern african countries on the plan as well and that’s likely to come 1st. Then there’s central america to visit. Ho hum, too many countries, too few years left.

[Tiger]

@omicron Thanks for suggesting Antelope Canyon. I will keep it in mind and see if we can fit it in. Would you know if the road from Page to Vegas is open in mid-March? I think I read somewhere that there are closures at North Rim around that time. I checked the maps and noted that we won’t be passing through North Rim on our trip from Page to Vegas, but just wanted to check if there are any road closures around the route from Page to Vegas.

@Jill Kinkell Based on your comment, I booked the Squire Resort which is the BW hotel at Tusayan. It looked pretty decent for the price (£130 a night) with decent reviews and only 15 mins from the GC NP, so went ahead and booked it with Amex travel £100 off on £300 offer. Thanks for suggesting the BW at Tusayan, and for letting me know about the timed entry at NPs. I will keep this in mind closer and check if we need to book a slot closer to our travel date.

@zio I am actually dreading the 50 day tour. I haven’t done a trip this long ever and requires a lot of planning.

@The Savage Squirrel Thanks for sharing your feelings for Vegas. I have taken a middle path and still doing 2 nights in Vegas. As a compromise, I have moved our flight from Vegas to very late in the night so that we can have almost half a day in GC NP area, before we return to Vegas to catch our flight, though understandably it is going to be a long and exhausting day.

@davefl Thanks for sharing your wisdom about timed entry in NPS. I also noted your comments about the road from Page to Vegas. If those are back roads, I reckon it is going to take a lot more time to reach Vegas from there than from GC Village side. Is it advisable to turn back from Antelope Canyon towards the GC village to go back to Vegas then?

Thanks again for the helpful responses. You guys are saviours!

[The Savage Squirrel]

We’re emotionally invested now; want a Froggee style trip report once you’re back 😀

[Tiger]

I will try my best to share a trip report. 🙂
Borrowing from @davefl who mentioned earlier that planning a US trip is like nothing else you’ll ever do. He was 100% right. I am quite enjoying the process and happy to report back with a trip report.

P.S: Please can someone share the link to Froggee’s trip report. Couldn’t find it in this thread:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/california-road-trip/

[The Savage Squirrel]

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/northern-california-trip-report-by-froggee-paterfamilias/

If you haven’t seen them, there are several other excellent reports by Froggee of his travels in the same style – worth a forum search!

[davefl]

Tiger wrote:

I will try my best to share a trip report. 🙂
Borrowing from @davefl who mentioned earlier that planning a US trip is like nothing else you’ll ever do. He was 100% right. I am quite enjoying the process and happy to report back with a trip report.

I’ve been planning these for about 13 years, mostly using the (now defunct) Microsoft Streets and Trips but Google Maps is your friend here. (G Maps only allows 10 waypoints, some of my trips have over 100). Streetview on maps will allow you to see every detail before you drive, including finding entrances to properties, looking at road junctions so you understand them before you get there etc.

When I say back road to Page, if you’re just going there from LV then I mean there’s just nothing to see or do on that road whilst the longer way around from LV,GCV,Page has all the Route 66 attractions and better views. Maybe do the route as one big circle and see everything.

Here’s what I’d do https://maps.app.goo.gl/gHNnzQnYo2wP8XLHA

This is a good resource for things to see and do https://roadtrippers.com/

[Tiger]

Hi all – I am back at planning the longest trip I have ever planned after a busy X’mas. Thanks for all the help so far. I am truly grateful for your help.

I am in the midst of planning what to do around Orlando for 2 days before we board our cruise. After reading some blogs on the internet 2 days definitely feel too less for those theme parks around Orlando plus both Tigress and I feel that we will visit the sunshine state sometime in the near future for Key West and another Cruise probably in 2025. So we are in no rush to do the theme parks this time.

Having said that, can I ask for recommendations for things to do around Port Carnival area. We were thinking about spending those 2 days at a nice beach around the Gulf Coast like Clearwater and skip Orlando altogether. Another option we are exploring is Wekiwa Springs.

Appreciate that these locations are not exactly in the vicinity of Port Carnival and are a little far, but our cruise departs at 4 pm, so we have plenty of time to make it to Port Carnival on the cruise day if we start driving after breakfast to make it to our cruise.

[Michael C]

Tiger wrote:

Hi all – I am back at planning the longest trip I have ever planned after a busy X’mas. Thanks for all the help so far. I am truly grateful for your help.

I am in the midst of planning what to do around Orlando for 2 days before we board our cruise. After reading some blogs on the internet 2 days definitely feel too less for those theme parks around Orlando plus both Tigress and I feel that we will visit the sunshine state sometime in the near future for Key West and another Cruise probably in 2025. So we are in no rush to do the theme parks this time.

Having said that, can I ask for recommendations for things to do around Port Carnival area. We were thinking about spending those 2 days at a nice beach around the Gulf Coast like Clearwater and skip Orlando altogether. Another option we are exploring is Wekiwa Springs.

Appreciate that these locations are not exactly in the vicinity of Port Carnival and are a little far, but our cruise departs at 4 pm, so we have plenty of time to make it to Port Carnival on the cruise day if we start driving after breakfast to make it to our cruise.

Morning, @Tiger! We had a break from Orlando madness (which was still great but not our focal point) by staying in Dunedin, north of Clearwater. A VERY lovely cute town centre plus a traditional trolley bus that tootles up and down the coast to Clearwater all day. Only a few minutes’ drive from Honeymoon Island State Park. We stayed at the (newish) Hampton Inn, which was more than fine: lots of parking, walking distance to Publix etc., basic breakfast, but also walking distance to the fabulous Frenchy’s Outpost restaurant.

[davefl]

Can’t add anything for things to visit but anyone is flying in and out or Orlando with car rental from MCO then this is essential for saving money on tolls https://visitortollpass.com/ (although if flights are from Terminal C it’s currently a faff as there’s no drop off boxes in C)

Well, I guess you can’t miss Cape Canaveral space centre before your cruise?

I’m currently planning my longest ever trip to the US, 7 weeks, probably about 3500 miles on the road and at least 18 states.

[Tiger]

Thanks Michael. I will have a look at Dunedin. Did a quick Google search and I must admit the beaches look nice.

@Davefl – Thanks for sharing the wisdom on visitor toll pass. I would be driving up from Miami, so I would need to buy the pass at Miami. Do you know if one can pick the visitor toll pass at Miami Airport? I could only find info for pickup at Orlando airport on the internet.
Thanks.

[davefl]

@Tiger No it’s only available at Orlando for cars exiting via the airport from Terminal A/B.

You can buy a Sunpass mini at any Publix supermarket and use that but creating an account and registering it is not for the faint hearted. Even after 37 years in IT it took several hours of googling and multiple attempts to set up an account on the website and fund it. Needs a fake address and fake phone number too. Their support is a farce. Ending up with a rental car that was registered to another Sunpass didn’t help, that took 6 days to sort out.

Main issue is that Sunpass expect everyone to be able to use their app but on Android they block it from all but the US version of Google Play and changing your location on Google can only be done once per year. IOS – Maybe be better but I don’t know.

Most of their website is dreadful. If you do go the self purchase of the mini route, this is the link you need to open an account https://www.sunpass.com/en/signup/activateclassify.shtml

I bought a pro as I’ll use it in at least 10 states over the next couple of years.

[Tiger]

Thanks @davefl for this. Will have a look. Appreciate the warning with the pass set-up.
Cheers.

[Tiger]

@davefl Do you have a recommendation for a parking app in the US? I will be behind the wheels in the following states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Hawaii and Florida. Any other tips and tricks for parking in any of these states is also welcome.
Thanks.

[The Savage Squirrel]

Tiger wrote:

@davefl Do you have a recommendation for a parking app in the US? I will be behind the wheels in the following states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Hawaii and Florida. Any other tips and tricks for parking in any of these states is also welcome.
Thanks.

Never used one. Every single business and attraction in the USA is set up on the (largely correct) assumption that everyone drives everywhere all the time. Outside of Manhattan and central San Francisco it’s not a space-constrained country and ample parking lots are the norm and parking is generally free (or the business would die). Parking is simply not an issue you think about generally as it’s always there. The only exception I can think of is that Vegas Strip locations have started charging for parking and rebate rules vary by property, so you may need to check wherever you’re going.

Just google streetview anywhere you’re planning to go and you’ll soon see what I mean. Google maps covers parking more than well enough.

[davefl]

Lots of places in the US are problematic but I’ve never bothered with an app just use the websites of either Parkopedia or Spothero

It really depends on whether you’re going to stop randomly or preplan. I’ll happily ditch my car when I get to the city and use public transport or uber/lyft to save the hassle of worrying about parking. For example downtown LA, Buckhead in Atlanta, it’s going to be expensive and difficult to park even at the hotel but if you use google streetview you can check out locations, see what on street metered parking costs, what restrictions there are etc. I managed 3 days for free on the street next to the hotel in Washington DC just by checking out the signs (and it was a holiday weekend so no enforcement on the monday).

You can often save a lot by checking out parking garages a couple of blocks from your destination or hotel, especially for those hotels that only have Valet parking. Never paid the $40-70 / day that they demand and really can’t be bothered waiting for a valet to go get my car.

Never driven in Hawaii, CA/FL the driving standards are noticably worse than other states. Texas – if you’re going to drive north or out into the wilds of the south and west of the state make sure you keep your tank topped up. There are vast distances and surprisingly few gas stations on the back roads.

[sayling]

Recently booked flights to Houston, with a view to doing a roadtrip round Texas late August/ September, so have eagerly digested this thread – might start my own for similar golden nuggets!

We did Gulf Coast last year, flying into New Orleans and back from Miami – Sunpass was actually straightforward, I found. Bought the pass from a Publix on the way in, set everything up in the car park (use one of the hotels you’re staying in for a ‘local’ registration address).
Even got a refund after returning home!

For Texas, a number of people/bloggers have mentioned Spothero for parking – but it also seems to only be available in the US Play store. I think I’ll just download it once we land.

[davefl]

@sayling You dont need the app, just go to spothero.com with the browser on your phone, works just as well, same with parkopedia.

[sayling]

davefl wrote:

@sayling You dont need the app, just go to spothero.com with the browser on your phone, works just as well, same with parkopedia.

Good call – thanks, @davefl

[davefl]

sayling wrote:

For Texas, a number of people/bloggers have mentioned Spothero for parking – but it also seems to only be available in the US Play store. I think I’ll just download it once we land.

BTW, this isn’t a realistic option. The only way to download stuff from the US Play store is to change your home region and since you can only change it once every 12 months you wouldn’t be able to change back the UK for a year. Google sucks on this.

[sayling]

davefl wrote:

sayling wrote:

For Texas, a number of people/bloggers have mentioned Spothero for parking – but it also seems to only be available in the US Play store. I think I’ll just download it once we land.

BTW, this isn’t a realistic option. The only way to download stuff from the US Play store is to change your home region and since you can only change it once every 12 months you wouldn’t be able to change back the UK for a year. Google sucks on this.

Ha! Good to know, thanks @davefl