USA local tours

[Johnabbey44]

If we achieved a new vacation spot, the instructions do not hold out for all of us for getting with the coach, and in addition they began to walk in-front, and 50 percent way, wouldn't discover where these are.
The way it was a new Spore tour collection, the tour guideline catered to the neighborhood style such as. many wall plug shopping. I was actually pleased with all the guideline.

[darkprincess88]

Hi Greenbelt

Have you booked your tour to USA West Coast already? I have booked my tour on 21 November 2012 with M'asia Travel (it's still not a confirmed tour, but already got 10 pax + 2 pax needing to apply visa to confirm their tour, but all of us already paid deposit).

I booked at S$1,888 + S$550 tax per person (but I do not know if they are still giving offer price) for 12 Days USA West Coast (including Disneyland, Universal Studio, 3 days in Las Vegas, Grand Canyon West Rim, Yosemite or 17 miles coastal, San Francisco tour) flying by CHINA EASTERN Airline (transit at Shanghai).

Hope my information help and if you are interested can contact me.

[darkprincess88]

hi MMM

We are planning West Coast which includes LA, LV & SFO..

Have checked SA, ChanBros, CTC, for 3A1C, the total cost is almost $16k.
Per person is almost $4k including taxes.

Yeah, did explore on self drive.. but the planning for 3 families will be tough.. so we thought joining tours will save the trouble tho we also thought tour package will be cheaper.

hmm.. still sourcing to check for any good deals...

Hi Greenbelt

Have you booked your tour to USA West Coast already? I have booked my tour on 21 November 2012 with M'asia Travel (it's still not a confirmed tour, but already got 10 pax + 2 pax needing to apply visa to confirm their tour, but all of us already paid deposit).

I booked at S$1,888 + S$550 tax per person (but I do not know if they are still giving offer price) for 12 Days USA West Coast (including Disneyland, Universal Studio, 3 days in Las Vegas, Grand Canyon West Rim, Yosemite or 17 miles coastal, San Francisco tour) flying by CHINA EASTERN Airline (transit at Shanghai).

Hope my information help and if you are interested can contact me.

[Dnls_mum]

Dear fellow KSPs,
Pls beware of the M Asia Travel mentioned in the previous post. I was really intrigued by the low price mentioned in the previous post and googled this travel agent which I have never heard before. kaypoh la!

Found this discussion about this travel agent on tripadvisor. Pls see link below. Looks like it's a nightmare travel agent!

http://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowTopic ... gapore.htm

[GiftedGem]

Just booked our 3 airline tickets flying to West Coast on 5th Oct (after our DD finishes her PSLE ).

The last we went, on package deal with Dynasty Travel (pretty comprehensive tour) but this time round, we wanted to go free & easy.

Planning to travel from LA to LV, followed by SF and last stop back to LA.

Contemplating either on car rental ( Thrifty seems to offer the best price and pick up at LAX ) or local tour. GPS is pretty costly which is US$12/day and works out $144 per 12 days. For local tour, pls advise any good ones to recommend. Thanks.

[lexis]

No info on local tours, but I bought a GPS loaded with US maps from Ebay, as I was going to be there for 15 days. It was cheaper than renting. We prefer doing free and easy instead of local tours, since it offers a lot more flexibility.

Other than getting used to the left hand drive, it's easy to drive in the US.

[MMM]

Just booked our 3 airline tickets flying to West Coast on 5th Oct (after our DD finishes her PSLE ).

The last we went, on package deal with Dynasty Travel (pretty comprehensive tour) but this time round, we wanted to go free & easy.

Planning to travel from LA to LV, followed by SF and last stop back to LA.

Contemplating either on car rental ( Thrifty seems to offer the best price and pick up at LAX ) or local tour. GPS is pretty costly which is US$12/day and works out $144 per 12 days. For local tour, pls advise any good ones to recommend. Thanks.

$144 sounds expensive for GPS...

Dh also said about buying a garmin gps. I used waze and the gps provided and waze apps was great. Even tell you about police and stationary vehicle. We are thinking of using that if we decide to do west coast this yr end. Only issue is battery life.

Wow you have your trip firmed. We can only decide in late aug when dsa outcome is out.

Wanted to redeem tkts. Worse case we will go to either us or europe where we can get the tickets.

[MMM]

After discussing with dh, we decide to take the risk of booking the redemption tickets and travelling right after release of PSLE results. Worst case, we will submit ds's school options (if he don't get a CO) after PSLE. that he is shortlisted and get a CO.

We did Insights local tour 14 years ago during our honeymoon. It was comprehensive but have to wake up early and some places were a touch and go type (i recall outlet stop was only 1-2 hours).... Also, hotels are usually in the outskirt area.

We intend to look at their itinerary and "mirror" what they cover but we are keen to do F&E (own time own target). dh just came back from US and he did 2 weeks driving and personally, I finally picked up the courage to drive in US this year when I was there for mtg. I drove by myself to Woodbury outlet mall which is 2 hours drive away. So yes, driving in US with GPS is manageable. Just need to get used to left hand drive (constant reminder to myself, divider is on my left). Also as we are driving a japanese car in Spore, it took a while to get used to the german/ us cars that we got. Mixing up with wiper and signal...

Yes.. so exciting to be planning this on the 1st day of term 3.

[GiftedGem]

No info on local tours, but I bought a GPS loaded with US maps from Ebay, as I was going to be there for 15 days. It was cheaper than renting. We prefer doing free and easy instead of local tours, since it offers a lot more flexibility.

Other than getting used to the left hand drive, it's easy to drive in the US.

Thanks for your recommendation.
2 yrs back in NZ ( directly from Auckland Airport), we rented Tom Tom GPS for 2 weeks and the charging rate was less than NZ$50 which was reasonable. If you want to rent me the GPS, pls feel free to let me know.

Actually, we did make some comparisions whether to book with SG or US agent for the local tours. For SG agent, for 10D7N, the price is S$1688 per person and itinerary is limited. Hence, we are missing some key highlights.

Looking at it, we are more likely to drive on our own. Cheers.

[GiftedGem]

After discussing with dh, we decide to take the risk of booking the redemption tickets and travelling right after release of PSLE results. Worst case, we will submit ds's school options (if he don't get a CO) after PSLE. that he is shortlisted and get a CO.

We did Insights local tour 14 years ago during our honeymoon. It was comprehensive but have to wake up early and some places were a touch and go type (i recall outlet stop was only 1-2 hours).... Also, hotels are usually in the outskirt area.

We intend to look at their itinerary and "mirror" what they cover but we are keen to do F&E (own time own target). dh just came back from US and he did 2 weeks driving and personally, I finally picked up the courage to drive in US this year when I was there for mtg. I drove by myself to Woodbury outlet mall which is 2 hours drive away. So yes, driving in US with GPS is manageable. Just need to get used to left hand drive (constant reminder to myself, divider is on my left). Also as we are driving a japanese car in Spore, it took a while to get used to the german/ us cars that we got. Mixing up with wiper and signal...

Yes.. so exciting to be planning this on the 1st day of term 3.

Hi MMM, quite risky to do redemption at this timing when most of them opt during Nov / Dec and someone advised me to do redemption much earlier. Hence, keeping intact with our redemption. For this US trip, I booked thru Expedia last weekend. The price is around $1500 per pax with CX. If you book online with CX, the price is no longer $1500. It is much more expensive @ $2250. To me, it is a steal that Expedia has offered this pricing. DH wanted SQ initially and even with promotion, the price is $2060.

Btw, I would advise you not to book your tour after PSLE result release.
It may be hectic as our kids need to report back to the sec sch and there's orientation class , buying of uniform, textbooks, laptop etc. I thot Dec will be a good break for DD to catch up with sec sch stuff thus we just booked it early.

Mirror the itinerary is what we intend to do as well.
For theme park, would you recommend Knott's Berry Farm? The last round, we went to SeaWorld @ San Diego, Universal Studio and Disneyland.

You are cool! Manage to drive for 2 hrs to go to Woodbury. You went there alone or with your colleagues? I wouldn't dare if I am alone driving... Just don't feel safe... without DH.