West Coast road trip Post Reply

[california gal]

We would like to do a USA road trip with my 3 children currently aged 3, 5 and 7 but my husband thinks that they are way too young and we should wait until they are early teens. I am wondering if anyone has done RV thing along route 66 or similar and if you did it with children what age they were or from experience what age would you recommend? Many thanks for any ideas C x

[Janet14]

Hi California Girl
Not only have I done this with a 5 year old (best holiday we ever went on!!!) in an RV but I’m also a travel agent who specialises in US road trips!! If you PM me I’d love to give you some advice
Janet

[kirsty55]

Hiya, i would love to details of this travel agent ?

Many thxs

[Janet14]

Hi Kirsty
I cannot for the life of me work out how to PM you but if you can PM me I’ll get back to you!
Janet

[Pomegranate]

Hi Janet14
Bit cheeky but would you be happy to post your advice as I too am interested in making this trip at some point.

[FlightCentreNat]

Hi
I'm a colleague of Janet's and she's asked me to respond on her behalf as she doesn't have a work profile on here.
So I've also done a road trip with young kids and also thought it was the best holiday ever!  We went around Texas and the Deep South and our boys were 5 and 8 at the time and I 100% didn't think it was too young.  I did quite a bit of research beforehand at the youngest age to take youngsters abroad where they are going to remember it etc etc and 5 seemed to be the minimum age.
We went around Texas in an RV and Deep South in a convertible and can 100% say that the RV was the best part.  Things I hadn't thought about for instance was the unpacking and repacking if you're doing car and hotels.  With an RV you unpack, settle and that's it, you're set but can still be on the road.  I just loved the freedom of it all.
We hired the RV through Cruise America which we can book for you here at Flight Centre and it was really comfortable.  We got the five berth for the four of us but the next size up is a seven berth and I have a few families who hire that if there are five of them.  There's a double bedroom at the back for the adults and the bed that's over the driving cabin is huge so although you can set up a bed at night over the dining table we just stuck to the bed over the cabin.  To give you an idea how big I'm 5.5 and was able to lie vertical and only just reach the end.  So no worries about kids rolling out.....
The emptying of the sewage and hooking up to electricity is really easy once you have done it once and we actually recorded the demonstration when we collected the vehicle so we could refer back to it if we needed to.
There's loads of storage space for bags etc underneath and tonnes of storage on board to properly unpack.
The kitchen facilities were all great and we of course ate out a lot and the toilet and shower worked well too.
I would definitely recommend getting a cable to connect your phone to listen to music but other than that it had everything we needed.
You do need to book the RV parks as far in advance as possible.
Although I did Texas in the RV I've also done two road trips around California too so very happy to give advice on that too.
If you'd like any help putting it together feel free to call me on my work number 07969 974008.
I'll be very jealous though, dying to go back and do it again - maybe Utah next time!
Nathalie

[dudette]

We did a lot of travelling with the kids when they were young but 3 is very young. I think our first trip was to Borneo when my youngest was 4 and that included only four nights of wildlife and jungle.

Just remember the distances in the US are vast. Places that look close together on a map can take hours of driving and the little ones could get very bored very quickly.

If you want to do a road trip I would recommend doing San Francisco to San Diego down the Big Sur (coastal road - think Cornwall on steroids!) and via LA. It’s a beautiful road and there are fun things for kids to see en route - Alcatraz, the Monterey Aquarium, lots of sea lions and elephant seals, Disneyworld, Hollywood and the San Diego zoo. Hearst Castle is amazing too. You’ll always have somewhere nice to break up the journey. We did it before kids in a week but doing it in two weeks will allow a much more leisurely approach. If you want to do it with hotels there are some beautiful ones to stop at. You could also do Yosemite and the Redwood national parks at the start although I’ve not been to those so not sure how suitable they’d be.

[0007]

Would love to know more about road across US.

[Marieclare72]

Great suggestions! Thanks for sharing, I’m supposed to be doing this trip later in the year but so far just have flights booked. If there are any ideas for accommodation along the way, would love to hear. I have two teens and a car rather than an RV so assuming hotels and apartments between San Fran and LA…
 

[abcdefg]

Super useful thread thank you!

We were also thinking of doing this trip but in the October half term - we get two weeks.  Is that too late in the year and will it be cold?  Thank you!

[dudette]

Great suggestions! Thanks for sharing, I’m supposed to be doing this trip later in the year but so far just have flights booked. If there are any ideas for accommodation along the way, would love to hear. I have two teens and a car rather than an RV so assuming hotels and apartments between San Fran and LA…
 

I went 20 years ago so not up to date but the one place that I remember was a Best Western in San Simeon near Hearst Castle. It wasn’t very luxurious but it has fire pits in the garden and everyone sat round them chatting in the evening and it was by the beach where you could watch the surfers and there are elephant seals nearby. No idea what it’s like now but it was very memorable. I highly recommend Hearst Castle too - book a tour before you go. We also stayed one night at the Carmel Valley Ranch which was beautiful although we didn’t see much of it. Monterey is nearby and has a fantastic aquarium. Take your pick of hotels in LA. We stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel which was incredible and an absolute classic with a very famous swimming pool and bar but there are lots of fantastic hotels there.

[joolia]

We did a campervan trip around Scotland when kids were 4 and 7 - still talked about as best holiday ever!

Get some packing cubes - different colour for each child as easy to store in campervan than larger bags.

Have a fabulous time and please post all your recommendations post trip!

[readysteadycook]

We have just come back from the States and be prepared for it to be very expensive, the dollar is now only 1.17 to £1