DAY 1 - ARRIVAL IN LOS ANGELES Fly to Los Angeles. Following our afternoon arrival, we transfer to the four-star Hilton Los Angeles Airport for one night.
DAY 2 - LOS ANGELES LA, the city of glamour, the stars and miles of pristine beaches! This morning we enjoy a tour of the best it has to offer – Beverley Hills, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the legendary Chinese Theatre, Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monica and Venice beach. During the afternoon we head south to charming San Diego, staying two nights at the three-star Best Western Plus Bayside, close to the waterfront and the city’s Little Italy quarter.
DAY 3 - SAN DIEGO With over 260 days of sunshine a year, San Diego is the classic Californian city, set around a sweeping bay. After a city tour, you are free to experience its numerous attractions. A great favourite is the nearby Maritime Museum with its many historical ships, including the HMS Surprise, a replica of an 18th century frigate used in the film ‘Master and Commander’ and the USS Midway aircraft carrier. Why not take the ferry across the bay to the Victorian Del Coronado Hotel used in the film 'Some Like It Hot'.
DAY 4 - MOJAVE DESERT Drive inland towards Phoenix in Arizona. Passing through the Cleveland National Forest and hugging the US-Mexico border, we descend towards the hot sands of the Mojave Desert staying at the brand new three-star Hampton Inn Happy Valley, with breakfast.
DAY 5 - GRAND CANYON Leaving Phoenix we drive through Oak Creek Canyon and then on to the Grand Canyon itself. When you first experience this huge chasm, the grandeur is truly overwhelming. Its stunning series of shapes, colours and glaring desert light contrast with jet-black shadows formed by pinnacles of rock interspersed by stark promontories. The south rim extends for 14 miles and we visit the best viewing points. Our hotel is the four-star Best Western Premier Squire Inn. You have the option of taking a once-in-a-lifetime helicopter flight for the ultimate panoramic view.
DAY 6 - MONUMENT VALLEY This morning we have our final, lingering look over the canyon from the Desert View Watchtower, before crossing into the vast Navajo Indian Reservation, towards Monument Valley. Arriving a few hours before sunset, this is the best time to view the incredible flat-topped towers of red sandstone that rise so dramatically from the surrounding desert. Here, the bustle of civilization seems so far away and at sunset, there is an amazing and magical stillness in the air. Tonight we stay at the three-star Monument Valley Inn in the small community of Kayenta.
DAY 7 - BRYCE CANYON After an early start we see the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, cross into the Mormon state of Utah and climb to almost 8,000ft as we arrive at Bryce Canyon National Park. Created by countless years of erosion, Bryce Canyon presents an almost surreal landscape of multi-hued and delicate rock pinnacles – an exceptional and strange topography with a uniquely fragile quality. We stay in the three-star Best Western Ruby’s Inn.
DAY 8 - ZION NATIONAL PARK This morning we continue to Zion National Park with its massive layers of petrified sand dunes, plus huge sheer cliffs and gorges. Unlike the
Grand Canyon and Bryce, we reach the bottom of the main canyon experiencing a completely new perspective. Late afternoon we arrive at the glittering lights of Las Vegas staying two nights at the stylish four-star Tropicana Resort and Casino, superbly situated in the vibrant heart of the Vegas ‘strip’, with the famous Bellagio fountain display just opposite.
DAY 9 - LAS VEGAS Today we explore the self-styled ‘entertainment capital of the world’ Las Vegas, which really is everything you expect it to be – an almost surreal apparition seemingly growing out of the desert. It’s where the world’s most renowned sights and cities such as Venice, Paris, New York and even the Pyramids have been recreated in such detail. You can even take a trip on a gondola on a canal on the 1st floor of one of the hotels!
DAY 10 - SIERRA NEVADA We leave Las Vegas driving through the barren Mojave Desert. Our route skirts the famous Edwards Air Force base, before climbing through the snowcapped Sierra Nevada. Suddenly, literally from one minute to the next, the climate changes from burning desert to temperate grasslands and forest as we cross the Tehachapi Pass to the fertile plains of the San Joaquin Valley. This evening we stay at the three-star
Yosemite Southgate Hotel just outside Yosemite National Park.
DAY 11 - YOSEMITE VALLEY As you drive into the Yosemite Valley you are confronted by one of the most staggering views in the USA: a deep, lushly-forested valley encircled by the steely grey vastness of sheer granite cliffs and domes, bisected by some of the highest waterfalls in North America. You then continue to nearby Sonora staying the night at the three-star superior Best Western Plus Sonora Oaks.
DAY 12 - SAN FRANCISCO From its beginnings as a 19th century mining boomtown to the sophisticated metropolis of today, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful and fascinating cities in the world. Nestling on a bay astride the Pacific Ocean, dominated by the Golden Gate Bridge, the city spreads out over forty-three steep hills. This morning we have a tour of the city, visiting Fisherman’s Wharf, Nob Hill, Lombard Street and Union Square. The rest of the day is at leisure: wander along the busy waterfront of Fisherman’s Wharf, try out one of the many seafood restaurants or take the short boat ride and tour of Alcatraz Island, the most infamous prison in the US. You stay two nights in the three-star superior Holiday Inn Golden Gateway (2017 departures stay at the Marriott Marquis).
DAY 13 - SAN FRANCISCO On our final full day you can amble through Chinatown, the second largest outside Asia, and wonder at the pagodas and oriental markets. Or perhaps take a stroll in North Beach, which during the 1950s attracted the bohemian writers and avant- garde artists of the Beatnik movement. And don’t forget the Haight-Ashbury district and the ‘Summer of Love’ for which San Francisco is still famous today. Alternatively, there’s an optional trip to Muir Woods, a US National Monument, which contains a 560-acre stand of giant 300ft-high Coast Redwoods.
DAY 14 - RETURN FLIGHT Fly back to the UK on our overnight direct flight.
DAY 15 Arrive back home.
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