DESTINATIONS THE US |CALIFORNIA
ROAD TRIP TIPS
E Check out Visit California’s new Road Trip Republic hub, offering inspiration for classic drives such as Route 66, Highway One and the Pacific Coast Highway, along with routes themed around surfing, scenery and architecture.
visitcalifornia.com/road-trips
E Look out for deals offering to waive one-way drop-off fees, which can significantly reduce the cost of car or motorhome hire, and book a vehicle only for the days clients plan to use it, so they don’t pay for unnecessary parking.
E Take the California Star training course, an introduction for agents wanting to sell the state and updated with links to the new Road Trip Republic tool.
star.visitcalifornia.com
E If you’re booking a family fly-drive, slow the pace and include some two or three-night stops to break up the time on the road. Suggest parents look up Junior Ranger programmes for any national park visits, and plan regular breaks on any long drive days.
E If clients are concerned about the impact of the California wildfires, and particularly the Kincade Fire in Sonoma, reassure them the fire has been contained and the region is returning to normal for visitors. Get the latest on the CalFire website:
fire.ca.gov/incidents
of towering mountain ranges and deep-cut valleys. Dante’s View – perhaps the most impressive drive-up lookout of all – is 1,669 metres above sea level. Yet, below it, the dazzling white, sediment-caked Badwater Basin is 86 metres below sea level. The effect of such dramatic shifts in height is gasp-inducing. Elsewhere in Death Valley National Park are weird ghost towns full of art installations, implausibly coloured rocks and shimmering, rolling sand dunes. But the range and valley effect is most obvious on the drive out to the west, which comprises a series of awe-inspiring climbs and descents until the great wall of the Sierra Nevada appears on the horizon. It is less than 85 miles from the lowest point in the 48 contiguous US states to the highest. Mount Whitney inches above the surrounding white-topped peaks, 4,421 metres high. The road towards it weaves through the Alabama Hills – the brown rock setting for many a western movie – before weaving around mountainsides with precipitous drops, where visions of pretty alpine lakes and tall pine forests are a complete contrast to the vast emptiness provided by Death Valley.
52 21 NOVEMBER 2019 Death Valley is famed for its
ferocity and inhospitable nature; the hottest air temperature recorded was at Furnace Creek in 1913 at a nearly incomprehensible 56.7C
MOUNTAIN VIEW For most of the road trip between Las Vegas and San Francisco, the Sierra Nevada is a constant companion. It loyally stays to the left as US Route 395 ploughs through back-country California, a drive that is a world away from the classic California road trip down the coast. Gone are the surfers skimming the waves, the clifftop
scenery and the laid-back beach towns in favour of ski resorts and the tiny settlements where you think a cowboy shoot-out could break out at any minute. But there’s also a remnant of dark history. The
Manzanar National Historic Site has very few original buildings left standing, but those that remain tell the story
travelweekly.co.uk
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT:
Dante’s View, Death Valley; Manzanar War Relocation Center; Badwater Basin
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