pastyp

I posted this earlier and couldn't find it. So here goes again! Sorry for any duplication.


Myself and my wife spent our honeymoon touring the western states and west coast of the US. We were married on the 29th of April and flew out to Las Vegas from Ireland on May 1st.

I got such great advice both directly and indirectly from the folks on this forum. I would like to give back information on our trip in the hope that it will help others planning to visit the same locations and accomadations we did.

In this first post I'll give a general outline of where we visited, timelines and some brief info on the accomadations. This is so those needing quick info can get it straight away without having to trawl through a lot of (probably boring) detail.

First off I should say that we had the cliched trip/honeymoon of a life time. We found the hip, the cool, the wacky and strange, the beautiful and moving sides of what is a fantastic country and culture and in the end for us the perfect place to spend our honeymoon.

The Itinerary -

1 - 4 May

Flight from Dublin - Newark - Las Vegas.

Carrier - Continental.

Immigration in Dublin before getting on the plane was good idea. But Immigration staff in Dublin were terrible. Way over the top, made feel about 2 feet tall!

We flew Continental to and from the US. The plane was a narrow bodied 757. A little small for transatlantic flight (travelling economy), but we both agreed staff and service was excellent. Lay over in Newark was about 2 hours. Not too bad especially when you're only starting your trip!

Accomadation - Las Vegas Bellagio.

Like everything Las Vegas - Glitzy and in your face. Reception area overwhelming, both in appearance and the scrum of people checking in and out. Was like a train station. Service was efficient and polite, but felt that the hotel was so huge (similar to many of the strip hotels) we were a room number and not real GUESTS, does that make sense?!? They wouldn't have known if we ever passed through the lobby or ever came out of our room. Very big, very efficeint but very impersonal. As I said typically Las Vegas!

We had a room facing the fountain and strip, great late night water shows. Room looking straight onto Paris and Eiffel tower.

Room was very comfortable/luxurious - king bed and bathroom emmense. All in all a great experience but typically Las Vegas. More on that later!


4 - 6 May

Drive Las Vegas - Hoover Dam - Route 66 - Grand Canyon

Rented from Avis for all car rental, whilst in the US. Good internet deals. Picked up in Las Vegas at the airport and drove Las Vegas to Hoover Dam and then onto Grand Canyon on the 4th. More detailed info later on drive and routes, timings, distances etc.

Accomadation - Yavapai East Lodge.

The lodge was basic but clean and comfortable for the time we were to spend in the park.

The park has a small shopping centre with bank machines and a small cafateria. Food was fine and services very good. If you need Internet cafe or more dining choices there is a small cluster of retail outlets and restaraunts on the approach road to the park enterance, not too far away.

Grand Canyon - one of the highlights of our trip. helicopter trip and 100's of pictures. More detailed info later.

6 - 8 May

Grand Canyon - Monument Valley

Accomadation - Gouldings Trading post and Lodge.

Chose this accom as was only real option to stay in the park. Was the only dissapointment of the whole trip. Basically the management and staff do not get on. We witnessed two public arguments between largely white american management and native american staff during our stay. The manager did not treat staff well at all!!

However accomadation was clean, basic but comfortable. AMAZING views from all rooms, looking out onto Monument Valley. Facilities very good. Local supermarket, gas station and small airport.

No other choice really when in monument valley!


8 -10 May

Monument Valley - Zion National Park

Zion - highlight of trip.

Accomadation - Zion lodge.
Fantastic! Location beautiful. Service and staff, friendly and professional. Room was rustic style lodge, basic but very clean and comfortable.

Onsite facilities - restaraunt served very good food with friendly service.

Shuttle bus to rest of park stopped right outside the door.

Great and memorable stay!

10 May

Drive Zion - Las Vegas

Accomadation - Las Vegas Hilton.

Typical Hilton. Didn't like it at all. Very cheesy! Room had mirror on the ceiling - need I say anymore.

11 - 16 May

Las Vegas (fly) - Los Angeles

Flew United Airlines.

Found United staff from check in staff to aircraft crew really bad and narky. Did not like United. Flew them on this leg and also to and from Kauai, on all three legs had bad impression of staff and airline!

Accomadation - Regent Beverly Wilshire
Just amazing!
Upgraded to top floor room. Over looking rodeo drive.

Room - totally amazing, total luxury. Own huge, balcony with views of 90210.

Service - We weren't the usual type of clients the Beverly Wilshire get but staff were always curteous, friendly and welcoming. Never felt out of place!

Rented car from Avis - no problems.

More on 5 days in LA later.

16 - 23 May

Los Angeles (fly United) - Kauai

Accomadation - Marriott resort Lihue.
Big hotel and complex. Very impressive pool and beach.

Service - Top notch, very friendly and proffesional.

Surroundings - Beautiful resort hotel. Very comfortable and relaxing.

Facilities - enormous pool and safe, pretty beach with amazing views. Many good, reasonable restaraunts on site and short walk away.

Room - We stayed in the older part of the hotel. This is the block looking directly onto the beach. Fantastic views, but very old, dated and musty room. Tried to get rid of smell, but never managed during our stay. Asked to be moved, but hotel full!?! Only negative on a great stay.

More on hawaian stay later.

23 - 26 May

Kauai (flew United) - Los Angeles - Santa Barbara - Carmel

Accom - Los Angeles - Airport Hilton. Just for one night. Was fine typical airport business hotel.

Accom - Santa Barbara - Inn by the Harbour.
Not exactly by the harbour! But not too far away!
Typical motel type accom. Clean and basic but fine.

Accom - Carmel - Vagabond Inn.
One word - Fantastic. Very charming and simply a joy!

More on all these places later!

26 - 30

Carmel - San Francisco - Newark - Dublin

Accom - Four Seasons. Very typical four seasons - luxourious and comfortable. Staff welcoming friendly and professional.

Room - Typically four seasons!

Flew home Continental - uneventful, service very good. Stop over in Newark a little harder to take on way back

Wow, sorry very long winded and don't know if what was any help to anyone. I will post for each stop on the trip and try to include helpful details. Hope the posts will help some of you planning a similar trip.

More to come

CaliNurse

Congratulations to you and your wife, at the start of what seems so far to be quite a marriage! Love your description about the wacky, strange, etc you found and enjoyed here in the US of A. Thankss for conveying that appreciation of our country and culture.

No way will further details be boring, Pastyp!! Looking forward to hearing much more, when you have time.
Many of your experiences I "relate" to. Just a few: I too stayed at Yavapai at GC, enjoyed its setting under the evergreens (met loads of folks in the caf next door, from your part of the world); Zion Lodge --LOVE it-- so much of the park was unexpectedly lush and green; United Airlines on first ever trip to Hawaii 9 yrs ago, so nasty and snooty, I swore no matter how good their deals, I'd never fly UA again to Hawaii (and never have).

Again, congratulations, and thanks for posting. Wow, what a honeymoon!!!

tracys2cents

Sounds like quite a honeymoon, congratulations. I'm interested in hearing about the costs of your Avis rentals. Lots of non-citizens post questions about the insurances required when in the U.S. and I am wondering how much you had to pay for waivers and insurance, thanks.

starrsville

If you click on your screen name any place it appears in blue, all of your previous posts will show up. It would be great to have all of the trip report in one place so that will help you find this one when you want to add to it.

Great trip report. AMAZING honeymoon! Congrats!

pastyp

Thank you for all your congratulations!

May seems long ago as both my wife and I have returned with a jolt to our normal daily lives after this trip. Re living the trip now through writing this report and having to dig out the maps, guide books and itinerary descriptions we used gives me the same sense of excitement I felt when embarking on the trip 5 months ago. We found the US to be everything we expected and more. We could not have picked a better place to spend our first days as husband and wife.

To the trip! My wife and I had spent 2 years, engaged, saving for our wedding and honeymoon. We wanted the honeymoon to be the clichéd trip of a life time. After two years of scrimping and saving we didn’t want to compromise whilst there. So we stayed in the best hotels we could afford and included as many of the sights/cities/locations that we could comfortably fit into a 4 weeks trip. This is all to say that when reading the report you might get the view that money was no option. In truth, while there it wasn’t but in every day life we count the pennies like everyone else, we don’t usually stay in the type of hotels we stayed in on this trip.

1st leg of Honeymoon

Dublin – Las Vegas

On May 1st

We flew from Dublin to Las Vegas via a lay over in Newark. For any of you who have taken this length of flight you know that it is a LONG trip! The lay over helped break up the time spent cramped on the plane. We flew Continental all the way. Small planes, 757, a bit restrictive but check in staff, in flight service and cabin crew were great! Would fly them again, no problem!

Dublin airport is unique when flying to the US in that it is one of the only airports that has US immigration on this side! Which means that you clear customs and immigration before getting on the flight and you sail through at the other end! While queuing you are INTERROGATED by Irish ‘pre custom’ staff, who ask all sort of questions about your destination and where you come from. Sounds okay right? It was terrible!! The young girl asking us questions was awful. She was rude, emotionless and she nearly had my new wife in tears on the first day of our honeymoon. We were interrogated, not questioned. When I asked her to lighten up, both in terms of her demeanour and general attitude I was greeted with the response that if I wanted to board the flight I would have to answer her questions. So we did, and boarded the flight. Bad experience to start the honeymoon!!

The flight from Dublin – Newark – Las Vegas was uneventful enough, as mentioned service was great. Landed at Mc Carran and made our way to catch a taxi to the Bellagio. First tourist mistake. The Taxi driver asked us did we want to get to the hotel via the freeway or through town? Having never been to Las Vegas before we asked him to take the quickest route!! He opted for the freeway, which ended up costing us a lot more then it should. It was only when I went to the airport to get the car that I realised the airport was SO close to the strip and it would have been quicker and cheaper to go through town! Oh well!! I wont go into descriptions of the Bellagio, I’ve already done that above, but just to say it was perfect for our first few nights of pampering in the US. Big farily impersonal hotel but very comfortable. We had a fantastic view of the strip and the water show right in front of the window.

We had planned on going to dinner and walking the strip on our first night, but we were very tired and ended up eating in one of the many restaurants in the Bellagio and going to bed.

May 2nd

I awoke at 4 am because I was still on Irish time and also because of the amazing view through the window and what lay out there to be discovered. We went for breakfast in the Paris Casino/hotel across the road. This place and the Veneitan are amazing. Each one has streets of coble stones with a sky affect painted on the ceiling. We ate breakfast at a café on a Paris street scence under the fake sky! My wife is French and so this was a surreal experience for her. This turned out to be the norm for our stay in Las Vegas, all very surreal!!

Breakfast inside was cool and out of the morning sunshine. Coming from Ireland the first rays of sun shine, and even in the morning, the desert heat took some getting used to. After breakfast we rode the monorail to the Hilton. I am a geeky trekkie and wanted to see the Star Trek exhibit/experience at the Hilton. It was very good fun. You can ‘experience’ two different scenarios, one of which takes you onto the bridge of the Enterprise and the other one a brush with the Borg. Very good actors and sets. I’ll leave the descriptions now as I am going to get too geeky. All in all great fun!! Before I leave it completely when we were leaving we saw a wedding party in the restaurant associated with the experience. They had been married on the bridge of the Enterprise?!?! Only in Las Vegas!!!

We then headed to the ‘Drive’ which is where you can drive Corevettes and Hummers around a safe track. Very testosterone inducing fun, had a blast! Cost was 10 dollars to drive two types of GM car.

We headed back to the Bellagio and napped from 5 to 8pm, jet lag still affecting us!

Once we awoke we headed for dinner at the Venetian. Great place! Again cobbled streets simulating Venice, with piazzas and canals with gondolas and singing gondoliers. Wacky experience.

Walked the strip after dinner to take in Las Vegas as you would imagine it. Throngs of people. Missed the show at Treasure Island due to high winds. We decided to take in the water show outside the Bellagio, rather then watching it from the room. We did have a great view from our bedroom and they play the music which accompanies the show on the TV in your room, but believe me, after seeing both, the show is better from the road side. Brought my new wife to tears. They played “Time to say goodbye” which accompanied the dancing jets of water. All very impressive.

3rd May.

Finally beginning to sleep well. Getting on top of the jet lag. Today after my wife had indulged me the day before we went for some retail therapy to some close by outlets. In fact it was a good plan. Clothing in Ireland is very expensive compared with the US. We had travelled light on the way over to the US, with half empty bags. We planned to buy most of the light summer wear we needed for the trip at the outlets. The clothes would be a better quality and also we could get more for our money. A day well spent.

After arriving back to the Bellagio, we decided to look around the Hotel itself. HUGE! One word described this place. There is so much more to hotels in Las Vegas them normal. They are all self contained unit in themselves, offering everything you could want without having to leave the complex. Always in an effort to keep you and your money right there! The Bellagio has an impressive garden section with oversized glass ornamental butterflies and animals. It also has an impressive pool area and outside garden. We decided to stay here for some of the afternoon and relaxed and swam the evening away.

That evening we decided that we should try some gambling. Initially we decided to stay local and we took a look around the Bellagio. One reason for this was that when we had look in other casinos the night before we noticed that except for all their fun themes the casinos themselves were practically identical, from the carpets on the floor to the common absence of daylight or indeed exit signs. All were cleverly designed to give an anesthetised environment that didn’t hint of what time of day or night it was or make easy for you to exit! So we played some slot machines. I put in a whole dollar and didn’t win a thing! Imagine that! House always wins!!!! I ventured into the poker rooms in the Bellagio. Some serious gambling going on! These serious gamblers were stacking and betting chips worth 1000 dollars each like it was monopoly money. One jackpot was heaped so high it must have contained many thousands of dollars!!!

This evening was about what my wife wanted to do. So in the evening we went to see Ka in MGM Grand. I am not usually into musicals or theatrical shows, but this show blew me away! It was simply fantastic! The athletic abilities and fearless, breath taking displays of the actors was stunning. The theatre itself is a sensory surrounding experience. There are metal walk ways all around the theatre, where the actors/characters are moving about and interacting with the audience before the main show starts. They come down and take things from the audience and sprint off about the theatre before returning, ape like to the safety of the metal canopy from where the came. Fantastic show. As with everything in the US, we found when the Americans put on a show or provide a service it is usually done 100% correct and professionally.

After the show we walked down the strip stopping at New York New York, Excaliber, Luxor etc. Was a great way to end our surreal introduction to Las Vegas. We retired to bed, tired but very happy, looking forward to the beginning of the road trip that would take us into the desert, route 66 and onto the Grand Canyon. Our American adventure had begun and we were gratefully and willingly swallowed up in the whole fantasy of it all.

More to come – Hover dam, Route 66, the desert, the wide open empty plains, dinosaur foot prints, the Grand Canyon.

LoveItaly

What a fantastic honeymoon pastyp! Your trip report along with your impressions is so interesting. Agree about Las Vegas and really really agree about United Airlines. Like CalifNurse I haven't flown with them for some time and hope I never have to again!

Do I understand properly that the Immigration Officer was an Irishwoman versus a US Immigration Officer? I had heard one goes through Immigration in Dublin but assumed it was staffed by US Immigration employees.

I sure look forward to the next installment of your honeymoon trip report.

Congratulations to the two of you. May you have a long and joyful life together. And may you have many more wonderful trips!

CaliNurse

Pasty, great report!
Congratualtions to you and your wife.

I posted a long reply on 9/15 but it disppeared! Go figure. Anyway, aside form agreeing/"relating to "much of what you wrote (eg United Airines experience to Hawaii, your comments on Zion Lodge and Yavapai Lodge....am greatly enjoying all the details.
And esepcially, thank you for your comments in appreciation of your wacky, interesting adventures in the US of A!
You're certainly off to a wonderful and exciting marriage.

CaliNurse

Oops, just found my earlier post. Good--now i can stop wondering if wrote something offensive which was deleted . I swear, the post was not there when last checked.

Again, congratulations on your almost-5-months of marriage, Pastyp and Mrs Pastyp!

P.S.--Are you by chance naming yourself for that wonderful pub-food delicay, the beef pasty?

pastyp

Las Vegas – Hover Dam – Route 66 – Grand Canyon.

LoveItaly – Thank you for your kind wishes. The rude girl was Irish and no more then 19/20 years old! All of the real immigration officers are US citizens, and polite and professional in what they do. These rude recruits are Irish and carry a chip on both shoulders. While I agree with added security which is the price we have to pay to get to where we are going safely, these pre-immigration individuals seem to me to be power freaks! Not a nice experience!

CaliNurse – my screen name is in reference to my rather pale complexion It wasn’t exactly inputted correctly when I registered and came out a little weird, but I stuck with it. Much too the delight of my sallow/olive skinned, French wife!! In fact my wife jokes that it’s not white skinned I am, it’s an off blue!!

The parts of the honeymoon that we were in the desert, I glowed lobster red for days after, even though I wore sun block. Such is the curse of Irish colouring (or lack of!!).

4th May

We got up early and went for a last breakfast in Paris! While my wife went back to finish packing, I went to pick up the hire car from Avis. I was picking up and dropping of from Mc Carran airport as we were to fly out of there to LA a few days later. I rented an SUV for the security of being able to see over the traffic in front while I got used to driving on the right. We rented a Buik Rondevous. It was fine for the job.

The plan for the next few days was to drive a loop starting from Las Vegas going south through Bolder City, Hover Dam , a small part of Route 66 then to the Grand Canyon and then onwards north to Zion National park continuing back to Las Vegas on I 15. This worked well.

We left Vegas early and straight away we oooed and ahhhed at the desert as it open out in front of us. We were on our road trip. Never before have I taken a drive were in the space of a few hours driving the terrain and temperatures would change so dramatically.

Our first main stop was at the Hover Dam. This was a great sight. We walked across the dam and took pictures looking directly down the face of the dam. The superman movies of my childhood came ‘flooding’ back as I walked across and looked down at the gorge (told you I was a geek!). The sight is well serviced with a small cafeteria and toilet facilities. Also there is very well organised public garage. Well organised and fascinating sight.

From the Hover dam the road wound upwards to more arid desert. I loved this part of the trip. It was on this stretch of the drive and later on route 66 that the immensity of the US becomes obvious to you. This place is huge! Because the air was clear you could see for miles in all directions. Dusty roads branched of a regular intervals and stretched away into the distance. It entered the mind that if you took one of those dusty roads and got into car trouble it might be some time before anyone would find you! We stayed on the main highway.

Were I93 met I40 we turned of towards Berry and Route 66. I was in Heaven! All the road trip movies I had ever watched in the movies had become reality. Just hoped it didn’t turn out to be the one were the stranger in the truck decided to follow and do away with you!!

This was were the scenery started to change. The desert slowly started to give way to grassy plains. We stopped at certain points to try and take it in. Once out the car and standing on the side of the road there was no sound, just the vastness of it all. I loved it! When some times the main highway could be seen of in the distance, modern America rocketed by at interstate speeds, while on the solitary stretch of asphalt that once stretched from Chicago to the west coast we found the America of the bygone years. We searched for Route 66 signs to take some photos, I know very touristy, but we pulled into a small town with the stereotypical Gas station and convenience store. As I got out of the SUV a train passed by the back of the store. The train was huge. We spent about 10 minutes in the store and the train was still rolling, slowly by when we came out. We spotted the requisite Route 66 signs and took some goofy pictures! This is were my wife started what was to become her collection of fridge magnets. We had one for every place we stopped. Can hardly open the fridge door at home now, for all the magnets stuck to it. But it brings a reminder every time I go to get something out of it.

At Seligman we rejoined I40 and continued East until we branched north towards the Grand Canyon. Again the scenery changed. From grassy plains to ever green forest. Beautiful! At one point closer to the park entrance I need to fill up (never let the car get lower than ¼ of a tank, in case we got caught out miles from a service station). When I got out of the car at the service station it became suddenly apparent that I wasn’t in the desert any more. The air was quite cool and the T shirt and shorts I was wearing were suddenly not appropriate clothing. In the space of 5 hours we had gone from arid desert to grassy plains to cool mountain forest. As we approached the park entrance we past through a small cluster of retail outlets, Internet cafes and motels. We continued along the road and came to the ranger station. At both Grand Canyon and Zion we found the rangers to be great. At the entrance we paid for a one year entrance ticket which cost 50 dollars. Between the Grand Canyon and the other state parks that we visited on the trip it was a good investment.

As you drive into the Grand Canyon park toward the Grand Canyon village, the forest begins to thin and you start to get tantalising glimpses of the Canyon itself. I was made aware of this suddenly with a shriek from the passenger seat. My wife yelled stop and we pulled over. Thought that we could make it to the village trying to ignore the canyon poking through the trees, but alas we couldn’t. Through the trees the first glimpse of the canyon waited for us. You seen pictures both on TV and in publications like National Geographic, but nothing prepares you for the first glimpse! My reaction to it was very weird. I was lost for words, literally and my wife will tell you that’s not a normal thing! It was beautiful. In fact the word beautiful is not adequate to describe the first view of the Grand Canyon. Because we had been driving all day the sun was low in the sky for our first glimpse of the canyon and it glowed! It glowed red/orange and was…. well you get the idea. The other thing besides the view, was the silence! Not a sound. This great expanse of beauty was staring right back at you and not a sound, from something so immense!! We spent about an hour and half our 1 Gb memory card there and then continued on to Grand Canyon village. We had booked into Yavapai East Lodge. We got to the main reception and booked in. Then we had to drive a short distance to the lodge itself.

The accommodations were simple but very clean and more then adequate for our short stay. Once unpacked we had to head out to Bright Angel lodge for another look at the Canyon. Then we headed for dinner at Bright Angel lodge. Food was simple but fine for what we needed. We went back to bed to be up for the sun rise the next morning. Set the alarm for 4:30am.


Reading back on this report I’m going to have to be more economical with the descriptions, otherwise it is going to take a month to write it!! Next boring instalment will be Grand Canyon – going over the edge at 150mph and living to tell about it. Dinosaur tracks in the desert and Zion National Park. Anyone has questions I’d be happy to help, also am going to put pictures on line shortly.

ElendilPickle

I like all the detail, and am enjoying your trip report. Congratulations to you and your wife!

Lee Ann

pastyp

Thanks ElendilPickle glad to hear I'm not going to over the top. Next post went I get home from work.

Thanks,

pastyp

MichelleY

I'll repeat what I wrote on your earlier posting: Wow! What a trip!!

MY

pastyp

May 5th

First full day in Grand Canyon. Alarm set for 4:30am....up at 5am to watch sunrise. Drove up to Bright Angel Lodge. Watched sunrise from El Tovar point. Was very beautiful and VERY COLD. Big difference over the past few days - desert heat to cold air.
Headed back to bed!

Spent the morning after breakfast exploring the different views of the canyon from Yavapai point to Maher point. Fabulous clear views, 100s of pictures. The edge of the canyon is so unrestricted, no fences. Not that you could fence the entire sheer edge, but 1000s of feet of a drop just one step away!! Was very distrubed at various points with people standing so near the edge, litterly on the edge. Had to walk away, made me feel very uncomfortable! Why are people so stupid??

We had a booked a helicopter flight with Grand Canyon helicopters for 1:45pm. The cost was about 120 dollars each. This was the ride of a life time. The morning had been windy and a little wet. So I wasn't too hopefull that we would get up. We arrived at the Grand Canyon airport and could see the roters turning on our bright red helicopter, captained by Nicole, an austrian lady. There were only two other people in the 7 seater helicopter, so we had loads of space. Myself and my wife ended up seating in the front two seats beside the pilot. Great views!!
Because of the noise abatement procedures in force in the park the helicopters must fly close to the canapoy on the way to the edge of the canyon. This is great for the ride for two reasons. First of all, you don't get a view of the canyon until you arrive at the edge. But secondly you fly along at 100 mph over the tree tops only to see the land fall away from beneath you when you 'go over the edge' 50 feet above the canaopy plummets to 5000 feet once over the edge. Absolutely fantastic. We spent about an hour going through the canyon and then back over the top of the village top the airport. To enphasis the hight above sea level of the Canyon rim, as we came up and over the edge to circle back for the airport, the forest floor below was still covered in snow!!! The flight was certainly a highpoint of the honeymoon!!!

In the evening we took the bus ride up to to the Hermits trail. This is a part of the road system that you can not navigate by car. The road is closed to normal traffic and you must take shuttle buses. They stop at regular intervals at various different viewing points. Got more views and pictures from Orphaned point, Hopi point and Hermits point.

Watch the sunset on a perfect day. Many people at the different viewing points watching the sunset. After we returned to the village we decided to head out of the park to Tusayan for dinner. We ate in a 'cowboy' themed steak house which was okay, nothing special and then drove back under a clear night sky, through the park to bed.

Up in the morning for the long drive to moument valley.