Anyone who has read my Opinion on Las Vegas will undoubtedly already be aware of my fascination with America. My Wife and I have visited the country about 15 times over our 12 ½ years of marriage.

I fully appreciate that this is quite a considerable sum of money and over the years we have learnt of ways to make the trip more cost effective. Last June we visited the Western USA for 3 weeks with our Son and it cost us under £3,000 (an extra week , an extra person and 12 years later) , the same cost as when we went on Honeymoon in 1998.

TOURIST BOARDS

If you've ever tried obtaining information about a UK holiday resort , it can be like getting money out of the taxman. America appears all together different. Visit some of the major Search Engines and look under Tourist Information / Tourist Boards for the Town or State you are interested in. The vast majority have excellent web-sites which allow you to put in your name and address and they will send you relevant Information. I'm not just talking about little leaflets , the ones from San Diego , Grand Canyon and Arizona tourist boards were substantial packs (postage costing them many dollars) , including details about the Area , attractions , accommodation , Map and even vouchers / coupons in some instances.

I can also strongly recommend for background reading two very well known American Travel Books.

A) Airline Network :- www.netflights.com (used 3 times - all good)
B) Flightbookers :- www.ebookers.com (used 1 time - good tried again bad , perhaps unlucky)
C) Travelbag :- www.travelbag.com
D) Airtickets Direct :- www.airtickets.co.uk (used 2 times for Car Hire - good)
E) Bridge the World :- www.bridgetheworld.com

N.B. If you do a fly-drive , try and make sure they don't use Dollar for the Cars. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Company or Cars it is just that they won't allow you to have you own Car Insurance and I will come onto this later.

You've probably heard of Collision Damage Waiver (CDW or LDW) and Top-up Liability Insurance. CDW is basic Cover for between $40,000 and $100,000 of Cover , Top-up increases this to $1,000,000.

I have a solution , it works , we have used it for many a year and Alamo definitely recognise this as valid Insurance.

Therefore , this works out at £8.75 per day if cover starts in California , £9.25 per day in other states. A three week holiday costs £183.75 / £194.25 with no taxes on the Insurance compared to the earlier figure of £360 / £450 plus tax. I am sure you will agree , a massive saving.

One of the favourite profit making schemes used by Travel Agents. A two or three week Holiday to America for a family of four and you need a re-mortgage to buy the Holiday Insurance.

Asda Annual Family Cover
Sainsbury Annual Family Cover
Direct Travel Insurance :- www.direct-travel.co.uk (Underwritten by CGNU)

HOTELS

I will bullet point them below with their web-site address and my comment whether they are Cheap / Mid-Price or Expensive. You will find prices vary considerably from City to City dependant upon time of year. For example Phoenix is relatively Cheap in the Summer as it rarely gets below 100 degrees but in Autumn it can be expensive as climate is pleasant and Californian's visit at weekends. Conversely , Anaheim (Disneyland area) is very Expensive in Summer but relatively cheap out of season. As such , my comments on the respective chains is more in relation to each other rather than a general price you may pay.

I have tried to provide a degree of structure to this Opinion with regards the order that you will probably find it helpful to follow.
This doesn't guarantee to save you thousands of pounds but from our experience it certainly saves us about £500 to £750 on a good standard 3 week holiday compared to the brochure price for an equivalent Package. The other two massive positives in our opinion is the added flexibility it provides (you can swap and change your route / plans during the Holiday) and probably the most important part of all is the self-satisfaction you get in organising your own holiday.