California & the Golden West 2021

Arrive at the airport for your flight to Los Angeles. After our early evening arrival, we transfer to the three-star Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles Westside in Culver City, our hotel for one nights with breakfast.

This morning we head south along the coast to charming San Diego and enjoy an included city tour. This classic Southern California city, which enjoys over 260 days of sunshine a year, is set around a sweeping bay and home to many sparkling white-sand beaches, as well as the beautifully restored Gaslamp Quarter. 

Our hotel for the next two nights, with breakfast, is the Best Western Plus Bayside Inn.

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3* Best Western Plus Bayside Inn - San Diego

Chosen for its great location. It takes 10 minutes on foot to reach the Bay.

• Breakfast buffet included
• Balcony rooms with city views
• Located in Downtown San Diego

A great favourite is the Maritime Museum with its many historical ships, including Star of India, a Soviet-era submarine, and HMS Surprise, a replica of an 18th-century frigate that was used in the film, Master & Commander. A visit to the USS Midway Museum is particularly fascinating and includes a tour of three decks, 35 types of aircraft and even the option of trying out your flying skills in a high-tech flight simulator!

This afternoon, why not dip your toes in the Pacific Ocean? Or take the ferry across the bay to Coronado and the Victorian Hotel del Coronado, which was used in the film, Some Like It Hot, and has hosted famous figures such as Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart and even Edward VIII. 

Whale-watching cruises (February to March is the best time of year) or harbour cruises to view the US Pacific Fleet are also very popular. 1,200 acres of Balboa Park, the largest cultural complex west of the Mississippi with 15 museums and numerous other attractions, all set amidst wonderful subtropical gardens and fountains.

Alternatively, take the option of a San Diego harbour cruise with commentary.

Today we leave the coast and drive towards Kingman in Arizona, climbing to 4000 feet when we journey through the Cleveland National Forest, before descending towards the wide plains of the Sonoran Desert. Heading north, we cross the Colorado River through Moabi Regional Park into Arizona.

We then continue on to Lake Havasu, where you’ll see the London Bridge on our way to Kingman. We stay here for one night at the Best Western Plus King’s Inn with breakfast.

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3* Best Western Plus King's Inn & Suites – Kingman, Arizona

Chosen for its location on the famous Route 66.

• Swimming pool & indoor hot tub
• Spacious rooms
• Relaxing lobby lounge

We take a drive from Kingman to Seligman, on the longest section of the original and historic route 66, on our way to the Grand Canyon.

When you first experience this great chasm, the grandeur is truly overwhelming, almost beyond the grasp of human imagination and one of the few sights in the world that mere words can never, ever describe! The south rim extends for 14 miles and we visit some of the best viewing points, each one providing a different perspective over the ever changing panorama.

Photographs or mere statistics just cannot prepare you for such a gargantuan scale: over a mile deep, with rocks as old as the earth itself. It’s a mind boggling series of shapes, colours and glaring desert light; contrasted with jet black shadows, formed by pinnacles of rock interspersed with stark promontories.

This afternoon you have the option of taking a once-in-a-lifetime helicopter flight for the ultimate panoramic view of the Grand Canyon, a truly magical display of natural beauty!  See the crisp shadows rapidly lengthen and the greys and blues change to reds, yellows and ochres in a kaleidoscope of intensive colour. Please see the Personalise Your Holiday Section for more details.

Our hotel for one night is the  historic  three-star Cameron Trading Post, located long the Little Colorado River Gorge.

Today we head to the vast 16 million-acre Navajo Indian Reservation, towards Monument Valley. Viewing the incredible flat-topped towers of red sandstone that rise so dramtically from the surrounding barren desert. Later in the day softer light allows for ideal photographic conditions. Here, the bustle of civilisation seems to far away and as the sun sets there is an amazing almost magical stillness in the air.

For those wishing to see the Valley from a difference perspective and gain a greater understanding of its historic signification we have the option of a guided 4x4 tour by a local Navajo Indian. Please see the Personalise Your Holiday section for more details.

Tonight we stay for one night at the three-star Monument Valley Inn in the nearby small community of Kayenta.

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3* Monument Valley Inn – Kayenta, Arizona

Chosen for its authentic Native American style.

• Located in the Navajo Nation Reserve
• Restaurant
• Swimming pool

After an early start we arrive at the town of Page, just next to the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, and whose building created the vast Lake Powell.

We then cross into the Mormon state of Utah and climb to almost 8,000 feet as we arrive at Bryce Canyon National Park. Created by thousands of years of erosion, Bryce Canyon presents an almost surreal landscape of multi-hued and delicate rock pinnacles – a quite exceptional, strange and exotic topography with a uniquely fragile quality.

We stay at the Best Western Ruby’s Inn, just a mile outside of the park.

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3* Best Western Ruby’s Inn - Bryce Canyon, Utah

This morning the journey continues  in a south-westly direction as we head towards Las Vegas en route we visit the Valley of Fire State Park. Nevada’s oldest and largest state park covering an area of 40,000 acres. Created when dinosaurs roamed, this state park is known for the dazzling red sandstone formations, illuminating the valley, making it look like its on fire with rock colours changing from benigh oranges and browns to deeper dramatic shades as we continue to drive through the valley towards the glittering bright lights of Las Vegas, the glow of which can be seen from 30 miles.

Our hotel for two nights is the contemporary cosmopolitan four-star Planter Hollywood Resort and Casino.

Tonight we have the option of a ‘Vegas by Night’ tour, probably the best time to appreciate its unique atmosphere with everything bathed in a glow of all-encapsulating neon – so brash it’s almost an art form.

Today we have a full day at leisure to explore the self-styled ‘entertainment capital of the world’, which really is everything you’d expect it to be. It’s an almost surreal apparition growing out of the desert and 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.

This evening, why not take in a show? Vegas shows are typically amongst the most impressive in the world, so you are assured of a memorable night whichever you choose.

Today we leave Las Vegas and drive through the barren Mojave Desert. Our route skirts the famous Edwards Air Force base, before climbing even higher through the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

On reaching the peak, literally from one minute to the next, the climate changes from the burning heat of the desert to temperate grasslands and forest, as we cross the Tehachapi Pass and travel through the vast fertile plains of the San Joaquin Valley.

We stay for two nights at The Pines Resort on Bass Lake, the only lakeside resort in the Yosemite area, nestled within the area of the Sierra National Forest.

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3* The Pines Resort on Lake Bass, California

This morning we enter the park and drive through incredible scenery to Yosemite Valley itself, where we are confronted by one of the most staggering views in the USA.

Our first stop is at Mariposa Grove, the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite, home to over 500 mature giant sequoias (access subject to season). We continue to see a deep, lushly forested valley encircled by the steely grey vastness of sheer granite cliffs and domes rising by over 4,000ft on all sides, bisected by some of the highest waterfalls in North America. Dominated by the granite monolith of El Capitan on one side and the instantly recognisable Half Dome on the other, it is impossible not to find your heart touched by this overwhelming natural grandeur.

We travel to San Francisco this morning and enjoy an orientation tour of the city, which includes Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square, Golden Gate Park and Twin Peaks for splendid city views. 

The rest of the day is at leisure, so why not take the included one-way ride on San Francisco’s famous cable car? The Powell/Mason cable line is located close by to the hotel.

We stay for two nights at the Kimpton Fisherman’s Wharf Hotel (formerly known as the Holiday Inn Fisherman’s Wharf).

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3* Kimpton Fisherman’s Wharf – San Francisco, California

Our final full day and there’s still so much to do! Perhaps take a stroll down to the renovated Ferry Plaza Building on the waterfront, converted into a huge alfresco Farmers’ Market every Saturday. Try the once predominantly Italian North Beach, still home to innumerable bistros, delis and bakeries, which during the 50’s attracted the bohemian writers and avant-garde artists of the Beatnik movement. Don’t forget the Haight-Ashbury district and the ‘Summer of Love’ for which San Francisco is still famous today.

Alternatively, there’s the option to take the short boat ride to the USA’s most infamous prison, Alcatraz Island, known as ‘The Rock’. It’s well worth the trip – the fascinating audio guide is narrated by ex-prisoners and guards. Other popular trips include a scenic harbour cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Our flights depart in the late afternoon, so why not use your final morning for some last-minute shopping? The always popular Macy’s department store is centrally located on nearby Union Square.

We arrive back in the UK after a very special tour with memories that will last a lifetime.