The big family trip - where to start??

[Warks]

Having done Disneyland in October with a 10 and 9 year old I'd take at least 2 days - we did 3 which was great but you could do it in two without trouble. Remember there are two parks at Disneyland now - California Adventure which is just opposite. I think my kids enjoyed CA more than Disneyland for the thrill rides - if you do ANY ride do "Soaring Over California" - the best I've been on. The roller coaster, California Screamin' (love the name) is also 'awesome' - we did it four times.

Buy a two day park hopper ticket on-line to save about $20 and you can go from one park to the other on either day. Also remember than at 10 years old your child pays adult prices (about $20 more per day) so remind him or her that he/she is 9 years old (as long as they are not abnormally tall) and they will get away with it. Our 10 y.o. got away with it and he's quite tall. Someone said as long as the kid doesn't look 13 or more you can do it. At the window where you redeem your voucher for the tickets the person doesn't see the kids anyway and the people who run the rides never look at tickets so there's no problem.

We stayed at Anaheim and booked a bus trip to Universal Studios for the day. Was excellent (except for rain) and we went on most of the rides. The bus gets you there when it opens - when we were there it was only open from 10 to 5 which wasn't long enough to see the stage shows or really have a good look around. If it's open longer then you'll be okay. Most of the food places were closed too, we had the worst meal of our trip there - 4 hot dogs for $US25 :shock:. The only time we were caught out without our own food.

Got plenty more to add about British Columbia too when I have a moment. As you're not going for a loooong time I think it can wait a bit.

 

[ellen10]

We did the big family trip with our children 8 and 11 and had a wonderful time. We chose to do Disneyland on a 4 day pass and used it. Firstly we booked a hotel across the road from Disneyland so we had easy access, could walk over if we wanted. One day we did all the rides we could, another we did all the shows etc we wanted, another we did rides and all the little shops etc, went back to our hotel for a rest and swim and back for the night shows. Last day we redid all the rides that they loved best and my boys still talk about the great time they had ( it is a few years since going). We didn't do Disneyland all on concecutive days did other things in between. We also did Universal studios which is a great day out.

On that same trip we also flew to San Francisco, stayed at Fishermans Wharf, rode cable cars everywhere, went to a baseball game, Alcatraz, FAO Swartz(toystore ? spelling), the list is endless. So I don't think for a first time trip you need to go to the added expense and out of the way location of Florida for the theme park fix.

Your kids will be at a good age, standard hotel rooms had 2 double beds, our kids shared 1 double complained about it the first night but by the second night were too tired and happy to worry about it. I myself wouldn't put too many flights and airport waiting in the itinery, takes up too much time and bores kids the most.

p.s. we bought a Rand McNally directory it was great of course now some people use a TomTom etc but the Rand McNally gives a better all round picture. Also our kids had a simple display folder and collected tickets brochures etc and loved showing it to their friends back home.

We also went for 28 days and did a lot of touring too of beautiful and interesting places, all in all we had a wonderful time and I'm sure you will too.

 

[harvyk]

On that same trip we also flew to San Francisco, stayed at Fishermans Wharf, rode cable cars everywhere, went to a baseball game, Alcatraz, FAO Swartz(toystore ? spelling), the list is endless. So I don't think for a first time trip you need to go to the added expense and out of the way location of Florida for the theme park fix.

I loved San Francisco, especially fishermans wharf... and the bridge - I had seen photos of that bridge in countless TA stores, so it kinda represented a "I don't think we're in kansas anymore" moment for me ...

I myself wouldn't put too many flights and airport waiting in the itinery, takes up too much time and bores kids the most.

Couldn't agree more. Both as a 9 year old who has memories of travelling to the states, sitting around airports was not fun and I expect my grandparents (who where taking my sister and myself across) probably had their hands full looking after us, and again taking my own daughter away on trips she was also a handful (although a fair bit younger than your kids). Pay the extra $$$ if required to fly more direct routing. Your sanity will thank you later.

 

[drron]

Driving in the USA is a great idea.IMHO the only way to go-we have driven and stayed in all 50 states.There is something everywhere and it just depends on your likes and dislikes.
So go to Google and look up the Tourism sites for the states you want to go to.Most still will let you order their current booklet and will post it for free to Australia.A good heads up can be obtained as to what you might want to see.
The Rand Mcnally atlas is an excellent suggestion-we are currently on our 4th one-get a new one each 5 years.I have never got lost even though i have never used a GPS.The USA road numbering system makes driving easy.Tip-buy it at Walmart as it is cheaper there.Only difference is it has a list of every Walmart in the USA.Also if going to Orlando you can get discount tickets at the Walmart Kissimmee.
Take your RACQ,NRMA whatever card as you can access all the AAA discounts.
Car hire-you may be lucky as end April is the time the rental companies are looking at relocating vehicles from FLA north for the summer driving season.Dont worry waiting as early bird specials on sites such as Driveaway will be open until the end of March.
Have to work now but will post some more suggestions later.

 

[sunbeamrapier]

You might want to check the options with Virgin Blue and V-Australia, now that the tie-in with Delta is up and running. You can join Velocity for nothing and fly Virgin Blue to Sydney or Brisbane and connect with V-Australia to LA. If Westpac allow you to transfer points to Virgin Atlantic you can effectively fly around the world using Virgin Blue, V-Australia, Delta and Virgin Atlantic. This way you avoid flying (the really awful) Jetstar. I use a combination of American Express Platinum Credit Card ($1 spend = 1.5 points on most of their partner airline schemes) from where I transfer points to Virgin Atlantic (really the best airline I have ever flown) and Gold CBA Mastercard from where I transfer points to Velocity. I signed up for Altitude but cancelled the card when I realised they had reduced the value of their points.

Altitude probably enables to you use your points to book carhire and accommodation directly (without going via an airline scheme) but check value - it may be cheaper to book accommodation using Hotel Club or Wotif and carhire firms always have deals if you are prepared to use the web to find them (there are lots of sites which will compare prices across multiple rental companies).

For future reference, I recommend you sign up for an Amex platinum credit card and use it aggressively wherever you can (you can use it in Woollies even). You will receive 1.5 points per $1 spend. You can keep your points in Amex indefinitely and you can use their rewards program for accommodation and carhire if you like. If you plan to travel to Europe you should join Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club (free) and transfer your Amex points as required. Compare your Altitude points earning capacity with the Gold CBA Mastercard for points earned per $1 spend AND then the point for point conversion rate into Virgin Blue's Velocity.

You will probably find you cannot transfer your altitude points to Qantas now - Qantas locked their credit card partners in to a Qantas only card scheme some time ago. But Qantas is no longer the airline it used to be, so you are not missing anything.

So, in future I recommend you use Platinum Amex Credit Card and possibly CBA Gold Mastercard in lieu of Altitude. Fly Virgin Blue in preference to Jetstar within Australia and accrue Velocity points while doing so.

Then use your Amex points to fly Virgin Atlantic and Velocity points to fly V-Australia and Delta. Flying within the US can be quite cheap and you can book online easily enough (Jet Blue from LA to NYC is a good option).

If you ever fly business class with Virgin Atlantic to London you will be astonished at the level of service and their extraordinary lounges - especially the arrivals lounge in London where, after a long flight (with a flat bed) you can enjoy a shower, a massage and breakfast at no extra charge...

 

[Dougo]

I agree with Sunbeam - I don't think you can transfer your Altitude points as the ship sailed last year on locking in your points to a FF partner or with Altitude.

So make the most of what points you've got, use them and "pay" for your holiday as much as possible with what you've got. In the meantime, think long term about which airline's FF scheme you want to join, if at all, then try to get all your flights with that airline, join the scheme and make sure that your FF Flyer number is recorded when you buy the tickets (I always check at the check-in counter just in case as I've been stung before).

Don't forget to look at the partner sites as to which would be the best airline for you to travel between cities in the states etc.

I'll PM you with a couple of other things too.

Good luck with your planning !!

 

[Janb]

You can still transfer your points to Velocity but NOT Qantas FF as that stopped last year when new cards were launched specifically for Qantas FF.
Check on Velocity website as they are offering deals for transfer eg. extra points etc.

 

[Dougo]

I didn't know that Jan - the "experts on Earth" told me that the ship had sailed. Thanks for the post.

 

[WAR]

Travelling with kids, less is more - i.e. more days in fewer places. Trains are a great way to travel on the East coast. We went from Boston to Rhode island by train from Boston to Providence / boat to Newport / taxi to Kingston & train to New York then Washington. This may be a more relaxing way to travel. However to see Eastern Canada & Niagra Falls a car may be more convenient for the northern part.
Vancouver & canada are nice but for shorter travel & a better kids' experience have you considered Los Vegas? We had a family holiday when our children were a similar age to yours - skiing in Canada, Las Vegas, Disneyland/California Adventure Park & Universal Studios - definitely pay the extra for the front-of-line pass. SO much quicker.
Las Vegas was amazing with kids - all the themed hotels, a show & a day trip by plane to the Grand Canyon (+ the optional helicopter ride into the canyon, though I'm not sure if they are still doing these).
re flights - apparently V-Australia is very good. Singapore airlines usually have good points rate online but direct flights are much better when travelling with children.

 

[cove]

On points you may need to be flexible in America where 2 fly an hour or two earlier/later and so you take one child and your partner takes the other.
Orlando is usually 12 hours time difference behind Perth so yes it is half way around the world.
If you have considered Disney World then I found that by staying "inside" the park for 4 or so days was expensive but worth it because we had transportation at our hotel front door rather than losing an hour or more each way getting to one of the many parks.We chose Wilderness Lodge and it worked well for our 2 kids despite the room looking postage stamp size with bunk beds for the kids to sleep four.Disney has masses of accommodation and if you get tired going back for a rest becomes easy.You may not feel old on day one but by day 3 you will appreciate being able to get to one of the parks so quickly.

 

[Dangst]

Re: The big family trip - where to start?? Careful getting online visa

Be careful getting your online Visas. I got ripped off a couple of months ago by a company calling itself ESTA. They are shonks from Korea who undertake to get you a FREE US visa for a fee.

They come up in google search and their site looks official.

Go only to the US Embassy site and work from there. Online visas are free for Australians. Enjoy the trip. We flew the A380 on points (make sure you check out Seat Guru for best request seats.).

 

[Warks]

Re: The big family trip - where to start?? Careful getting online visa

Be careful getting your online Visas. I got ripped off a couple of months ago by a company calling itself ESTA. They are shonks from Korea who undertake to get you a FREE US visa for a fee.

They come up in google search and their site looks official.

Yes they turned up when I was looking some months back. As I'd already seen the official site (from a link on AFF) I spotted it was dodgy fairly quickly. Crooks.

Anyway... some tips about Vancouver for starters.
- Science World is awesome. Think the Questacon in Canberra x3. Great Omnimax theatre in there too.
Vancouver Aquarium is also fantastic - the beluga whales... what can I say.
The area around Lynn Canyon on the north side is gorgeous. It's got a suspension bridge like Capilano but this one is free, even though it's slightly shorter. I think the Capilano bridge charges something like $20 per person!
Take the ferry to North Vancouver - nice little trip.
Stanley Park - beautiful walks and views and of course the totem poles. My kids were thrilled to see squirrels and their antics so your kids should stay entertained.
If you are desperate to see an enormous shopping centre then there's Metrotown in Burnaby, accessible by Skytrain. It's got everything plus there's often an exhibition to see - there were animatronic dinosaurs last year.
There are a lot of large parks in suburbia which are worth a walk around too.
More on BC later.

 

[Cocitus23]

In my first post (#3 on this thread) I made the following suggestion:

Consider something like this as a route: Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut coast, Rhode Island, Cape Cod incl Nantucket, Boston, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Gettysburg, Shenandoah National Park, Charlottesville and back to IAD.

My dear wife, who is American, read that and said, "Gee isn't all that a bit much for 2 1/2 weeks?" And of course she is absolutely correct. With just two adults you would struggle to race around that circuit, but with two kids in tow it would be impossible. I was really trying to give an idea of how many and rich the attractions are in the North East. For instance, re-reading the list above I see that I neglected to mention Mystic CT, Newport RI, New Hampshire, Vermont, Niagara-on-the-Lake ON, Lancaster County PA (Amish country), Antietam MD and Harper's Ferry WV, all sensational attractions and all of which you would drive right past on the suggested itinerary. So you will have to make choices. You can't do it all.

There has been some good advice given above, but I would reiterate that North America has much richer goods to offer than man-made attractions, ie all the theme parks. I feel that they have been over-emphasised by too many posters. Hey, I'm not a kill-joy. A bit of that is fun and necessary, especially with kids, but don't think you have seen USA or Canada if that is all you take in.

Like drron, I have slept in all 50 states, (and in every province and territory of Canada, for that matter), so I know my way around there pretty well. [I think that we are in an elite group, eh, drron?] To me the jewels of North America are the National Parks, the countryside, selected parts of some of the cities, and the historical sites. Some people will say that kids don't like that stuff. My kids loved it and so do their kids.

For accommodation and rental cars I have found that expedia.com delivers excellent value.

I will be travelling and off-line for the next few weeks so won't be able to re-enter this fray for a while. In the meantime, scratch950, if you care to send me a personal message, I might be able to give you some more specific tips in a phone chat - if that would interest you.

 

[aussiedom]

OP, you've got lots of good info in the replies that have been posted so far!

We did an 11 week USA roadtrip (with a side-trip to Montreal and Niagara Falls) in 2004 when our kids were about the same ages as yours will be for your trip. When travelling with kids I definitely agree with the 'more time in fewer places' suggestion someone made. If I had ours over again that is what I would change - we had too many one night and two night stops with long drives and this did unsettle the kids a bit towards the end I think.

After the trip I did up a website which, apart from heaps of photos, has lots of tips and comments about various aspects of our experience in the US. It's a bit old now, but if you like you can check it out. I can't post the link here (as explained later in this message) but I'd be happy to PM it to you.

With the Disney parks our kids preferred the waterparks such as Blizzard Beach in FL (also Wet 'n Wild) to Disneyland in LA. I can't remember exactly, but I recall being surprised how young an age Disney started charging adult rates at - I think it might have been 11.

When you're on the road, take advantage of the discount coupon booklets they have at 'Welcome Centers' as you cross state borders, at gas stations etc. They have discount offers for motels etc and you can often make savings that way. Accommodation when travelling with kids is pretty good value in the 'states, esp outside the downtown areas of major cities. You can get places like Comfort Suites with indoor pool, breakfast included, heaps of cable channels etc for a reasonable rate. Usually you get two queen beds - as someone else said the kids soon come to accept sleeping in the same bed! Sometimes you can find places for not much more where the bedroom is at least partially separate - good if you want to stay up once the kids are in bed. Expedia is a good place to find accommodation. There is now an AU version of Expedia as well where it is priced in AUD.

Re the rental cars I agree with what others have said - try to organize your rentals so they are 'circular' drives with the car being dropped back to where you picked it up from. While you may sometimes avoid a 'one-way rental' fee between two large cities that are not that far apart (or if it suits the company at that time of year to be moving cars from one region to another) you should assume there will generally be a one-way rental fee charged if you drop to a different location. The fee can either be explicitly stated as a separate item in the quoted rate or else may just be built into the daily rate.

When booking rental cars in the USA I've found that the best option is generally to do it with Budget UK or Avis UK - the British branch of a major car rental firm anyway. You could get an 'all-inclusive' rate through a travel agent or an Australian-based firm, but in my experience these are unlikely to offer as good a deal as going through Budget UK or similar. I've done this for the 2004 trip and also for our 2009 Hawaii trip and (upcoming) 2010 trip to Alaska via Hawaii.

It's all to do with insurance - if you want to know the ins and outs of it you can go to tripadvisor and look for posts by djk_au. I explain all of this, and the fact that your travel insurance is not going to give you adequate coverage when renting cars in the US. I can't include links to websites here as you need to have submitted 10 posts on the forum before they let you, and this is my first! I could PM or email you the links if you like.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the trip - and the planning is half the fun of it too! If you have any questions re the rental car issue or anything else I'm happy to answer them.
Dom

 

[drron]

In my first post (#3 on this thread) I made the following suggestion:

Consider something like this as a route: Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut coast, Rhode Island, Cape Cod incl Nantucket, Boston, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Gettysburg, Shenandoah National Park, Charlottesville and back to IAD.

My dear wife, who is American, read that and said, "Gee isn't all that a bit much for 2 1/2 weeks?" And of course she is absolutely correct. With just two adults you would struggle to race around that circuit, but with two kids in tow it would be impossible. I was really trying to give an idea of how many and rich the attractions are in the North East. For instance, re-reading the list above I see that I neglected to mention Mystic CT, Newport RI, New Hampshire, Vermont, Niagara-on-the-Lake ON, Lancaster County PA (Amish country), Antietam MD and Harper's Ferry WV, all sensational attractions and all of which you would drive right past on the suggested itinerary. So you will have to make choices. You can't do it all.

Like drron, I have slept in all 50 states, (and in every province and territory of Canada, for that matter), so I know my way around there pretty well. [I think that we are in an elite group, eh, drron?] To me the jewels of North America are the National Parks, the countryside, selected parts of some of the cities, and the historical sites. Some people will say that kids don't like that stuff. My kids loved it and so do their kids

Couldn't agree more.Although it is easy to travel around the States by plane or train only by car to you get to see a lot of the attractions.You wont see everything.We have been travelling the states for 30 years and still haven't seen it all.Have stayed in NYC for ~ 6 months and there are still things I want to do.
I'll come back in the next couple of days and give some West Coast ideas-possibly not a bad idea as you will be there for the Californian Grey whale migration(awesome show last night on the ABC of Orcas attacking grey whales in Monterey Bay).

 

[aussiedom]

See attachment for the links I was talking about earlier

 

[lovetravellingoz]

.

There has been some good advice given above, but I would reiterate that North America has much richer goods to offer than man-made attractions, ie all the theme parks. .

I would reiterate this advice...

What I remember most about my first trip to the USA, California...was Yosemite National Park, the giant redwoods, Morro Bay and nearby coast.

But then again the natural wonders have always had strong appeal to me and color most of my trips.