Ivymedia/gotobus.com tour - San Fran to Western America...

Hi all,

I am writing to inquire about a tour offered by Ivymedia.com / Gotobus.com - the San Francisco to Western America 7-day tour ( gotobus.com/bravosanfrancisco/sf__westername鈥?/a> )

It starts in SF, then to Las Vegas, then Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, back to Las Vegas, then to LA, visit Disneyland, Universal Studio, to Solvang, then back to San Fran.

I am planning a family vacation for the first week of October 2006 (there will be 6 adults). We are from Toronto, Canada.

Has anyone gone on this tour that could share some insights on the experience? I heard it%26#39;s a Chinese operated company and the tour guide speak both Mandarin and English.

The price is quite cheap ($498 per person), so I am a bit hesitant on the quality of the tour. It doesn%26#39;t state what kind of hotels we%26#39;ll be staying in, so my guess would be cheaper 2 star hotels, but I%26#39;m not sure.

I%26#39;d like to cover San Fran, LA and Las Vegas, for about 7-8 days in total. Are there any other tours / tour companies that we ought to consider?

Thanks very much for any help you may be able to provide.

W

Ivymedia/gotobus.com tour - San Fran to Western America...

I haven%26#39;t heard of this tour. Obviously, the hotels will have to be of a modest quality if the cost of the tour is so cheap.

As a comparison, Grayline (a major tour company) offers a 3-day (2-night) tour for $483 which provides only the following:

Anaheim (Disneyland area) to Las Vegas (1 night in Vegas on the strip)

Vegas to the Grand Canyon and back to Vegas; 2nd night on the strip

Vegas back to Anaheim

So, the tour you are considering is truly inexpensive. Although you are right to concern yourself about the tour%26#39;s quality, I would be more concerned with the itinerary. You are covering an extraordinary amount of distance and attractions in 7 to 8 days. For example, the ride from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area (which you will cover twice -- once, in a southerly direction and once, in a northerly direction -- takes 7-1/2 to 8 hours of driving. That means that 2 of the 8 days will be completely ';used up'; on the interstate. Since you are going to Solvang on the way back, that will add additional time as it is inland. Of course, the bus may stop on the northbound route and afford some vistas of the Pacific Ocean (you don%26#39;t indicate if it does).

The trip between L.A. and Vegas and the Grand Canyon is another full-day on the road. And, of course, Disneyland is a full-day walking around the park. When do you get to relax?

I would consider breaking your vacation into 2 pieces. Fly into San Francisco (SFO) or Oakland (OAK) airport, explore SF for 3 days, drive down the coast to L.A. (stopping one night in Camarillo (explore Hearst%26#39;s Castle) or San Luis Obispo) and stay in Hollywood for 2 nights which will give you access to Universal Studios and other attractions. (You can get rid of the car once you reach Hollywood, if you wish).

Take the Amtrak to Anaheim and spend a day at Disneyland. Fly to Las Vegas from close by (to Hollywood) Bob Hope International Airport -- also known as ';Burbank airport (BUR). Southwest airlines (southwest.com) has flights starting at $59 per person.

Take a ';day trip'; to the Grand Canyon from Vegas and then fly home from Las Vegas.

This is a 7-8 day trip will involve only two days ';on the road'; (about 4 hours each). The hotels will cost less than $100 per night (if you are a careful shopper and look up the hotel ratings here on Trip Advisor), the airfare to Vegas will be less than $75 -- most probably -- so the whole vacation will cost you about the same as the tour and you can go at your own pace and stay in better hotels. And, there isn%26#39;t so much rush! rush! rush!

If you don%26#39;t want to drive, consider taking the Amtrak train (the COAST STARLIGHT) from Oakland Jack London station (San Francisco area) to Los Angeles. Do it in two segments (like the drive). This will cost about $76 each (stopping overnight at San Luis Obispo) which will mean about $100 more than renting a car for the two days.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Good luck!

Ivymedia/gotobus.com tour - San Fran to Western America...

Astroboy5,

I just talked to my coworker about this. He%26#39;s taken a lot of the Chinese tours that go around here(to go to Yosemite, Yellowstone/Mt Rushmore) . Many of the Chinese agencies in Monterey Park(which is a very large Chinese community, the largest in the Unites States) have these tours and they are very popular with the Chinese community here (and with tourists from Asia). Tour guides do talk in both Mandarin and English, but majority of time they speak in Mandarin. He mentioned the hotels are pretty good, sometimes staying at a Holiday Inn Express type of hotel. Some hotels include free continental breakfast. One advantage of these tours, they are very cheap. He showed me a tour visiting Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountains National Park, Devil%26#39;s Tower, the Grand Arches National park , Copper Mines, tour of Denver and Salt Lake City all for $460 including r/t airfare to Salt Lake City from LA, all accomodations, and bus tour visiting the above places. All entrance fees included. And not to mention one agency in Monterey Park is offering buy 2 get 1 free. So, they are cheap and VERY Popular.

Forgot to mention, In case you were wondering, the plane he took to Utah was Delta Airlines MD-90 nonstop, so it%26#39;s not one of the unknown airlines. And he mentioned the hotels weren%26#39;t bad, they stayed at a suite in one of the states, can%26#39;t remember which one.

I%26#39;ve taken a gotobus.com/Ivymedia tour years ago when I was still in college with a friend. I went with an Asian friend. It%26#39;s cheap and they cover a lot.

We went on a 3 night tour to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Laughlin and Lake Havasu. The cost at the the time was $80 which included the bus tour and hotel accomodations. The hotel we stayed in Vegas was the Riviera and then Harrahs in Laughlin. Three star hotels. They were clean and not bad at all with the price we paid.

The bus was a large charter bus with TV screens and A/C. They do speak English a few times but mostly spoke in Chinese. Hope that helps.

Did you end up going for this tour? I am planning to book it for May. What was your experience?

Thanks a lot

Preeti

Yes, I ended up going on this tour and had a great time. The hotels weren%26#39;t exactly the best but for that price it wasn%26#39;t too bad. Except for the Super 8 we stayed while in Fresno. That place was a bit of a dump. The tour itself was pretty comprehensive. Our tour guide Hans was fantastic. He spoke both Mandarin and English which was really helpful since I don%26#39;t speak nor understand Mandarin. Really knowledgeable and nice guy. I would recommend this tour. Be prepared to do a lot of travelling on the bus, get off, see a sight, get back on the bus after a few hours, off to another city, etc. Also, be prepared to eat a LOT of Chinese buffet as most of the places the tour took us to eat were these buffets.

Hello Astroboy.

when you mention Super 8 in Fresno, how bad was it?

also what hotel did you stay in Vegas?

ET

The room at the Super 8 motel smelled a bit like bird poop and it had a musty smell. While we were there, there was a motorcycle group also staying there occupying several rooms on the main floor. They were blasting music and being quite rowdy until 2am in the morning. After we complained to reception, the noise subsided somewhat, then resumed a half hour later. We had to wake up at 6:30am because our tour bus had to leave quite early in the morning to get to our destination, so we didn%26#39;t get much sleep that night. Don%26#39;t get me wrong, this was the only hotel (well, more like a motel) that we had a bad experience with during our whole trip. The rest of the hotels that we stayed at was fine.

The hotel that we stayed at in Vegas was the Vegas Club, in downtown Vegas, not located on the actual Vegas strip. It was right on the ';Freemont Street Experience'; which was quite neat, but we mostly spent our time on the strip, visiting the hotels and saw the Celine Dion show (we had tickets booked several months in advance - this was not included in the tour).

Hope this helps.