1

Fly.

You don't have enough time to drive and actually see anything.

2

Los Angeles to Orlando is 2,500 miles (4,000+ km). You would spend your entire trip driving. Fly to Houston, then to Orlando, then back to LA. Be sure to check Southwest Airlines separately for ticket prices as they do not show up on Kayak, Orbitz, etc.

Dec. 15 to Dec 25 is a very busy travel time in the U.S. (school breaks), so you need to start looking for flights now or you may have difficulty and unexpected expense. Likewise hotel rooms in Orlando.

By the way, since you will be in LA, why Disneyworld (Orlando)? Consider San Diego instead.

3

I would drop Houston...Do NASA on the "Cape' as a overnight from Orlando...And Yes fly. Rent a car for local excursions In LA & Orlando...carracar

4

Thank you all for the advise.

If i were to drop the idea on my original tour (Los Angeles to Orlando) and opt for a road trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and San Francisco. Would driving on our own in a rented vehicle during the chosen travel period a wise choice ? I also have checked some of the road trips by bus to the above cities, would it be wise to go on these sort of tours ? It is usually a 7 days or 9 days tour.

I look forward to all your replies.

Many times.

5

That is a smart decision (at least IMHO).

Renting a car in LA, using it for a few days there and then driving to LV is fine. Depending upon your preferred activities in LV the car may come in handy. Either way the parking is free and easy to find. You can then drive to SF. The problem there is that parking is not free or easy and a car will be a big expense you don't need.

Your plan is still a bit rushed, but if it were me I'd return the car as soon as you get to SF and then fly from there back to LA. I realize there are five of you, but flights between SF and LA are frequent and cheap and even with five of you flying you might save some money and will definitely save time.

Good luck.

6

Make your decisions quickly, as mentioned before, this is busy flying season.

7

If you fly into LA, you can spend some time at Disneyland (the original and has some rides that Disneyworld does not) and Las Vegas, although the teens might get bored. WIth only ten days not sure if you have time for San Francisco as well, come back another time and drive the coastal drive.

8

Dear all

Thank u all for your ideas . Now I m into my last stages of information gathering and I still need help ith my itinerary . Would appreciate all ur kind advice.

My tentative trip itinerary for the family of 5 (3 teenagers)would be as follow :-

Traveling dates : arrival on 15/12 (eta LAX) leaving LAX on 26/12

4 days in San Francisco
2 days in Las Vegas
2 days in Disneyland
1 day in Universal Studio
3 days in los Angeles ( around the city)

I browse thru some bus tours site - tours4fun.com ; are these tour as good
as they advertised . Are they value for money ? Do u all think I should take such
Kind of multi days / multi cities tour ?

Pls advise . Their rates keep increasing by the days even though the
Trip is scheduled for in December .

The thing that sets us back is our tickets flying and out of the country
Via Los Angeles . Therefore it's kind of a waste of time having to travel
Twice on the same route eg oung up o san Francisco and then back to
Los Angles . I cannot change my in / out LA tickets as we hv already book the main flight .

Waiting for all the experts on the subject of traveling in USA :)

Thanks a million!

9

tours4fun.com is not a tour company. They sell tours offered by other companies. You may get a better deal going directly to the other company web sites.

However, this is a pretty easy trip to do on your own. It is very popular and well-traveled. Other travelers on a bus tour are likely to be elders. It's not likely there will be other kids for yours to spend time with. Bus tours often include a LOT of shopping stops.

I would do the trip in a different order. Start with Los Angeles. You are going to arrive tired, dirty, and jetlagged from the long flight. YOu will want a shower and a bed, not having to get on another plane for San Francisco.

Rent a car in Los Angeles--it is not easy to get around by transit. Drive to Las Vegas. Fly from Las Vegas to San Francisco, where you do not need a car. Fly from San Francisco to LAX (that's the airport, not the city) and catch your flight home. Book the SF to LAX flight well in advance, to be sure you don't run into a problem with sold out flights due to many people doing holiday travel.

I would also suggest taking at least one day from Los Angeles and using it to drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon for one night.

Do note that your children will not be allowed in the gambling areas of any place in Las Vegas, not even if you are present, except to walk through on the way to somewhere else. They may not be allowed in many shows. Some pools are closed in winter.

Las Vegas may be colder in winter than you are expecting. The average high temperature in December is 14C. The average low is 3. Once in a while, it even snows.

10

Thanks for ur tips ; but we wanted also to enjoy the nice costal drive fm LA to San Francisco
And I thought the bus tours does that . I found another website - TAKE TOURS ; what do u think about this
Company ; are they good ? if flying fm LA , then we will miss the scenic drive on the 17th mile & Monterey, silicon .

Secondly is it difficult to drive in December during our travel date ?

Since LV is not so great for kids ; we probably shud just skip it and stick to san Francisco and LA plus going to
San Diego instead right ?

Thanks for helping out .

11

Take Tours is operated by GoToBus, a discount bus company. Like the other company, they are not a tour company. They are a broker for tours operated by other companies. Most rsular posters here will not be familiar with these companies, as they mainly market to visitors from Asia,

GoToBus and the companies it works with often cater to Chinese-speaking visitors. If it is important for you to have a Chinese-speaking tour guide, then you might want to look into them. Many of the other clients will be Chinese-speaking. However, many things will take more time if the guide has ot first speak in Chinese, then in English. This may or may not work for you.

The tours that go along the coast use smaller, 16-passenger buses that can travel on Highway 1. The tours that I looked at were very rushed, taking one day to drive from LA to SF. Most visitors prefer taking 2-3 days.

You could drive from LA to SF, drop off the car, then fly to Las Vegas, then either drive or fly to LAX to go home.

12

I dont get where this OP goes from wanting to drive from LA to Orlando FLA, when all the same parks in southern Cali, then ask about whether to to take a bus from LA to SF?

Have you even looked at a guidebook? You first wanted to drive in the winter no less, thru 3000 miles of nothing, now question driving from LA to SF, one the prettiest drives in the world.

You have 10 days, picks 3 places. Make then close by, you need a car in LA, period.

These road trip post are getting so bad, the posters have no clue as to what they are about to do, or how to go about doing it. It would be like me asking what and how to drive from Amsterdam to Rome in 10 days. God Bless.

13

Yup, we have been dipped in a "Singapore Sling"... Time to walk away...carracar

14

Thank you all for ur advice. I am very sorry I hv confused all of u here. My deepest apology to all.

It is just that I m trying to find the best solution to my problem . - weighing all the pro(s) and con(s). As I am not familiar with the places in US that is why most of the time I ended up asking silly and stupid questions . Pardon me for my stupidity. Since I am spending a lot of money in the US and the journey there is not 2 to 3 hours ; I would like to ensure my family's holiday is the best one ever. So I won't mind your comments on me . Better to have mistakes here than when we arrived there.

Thank u once again .