Car Rental Suggestions

[milhouse]

Hey Everyone

So for an upcoming Vacation, the wife and I have decided to fly to Los Angelas and rent a car and drive the coast to Seattle. We are scheduling a 7 day trip for this

The problem i am finding is that we were hoping to rent a convertible for this trip, but both priceline and expedia do not allow convertibles to come up as an option.

There could be several reasons, but i believe it is due to not returning the car to its original location.

1. Does anyone have any website or company suggestions that would let us rent the car in LA and return it to Seattle?

2. Does anyone have any suggestions on locations that a person should stop and visit?


Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated

[Xtrema]

Enterprise will do it. But pick up and return locations along with car selections are limited.

[mo_money2supe]

My wife and I just finished this trip two weeks ago. I can't comment on the car rentals since we drove our own car, but I can say there were a LOT of convertible rentals driving along the route so there should be plenty of companies that rent for just that occasion.

As for things to do, I'm assuming you'll be taking the PCH (Hwy 1/101) through most of it, so I'll comment on the sights & sounds along that route.

LA has plenty of sights & sounds to see. It depends if you like the visual touristy things (ie. West Hollywood, Chinese Graumann's Theatre, Walk(s) of Fame, etc) or the theme park type things (ie. Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc). We decided to spend a day at Six Flags themepark but I'm a huge roller-coaster buff and I definitely got my fix there. Just LA alone you can spend your whole 7 days there. As long as you stay on the main freeways to get to your destination(s), you'll be able to avoid the "bad" areas. In general, stay away from the south part of LA and Compton. Hotel prices were insane in the area - we stayed most of our trip in Burbank as it was a good balance between sights & sounds, hotel costs, and safety.

Make sure you stop by Santa Monica. Plenty of large beaches there and they had a small carnival happening when we were there; nice little resort town.

Halfway between LA & San Francisco is a place called Hurst Castle. Pretty old historical castle; slightly off the beaten path, but you'll see signs leading up to it. Kinda neat in a creepy haunted house sorta way.

After Hurst Castle is you'll find most of the "fun" twisty roads where you're best to drive them at night since most minivan & RV drivers will be holding you up doing no more than 30 km/hr in a 50 [b]MPH[/h] zone. Make sure the old lady brings advil to relieve her symptoms as you rush through the twisties.

San Francisco, again, plenty of sights & sounds. If you want to see Alcatraz, make sure you book at least 2 weeks in advance - best a month in advance to get the times you want. There's Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard St, Golden Gate Bridge, San Saulito, etc. It was rather cold when we went though, even though it was early August. High teens-degrees Celsius through most of our trip there.

North of San Francisco you'll be entering the twisties again. These twisties are even tighter than south of San Fran, and again, even more slow cars.

We made a slight detour to Napa Valley for a few days; nowhere near as scenic as say the Okanagan, but plenty of wineries if you guys are into that. Sonoma County is also good for their wineries too, albeit fewer selection.

Along the coast of northern Cali there's plenty of small little coastal towns. Nice places to stay for that romantic getaway. Check TeamBuy, there's a couple places in NorCal with great deals right now. Don't stay in Eureka, CA though; somewhat of a trashy place if you ask me. It's more of a pot-town than anything. There's a couple places that offer whale watching boat tours too if you're interested. There's also the Redwood Forests in NorCal. Giant trunks and old trees scattered throughout. There's even a tree that you can drive right through. Neat little 15 min visit sort of destination. There's also a Paul Bunyon visitor's centre in the area. Besides that, nothing much left in NorCal.

Once you're in Oregon, make sure you check your speed. Their roads are much more conservatively designed (wider roads), but their speed limits are slower than Cali. Pretty much the whole Oregon coastal trip is boring until you're in Portland.

As for Portland, they're a foodie city so make sure you check out some of their food trucks in downtown. They also have several culinary schools there with "cheaper" food. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) comes to mind...

North of Portland the only thing worth seeing is Mt. St. Helen's. Make sure you go to the north side of it if you want to see the actual broken volcano and its ruins.

About an hour north of that is Seattle. My wife and I only made it to Tacoma, WA (half hour south of Seattle) before we turned east to head to Spokane and up through the kootenays of BC back to Calgary. I believe there's a recent thread on beyond about Seattle alone so feel free to search for that.

Hope you guys enjoy your trip! We sure did!

[Xtrema]

Oh, 7 days is a bit short. You would waste almost 2 on driving that stretch which leave on 5 to check out 3 major cities and stuff along the way. I would add 3 more days at the minimum.

North to south drive is more entertaining than south to north.

[JLau]

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