California - cheapest way to plan a trip

[bizzylizzy]

Hi everyone
Hubby and I want to visit San Francisco and hopefully do the famous Big Sur drive along the coast. We're hoping to go in September or October, when the schools have gone back. Would you just book flights and book the hotels independently, taking a chance on finding places at the last minute or should we book some kind of package? We are in the position where we could go with not too much notice, so we may get last minute flight deals. Basically we want to plan a trip as cheaply as possible - so any money saving tips would be great. Thank you.

[ganesh]

We did it some years ago in July?aug -had to coz of kids, but we booked hotels a couple of weeks before we went (online). I should imagine if its out of school hols then you could probably just go. Money wise though you may get cheaper deals if you book in advance but that does restrict you of course.Theres a great aquarium en route near SF that's well worth a stop'.
Did you know that you had to have a visa now for America? A couple of people I know got caught out when they had a flight to New Zealand and the plane stops for refuel in America so they needed a visa!

[sitges]

There are all kinds of motels and hotels along the way. I would not book ahead as you should have no problem finding a place to stay. If you want an ocean front room or something special that may be a different story. You might want to book a car however. If you book 3 or 4 months in advance you can save a lot on car rental. The prices continue to rise each day after that until you are paying top dollar. I would advise anytime after the 15th of September as flight tickets generally are less at that time of the year. However you do not want to wait to long as the weather in that part of the country may start to turn cold and foggy the closer you get into late Sept and early Oct.

[jno]

we did it in March last year and had no trouble finding motels as we drove. (The actual Big Sur bit is fairly sparsely populated, though, so make sure you know roughly where you want to spend the night.)

Look out for motel coupons offering discounts. You'll find books of them piled outside supermarkets etc or look online

http://www.hotelcoupons.com/

Belong to the AA? There are often discounts for AAA members, extended to affiliates like the AA too (and nobody ever offered to see my card).

[jno]

*asked* to see my card