Recommendations wanted for a month in California

[Frank N. O.]

Hi, I hope it's ok I ask this here.

I've been seriously planning to arrange a trip to California for myself to try at least for once in my life to experience someplace good and imho due to several different factors that'd be somewhere in the state of California. I've seen that for some reason a return ticket is now just 1/3 the price of what it was just a few months ago so now I've started to seriously save up everything I can for a trip.. I haven't bought as much as a small modelcar or a bag of chips or a really cheap DVD movie for weeks now which is a big record.

The thing is that the plane trip will probably be a long and hard one for me depending on if there are noisy children or people wanting to talk to me all the time so I plan on being there a fair time so just for starters I set 1 month, but looking at the cheapest place I could find using the first hotel-finder I could find then it'll be 60 USD/day in a extended stay hotel in Stockton and 1 month of that is almost twice the plane ticket. And then there's the rentalcar that won't be cheap either but I'm not healthy enough for public transportation and most places I want to see are in the deserted countryside where there isn't any rushing traffic and I doubt a citybus drives there anyway 

So if anyone has a recommendation for a hotel or whatever it's called where I can get a small room with a shower then that'd be good. I don't need a gym, swimmingpool, microwave oven and other things I've seen listed as std.

A good place to rent a compact sedan would also be nice, I only know of Herz and Avis cars (since they're also here in DK) but what other dependable places are there, and is it true that rental cars have special licenseplates so there's a bigger chance of being robbed by people thinking there are expensive items in the car?

My best friend Chey said I had to go to Yosemity and I do love beautiful scenery so that's a place to consider but are there any other places to visit like museums for instance?

Frank

[fireflyr]

Frank,
Try youth hostels or hostelsclub.com/ ---I saw listings as low as 21 USD per night for a shared room (in San Francisco) I'm sure that is one city you'd like to visit.   Lake Tahoe is also another destination as well as Yosemite and the Redwood Empire where I live (I'd put you up for a night or two if you could stand my dogs)
Jim

[Stef]

That's true! Youth hostels (unlike the name would suggest) are open for people of all ages. Usually you have to pay a bit more above a certain age though. In any case, if you plan on staying in a youth hostel, you should maybe become a member of the international youth hostel organization. As a member you get certain discounts. Try it here: http://www.hiayh.org/ or here: http://www.danhostel.dk/ (for Denmark). I recommend making reservations in advance, depending on the season you want to go the hostels sometimes get quite crowded, and, of course, the cheapest ones are full first.

As for public transport: On the west coast, I would suggest not to count on it!! You definitely have to get a car!

If you come to LA, you might want to try Six Flags magic mountain! It's an amusement park with thousands of roller coasters!! I love it! 

[cj5_pilot]

I found that Budget rental is usually my best buy in inexpensive cars.  They also will rent to a younger crowd (found that out when I was 22--they were the only ones that would rent to me).  Also book in advance for everything you can--it's generally cheaper.  A quick Orbitz look for cars at say LAX shows prices down around $141 a week for an economy.  (When Tundra and I went to Reno in '99 we didn't go compact--we rented a Durango  )  If you are thinking about going to Tahoe, you might think about hitting Reno as well.  There are some VERY sweet planes at Stead airport.  Tundra could give you more recent info then me, but when we were there in '99 I saw Mig-15s, F-86's, Mig-21s and a lot of other types that were NOT part of the Air Races.  See if you can talk your way into a few hangars....

Hey Phil, isn't Schelville Airport in Cali?

If you do have a car you could drive up the Pacific Coastal highway.  It's a beautiful trip.  There's some lighthouses, the Sea Lion cave, Astoria, Tillamook Air Museum, the Newport aquarium, the Tillamook cheese factories, the Tillamook wineries and lots of other fun stuff!  You'd end up going in to Oregon and possibly Washington, but still a great drive!

[fireflyr]

What CJ5 says is good, coast drive is beautiful.
 CJ5, Shellville airport is 15 miles from my house--you know someone there?

[Turbomallard]

Just steal a car-- it's much cheaper than renting.

NOTE: This suggestion void where prohibited by law. 

TM

[cj5_pilot]

What CJ5 says is good, coast drive is beautiful.
 CJ5, Shellville airport is 15 miles from my house--you know someone there?

naw, but Tundra told me about them and I hit the website once in a while.  Looks like it would be a gas to go there!  'Course I'm a classic and rare plane buff!

[fireflyr]

Yeah, you would enjoy Schelllville then---there's lots of neat old airplanes in the hangers and plenty of funky characters hanging around willing to shoot the s**t about flying.

[Frank N. O.]

As I thought, California sounds like a cool place, and I might be able to get a guest-room at Chey and maybe I can help her at the same time and as long as I can handle that then it would be a pleasure (my mom needs a lot more care, and she's loosing balance and memory so that's a lot more mentally tormenting and stressing for me but at least she's getting countyhelp now so I don't have to worry about her being alone and helpless, not that she ever said I should do that, in fact she stopped my dad on his deathbed making me and Michael (my brother) promise to keep taking care of her, we still do as much as we can though).

I found the airport on Google Earth and it looks like a cool little airport, a lot of parkinglots, taxiways etc.
The winecountry also looks like a fantastic place to see both from the ground and the air.

The budget rental seemed pretty good and I don't mind a Focus sedan, in fact I like it.

Frank

[Frank N. O.]

Aha, I thought I probably already posted a thread about this and here it is.

There's one thing about the trip I started thiking about, is it still impossible/illegal/dangerous to take onboard and use a laptop computer during a cross-atlantic flight? I don't really know what I'd do without a computer for 10-11 hours (estimated flight time from Heathrow to SF from the BA website), mind you, I also don't know how long batteries on those things last since I don't have a laptop yet.

I don't really know where to set as a base of operations to get the best experience out of the trip but so far I've been checking out SF as well as Stockton where Chey lives.

Frank

[Frank N. O.]

Ah cool, thank you for the info, although of course I'll doublecheck when I book the tickets, and read every single smallprinted word as well since I've never flown before, apart from the hour in the Cardinal of course but that's hardly the same. Wait a second I just remembered something. According to EU and thanks to the recent terrorist attempts then you're not allowed any carryon and everything remotely liquid has to be emptied in transparent plastic bags that can't be over 0.1L volume, including medicin, shaving-cream etc. and a laptop is quite big but I don't follow the news much so not sure if the passengers has revolted yet (that's what Copenhagen airport is expecting soon since the security checks are getting extreme). I'd completely forgotten about that new restriction they imposed, that could be a problem for me since I'm not going to do well standing/sitting for hours in a noisy airport and that's exactly the waiting time officially warned about due to the new strict security checks. Sigh, who only had a private jet.

Frank

[Gulfstream Driver]

Bring a couple of good books.  I believe you are allowed a carry-on, as long as there's no liquid in it and you agree to have it searched or something.  Oh, and you can carry scissors and your nail clipper again.

[fireflyr]

Winchester house in San Jose

[tundra_flier]

What CJ5 says is good, coast drive is beautiful.
 CJ5, Shellville airport is 15 miles from my house--you know someone there?

naw, but Tundra told me about them and I hit the website once in a while.  Looks like it would be a gas to go there!  'Course I'm a classic and rare plane buff!

Yeah, I'm an honorary member of Schellville.  Know someone who used to hang out with that crowd and now I occasionally send them a photo and brief story about some of the working classices up here for their news letter.  Which reminds me, I should send them a link to the Brooks DC-4 info.  It's definitly on my list of must visit places.  Here's a link to the web site.

http://members.napanet.net/~arbeau/usaah/

Phil

[fireflyr]

Well I'll be dipped
I live 20 miles from Schellville and I had no idea of the number of antiques--reckon I'll go over there next week for the show.
Leave it to a guy from the frozen north to point it out to me
I'll make a report