Fly Drive USA

Depart the UK on your chosen scheduled flight to Los Angeles. Upon arrival, independently make your way to your hotel, where you spend the first night of your adventure.

Collect your Motor Home from Cruise America’s Los Angeles station and head 132 miles to Barstow to overnight. This is a pleasant campground in a crossroads town that once saw The Old Spanish Trail and Route 66 pass this way. Most visitors now are here for the two outlet malls and their one hundred stores. Visit: take the shuttle from KOA to the silver mining ghost town of Calico.

Again, a freeway drive of about two hours, skirting the Mojave Desert, that will bring you to Las Vegas. We believe we have found the nicest campground for you in this crazy fun city of neon, megastars and casinos! Spend the day wandering the strip and decide what show you want to see tonight. Tickets are normally available and there are several Cirque du Soleil performances going on in various hotels – any one is a fabulous choice. Visit: New York, Paris, Mandalay, Luxor, the Barbary Coast or the Sahara; they’re all on The Strip.

You will cross into Arizona today via the Hoover Dam. There is so much to see and explore in this amazing man-made structure that channels the mighty Colorado River through turbines at eighty five miles an hour and so create power for much of three states. Visit the Museum and see how it was constructed – a colossal and costly feat of man’s ingenuity. Then to Kingman, gateway to Historic Route 66. Visit: the Powerhouse Visitors’ Center for a map of the Kingman walking tour.

The longest remaining stretch of Route 66 starts in Kingman and runs through to Ash Fork. You will pass through the Hualapai Indian Reservation at Peach Springs and tantalizingly close to the Grand Canyon but you just cannot get to it by road from here! You’ll have got your kicks on Route 66 though and at Williams, you’ll head north to the Grand Canyon and the Mather Campground. Visit: the Canyon’s rim as the sun goes down but be sure to be there again at first light.

During just over four hours driving south on InterState 17 you will see the landscape change from the lushness in the north with its pines and aspens, to the desert of the south with its giant cacti and sagebrush. It is a fascinating drive for that reason alone but as you come through the Coconino Forest, Sedona is an ideal place to break your journey. Your campground is located on the eastern edge of Scottsdale, where the Four Peaks rise from the desert floor. Visit: Montezuma Castle. One of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America standing five storeys high and with twenty rooms.

Unashamedly, a stop ‘halfway between where you’ve been and where you want to go’. Blythe , alongside the Colorado River, makes its living looking after tourists who are just passing through and they’ll make you more than welcome. Visit: Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.

Do stop off at Joshua Tree National Park and possibly the Salton Sea State Recreation Area on your way to Palm Springs, or we should say next door neighbor Palm Desert. This is a ‘desert drive’ but it’s an interesting one to your destination on Frank Sinatra Drive. Emerald Desert is a resort in itself and boasts a 9 hole golf course if anyone needs to slip away for a couple of hours! Visit: more of Palm Springs and spot the celebrities. Many from the movie and music world live here for its benign desert climate.

And now to the Pacific Ocean and the beach. You can head south from your campground and take a country drive through Pinion Flats, the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest and through the Cleveland Forest to join up with the Interstate into San Diego. Or you can take the Interstate all the way and be at the beach in a couple of hours. Campland on the Bay is one of our firm favourites. Visit: the world famous Palomar.

Allow a good two hours to get back to the Cruise America depot, especially if driving in rush hour. Return your motorhome, make your way to the airport and check in for your flight back to the UK.