Holiday advice: South West USA

Hey All

This year for my holiday we are going to be travelling to the South West USA and are going to be based in a villa in Palm Springs for two weeks in September.

As I recon there are more folks from the US on here, I am after any advice you can give me as to interesting places we can visit. We will have our two kids with us (15 and 9) and so any activities you feel could be good for them would be great please.

I have had the privilege to have visited the area many times previously, but my family hasn't. We are already planning to do:

San Diego: Zoo and general area
LA: Hollywood, Long Beach, Disney
Grand Canyon: Overnight camping and rafting trip
Death Valley: Just a looooong day trip - but gotta go there!
Palm Springs: Tramway

Should be enough to be honest but if anyone knows of other less well known things we could do based from PS I'd love to hear from you. Thanks all...

HA, if you were going to SE USA, noppid and I could tell you plenty of things to do. But I know nothing about that area. Sounds like you have a pretty full schedule already. Don't forget to allow for a day or two of pure relaxation... laying by the pool, reading, just hanging out.

Enjoy!

How do you not have Las Vegas on that list?



If you end up stopping in Chicago - let me know - I'll meet you!

The Hoover Danm is a great visit. It's quite big and there is a tour of underneath.

My wife lived out there for about two years, I'll ask her what ya can see too.

You could spend an entire month in the Grand Canyon, alone. Glen Canyon is visible again, after many years. It's a big issue, as the dam was never popular in the first place, and drowned many sacred sites.

I predict of all you see and do, the rafting will be the most fun and memorable. Hollywood is just a seedy neighborhood, not much to see there. Really, most of O.C. is a big neighborhood. I'm in that area frequently, and I like Newport Beach/Balboa for the restaurants and beaches. I guess you have to do Disney? I've never been a fan of theme parks - though I love roller coasters. You might try Six Flags Magic Mountain for coasters.

The San Diego zoo is very nice, but the attached wildlife park is an order of magnitude better. There is also a Sea World in San Diego.