holiday to south west US

[psycho chicken]

Thought I'd ask you guys. I guess this is the right forum.

Planning a holiday for myself and the missus next year. At this stage 2 or 3 weeks. At this stage looking at landing in LA, checking out all the Hollywood BS (gotta keep the woman happy I guess) for a few days. Head up to Six Flags Magic Mountain, then head out from there. A few questions, no doubt with more to follow.

Can I pick up a cell phone on a pre-paid sort of deal as a tourist? Just something cheap I can use then turf when I leave.

For those who have been, can you do Six Flags in a day? How busy is it on a school day?

Wasn't planning on staying anywhere fancy (with the exception of perhaps in Vegas). Is it fairly easy to pick a motel out of a phone book, ring ahead and geneally get a vacancy?

How hard is it to hire a Shelby GT-H? Will they give any shmuck one (assuming of course I pre-book it). Only for a day or two, but I figure it has to be done.

Is this time of year the best? I hear Arizona gets quite hot in summer and monsoonal after.

What else is in this area of the country? I'd love to do east coast as well but funds won't permit it. I love anything historical myself, the missus loves whatever the hell women like.

I've pmed Sinistral, perhaps some sort of forum shoot could be organised?

[YarPirate]

You can't rent cars until you're 25 most of the time :(

At least in Minnesota.

Yes you can get a pre-paid cell phone with no contracts. My mom uses one.

Not sure about your other questions, sorry :(

[Daywalker]

yea wal-mart has phones you pretty much just buy the phone and some minutes and your good to go.

car rental will be tricky like yar said, depending on the car and the place, you may or may not be able to even get a car at all. some palces will rent to 21 yr olds, but you'll get like a ford escort or something

[psycho chicken]

Hertz will rent to a 22 year old for an extra $37 a day, so worst case I can get arse raped price wise for a car. I don't know if they'll let me have the Shelby, but we'll soon find out.

[Captain Colon]

I live in the northeast which is pretty much as far from the southwest as you can get, so take my advice with a grain of salt, BUT the experiences of myself and my family on trips have been thus:

There are plenty of places that will rent to 22-year olds, but it might be pricey, and any performance rentals will RAPE your wallet (if you can even get them). Consider yourself lucky if you can even get a performance-trim Ford Focus.

Pay-as-you go phones are easy to come by here, you won't have any problems with that.

If quality isn't an issue then just look up a Best Western or Days Inn or something. If you're going outside of tourist season and make reservations early, you actually have a lot of options for quality lodging at a decentprice...when we went to visit my brother in NC we got two nice Amerisuites rooms (two full beds plus a sofabed each) for like $60 a night (I can't remember if it was $60/room/night or straight $60/night for both rooms) because it was a coastal town and it was the middle of january.

If you're planning on taking your holiday soon (next couple months) plan to get assfucked moneywise, because tourist season is coming up soon I think (I don't know west coast but it's the same damn hemisphere so tourist seasons can't be that far apart). Actually, if you're going to try and get in touch with the cavarms guys anyways, it'd probably be cheaper to stay in arizona and commute to california to do what you want to do there.

If you're planning a long-in-the-future-trip, you should seriously consinder getting a motorcycle license and then trying to rent a bike in arizona. Riding into the desert sunset would be pretty sweet, and there's a lot of novice-friendly roads out there so even if you're not a super awesome rider you can still have fun carving corners or just pulling over to admire the wastes.

Weather-wise, if there was one word to describe Arizona, I think "monsoonal" would be the exact opposite of it. As far as I know, it's dry as my wit (lol) almost all the time. It will definitely be hot though, expect temperatures upwards of 38C regularly during the day, cooling down to MAYBE 25 on a chilly night

[FaKToR]

You can't rent cars until you're 25 most of the time :(

At least in Minnesota.

Yes you can get a pre-paid cell phone with no contracts. My mom uses one.

Not sure about your other questions, sorry :(

Depends on the car company.

[psycho chicken]

Don't care if I get arse raped for it, I want a Shelby for a day! I'll drive an appliance white Toyota Echo that runs on dolphin farts for the rest of it, doesn't bother me. Motorbike sounds like an alright idea, but I'm not too crash hot on learning to drive on the wrong side of the road on a bike. Cars are a bit more forgiving if something does happen.

Will be going outside tourist season for sure. Mainly because kids annoy the shit out of me and the price doesn't hurt. Looking about April/May, when's Spring Break give or take?

Best Western or the like will do fine. Probably stay somewhere fancy in Vegas but that's it.

Rough plan at the moment is land at LAX, stay in LA for a few days, possibly duck down to San Diego for the day, off to Arizona for a few more days then up to Vegas, lose whatever money I have left and fly out from there. Perhaps with Hawaii over night on the way back.

[Garryowen]

we can shootz da machine gunz in AZ

[Somedude]

The LA Hertz rents out GT-Hs I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get one. :D

[proudinfidel117]

magic mountain is easily do-able in a day. especially on a school day. even so, pay a little extra and get the speedy pass thing, it gives you preference for up to like 6 rides, it helps alot if there is a line.

[Walnut]

Is this time of year the best? I hear Arizona gets quite hot in summer and monsoonal after.

It is hot in the summer, gets up to around 45C... However, it doesn't really rain ever (that's hyperbole, there's an average of like 3 days a month of rain in Phoenix). Some areas of Arizona are more deserty than others, but none ever reach what you'd call "monsoonal". It occasionally snows in Flagstaff in the winter, most other areas stay warm year round.

Looking about April/May, when's Spring Break give or take?

Most often April.

The problem with getting a Shelby, or just a rental car in general, is that rental businesses have age restrictions, usually either 25 years old or 21 years old. A Shelby will be significantly more expensive, but the age restriction won't be any different.

Driving on the opposite side of the road in LA will be rough. Be extremely careful. It fucking sucks to drive there when you're used to driving on the right. Just don't turn left at a red light. ;)

Also, keep in mind that it will probably be impossible to find a normal rental car with a manual transmission. Car rental businesses rarely stock anything other than sports cars with a manual. It's not a big deal of course, because automatic transmissions take no brain to use, just don't expect to get a manual.