bt3.com/Baz's 1992 USA Holiday
California and the Golden West.

Where and how?

 Introduction

The USA. As I mentioned at the time you clicked the link to this page?

To be precise, a fully escorted coach tour, starting in San Diego CA and thence stopping in Phoenix Arizona, Williams AZ, Las Vegas Nevada, Visalia, Merced, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo before finishing the tour in Anaheim near Los Angeles (all California).

Marvellous.

No, better than that, the Holiday of a Lifetime.

Do yourself a favour, and navigate through this holiday using the hyperlinks scattered throughout the text. If you want to go back to the start, or feel a need to go to my site homepage, well, by now you should know what to do? :o)

This is a diary of my first ever overseas holiday. Whilst relying a great deal on memory, guidebooks and the brief notes in my electronic organiser, it is a faithful (some might say boring ... heck *I* say boring) account of the ultimate holiday of a lifetime. Now, you're probably thinking that the phrase I've just used is one of the most cliched in the book, but, honestly, there isn't a day goes by without some reference drawing me back to the days of late September and early October 1992.

The whole idea to take the holiday started when my mum Jessie saw an advert from Top Gear Travel, a local travel agent, in association with Titan Hitours, and jokingly thought that it would be nice take such a holiday. After closely examining the advert, I immediately decided to go to Top Gear and enquire about costs and other operators running similar tours. After a great deal of thought about the cost of the holiday, we finally decided to actually book and by February 1st had reserved our places on the 'Golden West and California' tour, commencing 23rd September.

The booking of such a holiday, for such a travel novice as ourselves, was but the first step on the journey to the departure day. In the first instance, being without passport and any knowledge of the entry documentation required for the U.S.A. meant that forms had to be filled and guidebooks bought. These guidebooks provided us, in the next eight months, with a great deal of useful information, ranging from notes on the currency to basic differences in language (suspenders in the States hold your trousers up! er, I think :-) )

Then came the replacement of old suitcases with brand new ones suitable for air travel, along with flight bags and, perhaps the most useful item, waist pouches (bum bags to us Brits, fanny packs to the Americans). The only item of mains electrical equipment I carried, my shaver, could cope with the different voltage, however, I still needed a travel adaptor to fit the American mains sockets. These were just the tip of the iceberg of the items bought and arrangements made prior to departure.

Eventually after the seemingly relaxed pace of the build up, the day of departure arrived and with it came the beginning of the most stimulating two weeks' holiday that anyone could wish for.

Carry on to Day 1

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