California and the Golden West

Day 1 London - Los Angeles Titan’s VIP door-to-door travel service collects you from home, for your journey to London Heathrow Airport for a direct, scheduled Virgin Atlantic flight to Los Angeles. On arrival we transfer to the Hyatt Regency LAX (4T). Days 2-3 Los Angeles - Santa Monica - San Diego This morning, enjoy a brief tour of three icons of popular culture - Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard and TCL Chinese Theatre, where the handprints of the stars are famously immortalised. We’ll then visit Santa Monica, before continuing to San Diego and our hotel, the Sheraton Hotel and Marina (4T), where a welcome drink awaits. On the morning of day 3, a tour introduces this attractive harbour city, leaving the afternoon at leisure to make your own explorations and sample San Diego’s superb restaurants. Day 4 San Diego - Scottsdale We travel from California to Arizona, arriving in Scottsdale in the afternoon. At our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn (3T) or Holiday Inn Express (3T). Day 5 Scottsdale - Sedona - Oak Creek Canyon - Flagstaff We travel to the charming artist colony of Sedona and breathtaking Oak Creek Canyon en route to Flagstaff. We spend two nights at the superb Little America Hotel (4T), allowing us plenty of time to explore the area and experience the Grand Canyon. Day 6 Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is one of the most awe-inspiring natural sights the world has to offer. This geological wonder is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide and one mile deep; a huge expanse of richly-coloured rock enclosing the silvery Colorado River far below. We visit today and perhaps enjoy a pre-bookable optional flight for even more stunning views of the canyon. Days 7-8 Flagstaff - Williams - Las Vegas Following a brief visit to the historic train depot at Williams, where local cowboys stage a Wild West shootout, we proceed to Las Vegas, America’s entertainment capital. By turns chic, glamorous and awe-inspiring, brash, excessive and outrageous, Las Vegas is certainly never boring. You don’t need to be a high roller or slots wizard to enjoy this shimmering neon mirage in the heart of the forbidding Mojave Desert - there are shows that dazzle, from the famous Cirque du Soleil and the Beatles-inspired ‘Love’ to the regular open-air spectacles, as each iconic hotel along the famous Strip tries to outdo the next in the extravagance of their performances. Some of the world’s best restaurants may be found here, along with a vibrant nightlife, relaxing spa centres, immaculate golf courses and quirky museums. Our chosen hotel is the Tropicana (4T), located on the Las Vegas Strip - perfect for discovering an extraordinary, unique city which somehow manages to live up and down to its various reputations simultaneously and in enthralling style. Included for those who wish, is a short morning excursion to the Hoover Dam - a spectacular engineering achievement built in the 1930s. This huge dam is an awesome sight and its construction created Lake Mead, which is 100 miles long and 500 feet deep. Day 9 Las Vegas - Calico - Visalia We cross the Mojave Desert en route to Calico, a once-thriving centre of silver mining, now an enjoyable reminder of the days when cowboys roamed its streets. Visalia is our destination, where we stay at the Wyndham Visalia (3T) or Marriott Visalia (3T). Day 10 Visalia - Yosemite National Park - Modesto One of the world’s great natural sanctuaries is Yosemite National Park, in the Sierra Nevada. With its craggy mountains, postcard-perfect lakes and verdant forests of dogwood, sugar pine and white fir, Yosemite is endlessly photogenic - which is why it so appealed to the great photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams. Adams visited Yosemite for more than 50 consecutive years, recording luminously beautiful photographs of the park’s dramatic landscapes, many of which have become instantly recognisable icons of the American wilderness. After a memorable day, we continue west to our hotel, the DoubleTree Modesto (3T+). Days 11-12 Modesto - San Francisco Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco as many others have before and since. A sightseeing tour presents an orientation of this most cosmopolitan, liberal and attractive American city, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square and vibrant Chinatown. We stay for two nights at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway (4T). The following day at leisure offers opportunities for relaxation or further exploration - perhaps independently pre-book a boat trip to notorious Alcatraz Island, where visitors may explore the remnants of the federal prison, learn about its famous inmates, discover the story behind the Native American occupation of 1969-71, or take a walk around the quaint district of Haight-Ashbury, so beloved of ‘hippies’, artists, writers and musicians, which became the crucible of ‘counterculture’ in the 1960s. Day 13 San Francisco - Monterey - 17 Mile Drive - Carmel - Cambria We travel south to Monterey, the old Spanish and Mexican capital of upper California, then proceed along the famous 17 Mile Drive, one of the loveliest coastal routes in the world. After lunch in the delightful town of Carmel, we continue south to Cambria. Our hotel for the night is the Cambria Pines Lodge (3T+). Day 14 Cambria - Santa Barbara - Newport Beach/Long Beach Santa Barbara, a town favoured by artists, with an appealing harbour promenade and palm-fringed streets, makes a memorable lunch stop en route from Cambria to the California coast. In 2018, we will stay at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa (4T) and for 2019, the Hotel Maya DoubleTree by Hilton (4T) or similar. Day 15 Newport Beach/Long Beach - Los Angeles - In flight We travel on to Los Angeles Airport for a direct, scheduled, overnight Virgin Atlantic flight to London. Day 16 London Arrival at London Heathrow Airport where you will be met and guided to your Titan vehicle, for the journey home.