A young friend is flying from WAS to SAN for a wedding. He's never been to California before and is thinking of renting a car in SAN and driving up the coast to SFO spending a week or so.

He is on a rather tight budget; can anyone offer suggestions as to how to book a ticket originating from WAS to SAN and then fly back from SFO to WAS. Does he need to buy 2 one way tickets?
How about car rentals? Are there any car rentals that don't have drop off charges if renting in SAN and dropping off in SFO?

I am sure many FT'ers have done this itinerary, how would you do this? Any suggestions as to ticketing, car rentals, driving itineraries, must sees and restaurants are appreciated.

What your friend needs is called an "open-jaw" ticket. Often available on award seats, sometimes not too pricey on purchased tickets.

I've done this before - rented from Avis or National. One or the other may be doing a one-way special with low (or no) one-way drop-off charges.

I've got bizzare tastes, so I'll leave the "must-sees" and "must-eats" to others.

Unfortunately he is driving in the wrong direction for the drop-off charge. Driving north is much more popular than south, for some strange reason (maybe related to all the international flights into LAX), so a lot of rental cars pile up at SFO. The charges vary by company and week, but typically it is free southbound (sometimes even the car rental is free for a few days, if they are desperate to get the cars back to LAX) and costs anywhere from $50 to $500 northbound (again depending on the company and date). The price may also be different between SAN, LAX, SNA, etc. as the point of origin.

i did almost that same thing with my family. we flew into san, drove up to anaheim and la, visited family in fresno, and flew out of sfo. it was an awesome trip. to book tickets, we just searched around for "multi-destination"

Have your friend price out open-jaws, as mentioned above. Also, check Southwest for two one-ways from/to BWI. Price out the one-way car rentals to minimize or avoid the drop off charges (and, perhaps, reverse your direction from north to south if the price justifies it).

May your friend enjoy the trip -- the California coast is spectacular.

Another option is to book an Amtrak ticket one way from SAN to OAK.

The train station is within 4 miles of SAN and the train takes quite a scenic route. Your friend would have to transfer trains in either Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, or San Luis Obispo to the train continuing to San Francisco/Oakland.
The train stop in the Bay Area is Jack London Square in Oakland, and a bus/shuttle is offered to get to the Trans-Bay terminal in downtown SF.

I did this once back in '87 or '88.

Rather than driving, your friend may want to consider a rail pass. The gas, dropoff charges, and depending on how "young" he is ..a higher rental fee, may make it not worth his while, depending on where he wants to stop, and what he wants to do in the Bay area.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...73910&ssid=297

Thanks for your replies. I have told him to start looking for Ding fares since he still has sometime before his trip.
It's interesting about the fact that there are more rental cars in SFO than southern California. I'll ask him to check into it.
I think he is planning to drive the coastal route and making several stops along the coastal towns so Amtrak may not suit his purpose this time.

I second that option of the CA Rail Pass!

A car rental with the drop-off charges would probably add up to much more than the cost of the pass. With the pass, you can take the train on the Surfliner from San Diago to LA, then connect to the Coast Starlight from LA to Oakland. (And possible more - as most Thruway buses and many other trains - are included!)

Best of all, the Coast Starlight for many miles travels in areas inaccessible to roads - so you could not see the coast any other way! And "someone else" will be doing the "driving", so all can enjoy the scenery, not the car in front!

How old is this young friend? Don't forget that for almost all car rental companies there will be an additional daily charge if he has not yet reached his 25th birthday. In California it's approximately US$25.00 per day depending on the company.

Also another thing your friend must consider is the rental car insurance. If s/he already has a car insurance, then no problem but if not then that will add more per day.
So it may be worthwhile to consider the Amtrak pass, if available, so your friend can get off at various cities up the coast until about San Luis Obispo at which point the track heads inland.
Hope your friend has good time planning then fun traveling.

HJ

Enterprise rent-a-car does not charge a penny for drivers 21-24 (underage fee) at almost every California location. Youngsters will most likely find cheaper rates at Enterprise ; )

The Coast Starlight is known as the Coast Starlate it can arrive late into Oakland or LAX(3 AM) OAK it's usually on time but when it's late it's really really late like 11 PM.

Go to www.trainweb.com and ask on that forum for rail info as I use that website and that's all they talk about. I love Amtrak coach seats are comfortable. They are like business class seats on the plane. The recline is almost flat with a legrest that comes up and a foot rest in the seat in front of you. There is lots of legroom and there is a traytable.

There is also a sightseer lounge which shows moives with snacks down below. There is also a diner car aboard too. In my opinion it's better than driving and besides they have connections with Hertz. You may go to SJC or OAK accross from SF .There is a bus connection between OAK-SFO.

As for driving take Highway 5 to 205-580-80 or 5-152-101. 101 is nice but takes longer than 5.

Forget Greyhound drivers can be rude and it's the same cost if not more than Amtrak.

Another option is Amtrak Pacific Surfliner LAX-SBA with Bus connections to SJC. For $12 more than the coach fare you can go in Business class which includes a TV,snack with cheese,crackers,fruit and cookie and a free dring(includes 1 small bottle of wine if you want) and larger seats. Go for this as this route has better ontime performance. Amtrak Busses are nicer than Greyhound.

Pricing usually around $40-$45 one way. Cheaper than driving with gas costs. Figure $7-15 for meals snacks are around $2-6 if not more. Free movies are shown in the loungecar on the CS.

I would rather go by train then renting a car. If he has AAA or student advantage he can get discounts.

go to www.amtrak.com or call 1800-872-7245 and maek sure he signs up with Amtrak Guest Rewards.

However, unless their policy has changed changed recently, the Enterprise offices in the San Diego area won't do one-way rentals.

It is worth putting in your dates on some of the rental car Web sites or at Breezenet and seeing what somes up. Alamo is about $225 all in for the week going SAN-SFO in mid July, with National about ten bucks more.

You may also want to post on one or more of the rental car forums. When I was underage (lo these many long years ago), it used to be possible to find and misapproriate corporate discount codes which waive the extortionate $25/day surcharge for under-25 drivers. Of course, YMMV.