Howie

Thanks Elissa, anything that 'simplifies' the trip is really helpful. Nice one!

Ok, instead of 1 night in Jackson and 1 night in Allentown, suppose we had 2 nights in Jackson. Realistically, could you leave Jackson, do 1/2 day at Dorney and drive on to Hershey in one day, ready for Hersheypark the day after? That would mean 1 less hotel stop which could save me a few quid. Sorry... a few bucks!

Sorry for bringing up this topic again, but it's looking as though this trip might actually go ahead! Yay. Following on from the above advice we've decided to hold off until early June 2014 to get the best combination of 7 day opening and low-ish crowds. Andybarnes - I've read your (epic) trip report at least twice and taken away lots of useful hints but the trip planned resembles something more like Sir clinksalot's trip. Here's the plan: Day 1: Arrive in NY early afternoon, collect car and drive to Jackson. No rush. Stay in Jackson. Day 2: Six Flags Great Adventure all day, drive to Allentown in evening. Stay in Allentown. Day 3: Dorney park all day, drive to Hershey pm. Stay in Hershey. Day 4: Hershey park all day, stay in Hershey again. Day 5: Long drive down to Doswell VA, possibly stopping at Six Flags America en route, depending on time/energy levels. Stay in Doswell. Day 6: Kings Dominion all day. Stay in Doswell again. Day 7: Busch Gardens all day. 3rd night in Doswell. Day 8: Long drive back to NYC for evening flight back to UK. How does that sound? Am I being too ambitious? It all looks do-able on the map to me but I just wanna make sure I'm not biting off more than I can chew. I don't think I'm leaving myself with too much driving in one day... but what do you think? With that in mind, the next thing I'm looking for are money-saving tips. Unfortunately, cost IS an issue so I'm after some budget hotel chains that aren't TOO grotty, maybe some that offer hotel/park ticket combos? Do any offer free shuttle services to parks, saving on car-parking fees? With so many hotels, so many websites, and so many ways of organizing a trip like this, I'm finding the planning of this trip to be a bit bewildering. Any further guidance will be greatly appreciated. See? I even spelled 'organizing' with a 'z', just to make myself seem less like a 'foreigner'!

I tell you what, that's some fantastic advice there guys, thanks a million. I've narrowed it down to a rough itinerary so I've got something solid to build on now, just knowing where to start was the hard part! I've come to accept that 1 or 2 base camps is unrealistic, but if I go when the parks are open 7 days then I reckon I can fly to NY and go from Great Adventure - Dorney - Hershey - Six Flags America - Kings - Busch and back to NY for a return flight, all within a week, maybe with a couple of extra days for sightseeing in NY and DC if the finances allow it. Should be a fun trip! Thanks again for the tips people. I adore you widely.

Thanks A.J, that gives me a good start. I don't mind some driving about - that's half the fun with a US road trip - it's just that in my experience staying in lots of different hotels really inflates the cost, things like security deposits which don't get refunded until 2 weeks after you've arrived back home etc... Difficult trip to plan this one...

Hi guys. I'm from the UK and am planning a trip to take in parks such as SFGAdv, Kings Dominion, Hershey, Dorney and Busch. Trouble is I'm not sure where to stay, ideally I'd like to stay in one, maybe two locations and do the parks in day trips, rather than travelling around and staying at multiple locations near to each park so I'm looking for good, central-ish places with reasonably easy access to several parks. Don't need specific hotels or anything, just the names of towns or cities that are well placed, if you get what I mean. And where would I fly to to get there? Also, when's a good time to go? I wanna go off-peak to keep costs down (not to mention queues!) but at the same time I don't want to find all the rides closed due to cold weather or something. I'm thinking late summer? October maybe? When do American kids go back to school? Any guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thank youuuuuu!

Well, we're back and I gotta say the trip was an uber-success, many thanks to you all for your hints and tips. USH was great, stayed in the Holiday Inn Beverly Garlands which was just round the corner so we popped in and out of Universal several times, got everything done, fab park. Definitely more of a Universal guy than a Disney guy, in fact, we didn'y even go to either of the Disney parks. Already done Orlando and Paris, didn't feel the need to do it all again, not when there's so much other stuff to do that's unique to LA. Did the Paramount studio tour (not bad), the sightseeing double-decker bus tour, the Walk of Fame, the Kodak theatre, Madame Tussaud's, LA Zoo, Rodeo Dv, Farmer's Market, Century City (Nakatomi Plaza - woo hoo!) and all that stuff. Wasn't overly impressed with Knott's though, was very crowded for some reason and the parks queue management leaves a lot to be desired. Best bit was Montezoma's Revenge cos it reminds me of one of my all time favourite rides - Alton Tower's ThunderLooper (now residing somewhere in Mexico, I believe). The highlight though was definitely SFMM - what a park, loved it. In fact, it's now my new favourite theme park, and X2 is my new favourite coaster, but Tatsu, Viper, Riddler's Revenge, Batman, Terminator Salvation - all awesome! Will definitely be coming herev again one day. Once again, thanks to all for the advice! Howie.

Couldn't you argue that no matter where you live, the parks closest to you will be the ones you visit most frequently? Therefore those parks, by definition, will be the ones you get bored of most quickly, no matter how good they are, right? So, in answer to your question, I reckon the best place for a coaster enthusiast to live would be a camper van!

Wow, living close to Nakatomi Plaza - that's just awesome! It might be 'normal' to you, it's just the place you live in, but for someone who lives in a non-descript town in the middle of England, believe me - it's awesome! Especially someone who just happens to think that Die Hard is the greatest movie ever made by anyone, ever... For what it's worth, some scenes in 'Clockwise' (mediocre 1980's Brit-flick starring John Cleese) were filmed in the countryside around my town, does that count??

Thanks for the advice guys. A studio tour plus USH sounds good, as does another day doing the Disney highlights. And yeah, we both like our Hollywood movies so a bit of sightseeing will be cool. Maybe a pilgrimage to Nakatomi Plaza? Can't wait to get my picture taken in front of THAT building!!

It does help, thank you kind sir. Maybe we should call in to Disney after all then? Good news about the crowds though. I don't mind a bit of queueing but seeing as it's pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime kinda trip, I wanna make sure we get to do all the stuff we want to do. SFMM - can it be done in 1 day if the queues are short?

Hello all, long time reader-first time poster. Me and the good lady are coming from England to LA in November for a week (plus another week driving round Monument Valley, Grand Canyon and Vegas) and are just sort of wondering what we can expect in terms of crowds, queues and weather and stuff. We've been to Orlando in early Nov and it was very quiet indeed, the vast majority of rides and attractions being walk-on. Will California be the same? SFMM is only open on weekends in Nov right? Gotta say, VERY excited about SFMM, particularly Tatsu and X2... they WILL be open, right??? While I would happily spend the whole week hitting theme parks, girlfriend is determined try and do some 'other' stuff so I was wondering, seeing as we've already done Orlando and done it well, do we really need to be doing the whole Disney thing again? We've each got a 5 day 'Go LA' card already lined up which (hopefully!!) allows us entry into Universal, Knott's and SFMM so we'll definitely be going to those parks, but are the Disney ones worth it? Especially as we much preferred the Universal parks in Orlando anyway?? The Go LA card also allows access to the movie studio tours, are they good? Which is best? Anything really, hints, tips, must-do's, must-avoids - any advice will be greatly appreciated! Howie