Incredible views, great food and wonderful memories! This was an incredible trip which exceeded my expectations! The National Parks on the itinerary were all places I'd wanted to visit for a long, long time but actually visiting them was much more impressive than I had imagined. Often this was due to the scale of these natural wonders which you just can't get a sense of in photographs or it was due to the varying colours of the rocks such as in Zion or the Grand Canyon which made the views all the more enjoyable. Unfortunately when we visited Yosemite there were forest fires nearby and the smoke spoiled some of the views but luckily the park itself remained open! Yes there are some long drives but the varying landscapes, regular stops for photos or snacks, WiFi, good conversation and a wide range of music available on the tour leader's iPhone all made them pass fairly quickly. It's a fairly busy itinerary but I did feel it provided enough time in each place to really get a 'feel' for them! The vast majority of restaurants I ate in were terrific (be prepared for large potions), the standard of hotels was very high and it was a great group of people to be on holiday with!
We had a great trip, with a fun group of people, including our informative, multi-talented and hard working guide. We saw a great range of landscapes and wildlife and enjoyed the range of activities and not being stuck in the van most of the time. Particularly enjoyed the energetic hike to the Bonanza Mine and the view from the tops. Staying at the same accommodation for several nights made things more relaxed. The flight into Wrangell-St.Elias was good, despite the poor weather, and probably would have been great with better weather. We were disappointed that our request for twin beds had not been passed on to the accommodation providers, which resulted in a couple of poor nights sleep. We raised this with the guide the first evening, who contacted the company owner who was going to try to sort it out for the rest of the trip. Put at one of the later accommodations I was told that they had had no contact from the company about providing twin beds for us and when they contacted the company got a reply along the lines of "Oh, I thought I'd contacted you about it". We were also disappointed with the rooms at the Inlet Tower Hotel. The first room we were shown when we arrived had no working blind on the largest window, which would have made it very difficult to sleep with the long daylight hours. The blind was sitting on the window sill and had dirt and fly droppings on it, which suggests it had been like that for some time. We were given an alternative room which had two leaking taps, one in the same room as the beds, and one of the set of taps only had hot water. The room we had at the end of the trip also had a leaking tap in the room with the beds and only had a venetian blind on the largest window, which still let in a considerable amount of light.
This is a great trip if you’re keen to experience the USA Deep South Music and history. Great experience of New Orleans, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movements, Elvis and the music history of Memphis and Nashville. The trip is with Grand American Adventures- Exodus sister Company. You travel in a small tour bus driven by your guide. We were lucky we had 9 people on the trip as any more would have been a squeeze. A few early starts and longest drives on the road were 5-6 hours but had plenty of rest stop breaks. There’s a lot to see and do plus the music & dvds on the van helped get us in the mood and educate us to each area.