Annular Eclipse & San Francisco 2012
- 18th May Upon arrival into Phoenix transfer to your hotel, remainder of the day is at leisure.
- 19th May A full day trip in our chartered touring coach today to the small town of Page. Overnight in Page, Arizona.
- 20th May At leisure in Page, activities available here include boat trips on Lake Powell and jeep trips into the remote areas of the spectacular sandstone canyons. This evening we observe the Annular Eclipse close to the time of sunset, from a magnificent site overlooking Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River.
- 21st May A tour along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon this morning. Afternoon is free to walk some of the many trails along the rim, or down into the Canyon. Overnight at the Canyon.
- 22nd May Leave the Canyon midday and head south to the town of Flagstaff for a two night stay. Evening visit to Lowell Observatory.
- 23rd May Morning visit to the Giant Meteor Crater, afternoon visit to the old Red Indian dwellings in the cliffs at Walnut Canyon.
- 24th May Head south again, a steep descent into the scenic Walnut Creek Canyon, then on through Phoenix to Tucson where we stay for the next two nights.
- 25th May Out into the Sonora Desert this morning and a steep climb to the summit of Kitt Peak. We have a guided tour of some of the telescopes at the observatory here.
- 26th May This morning we head back from Tucson to Phoenix where we take a short flight to Los Angeles for our final stop on the Annular Eclipse Tour.
- 27th May This morning we head up the Angeles Crest Highway to Mount Wilson Observatory. We have a full day to spend at this wonderful observatory before our final night in Los Angeles.
- 28th May Today you will need to make your own arrangements to travel to Los Angeles airport to connect with your own flight to the city of San Francisco for a stay of three nights. Your hotel will be in the Fishermans Wharf area, convenient for all the attractions of this lively city.
- 29th and 30th May At leisure in San Francisco. If this is your first visit you may want to join a half day city tour to get your bearings. Getting around the city is easy, with the famous cable trams hauling passengers up the steep San Francisco streets, perhaps to the shopping district at Union Square or just to the top for the view! If prisons are your thing, you can take a tour of Alcatraz Island, but in any case you should take the ferry across the Bay to Sausalito with spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the water. The nearby centres at Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf offer an extensive collection of unbelievable tourist tat and also some quite good restaurants.
- 31st May The Astro Trails tour finishes this morning so you will depart San Francisco today for your return flight home or start your own exciting onward travel plans.
Annular Eclipse & San Francisco 2012
Tour Commences 18th May 2012What's included?The price is for each person sharing a twin room. The holiday starts in Phoenix and ends in San Francisco with accommodation provided in good standard hotels with breakfast included every day. All visits and excursions indicated in the itinerary are included unless otherwise stated and all land based travel will be by private air conditioned touring coach. A guest astronomer will assist with observation of the eclipse. The flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles is included.
If you are a single traveller and wish to potentially spare yourself paying the single supplement then please let us know at the point of making a reservation, and it may be possible to allocate a shared room with another traveller who has opted to do the same. Tour does not include:This holiday does not include some of the flights required including the Los Angeles to San Francisco internal flight and international flights. Please contact us if you have any queries. International FlightsInternational flights to join the tour are readily available at very competitive rates with options for various classes of travel, flight times and routes. An international flight package (including all airline charges and taxes) can be arranged from London (subject to availability at the time of booking) from about £670 per person. Should you wish us to book your air travel there is a GBP £20 booking fee. Download the flight requirements for the Annular Eclipse & San Francisco 2012 Tour. In order to secure your seat and guarantee the price you will usually need to pay for your ticket when you make your reservation. International Airport TransfersPlease note you will also be responsible for booking all transfers to and from airports - we will confirm exact details and hotel addresses nearer the departure. We can book transfers on your behalf, this will cost approx. £25 per person. ReservationsReservations can be made by phoning 01276 21709 or by e mail to info@astro-trails.com. Your place on the tour will be held for seven days pending receipt of your deposit. Deposit and PaymentA deposit of GBP £225, USD $360, AUD $338 or EUR €259 per person is required to confirm your place on the tour. We will send you a Final Invoice for payment of the balance which is due 12 weeks prior to departure. The details regarding payments differ depending on what currency you will be paying in: Please note we can only accept personal cheques drawn on UK banks. There are no charges for international bank transfers. British Pounds: United States Dollars: Euros: Australian Dollars: |
Passport and Visa Requirements
If your home country is one of the 35 nations eligible for the Visa waiver Program (including the UK and The Republic of Ireland), you must still visit the US customs and Border Protection website to gain electronic travel authorization. With effect from 8th September 2012, an administrative fee will also be required of $14 US. The application must be completed and paid for NO LATER THAN 72 HOURS BEFORE TRAVEL: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/
Travel Insurance
We strongly suggest that when travelling abroad you take a comprehensive travel insurance policy, we recommend the below TAGIS policy.
Currency
US Dollars – being one of the world’s major currencies it is generally very easy to exchange currencies wherever you are, take travellers cheques or use ATMs while you are over there. ATMs are available 24/7 at most banks, and in shopping centers, airports, grocery stores and casinos. Withdrawing cash from an ATM using a credit card usually incurs a fee ($1 to $3), but if your home bank account is affiliated with one of the main worldwide ATM networks (Plus, Cirrus, Exchange, Accel), you can sometimes avoid the fee by using your bank card. The exchange rate on ATM transactions is usually as good as you’ll get anywhere.
Language
English
Electricity
Electricity in United States of America / USA is 120 Volts, alternating at 60 cycles per second. If you travel to United States of America / USA with a device that does not accept 120 Volts at 60 Hertz, you will need a voltage converter.
Time Zone
Eastern time zone GMT - 5
Central time zone GMT - 6
Mountain time zone GMT - 7
Pacific time zone GMT – 8
Tipping
Tipping is standard practice across America. In city restaurants, tipping 15% of the bill is expected; less is OK in an informal diner, while top-end restaurants expect 20%. Bartenders expect $1 per drink. Taxi drivers and hairdressers expect 10% to 15%. Skycaps at airports and porters at nice hotels expect $1 a bag or so. It’s polite to leave a few dollars for the hotel maid, especially if you spend several nights.
Water
Tap water is generally drinkable, but it’s worth checking at the reception of your hotel to be sure.
The USA
For centuries prior to Christopher Columbus accidentally ‘discovering’ the ‘New World’ in his bid to discover a new path to Asia, the mislabelled ‘Indians’ (Native Americans) had been living in highly sophisticated societies based around agriculture, trade and imperial conquest on this land just as much as their white counterparts had been back in Europe. For a variety of reasons the coming centuries would see the number of people pushed out of Europe, or lured to the Americas to live and work soar into the millions. The tumultuous consequences of this cultural upheaval and grand experiment in nation-building would decimate the indigenous people through conquest, disease and legislation, as well as lead to the introduction of the institution of human slavery, come close to self-destructing down the fault line of civil war, industrialise on a never seen before scale, and emerge from the Second World War as the economic powerhouse that would dictate much of the world’s political agenda by the mid twentieth century. At the conclusion of the often heated ‘Cold War’ we saw the US become the undisputed world policeman, the primary exporter of popular culture and most recently the heartland of its economic downturn.
The United States we see today is of course home to Hollywood, Disney and unmatched consumerism, but also a fierce self-belief that lends a certain credence to John Winthrop’s 1630 proclamation that their new nation was to become a ‘city upon a hill’ for the rest of the world to observe and imitate. Whether it’s our blue jeans, our television, our music tastes or our collective memory of events such as landing on the moon, the speeches of figures such as Martin Luther King or John F Kennedy; we all feel somewhat at home amongst American culture. From the historic cities of the East Coast, through the prairies of The Great Plains and the swaying willow trees of The Deep South; all the way to the hyperreality of postmodern cities emerging from the inhospitable desert in the West; there is an endless list of incredible places, natural phenomenon and entirely divergent people to even begin to understand the braided ‘melting pot’ identity of good ol’ Uncle Sam. But what America has in droves is ‘it’, and whatever ‘it’ is, it’s likely happening right now, bigger and better in the USA.
Our tour programmes take in the following destinations: Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Sonoran Desert, Tuscon, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is an unforgettable sojourn through surrealism, where you can walk from the canals of Venice to the skyscrapers of New York and back again and think nothing of it. The entire concept of time is joyfully discarded in a Salvador Daliesque dreamscape of discarded clocks, where no one is themselves, and yet everyone is out to party. You may well question your memories of speaking to Elvis, walking through ancient Egypt, perusing the Eiffel Tower and observing volcanoes explode close to grand fountains and dancing pirates... But this will prove ultimately fruitless as outside of Las Vegas none of this makes sense, and no two nights in this town are ever the same. The epitome of postmodernism, Las Vegas is a city like no other, with the lights and spectacle to dazzle even the most jaded traveller along with the knowledge that every night of the year someone hits the jackpot. The unpredictability and absurd nature of Las Vegas results in a perpetual present being the only tense that matters. Red or black? Cirque du Soleil or Lion King? Camelot or Caesars Palace? Should you have one more drink? .... Worry about it in the morning.
The Grand Canyon
This vast chasm carved by the Colorado River in Arizona is arguably the United States’ most incredible natural attraction and draws over five million people every year to gasp at this snaking void that twists and turns for 217 miles and is on average 10 miles wide. The Colorado River purposefully flows through the floor of the canyon, and its walls reveal rocks up to two billion years old. The beautiful reds and browns of the rocks try their best to soften the impact of this geological marvel, but a trip around either of the rims is the same today as it always has been. Strangers brought together, standing silently, mouths agape humbled by the transformative power of nature. It is impossible to visit the Grand Canyon and not put yourself in the mindset of a settler heading West and coming across such a spectacle having never imagined such a marvel could exist.
Lake Powell
Straddling the border between Utah and Arizona, Lake Powell is a manmade reservoir that is the result of the Glen Canyon Dam flooding the Glen Canyon with the backing up of the Colorado River. The Lake is named after Major John Wesley Powell, a one armed civil war veteran who in 1869 was able to fill in the few remaining blank spots on the map of the United States with an expedition down the Colorado River. The lake has been classified as a National Recreation Area since 1972, and there is a wide range of water sports and boat trips through the hidden canyons and passages possible. The area surrounding Lake Powell is also home to some fantastic walking tours, many of which take in the Rainbow Bridge which is the largest natural stone bridge in the world. The Glen Canyon Dam itself is an incredible structure 710 feet high and 1560 feet in length. A walk across offers the startling contrast of the lake on one side and an endless abyss into the canyon on the other. If you dare, there is one of the United States’ highest bridges directly adjacent to the dam that stretches across the canyon and offers incredible views.
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert takes up a huge swathe of both Arizona and California, as well as the neighbouring territories in Mexico. The area is renowned for the distinctive Saguaro cacti that stand like imposing beacons of the wilderness. These cacti are held as one of the ultimate symbols of the American West and the whole area has something of a familiarity to anyone who has seen a handful of Westerns. Frederick Jackson Turner argued in 1893 that it was the relationship with a wild frontier on its doorstep that had defined the character of the United States, and it doesn’t come much wilder than this. The desert is home to many Native American tribes, and some rare wildlife, but the star attraction is undoubtedly when the sun goes down and any glimpse into the clear night sky is illuminated by a kaleidoscope of stars. Indeed, the region is in such a privileged position that it is thought many of the pictures carved into the rocks by the Hohokam people 200 years ago are thought to be astronomical observations.
Tucson
Tucson is a city that gets right to the heart of the ‘civilizing’ and conquering of the Wild West, with its modern skyscrapers and high tech university surrounded by towering mountains in all directions. It’s believed the Paleo-Indians visited the site anywhere up to 12,000 years ago, and the native peoples established vast irrigation systems for agriculture until the Spanish arrived and fortified the region. The city exchanged hands between the United States and Mexico until the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 made Tucson a part of the Arizona territory. For today’s visitor, Tucson is a veritable feast of historic attractions and tours. Whether you want to peruse archaeological sites of the area’s native inhabitants, follow the trails of early Spanish explorers or see a re-enactments of many well known Wild West events and shootouts then Tucson is ideally situated. There is one event however that best symbolises these area of the country; The Gunfight at The OK Corral. Epitomising the conflict between law and ‘civilization’ and the romanticised lawlessness and untamed wildness of the outlaws, you can tread precisely where the West was won.
Los Angeles
The city of Los Angeles needs little introduction for most. Home to celebrities, Hollywood, iconic television shows, palm trees, world-class shopping and Amusement Parks to satisfy even the most white-knuckle thrill seekers. There is something very special about LA, and your first hint of this will be when you realise that every other person you meet is waiting earnestly for the phone call that will inevitably make their fame and fortune as an actor, screen-writer, entrepreneur or internet sensation. Even at the top of society the rags to riches motif is carried with an Austrian former bodybuilder making it in Hollywood as a leading man and then into being in charge of the eighth largest economy in the world as the last Governor of California. The American Dream is alive and well in this part of the country, and the optimism surrounding the city fuels the continued mythology and allure of Los Angeles to Americans seeking to make something of themselves. It is not just the outlook of its citizens that make LA different however.
The late Jean Baudrillard described Los Angeles as: "a city whose mystery is precisely that of no longer being anything but a network of incessant, unreal circulation -- a city of incredible proportions but without space, without dimension. As much as electrical and atomic power stations, as much as cinema studios, this city, which is no longer anything but an immense scenario and a perpetual pan shot, needs this old imaginary like a sympathetic nervous system made up of childhood signals and faked phantasms.”
Indeed, the unreality of LA is furthered by the presence of the original Disneyland, a society of perfection without crime or unemployment, an extension of the hopes and dreams for LA itself. A stroll down Rodeo Drive brings designer shops, aloof and voluminous mobile phone conversations, big sunglasses and maybe even a run-in with a celebrity. Nearby Santa Monica and Malibu are largely responsible for introducing the world to the surfing vernacular and instilling it in popular culture, and there are always the obligatory photo opportunities with the sheer number of familiar sights that make you feel like you are walking through one big film studio. At its best, Los Angeles is as much an amalgamation of ideals, utopian dreams and considerable means as much as it is a functioning city of almost four million people.
San Francisco
While flowers in your hair aren’t necessary required, they are often encouraged in this quirky city of free-thinkers, intellectuals, eccentrics and the distinctly extroverted. Home to the infamous Alcatraz Island, the stunning Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars and colourful neighbourhoods, San Francisco is a parade of attractions. Being one of the epicentres of the countercultural movements of the mid twentieth century, from the Beat Writers, to the hippies and the more modern cultural subdivisions, San Francisco is still considered to be right at the heart of liberalism in the United States. The same cafes and book shops that hosted legendary authors and poets are still very much hosting book readings, poetry nights and their customers still portray the cities political leanings. It is something of a shock therefore to go from one extreme to the other, with Alcatraz Island or ‘The Rock’ as it is sometimes known being home to one of the country’s most well known military and then federal prisons. Alcatraz was famously host to Al Capone and has been occupied by protest groups with the most famous being a Native American rights group in 1969. Today, the island is open for visitors, and is amongst the most popular attractions in the city. The multi-ethnic restaurants, relaxing parks and beautiful views over the bay ensure that you agree with distinguished playwright and author William Saroyan in his assessment that "If you're alive, you can't be bored in San Francisco. If you're not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.”
