Geek Nation Tours has come up with an exciting vacation trip this summer just for Trekkies. Their new "Exploring Trek Sites: Hollywood to Vegas" tour will visit a number of iconic Star Trek locations and culminate with a trip to the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, with Trekspert Larry Nemecek along as your tour guide. Details below.
New Tour Will Explore Star Trek Sites And Bring You To Vegas Con 2012
Geek Nation Tours (with the motto "Holidays for Geeks, by Geeks") has announced an Trek-ified excursion for this August called “Exploring Trek Sites: Hollywood to Vegas.” The nine-day tour visits famous (and obscure) Star Trek shooting locations in the LA area and Southern California, ending up in Las Vegas for the big annual Star Trek con. And Geek Nation are teaming up with “Dr. Star Trek" (and author of "Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion") Larry Nemecek, who will be the tour guide all along the way. The tour promises "a front-row seat as Larry makes the pilgrimage to filming sites of The Original Series , The Next Generation and their movies, as well as Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise." The journey will stretch from Hollywood and surrounding Los Angeles up to the Trona Pinnacles to the base of Mount Whitney, then on through Death Valley and into Las Vegas for the convention.
Nemececk tells TrekMovie “We have crafted a great schedule of sites that will lead fans to not just the obvious, like Vasquez Rocks, but the obscure as well. Personally, it will be exciting to share info and fun with our Trek fans in-between the tour stops—a group experience where no book or convention talk has ever gone before. Plus, it’s a great Hollywood/Vegas vacation, to boot.”
The nine day long tour tour begins on Saturday August 4th in Hollywood with three days of touring famous locations used to shoot Star Trek over the years along with a visit to Paramount Pictures. While in LA you will visit the Griffith Observatory (from Voyager’s "Future’s End"), The Tillman Water Plant and Japanese Garden, (used for various Trek locations, including Starfleet Academy and HQ), Franklin Canyon Park (TOS "The Paradise Syndrome"), Bronson Caves (Rura Penthe from "Star Trek VI"), and more.
After the initial days in LA, the tour goes on the road for a couple of days and visits more Star Trek locations in California, including the iconic Vasquez Rocks Park (where you will be joined by the original Gorn, Bobby Clark). You will also visit "Club Ed" Movie Ranch (the Q’ Continuum for Voyager’s "Death Wish", Trona Pinnacles (God Planet from Star Trek V), Mount Whitney (mountain Quark and Odo climbed in DS9’s "The Ascent"), Lone Pine (home of Kirk’s Nexus cabin from Generations), Owens Dry Lake (Nimbus III from Star Trek V), and more.
The tour then hits Vegas for days 6-9, where you will attend the annual big Star Trek convention, where the Geek Nation Tour umbrella remains active right through the five convention evenings. And always with the option to explore on their own most any time.
The tour will be limited in size to 35 (to be able to fit on a single bus) in order to keep it a tight-knit group. Geek Tours CEO says the company’s mandate is to "give people the opportunity to revel in their Geekiness and to travel the globe seeking those things that they love to do, joined by like-minded persons who are just as interested in that specific geeky thing. So it’s not only a holiday vacation but also the chance to develop long-lasting friendships.” And they also work to take care of the non-geek spouse as well. “If a partner would rather go to a museum, ball game or shopping mecca, we can take care of that too,” he says. “Everyone wins. The ‘non-geek’ can re-meet up in the evenings, of course—where participants get together to talk about the day’s events and to share hints on the excitement of the next day. In fact, we offer several options to further tailor-make this great adventure for any fan’s taste and budget.”
Price for the tour is $2500. For more information or to sign up, visit www.geeknationtours.com.
I would sooo love to go on this!!!
First, maybe?
Cool story.
Regards.
Good thing I qualified with “maybe”. :)
Regards.
When they go on the tour of Gorn site, wil they be able to find all the minerals Kirk found to create the bomb and will there be an appearance by a Metron.
If you can guarentee both I will go
OK, so I tell my wife we’re spending $2500 to go on a holiday together to visit rock formations, deserts and observatories, but she’s free to go to the mall or ‘catch a ball game.’ How about taking a city bus to Sausalito and walking back?
I hope the hotels have separate beds.
Oh, snap, this looks fantastic! I wish I could go!
Hmm. Sound;s like a lot of fun.
Do we get to fight the Gorn.
Seems a bit pricey for what they are offering… But maybe that’s just me.
no. 4… I’m afraid i found no bomb making minerals on my trip to Vasquez Rocks in 1986 but i did see a bit of the filming of Masters of the Universe when we were at the park! LOL!
Warning to you non-locals considering this. Expect temperatures at 105 degrees if you are lucky, or 115+ degrees if you are unlucky. And believe me, at those temps, the “it’s a dry heat” doesn’t cover up how unbelievably hot that part of CA is August.
Might I ask what middle-class citizen has the money to go to this? I’m amiddle class citizen and I sure as hell don’t have the money for this! Hell, we’re STILL waiting for that Trek exhibit to make it’s way to NY like the exhibitors said it would! I’m seriously beginning to doubt it will come even CLOSE to NY. Yes, it was in Pennsylvania or Maryland or some such state, but I wasn’t about to drive all they way there from NY.
@11. But isn’t Pennsylvania right below New York?
I would so sign up if so fast…it wasn’t 2500 bucks.
What if I just follow behind the group in on a scooter?
This exactly what my wife and I are planning for the year of the 50th trekneversary.
Hiring a Winnie and heading to all the trek sites and ending it finally at the convention!
Bring it on!
Larry can pay to join us if he likes!
:)
I’d sure love to carve my initials into Vasquez Rocks.
(keeeeeeding)
I go to the Observatory once in a while. I like to pretend Tuvok is running out of the building while I’m there. :P
Bit spendy for me…but, see you in Vegas, anyway.
I would love to go to Vasquez Rocks with a Gorn mask and a camera….
;-D
I’m still waiting for a multi-gazillionaire to build a full size Enterprise (TOS, A, D, E, but TOS or A would be my preference). I imagine this thing as full scale, with as much function Trek Tech that can be done. I’m not sure if the turbo lifts could be as functional, but maybe…
Struts and braces would have to be in place to keep the saucer section and nacelles in place since there -will- be gravity… but they could be made to be aesthetic as possible.
Complete with all the iconic rooms, quarters, engineering, sickbay, bridge. Crew quarters would be hotel rooms. Hotel employees would wear the uniforms, etc. etc.
If I was filthy stinking rich, I would do it. And live there full time!
I found it interesting that there was no mention, once the group gets to the Vegas area, of going up to Valley of Fire that as everyone knows, was Veridian III in Generations. My first trip there was coincidentally exactly when they were re-shooting Kirk’s death scene. Of course, a guard was keeping people from going up the road to that remote mountain. It is a little hike, as the park people tell you. I did know from media reports right then that shooting was going on up there. I think Larry should consider adding this to his agenda, since it is only 75 miles from Vegas. Has anyone reading this made the hike to that exact mountain? I read once in the Communicator that there might be a plaque of some sort they left there….
# 18
Wouldn’t we all? ;-)
$2500 and that doesn’t include the convention tickets? Wow. Their rationale fire non-inclusion almost makes sense bit they should include some level of ticketing at that price and slow you to upgrade if you want.
Sorry for typos. Missed the erroneous auto corrects.
The biggest crime is, here in NYC, the Intrepid museum will charge $50 to view the Enterprise orbiter shuttle and a British Airways retired Concorde.
Dear Intrepid, the Enterprise belongs to the US taxpayers whose taxes paid for its development and the subsequent shuttles that came after it. You cannot charge admission to something that is not yours.
I’ve flown the Concorde twice, and, unless your up in it at 60,000 feet and Mach 2, it’s pretty darn boring.
Pennsylvania is a few hours drive from New York. I go Greyhound a LOT and have been through Penn,a few times. New York to DC is five hours so it’s not exactly right below,lol. GEE I can’t WAIT to be back in the US! Comic Con,yaaay!
And Vasquez Rock was GREAT fun! And HOT! I went in July two years ago. And Griffith Observatory was really cool too!
Have fun y’all! J-R!
‘Been there, done a lot of that, got photos. USS Angeles (Starfleet) calls them “sacred sites of Star Trek” and treks to them on “away missions”. From Star Trek (2009): the Vulcan Science Academy is Sky Rose Chapel at Rose Hills and Starfleet Academy is the library at Cal State Northridge. And, as Larry WELL knows, Will Rogers State Park is where Kirk reminded, “Everybody remember where we parked,” in The Search For Spock. That DS9 baseball game was played at Loyola-Marymount. etc etc etc…
#9 – Coincidentally, guess who was one of the main actresses in Masters of the Universe that you saw filming while you were there –
None other than Gwynne Gilford – Chris Pine’s (aka Captain Kirk) own mother. Chris would have been about six at the time.
“Everybody remember where we parked” was from the Voyage Home (STIV).
@23
Actually, if the same thing was done to the Enterprise shuttle as happened to the Endeavour, the title to the orbiter was transferred to the [Intrepid] museum by the US Government.
So, it doesn’t (they don’t) belong to the US taxpayers any longer.
And, on a practical note, I’m guessing that at least some of that fee is going to have to go for the facilities needed (required as a condition of being considered for a recipient site) to protect the orbiter from the elements – for future generations.
And, a Congressionally-mandated re-evaluation by the Feds of the proposals found the Museum of the Air Force – initially ranked in the middle of the pack, among all requesting sites – had actually tied with the Intrepid museum.
So, only the proximity to an existing international travel destination and population center kept people from having to go to either Dayton, OH or the Washington, DC area to visit one of orbiters.
Been to the Vasquez rocks before. It was kinda fun…
19–Hey Randy, yes of course we considered the Valley of Fire–but once AT Vegas, there’s no time–people want the CON except perhaps at night.
There are a lot, lot, lot more sites that could have been included–and many obscure, as well. This is a mix of sites that overlap as tourist sites already, plus the obscure: Club Ed, Bronson Canyon, anything up north, etc. But we had to limit it to a mix. Teras and I are so anxious to do more—as per the many podcasts where we have talked about it.
If you can’t go, please save pennies for 2013 (in a cooler month perhaps) and pass along to someone who might want info now! Booking cuts off May 31.
Is pricey and will be hot as the hinges of hell! Think I’ll save up for London. Good luck, tho, faans!
Hola all,
Thanks for all the great comments. I am really looking forward to the tour and thank you to all those that secured a spot… If you are interested feel free to email me any and all questions.
Sure it will be hot but then you will feel like you are on another planet :)
Teras
Geek Nation Tours