Travel USA travel tips and tricks

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Good call amer. I've had a number of people ask me why I keep going back. "I mean it's just like Australia!". It may not be as different culturally as an Asian country (for example), but it certainly isn't the same as Oz.
 
Latest update from our trip as it draws to a close, flying out tomorrow. Have spent the last few nights in Vegas to finish the trip after driving the Hwy1 route from San Francisco to here.

The Big Sur is absolutely stunning. The height you get to on the edge of the cliffs is fairly hairy but the views are well worth it. Some of the higher parts had me going 20km/h around them in the Mustang just to be safe.

We stayed 2 nights along the coast, one at Santa Cruz & one at Santa Barbara. Both were decent in their own way. Santa Cruz, known mainly for its surfing which I love, was very cool. We sat out at Steamers on the cliffs watching about 60 surfers in the lineup catching 8-10ft waves literally 20m in front of us. We spent probably an hour doing this, but could have done it for the whole day. Seals basically next to them on one side, sea otters kicking around between them. Loved every minute. The wharf there is good for views whilst eating, and we stayed basically on top of the beach looking over the boardwalk which is a nice little novelty thing to spend an hour at.

Santa Barbara was a bit different in that we arrived later in the day after driving the Big Sur part of the coast, so we werent really into looking around too much. We basically went straight to State Street, set up at The Sandbar and used their 2 for 1 happy hour for the whole night to relax after a big day. Cool atmosphere, great food, and ended up walking home fairly well spent.

Vegas. We arrived at New York New York around 3pm (check-in time) and they didnt have our room ready so instantly upgraded us anyway to a strip view room, no $20 trick needed, even though it was locked and loaded in my pocket ready to be used :) The place is fairly busy this week with the Nascar being on, and bringing out its own special breed of fans, but it hasnt stopped us doing anything.

Grand Canyon via Helicopter had us picked up at 6:30 in the morning, at the Canyon at 8ish, back in Vegas by 9:45ish. The size of the thing is unbelievable and we only hit the West Rim, to think about the size of the North Rim is mind boggling. But doing it this way gave us access to see the place, and not waste a full day getting there and back, or longer. They got us a limo back into town from Boulder City, with a nice cruise up the strip which was a nice surprise.

Drinking here can be done any which way you want. The missus doesn't mind a shop, so I hatched a plan that I'll just drink at a bar while she shops. So basically the more she shops the more I drink. Win win. Some good happy hours to be found, especially for buckets of beers - around $15 usually for 5, when a single beer will cost you $7. Not really into the clubs anymore so cant comment on those. Pre-dinner drinks in the room or wherever can be stocked up from the liquor stores extremely cheaply. And alcohol can be consumed in the streets.

Food is probably the hardest thing I've found here. Basically because of the range.. You find something that looks good, then in the distance you see something else that tickles your fancy, and it goes on. Did the Bucchanal Buffet at Caesars. Waited around an hour to get in but had heard & read good things. Wasnt disappointed as the food was sensational, but geez we felt disgusting after it.

Based purely on gambling, and not including other expenses I am about $20 in front at the moment! Not exactly paying for my trip just yet (that'll happen today no doubt), but not breaking the bank either.

Last night tonight, seeing some mates from Australia (Gold Fields) play a gig over here tonight at Hard Rock, so that'll be a good way to finish the trip having a few beers with them. Driving back to LAX tomorrow to fly home. Has been a great trip, Mexico clearly the highlight, with San Francisco being the best of the rest.
 

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Going to be on the east coast in September. Whats the best way to get around? Train or Bus? Ive looked at Amtrak and they seem to have bugger all services with checked baggage. I'm assuming a Bus would be better then, however I wanted to see if anyone in the past has gotten away with a suitcase on a Train that specifies no checked bags. Because of airline restrictions, the bag will be under the weight restrictions for a train, but obviously don't satisfy the size restrictions..
 
wce4premiership said:
Would love to see your photos if you have any of Big Sur/Santa Cruz. One regret was not taking enough of the HWY 1 drive, although I still got some belters. Amazing corner of the world!
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I took dozens of pics at Santa Cruz, especially of the guys out in the lineup, and then not a lot along the Big Sur part as I was creating a time-lapse with my GoPro attached to the car (this has thousands of pictures that I need to sort through & put together).. Anyway here are some:

Mavericks @ Half Moon Bay. We drove into the carpark just before the airforce base, climbed up the cliffs to see if there was any big swell, but didn't really know which way to really look offshore for the famous break. There wasnt a lot of guys out anyway, but some nice clean swell closer to shore.
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Our view from our balcony in Santa Cruz.
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Steamers @ Santa Cruz. There were around 3 of these cliff tops that jutted out like this photo giving some awesome viewing basically on top of the surfers.
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Steamers again.
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Still out at Steamer Lane. One side of this point creates perfect clean 8-10ft waves the day we were there (left side), and the right hand side creates an ocean as rough as I've ever seen with currents going every which way.
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We left to get dinner after the sun had set and they were still heading out.
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A tamer part of the Big Sur drive when the road was at one of its lowest points.
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Same lookout from above. I will link my time-lapse in here if I can get my MacAir to cope with huge amounts of processing.
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Plenty of photos from our trip, happy to post anymore if people want to see. Cheers.
 
Surf looks awesome there, although I'd never be brave enough to go surfing in it haha. Good photo's, we did the trip in about 9 hours (san Fran - L.A.) stopping off in all the towns and enjoying the view, never got to stay over night anywhere or spend more than half an hour looking around though. Amazing drive. See the elephant seal beach?
 
wce4premiership said:
Surf looks awesome there, although I'd never be brave enough to go surfing in it haha. Good photo's, we did the trip in about 9 hours (san Fran - L.A.) stopping off in all the towns and enjoying the view, never got to stay over night anywhere or spend more than half an hour looking around though. Amazing drive. See the elephant seal beach?
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The part I enjoyed the most about the Big Sur was when it headed inland for a few miles through some huge towering forests and had a real 'bear country' type feel to it.

Yeah saw the Elephant Seals. We were kind of flying along the road and saw heaps of cars piled up in a carpark wondering what was going on, and then saw a couple of the big beasts taking in some rays on the beach so stopped for a look..

I was reading a bit on Trip Advisor before we left trying to find out a timeframe to do the drive and anyone suggesting to do it in a day was shot down pretty quick, but as you say its quite easily doable, especially I'd imagine in the warmer months with longer daylight hours. As we spent 1.5hrs getting to Santa Cruz from San Francisco (incl. Mavericks stop), then around 6.5hrs from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara with stops along the Big Sur, lunch etc, and then another hour or so the next day from Santa Barbara to LA. It would make it a long day of driving, but if you are short on time there's no reason it cant be done.
 
We left at roughly 6am, it was during summer so there was plenty of time to do it. Great drive even for a whole day, only got bored the last 2/3 hours as you get closer to L.A. it becomes less scenic and mostly just an inland hwy.
 
Has anyone stayed at the Hotel Beacon in New York (Manhattan) before?

Is it any good? The reviews suggest it's a really good place and for the Christmas/New Year period is very affordable.
 
alex_is_on_fire said:
Has anyone stayed at the Hotel Beacon in New York (Manhattan) before?

Is it any good? The reviews suggest it's a really good place and for the Christmas/New Year period is very affordable.
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Stayed there on a couple of Contiki trips. Really nice place. Great location too (only a block away from an express stop subway station).
 

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alex_is_on_fire said:
Has anyone stayed at the Hotel Beacon in New York (Manhattan) before?

Is it any good? The reviews suggest it's a really good place and for the Christmas/New Year period is very affordable.
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Havnt stayed there, but would still recommend airbnb. Stayed at an awesome place over xmas and new years and had a great time
 
Liam#9 said:
Havnt stayed there, but would still recommend airbnb. Stayed at an awesome place over xmas and new years and had a great time
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Airbnb for the win.

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/725487

This place worked very well for us over nye. We could walk everywhere (though decided to pay 25 odd for a weekly train ticket lol) and the host was very very helpful. Highly recommend.

There are also many other. Good luck!
 
Another + for AirBNB. We stayed a block away from Union Square (6 or 7 different subway lines) in Gramercy Park. Hotels in the area were going for $350+ whereas we paid $140 a night with a kitchen & private 3rd floor balcony/patio area. The apartment & area we stayed were nearly my favourite part of my NYC trip.
 

Here is a review of our trip to LA and Hawaii. I got back home on Friday.

We flew on the Qantas A380 from Sydney to LAX. It was my first time on the A380 and all I can say is wow! You do not even feel the plane take off or land. The Skycam is awesome (camera on top of the tail which allows you to watch the plane take off and come into land). There was a self service area where you could help yourself to food and drinks (no alcohol). Inflight entertainment system was superb, well over 100 movies to choose from plus numerous tv shows and CD’s. Qantas cabin crew have still not improved since they flew internationally with them the last time which was 15 years ago.

The main purpose of our trip was to take our 5yr daughter to Disneyland. The new Cars Land at California Adventure Park is unbelievable. If you have seen the Cars movie, it is exactly like Radiator Springs from the movie. The Cars Ride was fantastic (photo below). The line for this ride was always over 60 minutes but if you do single rider line, the wait was down to 5 minutes and then if use the rider switch pass, the cast member would give you a fastpass which then allows 2 people who could use immediately which gets you in the fastpass line. Definitely recommend this approach if you want to avoid waiting times for any of the rides at Disneyland or California Adventure Park.

Very little waiting time for any of the other rides as the park was pretty quiet. The only ride that was down was the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which was closed for refurbishment.

Also went down to Legoland at Carlsbad. I had mixed feelings about going to this park as I did not know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. All the rides are more suited to kids under the age of 10. There a lot of hands on activities that you can do as a family and the lego exhibits were huge. I am proud to say that my 5yr old daughter is now a mad rollercoaster girl after going on the rollercoasters at Legoland and she loved it.

We stayed at the Hyatt Orange County in Anaheim and it was great. Had a shuttle that went to Disneyland every 30 minutes.

I also managed to get the Lakers/Hawks game at Staples Center. It was Latin America night for this game and I swear half of the crowd were illegal immigrants from Mexico. :D I also managed to catch a Ducks game at the Pond in Anaheim.

From there it was onto to Hawaii. Flew Hawaiian Airlines from LAX to Honolulu. Service was not too bad apart from the fact that you had to pay for the movies on the flight.

We stayed at the Sheraton at Waikikki which was magnificent (photo below). They had an infinity pool which was right at the edge of the beach. Plus another 2 huge pools which had a water slide which connects them as well. One day I did the hike up to the top of Diamond Head. The views are incredible. My wife went nuts with the shopping at Waikikki. Everything was so cheap and she came home with another suitcase full of stuff.

The only bad part of the trip was the flight back from Honolulu to Sydney with Qantas. The plane was an outdated 767 with no tv screens in the back of the seat in front of you. As a result they gave everyone an IPAD which was connected to their inflight entertainment system. However as this was the return leg of the flight, by the time we boarded the plane in Honolulu most of the IPAD’s batteries were down to 30-40%. This then resulted in the cabin crew spending a large amount of time replacing IPADS which had been charged up. You expect a better plane for a flight which is over 10 hours. I must say the cabin crew on this flight would be the worst I have ever seen. They were too busy pissing around with the IPAD’s, lunch service was slow – they took forever to collect the empty trays from the passengers. All of the cabin crew would have been over 50yrs old. They need to bring in some new blood who are up with the times. It just reinforced to me that I would never fly Qantas internationally again. The only reason I did it this time was to go on the A380 and I have now done that.

All in all, a great trip but I pretty exhausted now as we crammed so much into 2 ½ weeks.

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Nelso said:
We stayed at the Sheraton at Waikikki which was magnificent (photo below). They had an infinity pool which was right at the edge of the beach. Plus another 2 huge pools which had a water slide which connects them as well. One day I did the hike up to the top of Diamond Head. The views are incredible. My wife went nuts with the shopping at Waikikki. Everything was so cheap and she came home with another suitcase full of stuff.
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Lot's and lots of people I know keep saying this, but I didn't rate the shopping in Honolulu (Waikiki) at all.

I rated the shopping in Vegas and Orange Country much better and even the shopping down in San Diego was much better as well. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't enjoy the shopping in Hawaii and spend very little.
 
alex_is_on_fire said:
Lot's and lots of people I know keep saying this, but I didn't rate the shopping in Honolulu (Waikiki) at all.

I rated the shopping in Vegas and Orange Country much better and even the shopping down in San Diego was much better as well. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't enjoy the shopping in Hawaii and spend very little.
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You can get the bus to Waikele (not sure if I spelt that right) factory outlet stores which is about 30 mins outside of Waikiki. The bus trip costs $10 return. I did it the first time we there some 18 months ago but this time I stayed behind at the hotel pool with our daughter while she went.
 
Nelso said:
You can get the bus to Waikele (not sure if I spelt that right) factory outlet stores which is about 30 mins outside of Waikiki. The bus trip costs $10 return. I did it the first time we there some 18 months ago but this time I stayed behind at the hotel pool with our daughter while she went.
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Yep, went there as well.

Still didn't rate it. I've heard all the stories of how great it is and how many massive bargains their are but I found the shopping better in Vegas and the OC.

They don't have a Nike factor on the island and only like 3 foot lockers. I found it very limiting.
 
I'm up to page 5 of 50 and got some decent tips thus far. This is what I was going to do:

4 days New York (been there before)
Fly to Vegas on the 5th morning
1 night Vegas
Hire a car and leave for San Fran 6th morning
Drive through Yosemite 2 days
2 days is San Fran
Hire another car and drive to LA down coast (Big Sur etc). Think of hiring a convertible Mustang to impress the bishes. Anyone know if this is possible?
2 days LA
2 days Didneylan
1 more day in LA. Maybe drive down to San Diego


Upon reading first 5 pages of thread going to up NY to 6 days, Vegas to 2 (see Grand Canyon, maybe comedy show)

6 days New York
2 days Vegas
2 days driving through Yosemite to San Fran
2 days is San Fran
2 days driving to LA
2 days LA
2 days Didneylan
1 more day in LA. Maybe drive down to San Diego

19 days + 2 or 3 to get there and get back.


I'll have to see Chicago, Niagara Falls, next time.
 

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