Travel USA travel tips and tricks

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blueboy25 said:
Heading to Canada next august for a wedding but will stop in LA for a few days on the way.

3 adults and 2 kids (5 & 2).

Anyone been to the baseball in LA and would it be worth taking my 5yo?
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Yes and yes.

He may not love the game but the stuff going on around him during an innings break and the music, dancers and other stuff will keep him amused. He will remember it forever.
 
We were keen to have our mobiles so we could contact and be contacted but were also looking to avoid hefty roaming charges.

We downloaded the "Roamer" app before leaving, purchased $30 credit, and parked our Aussie phone numbers and the app acts as a call forwarding service.

When we landed in the US we purchased an AT&T prepaid sim and linked the local US phone number to Roamer.

People in Aus could then call us at Aus rates via our normal mobile numbers, and we could call them via the app and our Aus phone numbers showed up on their phones.

We used about $4 in Roamer credit all up, zero roaming charges, and the local unlimited sim was $60.
 

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I am slowly working my way through this thread at the moment. It has been great reading so far!
I have just booked flights to the USA leaving at the end of March and coming back late June. I just had a few questions for anyone that can help.
First off, I was just wondering if there were any sites that people could recommend I look for getting cheap flights around America?
Also we land and basically go straight to Cancun, we will be there during Spring Break. I was wondering if anyone has done this before and where the best place to stay for it is?
After that I want to spend a while around Anaheim so I can hopefully watch the Ducks in the Playoffs (hopefully they make them). Then we want to get a car and drive across the States for the next couple of months and just see what we find. Anyone that has done this before, would you recommend renting a car or maybe buying a car? or would it just be easier catching buses, trains and flying?
Cheers
 
A mate hooked me up with Conan O'Brian tickets today.

5th of January at Warner Brothers Studio in LA.
 
alex_is_on_fire said:
Thanks for the information deltablues.

We are planning on going to the Napa Valley, Redwood Muir Wood, California Academy of Science and Fishermans Wharf.

Plus Alkatraz and Pier 39 on the same morning.
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get a car and go to Stinson Beach (over the GG Bridge), Santa Cruz, Carmel & Big Sur! I also recommend you visit Livermore and some of the wineries out that way.
 
HARKER said:
My kid is off to L.A. for an acting course in Feb.

Staying in West Hollywood..................and tips?
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I'm in West Hollywood for about a week in early Feb, LA has probably been the most difficult to plan of the cities I'm visiting. I'm assuming if your kid is into acting Universal Studios would probably provide some value.
 
mickelboy182 said:
I'm in West Hollywood for about a week in early Feb, LA has probably been the most difficult to plan of the cities I'm visiting. I'm assuming if your kid is into acting Universal Studios would probably provide some value.
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Universal & Disney are obviously on the agenda but just wondering whether people have tips outside the usual tourist stuff.

They're stuck there for three weeks so will need to find some things to do...
 

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Juddism said:
get a car and go to Stinson Beach (over the GG Bridge), Santa Cruz, Carmel & Big Sur! I also recommend you visit Livermore and some of the wineries out that way.
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Livermore? I'm honestly interested what you found interesting about that town. I think it would be like telling someone who is visiting Melbourne to make sure they check out Bayswater :)
 
Richo is God said:
Got back from 7 week tour on Thursday. Couple things I won't miss, tipping and being hassled by bums/people trying to flog you stuff/people trying to bring you into their shop or restaurant
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I've found tipping is something you get used to when over there. It's just part of the 'price of admission'. In general the food & drink are cheaper, so it's not much to add on top. Having said that, coming home and not feeling I have to add something extra to the bill every time is refreshing. :)

Thankfully I haven't come across it too often in my US travels, but the tipping of bathroom attendants (a weird job to begin with) is my least favourite. It's one that's hard to avoid, especially when they turn on a tap and hand you towels ... two things I could EASILY do myself.

In my experience I've rarely been bothered by homeless people asking for change. I found it no different to walking the streets of any major Australian city. Even in Vegas, where you get guys trying to give (but really sell) you their latest CD, I've never felt unduly harassed (just mild annoyance).
 
Goodo73 said:
I've found tipping is something you get used to when over there. It's just part of the 'price of admission'. In general the food & drink are cheaper, so it's not much to add on top. Having said that, coming home and not feeling I have to add something extra to the bill every time is refreshing. :)

Thankfully I haven't come across it too often in my US travels, but the tipping of bathroom attendants (a weird job to begin with) is my least favourite. It's one that's hard to avoid, especially when they turn on a tap and hand you towels ... two things I could EASILY do myself.

In my experience I've rarely been bothered by homeless people asking for change. I found it no different to walking the streets of any major Australian city. Even in Vegas, where you get guys trying to give (but really sell) you their latest CD, I've never felt unduly harassed (just mild annoyance).
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I did find that a lot of the bar staff and wait staff were quite friendly and i think it promotes good service.

The bathroom attendants were strange. Our hostel in Miami took us on a pub crawl to this nightclub where apparently entry is $100 and they had 4-5 blokes in the toilets brushing you down, spraying freshener, handing you soap and even then drying your hands. They just start doing it all without you agreeing, so I just walked out without tipping after getting the whole production and they never bothered me after that.

To be fair, the homeless were actually very polite I thought. If they ask you for a spare dollar or what not and just give them a "sorry mate, can't help ya" they responded with something like "no problem, have a nice day" or similar and that was that.
 
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