US Holiday

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Changamagic

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Apr 30, 2007
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I am pretty certain that there used to be a thread on here regarding this topic so my apologies if I am doubling up...

Me and the wife are heading to the US in September for around 5-6 weeks. I'd be grateful for any ideas/advice etc regarding some of the best places to visit. Also intend hitting some of the sports action so advice re: tickets would be awesome.

At this stage we have locked in visiting San Fran/Vegas/L.A/New Orleans/Miami/NY/Boston/Chicago...

Would be appreciative of any feedback regarding all things US.

Cheers guys :thumbsu:
 
Changamagic said:
Me and the wife are heading to the US in September for around 5-6 weeks. I'd be grateful for any ideas/advice etc regarding some of the best places to visit. Also intend hitting some of the sports action so advice re: tickets would be awesome.

At this stage we have locked in visiting San Fran/Vegas/L.A/New Orleans/Miami/NY/Boston/Chicago...
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Caribbean & US, you'll need a holiday when you get home.
 

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Changamagic said:
At this stage we have locked in visiting San Fran/Vegas/L.A/New Orleans/Miami/NY/Boston/Chicago...
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Given the cities above I would look at a itinerary like this:

Week 1: LA
Week 2: Vegas & San Fran
Week 3: New York
Week 4: Boston & Chicago
Week 5: New Orleans & Blank (Atlanta?Nashville?Memphis?)
Week 6: Miami & Bahamas (If you are keen to cruise to Caribbean, can be done very easy from Miami)

Basically, I think your itinerary already pretty full for 6 week trip. My only suggestions that given you are going to New Orleans to visit another major "Deep South" city like Atlanta, Nashville or Memphis. All 3 cities are within 4 hours of driving each other and are close to New Orleans.
 
Peter Sidorkiewicz said:
Given the cities above I would look at a itinerary like this:

Week 1: LA
Week 2: Vegas & San Fran
Week 3: New York
Week 4: Boston & Chicago
Week 5: New Orleans & Blank (Atlanta?Nashville?Memphis?)
Week 6: Miami & Bahamas (If you are keen to cruise to Caribbean, can be done very easy from Miami)

Basically, I think your itinerary already pretty full for 6 week trip. My only suggestions that given you are going to New Orleans to visit another major "Deep South" city like Atlanta, Nashville or Memphis. All 3 cities are within 4 hours of driving each other and are close to New Orleans.
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I like the idea of another "Deep South" city whilst we are in the area visiting NO - in fact we had previously discussed visiting Atlanta. Is this a good place to visit?
 
Changamagic said:
I like the idea of another "Deep South" city whilst we are in the area visiting NO - in fact we had previously discussed visiting Atlanta. Is this a good place to visit?
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Atlanta is one of my favourites. Weather is always good and there's plenty to do. In 3 days you can easily see the best of the city and sightseeing. 4 days if you want to take a day trip to visit Stone Mountain Park.

I usually stay Downtown as when I'm there, more often that not I there for a sporting event. Georgia Dome (Football), Philips Arena (Basketball/Hockey) are next to each other and Turner Field (Baseball) is only a short drive away.

Also in downtown is Centennial Olympic Park, Georgia Aquarium (biggest in the world, must do), World of Coca Cola (Only if you love the stuff) and CNN Center (attached to Philips Arena, studio tour is pretty cool if you want to be an anchorman).

If you're into nightlife, resturants and shopping then Midtown or Buckhead would be the place to stay. Lenox Square and Philips Plaza are great malls to shop and are next to each other.

The only downside is traffic is very bad but their rail system is sufficient to get to the best spots in the city.
 
Peter Sidorkiewicz said:
Atlanta is one of my favourites. Weather is always good and there's plenty to do. In 3 days you can easily see the best of the city and sightseeing. 4 days if you want to take a day trip to visit Stone Mountain Park.

I usually stay Downtown as when I'm there, more often that not I there for a sporting event. Georgia Dome (Football), Philips Arena (Basketball/Hockey) are next to each other and Turner Field (Baseball) is only a short drive away.

Also in downtown is Centennial Olympic Park, Georgia Aquarium (biggest in the world, must do), World of Coca Cola (Only if you love the stuff) and CNN Center (attached to Philips Arena, studio tour is pretty cool if you want to be an anchorman).

If you're into nightlife, resturants and shopping then Midtown or Buckhead would be the place to stay. Lenox Square and Philips Plaza are great malls to shop and are next to each other.

The only downside is traffic is very bad but their rail system is sufficient to get to the best spots in the city.
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Sounds good PS. Will keep this in mind for sure :thumbsu:
 
That would be an amazing time to be in Nashville I dare say.

Has anyone driven San Francisco to Las Vegas? Would appreciate any feedback regarding this road trip if possible :thumbsu:
 
Peter Sidorkiewicz said:
Given the cities above I would look at a itinerary like this:

Week 1: LA
Week 2: Vegas & San Fran
Week 3: New York
Week 4: Boston & Chicago
Week 5: New Orleans & Blank (Atlanta?Nashville?Memphis?)
Week 6: Miami & Bahamas (If you are keen to cruise to Caribbean, can be done very easy from Miami)

Basically, I think your itinerary already pretty full for 6 week trip. My only suggestions that given you are going to New Orleans to visit another major "Deep South" city like Atlanta, Nashville or Memphis. All 3 cities are within 4 hours of driving each other and are close to New Orleans.
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no Wasington DC? It really is a must see.

Your trip looks pretty full. but also you should add some diversity to your trip and get to Grand Canyon, Yosemite NP, Yellowstone NP and the NPs in sourthern Utah and Arizona are spectacular. Perhaps for another visit.
 

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I'd start in Los Angeles, work my way east and end up in San Francisco to fly home to Australia.

Having lived in the USA for several years I've got a lot of tips.

Love Atlanta. Great review.

Week One: Los Angeles

Universal Studios, Disneyland, Disneyland California, Knotts Berry Farm if interested in those sorts of things. These are the places that I would go to. I'd stay in Santa Monica if I were you (my favorite part of Los Angeles) for the first half of the time you're in Los Angeles then if you decide to do Disney and Knotts Berry Farm (really underrated, if you go eat the chicken from their dine in take away restaurant at the entrance) find a good rate at a room right across the street from Disneyland as you'll appreciate the added freedom of being right at the parks - you can be there at opening and close and there's more than enough things to do to keep you entertained in the evening.

If you are there on a Friday during baseball season do check to see if the Los Angeles Angeles have a home game for 'Big Bang Friday'. It's a great night out. Their fireworks display actually impressed me more than Disney's did.

Week Two: Las Vegas & New Orleans

Week Three: Atlanta & Miami

Week Four/Five: New York - Boston

Fly back West heading to Chicago and finally San Francisco before heading home to Australia.

It's a good circuit.
 
Abaddon said:
no Wasington DC? It really is a must see.

Your trip looks pretty full. but also you should add some diversity to your trip and get to Grand Canyon, Yosemite NP, Yellowstone NP and the NPs in sourthern Utah and Arizona are spectacular. Perhaps for another visit.
Click to expand...

Washington DC I have heard many good things about -how many days would you recommend here?

We are looking at travelling to Yosemite NP and Kings Canyon NP en route from San Francisco to Las Vegas then either Grand or Bryce Canyon or Zion NP from Vegas...
 
Changamagic said:
Washington DC I have heard many good things about -how many days would you recommend here?

We are looking at travelling to Yosemite NP and Kings Canyon NP en route from San Francisco to Las Vegas then either Grand or Bryce Canyon or Zion NP from Vegas...
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You need maybe three full days to really get the best experience out of Washington.

The most important tips that I have for anyone traveling is to try and limit the back and forth travel that you make if at all possible during the trip (it's MUCH cheaper) AND secondly to try and shorten your travel home to Australia as much as possible - hence why I suggested a circuit.

It's such a huge country that the last thing that you want to do is to fly from one coast to the other and then on top of that have the trip to Australia to do. I had to do that twice in my work (fly from Boston/New York to Los Angeles and then to Australia) it left me feeling exhausted whereas the one flight was absolutely fine. With all of the waiting it can easily stretch to 24+ hours in transit -- including checking in for international flight, customs, etc, etc. Truly horrendous.
 
Changamagic said:
Washington DC I have heard many good things about -how many days would you recommend here?

We are looking at travelling to Yosemite NP and Kings Canyon NP en route from San Francisco to Las Vegas then either Grand or Bryce Canyon or Zion NP from Vegas...
Click to expand...

You can do Bryce and Zion on the same route. Grand Canyon is a bit more difficult from that direction but about 5 years ago did Bryce/Zion then Monument Valley and Grand Canyon on the way to Vegas but it would take a good 5 days to do it properly.
 
I'm a bit surprised at all the Atlanta love in this thread. I lived there for two years and never found it really appealing. To me the northeast, cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as the midwest states, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Cleveland are much more interesting.

How are you traveling around? Amtrak(train) is really good and have frequent services between major cities. Cheap and a good way to see the countryside. You can get 30 day passes with unlimited travel.
 
Noddy Holder said:
I'm a bit surprised at all the Atlanta love in this thread. I lived there for two years and never found it really appealing. To me the northeast, cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as the midwest states, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Cleveland are much more interesting.

How are you traveling around? Amtrak(train) is really good and have frequent services between major cities. Cheap and a good way to see the countryside. You can get 30 day passes with unlimited travel.
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It is so hard to nail down the cities to visit when you only have 6 weeks or so, they all have appeal of some sort.

We also don't want to simply rush through cicites in order to fit them all in... and saying that we don't want to be in transit the whole time we are away. Very tough decisions

Travel will be mainly a combination of car and plane, although we hadn't really considered the rail option, could be a great way to see the countryside
 
Wickzki said:
You need maybe three full days to really get the best experience out of Washington.
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I spent 9 days in DC. There's so much to see. Smithsonian, FBI, Arlington, Pentagon, White House, Holocaust Museum, all the monuments etc.

I used Amtrak a lot, all the way from Orlando to DC and from Chicago to New Orleans. Flew DC - NY - Maine - Chicago. When I went to the US a couple years ago I wanted to do a big train trip, but didn't, just did Seattle to Vancouver. Next time I want a sleeper and go to a couple places I haven't been before.
 
red+black said:
I spent 9 days in DC. There's so much to see. Smithsonian, FBI, Arlington, Pentagon, White House, Holocaust Museum, all the monuments etc.

I used Amtrak a lot, all the way from Orlando to DC and from Chicago to New Orleans. Flew DC - NY - Maine - Chicago. When I went to the US a couple years ago I wanted to do a big train trip, but didn't, just did Seattle to Vancouver. Next time I want a sleeper and go to a couple places I haven't been before.
Click to expand...

Is Amtrak quality?
 
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