Travel USA travel tips and tricks

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Southseas said:
a few questions - will probably catch a MLB game - which city do people recommend to hit up for that? NYC?
- Nashville or Memphis?
- Any tips for GC with kids?
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San Fran baseball stadium is great to visit if you have nice weather otherwise it looks like NYC is your only other option.

I'd choose Nashville over Memphis seeing you are with kids.
 
Just did 30 days LA-New Orleans-Memphis-Nashville-Knoxville-DC-Philly-NYC then a week in New Jersey incorporating Princeton, Trenton, Asbury Park, Cape May and Atlantic City as i have relatives there. Saw 3 nights of WWE in LA, NHL in Nashville, NBA in DC and NFL in Philly.

Fave city: Nashville
Fave state: New Jersey (no contest)
Fave beer: Michelob Ultra
Fave food: Longhorn Steakhouse
Fave event: 3 nights of WWE (no contest)
Fave comment #1: "I love your accent"
Fave comment #2: "You're not from around here are you?"
Fave reaction: "How can you people eat such a beautiful animal (Kangaroo)?"
Fave countryside views: Tennessee
Fave architecture: New Jersey (Princeton and Cape May)
Fave view: 27th floor observatory LA City Hall (free)
Fave walk: Brooklyn Bridge at sunset/night
Worst city: Los Angeles (a dive)
Worst traffic: New York
Worst food: NYC hot dog (urghhhhhhhh but i had to try one)
Worst subway: Los Angeles (smelly, too loud and packed)
Worst weather - DC (well it was winter) - rained all 3 days
 

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HirdyLannister said:
What you think of New Orleans? I thought it was a dump of a place.
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Really? Where abouts did you stay? I stayed on one side of the city for a few nights and it was an experience.. groups of people staring at you etc. but then we stayed on another side of the city a little closer to Bourbon and it was pretty nice. Canal St McDonalds was an experience though jeez.
 
HirdyLannister said:
What you think of New Orleans? I thought it was a dump of a place.
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I liked the French Quarter walking tour i did.

It was Battle of the Bands weekend so there were college kids everywhere.

Nicer at night - riverboat paddlesteamers were gorgeous but didn't have time for a cruise along the river. Nor have time for one of those airboat rides either.

Didn't go for the gator or gumbo.
 
Stayed off burbon, I just didn't enjoy it. Did the gator air boat, gumbo, tried their oysters, river paddle boat plus partying during the night.
Just didn't like the city itself, dirty and smelled rotten each street. After a night of rain the city smelt better, just like when a toilet flushes.

Idk just wasn't a fan at all.
 
HirdyLannister said:
Stayed off burbon, I just didn't enjoy it. Did the gator air boat, gumbo, tried their oysters, river paddle boat plus partying during the night.
Just didn't like the city itself, dirty and smelled rotten each street. After a night of rain the city smelt better, just like when a toilet flushes.

Idk just wasn't a fan at all.
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Yeah same, Some people i know loved it but i just didn't feel it's vibe.
 
I stayed in the YMCA with needles in the box air con walked down a pretty rough neighbourhood to get to Bourbons street every day and still liked it a lot,I went pre Catrina though so it may have changed
 
Silent Alarm said:
I thought Brooklyn was going to be awesome. I'd see Beach Fossils walking around together, bodegas with interesting looking people out the front, constant hives and dense atmosphere. In reality it's as massively sprawled as anywhere else in New York City but with a lot less going on. It's not like here; there's no trendy strips let alone enclaves like Fitzroy with three or four streets all packed full of pubs, bars, clothes, cafés... it's a lot of walking. The parks are all really overgrown, there'll be heaps of industrial plants and warehouses. I dunno. Kinda sucked in my opinion. And most of the trendy venues aren't anything more visually eclectic nor appealing than a music venue in Perth or Adelaide.

Keen to hear your thoughts on it.
.
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Had the same thoughts honestly. It’s pretty dirty, I walked a fair bit around there, Brooklyn Heights/Dumbo that sort of area is the only place I could live I reckon. I didn’t hate it, but thought it might have been a bit better. Saturday is my last full day, probably head down to Philly for the day. Honestly though, I’ve absolutely loved New York (is that allowed?) haha. Wish I could have spent a bit more time in the US to see more cities, but alas for a very short and last minute holiday it’s been cool and I’ve covered a fair bit. Also, for those following I missed my flight from LAX to Newark by 10 minutes. But, thankfully and very luckily got on the next flight an hour later
 
So did the week in Orlando.

Loved Universal. Were there for a quiet week. No line waiting at all, with no express passes. Kids would have gone on 20+ rides over 2 full days, and we got a buy 2 days, get 2 days free deal, so went back for only 4 hours 2 additional days, Stayed at a resort (Cabana Bay), it was accessible and easy and the bonus early hour good for getting through Hogsmeade -single rider lines a good tip and a good way to get on quickly (only exception was probably the Gringotts ride in Diagon Alley). Far exceeded expectations I had of the place.

Disney on the other hand in Orlando. Stayed at a resort, which was nice, but a fair way from some of the parks. Having been to Anaheim a number of times, this was pretty poor all round compared to those experiences. Hollywood Studios is small, and on the whole pretty dated. If you don't like Star Wars it is slimmer pickings.....Magical Kingdom was not much better, and far more packed. For mine, save the $$$ in flying there and go Disney Parks in California instead.

Get ready to dump a whole lot of money though! It is pricey even trying to watch the spending!
 
I'm just going to throw this in here but LAX is hands down the worst airport I have ever been to. We transfered through there on the way to Canada recently and it took longer to get through there than the flight itself. I've used it before and I didn't think much of it back then but will definitely avoid it in the future if I'm ever returning to the surrounding areas.
 
WCErevival said:
I'm just going to throw this in here but LAX is hands down the worst airport I have ever been to. We transfered through there on the way to Canada recently and it took longer to get through there than the flight itself. I've used it before and I didn't think much of it back then but will definitely avoid it in the future if I'm ever returning to the surrounding areas.
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Why? It was fine for me. Spacey too.
 

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Silent Alarm said:
Why? It was fine for me. Spacey too.
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Firstly you land in the middle of no where and have to take a crammed bus after disembarking the plane to the main terminal.

From there you have to go through the usual anal American process of customs where for some reason you have to get your finger prints and photo done twice. Not sure why but at LAX they only had minimal people on so it took well over an hour. New York at least did the task a bit quicker. They seperated me and my partner into different lines for some reason too which was odd.

To transfer we needed to go to another terminal which required us to go outside. For all of their security it was a bit bizarre because we could just get in a taxi and disappear into the US even though we were transferring to a flight to another country.

The airport itself was very busy. Every terminal was packed with people and there is no way to avoid anyone there to rest or relax. It was quite old and dirty too. Not a lot in the way of shops either.

For a major airport with that many passengers you would think it would be better and more efficiently run.
 
LAX is in the process of upgrading terminal by terminal, and it is significantly better than it was 10+ years ago. But, it is like large parts of LA itself, rundown, dated and shabby.

My biggest complaint from passing through recently was the "automated" customs. it seemed that the automated system rejected 3/4 of the people that did it, which forced you into a smaller and tighter queue for less customs officers to manually do it. Longer wait than with no automated system, they have to get that sorted out.
 
Haven’t done arrivals etc at LAX, but went through San Francisco a few weeks back and it was incredibly quick, we must have been the only flight to have arrived around then (was the Qantas flight from Melbourne to San Fran which arrives ~6pm)
 
Mr X said:
LAX is in the process of upgrading terminal by terminal, and it is significantly better than it was 10+ years ago. But, it is like large parts of LA itself, rundown, dated and shabby.

My biggest complaint from passing through recently was the "automated" customs. it seemed that the automated system rejected 3/4 of the people that did it, which forced you into a smaller and tighter queue for less customs officers to manually do it. Longer wait than with no automated system, they have to get that sorted out.
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When I went through in August all the auto machines were closed. They had been working in the past.

The major issue is all the flights that arrive from Australia arrive within a short space of time in the morning clogging the system up.
 
WCErevival said:
Firstly you land in the middle of no where and have to take a crammed bus after disembarking the plane to the main terminal.

From there you have to go through the usual anal American process of customs where for some reason you have to get your finger prints and photo done twice. Not sure why but at LAX they only had minimal people on so it took well over an hour. New York at least did the task a bit quicker. They seperated me and my partner into different lines for some reason too which was odd.

To transfer we needed to go to another terminal which required us to go outside. For all of their security it was a bit bizarre because we could just get in a taxi and disappear into the US even though we were transferring to a flight to another country.

The airport itself was very busy. Every terminal was packed with people and there is no way to avoid anyone there to rest or relax. It was quite old and dirty too. Not a lot in the way of shops either.

For a major airport with that many passengers you would think it would be better and more efficiently run.
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Plane to airport issue - guess you havnt flow to Dubai?

Anal process of American customs - you get that everywhere.

Transfer - again, you get that at just about all points of entry’s into the USA. Maybe you should’ve gone the long way into Atlanta?

Busy - unless you were smart enough to take qf55 Brisbane Into Los Angeles, qf73 Sydney into San Francisco or qf7 Sydney to dallas, you were landing in the morning rush no matter what flight you took. Could’ve gone San Francisco or Houston and same issue.

Plane to airport issue - makes its a curse and an asset. I’m willing to bet if you landed at a gate the new complaint would be waiting for luggage. Catch 22 (have you heard what they did in Houston? Biggest complaint was wait time for bags. Solution? Move them further away from the gates, so you spend more time walking and less time waiting. Less complaints)

Anal process of customs - could’ve just flown via Sydney and go into Vancouver. Or will the bus from domestic to international terminal result in a complaint just on Sydney’s behalf?

Transfer - do your research and fly into Vancouver (but then you’ll complain about bus in Sydney) or Atlanta (then you’ll complain about time on 2 long flights going via Middle East.....and again bus in Dubai ir via there)

Busy - 90% of flights Australia to America land in the morning rush, San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles. Everywhere will be this. This is not a lax issue, this is a wcerevival issues from ignorant planning.

I’m just thinking of where I’ve been
Airports which are easily worse to be in
Havana
Cancun
Santiago de cuba
Santorini

Honestly. What your complaints are make it obvious you either
1) complain about everything
2) ignorant in travel or raw to it
Or
3) got caught on a bad day or bad time

I would’ve recommended flying into Canada via Sydney. Sure, may have added a small flight if in Brisbane or Melbourne, but you cut out us immigration, and make the transfer from international to domestic simpler.
 
Mr X said:
LAX is in the process of upgrading terminal by terminal, and it is significantly better than it was 10+ years ago. But, it is like large parts of LA itself, rundown, dated and shabby.

My biggest complaint from passing through recently was the "automated" customs. it seemed that the automated system rejected 3/4 of the people that did it, which forced you into a smaller and tighter queue for less customs officers to manually do it. Longer wait than with no automated system, they have to get that sorted out.
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Weird, I went through them in Houston and zero issue. Jumped 95% of the line too as only a select few nationalities back then (feb 2017) were allowed to use them (advantage of flying adelaide-Doha-Houston.... curse wanting oneworld points and booking drunk. Sober me would’ve done adelaide-Auckland-Houston - airfare via Doha was sale so earnt no points. Ah well. Learn from mistakes.)
 
Dirty Bird said:
Plane to airport issue - guess you havnt flow to Dubai?

Anal process of American customs - you get that everywhere.

Transfer - again, you get that at just about all points of entry’s into the USA. Maybe you should’ve gone the long way into Atlanta?

Busy - unless you were smart enough to take qf55 Brisbane Into Los Angeles, qf73 Sydney into San Francisco or qf7 Sydney to dallas, you were landing in the morning rush no matter what flight you took. Could’ve gone San Francisco or Houston and same issue.

Plane to airport issue - makes its a curse and an asset. I’m willing to bet if you landed at a gate the new complaint would be waiting for luggage. Catch 22 (have you heard what they did in Houston? Biggest complaint was wait time for bags. Solution? Move them further away from the gates, so you spend more time walking and less time waiting. Less complaints)

Anal process of customs - could’ve just flown via Sydney and go into Vancouver. Or will the bus from domestic to international terminal result in a complaint just on Sydney’s behalf?

Transfer - do your research and fly into Vancouver (but then you’ll complain about bus in Sydney) or Atlanta (then you’ll complain about time on 2 long flights going via Middle East.....and again bus in Dubai ir via there)

Busy - 90% of flights Australia to America land in the morning rush, San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles. Everywhere will be this. This is not a lax issue, this is a wcerevival issues from ignorant planning.

I’m just thinking of where I’ve been
Airports which are easily worse to be in
Havana
Cancun
Santiago de cuba
Santorini

Honestly. What your complaints are make it obvious you either
1) complain about everything
2) ignorant in travel or raw to it
Or
3) got caught on a bad day or bad time

I would’ve recommended flying into Canada via Sydney. Sure, may have added a small flight if in Brisbane or Melbourne, but you cut out us immigration, and make the transfer from international to domestic simpler.
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Obviously touched a nerve there. If you do a bit of research LAX has a bad rep so it isn't just me. I've been to many airports with out issue.
 
milhouse1 said:
Yeah agree, it's not really a hot take to say that passing through LAX can be a fairly unpleasant experience.
Click to expand...

I know some Americans that even avoid LAX when they go back into America.

I usually go through customs in Hawaii but last year I had to go through LAX from Tokyo and the customs officer was very intrigued on how I could afford 3 weeks in America.
 
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