Yeah, definitely come to Chicago. There are a lot of us MR members here, and we like to take care of out-of-town guests. We'll show you around and make sure you find fun things to do.
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Starting to plan a trip round the US. Advice greatly appreciated.
- Thread starter timmyb
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Heh - if the OP is up for meeting people from MR, I don't think he'll have to buy a beer anywhere he goes.
Heh - if the OP is up for meeting people from MR, I don't think he'll have to buy a beer anywhere he goes.
That's true!
Lemme clear up something..
As a resident of the city, I mentioned Las Vegas not because of it being a tourist trap (because it is).. I mentioned it because of it being a major launching pad to various places in the southwest. Like I mentioned before, you're 30 minutes by puddlehopper or helicopter to the Grand Canyon, an hour's drive from Route 66 (a HUGE piece of Americana), the Valley of Fire, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon Nat'l park, Sedona, Jushua Tree Nat'l Forest, and an hour's flight to just about every desert southwest place you'd ever want to go; and you can get there directly from Vegas, not to mention get to Vegas directly.
If anything, the best thing you can do in Las Vegas, is eat cheaply.
BL.
As a resident of the city, I mentioned Las Vegas not because of it being a tourist trap (because it is).. I mentioned it because of it being a major launching pad to various places in the southwest. Like I mentioned before, you're 30 minutes by puddlehopper or helicopter to the Grand Canyon, an hour's drive from Route 66 (a HUGE piece of Americana), the Valley of Fire, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon Nat'l park, Sedona, Jushua Tree Nat'l Forest, and an hour's flight to just about every desert southwest place you'd ever want to go; and you can get there directly from Vegas, not to mention get to Vegas directly.
If anything, the best thing you can do in Las Vegas, is eat cheaply.
BL.
From my traveling experiences in Europe, I've really enjoyed sticking around in cities more than trying to see it all...so my advice would be to pick a limited number of places you'd like to see in depth and stay in those places for a decent period of time. Trying to hop city to city and see 10000 different things will only leave you exhausted and penniless (there's no equivalent to Ryanair with £0.00+tax tickets).
Unfortunately America is not very friendly to people without cars...you can get around but not nearly as easily as in Europe and you are much more confined to city centers. The city centers are, generally speaking aside from a few cities, less concentrated and developed than European cities, as americans love to live in suburbs.
The problem you run into there is that the best cities to stay in are also the most expensive. Spending a week in New York as a 20-something will blow not only your mind but also wallet if you're not careful.
April is a rather messy month in the north...it'll be drizzly and cold, maybe with some nasty spring snow, so if you're there in the springtime you might do best staying south (which would also be considerably more of an eye opening experience culturally).
As for meeting people....I'm not sure how it is in the states really but in traveling Europe I've met tons of really cool people from all over the world staying in hostels.
Unfortunately America is not very friendly to people without cars...you can get around but not nearly as easily as in Europe and you are much more confined to city centers. The city centers are, generally speaking aside from a few cities, less concentrated and developed than European cities, as americans love to live in suburbs.
The problem you run into there is that the best cities to stay in are also the most expensive. Spending a week in New York as a 20-something will blow not only your mind but also wallet if you're not careful.
April is a rather messy month in the north...it'll be drizzly and cold, maybe with some nasty spring snow, so if you're there in the springtime you might do best staying south (which would also be considerably more of an eye opening experience culturally).
As for meeting people....I'm not sure how it is in the states really but in traveling Europe I've met tons of really cool people from all over the world staying in hostels.
Never say never: Ryanair has recently announced their intended expansion into North America. Scary, eh?
*hides from Michael O'Leary and friends*
Never say never: Ryanair has recently announced their intended expansion into North America. Scary, eh?
*hides from Michael O'Leary and friends*
I read about this.. $13USD flights..
If they want to see how a real LCC is run, Southwest is going to run circles around them.
BL.
I think the Rockies get more snow in April than the UK does all winter.
I think the Rockies get more snow in July than we do all winter.
timmyb said:
You shouldn't have a problem renting even if you're under 25, all of the major hire companies should provide a motor to us foreigners.
The surcharge doesn't necessarily tell the whole story either, it's perfectly possible to get an upgrade, for the cost of a cheaper car, which can offset some of the surcharge.
You actually want a Mustang, but you request a car in the class below, you negotiate from there, that's what I did anyway. I say don't plan too vigorously... when I went driving in the U.S. I bought a ticket to San-Francisco, with a return from Seattle a couple of weeks later, and that's it. I didn't prebook any hotels, nor a car, I just turned up in San-Francisco and went from there...
Haha, now there's an idea!Heh - if the OP is up for meeting people from MR, I don't think he'll have to buy a beer anywhere he goes.
Once again thanks for all the advice - it's fantastic. However it does have a downside of making me want to go everywhere! There'll be some tricky decisions to make down the line, (I can't do anything at the moment as am waiting to hear on a job up until april that will contribute significantly to the funding.)
I had a look at Contiki tours but they look pretty pricey and seem to involve spending a lot of time on a bus - 26 days to go from LA to NY!
However they look good for shorter trips getting around less accessible areas such as the Grand Canyon.I'm leaning towards the suggestions of picking 5-6 areas and spending a week or so in each, moving between them using the air pass, (though the downside of this is having to book all the legs at the same time before I set off.) Grand Canyon area will be one; Yosemite/Yellowstone another (which is better, or is that like picking which of your children you prefer?!); SF a third (I have some family there so the accomm would be free); then 2-3 more - perhaps between NYC (I was 12 when I went there before), Tennessee/Kentucky, New Orleans, a more rural area or Chicago. I'll look at renting a car to get around the more rural areas.
Is there a good website for hostels across the US or do there tend to be more state/city specific? Would be good to get an idea of prices so I can start to budget, be horrified by the amount and work extra hard to earn it!
How do visits to the National Parks 'work'? Getting there; accommodation (I won't be lugging my own tent/sleeping bag around with me) etc.
If you want to go with the flow, you can try the rideshare section of craigslist.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/rid/
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/rid/
I've used hostelworld for booking in Europe with good results...they also do bookings for the US as well:
http://www.hostelworld.com/
I haven't spent any time in Yellowstone, but Yosemite is pretty awesome. I can't imagine you'd go wrong whichever way you choose.
In the case of Yosemite - you don't have to camp there. There are plenty of places to stay in the valley. The closest airport with airline service is Fresno, and it's about a two hour drive from there. If you're going to spend any time in California anyway, I'd probably just drive the rental car there. It's not a bad drive from either the Bay Area or Los Angeles.