Amerian Trip

TheBigEvil

Was thinking of going to New York later this year (Sep/Oct/Nov) time. But looking at costs for 5 days you looking at the guts of€2,500 for flights and accommodation for two.

I was wondering if there was a better alternative, mainly better value, than spending 5 days in New York, but going for maybe two weeks somewhere else in the US.

Has anyone done anything like this, i.e. maybe visited a few places or spent a couple of weeks in the US (other than Orlando, will do that another time )

Just looking to get ideas really, of things people may have done elsewhere in the US.

Cheers in advance!

Tom Dunne

Boston tends to be cheaper, both to get to and to stay in. And the flight is that bit shorter.

I'm going there in December with Mrs. Dunne for a shopping....eh, sorry, sightseeing trip.

2rs

TheBigEvil wrote:

Has anyone done anything like this, i.e. maybe visited a few places or spent a couple of weeks in the US (other than Orlando, will do that another time )

This is what I did last September over a period of 3 weeks;
Flew into LA ... and got the hell straight outa there and flew to Vegas. Spent 2 nights there and flew on up to Reno (nothing special there).
Hired a car in Reno and drove to Lake Tahoe via Virginia City(cool place - old western town that still has the wooden sidewalks like in the cowboy films)where we spent a couple of days. Drove from there over to San Fran where we spent 3 more days.
Drove from San Fran all the way up to Oregan (10 hour drive) for another 2 days before going further up again to Seattle for another couple of days - Seattle is one of the best US cities I have been in.
Flew from Seattle to Chicago and spent 4 days there before flying to NY for another 2 days and then training it up to Boston for the last couple of days.

The US is easy to get around, but we had this trip planned a couple of months in advance. Consult the "what to do in" websites and you will have plenty of help

TheBigEvil

Thanks for the replies so far guys!

hot fuss

Just back from a fab road trip on the west coast of the US. Flew into San Fran for a few days, went to the wine region above it (Sonoma Valley), went to Yosemite National Park for a few days (absolutely amazing). From there to Monterey on the coast, Big Sur (another class place) and onto LA for a few days. Then drove to Vegas, from where we saw the Grand Canyon, and flew from Vegas to San Diego for some beach time.

California is really beautiful and a great place to travel around. you have a great mix between cities and natural beauty. Not the cheapest place in the world to travel though, but of course cheaper than Ireland..

dave2pvd

Some great suggestions. Certainly a lot more interesting than Orlando, the Killarney of America.

The West coast is wonderful. The Southwest of the US is even more amazing. Few Irish travelers ever even think to go there.

With $2,500, you could travel far and wide to places like Santa Fe, Death Valley, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Zion NP, Painted Desert, Bryce Canyon,.....and maybe then on to travel the mountain passes in Colorado.

San Francisco is an excellent starting point. Due East of Yosemite.

TheBigEvil

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I'll have to get planning this trip so.

Just one last Q. Did you guys book all of the stuff yourselves or did you use an operator for even some of it?

Any useful web link would be appreciated.

Cheers

iMax

Book your hotels via priceline - you'll save up to 70% the only drawback being you won't actually get to choose your hotel, but you can nominate the area you want to stay in, the class of hotel (always pick minimum 4 star) & the price you want to pay (price is per room, not person), start low & go up by $10 increments.

dixiefly

It depends on the time that you go, what you want out of it and how much time that you have as well as how much dosh of course.
I'll tell you what we did....
in 2001, myself, my wife, 2 children (8&4) (left the youngest behind) & my parents went to Chicago for 1 week around this time, was there for Taste Of Chicago, July 4th etc etc. Great city in many many ways. Took a train from Chicago to Grand Junction Colorado, then drove down through Canyonlands NP, Arches NP, Monument Valley, Lake Powell to Grand Canyon North Rim and back via Bryce Canyon to Grand Junction and then back on the train to Chicago - that trip was another week.
Awesome stuff. Amtrak was pretty cool, I got some great help on the web regarding the train trip and what to look out for. Denver to Grand Junction had great scenery. Train was a bit pricey, however we were given our money back on the return trip because the airconditioning was not working in the accomodation section - we didnt even complain! I am sorry to say that Amtrak is not getting the funding that it deserves - wonder why??