First trip to USA - ideas and advice

adocholiday

Hello all,

Myself and the OH have decided to go on a 2-3 week trip to the US this summer/Autumn. A final splurge of cash before we grow up

With neither of us having been to the US before, we would love to take in as much as possible, but obviously within reason. What I was thinking we could do is something like 5 days in New York, then fly to the West coast and do San Fran/Vegas/Yosemite or something like that and fly back to Dublin from there. There are obviously loads more options (wouldn't mind taking a trip to Miami either and flying home from Orlando, but that's adding additional flights/cost). Anyway my questions to you guys are:

1. What kind of trips have you done/would you suggest in that timeframe?
2. Realistically how much money could we expect to spend on the trip and then need with us? I know that this is subjective really but say on average? Ballpark figure would be fine.
3. Should we use a travel agent or is it better to book all individually?

I'm sorry if this is a bit of a daft post, but with neither of us having any experience of travelling in the US I would appreciate some feedback.

Thanks in advance!

keith16

Read as much as you can about the country. There is a lot more to it than the big cities / lights.

I haven't done any trips like that in the US, but pick a starting point, an end point.

It seems like you want to go coast to coast - think about the flight home - do you want a 12 hr flight from San Fran to Dub? You could of course put the longer flight at the start of the holiday.

My advice is to do plenty of research: you could travel along route 66, do road trips down the West coast taking in San Fran, San Diego, L.A. etc.

Work out what you want to see, and work the logistics around that. Personally, I would book everything myself, but that's just a preference, you may find cheaper / tourist packages where everything is worked out for you.

tricky D

There's been quite a few threads in the last month or two over on the US forum with loads of info and suggestions.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=917

Taxburden carrier

Go to Canada instead !

ncmc

I think New York followed by the West coast is doable in 2-3 weeks. We did the West Coast in 2008, we had 16 nights, we did LA (3) Grand Canyon (2) Las Vegas (5) Yosemite (2) San Fran (4) In hindsight, I would have spent less time in Vegas and added a night to Yosemite. There was a lot of driving involved, but for us, the driving was part of the trip and we had an amazing time. I think we had a nice mix of city and natural beauty.

If you like the look of New York and want to cut down the flight time, what about New York/Boston/New England? We did Boston/Maine/New Hampshire in 2011 and it was absolutely amazing. I personally preferred it to the West Coast as I loved the New England way of life and all the lovely seaside towns. Boston is my favourite city in the US and the White Mountains in New Hampshire are amazing. We only had 14 nights for that trip, but with the extra week, you could easily add New York and maybe Vermont/Conneticut too. There’s a lot less driving involved in that trip too as the distances are less vast.

This year we did the Rocky Mountains/Grand Tetons/Yellowstone and it was our best trip to date. But that was very much a natural beauty type of trip, not much in the way of shopping or nightlife.

I would leave Orlando/Miami for another trip. Don’t get me wrong, I love Orlando, have been there three times, but to me, It doesn’t have as much to offer in the way of history or beauty.

As for travel agent versus booking yourself, I would book myself every time, I think it works out significantly cheaper, although it does take a lot of time and research. I think it’s hard to put a price on it. If you were happy to stay in roadside motels, you could probably get away with spending $50 per night, you could spend anything inbetween up to $500! New York will be your most expensive spot, I think you would be talking $200 per night. I would normally get nice enough places for €100 per night – middle of the road places. I would normally budget $150 per day for food/spends. You would have to increase that if you were driving a lot though, gas is cheap, but slowly getting more expensive.

spank_inferno

Consider Chicago also.
Many prefer it to NYC.
(Though being your first trip its hard to resist New York).

Agreed with previous, leave Florida aside.... What with its theme parks its a place that's too easy to spend money in.

3 nights tops would be fine for Vegas.

Consider a west coast driving holiday along the Californian coast.
Driving is pretty easy in America IMO & petrol cheaper than it has been for some time (approx €0.60 per litre).... Once outside a city, the car is the only way to go.

hedgehog2

If it was my itinerary I would do 3 days new york then head into the mid west wyoming,salt lake city or many places in Idaho,some stunning scenery to see and nature activities.
7 days here followed by 10 days on the west coast.
Rent a car and head up the north west coast from San Diego to San Francisco.
I would forget vegas,its more of a lads holiday unless your both keen on gambling.
Its the nature and the people what make America special for me,it is so diverse and so much to see.
Stay in motels/cabins along the way and in New York you can get decent deals on hotels.
Expect to drop 3 grand each and you will be doing well.
Its not excessively cheap but with a heavy itinerary it adds up.
Lucky you

naughtysmurf

If it was me I would also strongly consider an East coast road trip, maybe starting in Boston for a few days, head down to Cape Cod for a couple of nights, onwards then to New York, then on to Philadelphia and onwards to Washington DC & home from there

Plenty to do & see in all those destinations and the driving between them all would be easy enough, no huge distances

I'll do the above someday soon, been to them all individually but would love the road trip

pfflyernc

How wonderful that you can do this! I have a few thoughts:

• You'll need a car to get anywhere outside the largest cities, and even within some of them. In NY, at least, I'd go for a MetroCard, which will get you onto all the buses and subways.
  
• The drive along the California coast is among the most spectacular in the world, it's true, but I'd suggest you get comfortable driving in the U.S. before you attempt it. It can get a little interesting in places.
• I agree with the others to skip Florida, especially in the summer. The weather can be brutal.
• You can find many hotels in NYC for under $200/day, and even some for less than $100/day. Here's a list of some of them--I can vouch for #11, #12, and #19. Try to get one in Midtown if possible--it'll be a nice, centrally located base for you. What will be expensive is dining out, unless you stick with diners and street vendors.

Good luck!

Winterbread

Hey guys, I hope you don't mind if i slightly "highjack" this thread. Me and my husband are going on a vacation to the US this April. We wanted to visit Las Vegas, New York and maybe some other cities. I have a few questions:

1. Hotels. We need cheap hotels. Our friends suggested well known websites such as ebookers.com or http://las-vegas.hotelscheap.org/, but we really want some more websites to choose form. Or maybe if you know any hotels in Vegas and New York that are especially affordable?

2. What should we see? I mean the main attractions are clear to everyone, but do you know any hidden gems that are a MUST SEE for everyone?

3. Cuisine. We want the US experience. Here in Europe there is a general stereotype that America is Burgers and Bacon. I am sure that this is not true. What do you recommend? Where and what should we eat?

Sorry again for taking over the thread, but I didn't want to open a new one, only for this. Merry christmas everyone and have a happy New Year's Eve!

Ponster

Winterbread wrote: »

Sorry again for taking over the thread, but I didn't want to open a new one, only for this

Your questions could take pages and pagers to answer properly. I think that you'll need your own thread

If it's your first time to the US then forget about the hidden gems. Each place has enough stuff up front and in the open to keep you busy for weeks.

NYC will always be expensive for hotels. Yes, there are cheap ones but you'll spend 30 minutes going to and from Manhattan. Is this something that you want to do ?

Hotels in Vegas are dirt cheap IMO compared to a lot of other cities. Any site like ebookers or Kayak will give you pretty honest prices. Ballys or Monte Carlo are mid-Strip and affordable.

tricky D

Winterbread wrote: »

1. Hotels. We need cheap hotels. Our friends suggested well known websites such as ebookers.com or http://las-vegas.hotelscheap.org/, but we really want some more websites to choose form. Or maybe if you know any hotels in Vegas and New York that are especially affordable?

2. What should we see? I mean the main attractions are clear to everyone, but do you know any hidden gems that are a MUST SEE for everyone?

3. Cuisine. We want the US experience. Here in Europe there is a general stereotype that America is Burgers and Bacon. I am sure that this is not true. What do you recommend? Where and what should we eat?

You should be able to get a good room in Vegas for around $40 a night though there might be some tax too. Harrahs have their Deluxe rooms which are the bottom end but very nice nevertheless at $41 per night in April. I stayed in one just a few months ago and they are good.

In Vegas, the Bellagio fountains do multiple different shows and if you choose to afford it a heli tour over the Grand Canyon is $250 or $300 for a guaranteed front seat, well, well worth it imo, trip of a lifetime thing.

Check the United States forum under Region>Abroad too for more on both these locations, there's shedloads of pointers.

keithclancy

I would either do a Fly Drive from East Coast to West Coast

If your very flexible you could drive for a car movers, essentially almost free transport, you move the car for them in a certain amount of days:

E.G.
http://www.autodriveaway.com/driver

Or do a mileage run internally and get as good few spots in.

Have a look here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

and here for hotel deals:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel-deals-607/

clairefontaine

IF you are going in the fall, I'd do the northeast or the southwest.

It's a huge country, you wont cover everything. To give you perspective, Ireland is the same size as West Virginia.

obplayer

clairefontaine wrote: »

IF you are going in the fall, I'd do the northeast or the southwest.

It's a huge country, you wont cover everything. To give you perspective, Ireland is the same size as West Virginia.

Indeed, Ireland is smaller than Lake Michigan. My highlight of America was the Grand Canyon, a drive from there to see the Hoover Dam and on to Las Vegas for one night. Las Vegas was worth seeing but one night was enough. The Grand Canyon is just ...... oh my!!!