Am I mad

Tefral

Having never been to America im mad to go. Say I have a month off.

Mon 15th of Feb - Sat/Sun 12th/13th March.

Was looking at:

• Dublin to New York (4 days)
• New York to Dominican Republic (6/7 Days)
• Dominican Republic to New Orleans (2 Days)
• New Orleans to Vegas (4 Days)
• Vegas to San Francisco (4 Days)
• San Francisco to Dublin

That gives me three weeks above, so could spend more days somewhere else or spread out the days in between.

Is it too much travelling or has anyone any other ideas?

coylemj

Not a bad itinerary, I'd plan on very little physical activity for the first couple of days in the Dominican Republic because you will be knackered after all the walking that a four day trip to NYC will involve. Consider hiring a car in SF to drive across the Golden Gate bridge and to go north to the vineyards and the redwood forests but be aware that parking in the city is very difficult so if at all possible, get a hotel with guest parking, otherwise you may have to park the car a long distance from the hotel.

When you enter the US (probably via pre-clearance in Dublin or Shannon), you will get an entry permit stamped in your passport, most likely for 90 days. That clock will keep running when you go to the Caribbean and you will be allowed back into the US under the original travel permit. I'm telling you that just in case you think that you'll have to somehow apply for two visas for the US, or that the ESTA approval will expire the minute you leave for the DR.

iusedtoknow

coylemj wrote: »

Consider hiring a car in SF to drive across the Golden Gate bridge and to go north to the vineyards and the redwood forests but be aware that parking in the city is very difficult so if at all possible, get a hotel with guest parking, otherwise you may have to park the car a long distance from the hotel.

Agreed, just take the car for a day or two (if you plan on staying in Napa area) as parking in the city, and in the hotels is madness. The bridge is worth driving over as long as the fog isn't in..

Tefral

coylemj wrote: »

Not a bad itinerary, I'd plan on very little physical activity for the first couple of days in the Dominican Republic because you will be knackered after all the walking that a four day trip to NYC will involve. Consider hiring a car in SF to drive across the Golden Gate bridge and to go north to the vineyards and the redwood forests but be aware that parking in the city is very difficult so if at all possible, get a hotel with guest parking, otherwise you may have to park the car a long distance from the hotel.

When you enter the US (probably via pre-clearance in Dublin or Shannon), you will get an entry permit stamped in your passport, most likely for 90 days. That clock will keep running when you go to the Caribbean and you will be allowed back into the US under the original travel permit. I'm telling you that just in case you think that you'll have to somehow apply for two visas for the US, or that the ESTA approval will expire the minute you leave for the DR.

Thats brilliant thanks for the reply. I never thought of the car hire outside of San Fran. I just threw the google car on the road and it looks alot of just straight highways, am i missing something?

Thats great to know about the travel permit also!

Yakkyda

cronin_j wrote: »

Thats brilliant thanks for the reply. I never thought of the car hire outside of San Fran. I just threw the google car on the road and it looks alot of just straight highways, am i missing something?

Thats great to know about the travel permit also!

The pch (Pacific Coast highway) is in that area I think, 650 miles of coastal driving, rated very highly I believe. supposedly worth it.

Tefral

Yakkyda wrote: »

The pch (Pacific Coast highway) is in that area I think, 650 miles of coastal driving, rated very highly I believe. supposedly worth it.

Its showing as route 101 on google maps, im assuming thats what ye are referring to?

Mars Bar

cronin_j wrote: »

Its showing as route 101 on google maps, im assuming thats what ye are referring to?

They are the same, yes.

iusedtoknow

Mars Bar wrote: »

They are the same, yes.

correction...

...it's the 1 that is the PCH (it goes onto 101 3/4 of the way through for a bit...)

https://goo.gl/maps/Jy2BwixRkk12

orchidsrpretty

I'd reconsider spenting 4 days in vegas unless your planning on grand canyon and hoover dam..The noise of slots will drive you mad!

tricky D

Careful there. They aren't quite the same. The 101 only shares parts of its route with PCH/HWY1. Eg. the 101 misses places like Monterrey and Big Sur, merges for a while, then splits again missing Lompoc/Vandenburg.

Tefral

This is great info!! really appreciate it. If you have any more ideas let me know.

may look at my time spent in vegas alright. few people have told me 3 days is plenty

Sounds like a crazy plan to me, but sometimes they're the ones that work out the best!

Agree with the advice above that 4 days is a lot for Vegas.
If you could live without Vegas and get a one way car rental then the route from San Diego to LA (just the beach communities of Venice - Santa Monica - Malibu) then on through Big Sur/Monterey/Santa Cruz to San Francisco is spectacular.

I'd maybe add Miami Beach/Florida Keys instead of New Orleans after NY and before Dominican Republic. Just because New Orleans is fab, but a lot of the interesting unique parts can all be seen in a day and the real charm of the city for me is the food and music and nightlife. Can be a bit hit or miss unless you're travelling with people. Miami Beach really has a different fun flavour!.

There is really just soooo much to see in the US. Not even touched on half of it this trip! Happy trails

Mars Bar

iusedtoknow wrote: »

correction...

...it's the 1 that is the PCH (it goes onto 101 3/4 of the way through for a bit...)

https://goo.gl/maps/Jy2BwixRkk12

tricky D wrote: »

Careful there. They aren't quite the same. The 101 only shares parts of its route with PCH/HWY1. Eg. the 101 misses places like Monterrey and Big Sur, merges for a while, then splits again missing Lompoc/Vandenburg.

Thanks for correcting me!

ProudDUB

Doesn't sound crazy at all. Go for it ! If it were me, I'd give the Dominican Republic a miss. If you want a slice of Caribbean sun and sand, there are much nicer places to go. But maybe you have reasons for wanting to go there in particular, so if you do, go for it. You don't give much idea of what you want out of a holiday, or what you enjoy doing. So its hard to say over all, if the amount of time spent in each city is adequate.

Dave1442397

I agree with ProudDUB on skipping the DR. If you're looking more for scenery, snorkeling and diving rather than clubs and fast food, take a look at St. John, USVI, which is a US territory, meaning your visa is good there too. You fly into St. Thomas and take a ferry to St. John. You could also stay on St. Thomas if you want more of the nightlife scene.

This is the where the ferry docks - http://www.stjohnspice.com/spicecam/

A nice tour of the islands - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF6fAoD74Zk

If you're looking for places to stay on St. John, The Westin is nice, but pricey. For a good deal, check out this site - http://www.stjohncondos.com/

We rent out timeshare thru them and while the full price for this week is $1900, you can negotiate a lower rate if you call/email them, especially if the week is coming up soon and hasn't been rented yet. www.vrbo.com is another good place to look if you want a private villa/home on the island.

Tefral

I'm open to suggestions. Mad to go to the carribean for a bit of relaxation and luxury with the missus so that's why I thought it might go well in the middle. I am also open to doing the same in reverse.

If you all have different thoughts I'm well open to hearing it. My last big holiday to Thailand boards ies recommended loads of things and I had a phenomenal time so I love hearing opinions from ye learned folk

ProudDUB

The only thing that I would considering doing, is maybe whittling down the trip a bit. Think of the travel logistics & distances involved for a sec & not how brilliant it would be to visit all of these spots.

The way it stands now, you lose 6 whole days out of your month traveling between destinations. It's 7 if you factor in San Francisco to Dublin being an overnight flight.

Travel Day 1 - Dublin to New York
Travel Day 2 - New York to Dominican Republic
Travel Day 3 - Dominican Republic to New Orleans
Travel Day 4 - New Orleans to Vegas
Travel Day 5 - Vegas to San Francisco
Travel Days 6 & 7 San Francisco to Dublin

That is 1/4 of your total holiday time, spent getting from A to B & not enjoying yourself doing actual holiday stuff. Granted, some of the flights would be shorter than others. If you plan your itinerary very carefully, you could get some early morning flights and be laying by the pool, by mid afternoon. But traveling is a tiring business. In my experience of hanging around hotels, waiting on airport shuttles, killing time in airports, the flights themselves, more time in airports, more time waiting on shuttles and taxis etc etc, you can write off any day you spend doing that, as pretty much a waste of a holiday day.

Do you really want to spend a quarter of your holiday just shuttling between airports and cities & not much else?

Tefral

ProudDUB wrote: »

The only thing that I would considering doing, is maybe whittling down the trip a bit. Think of the travel logistics & distances involved for a sec & not how brilliant it would be to visit all of these spots.

Do you really want to spend a quarter of your holiday just shuttling between airports and cities & not much else?

Yeah see I understand that especially different time zones also.

One of the biggest issues is getting in and out. Most of the flights centre around airports like jfk so while in landing there I'd nearly prefer to get out for a day or so to look around.

I could cut out New York altogether and fly to San Fran. But where would I fly home from?

ProudDUB

You can fly home from where ever you want. If you are flying home from an international port city (NY, SF, Vegas, LA etc etc) they will have direct flights to Ireland and/or the UK. If you don't, you'll probably have to get a connecting flight home, via Chicago or Denver, or Dallas or where ever. That's no big deal. Don't let your initial outbound flight and your flight home, dictate the rest of your trip, unless there are specific cities that you want to visit both going & coming. Worry about how you will spend your time on the other 28 days.

TeaBagMania

Not sure exactly what you’re looking for but if it was I…

Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Florida, Cuba. Forget those third world S***h****

Dublin to JFK, JFK to Salt Lake City (awesome ski resorts)

SLC to LAX, rent a corvette and drive from LAX to SanFran via PCH

If time and money permit fly from Cali to Honolulu. Maui or the Big Island are great.

Big Island rent a jeep and drive up to Mauna Kea, tour the observatories and if you’re lucky it’ll be snowing up there. Drive back to beach and enjoy the sunny weather

Honolulu to Dublin

sashafierce

This post has been deleted.

Uno my Uno.

The biggest issue I can see is that you may have underestimated some of the distances involved, the DR is in the region of 2000 miles from NYC and the same again to New Orleans, that's a whole other long haul trip in the middle of your tour.

There are plenty of places in Florida or the Louisiana coast that would be on your way and provide all the R&R you want.

Tefral

Yeah, It looks like we are going to go to Las Vegas directly spend a few days there, head to San Franciso and use that as a base to go to redwood forest area like mentioned previously. Then fly from San Fran to Hawaii for a week and fly back and stop in new york for three days before onwards to ireland.

Bearing the above in mind, can you learned folks give me some ideas on what would be cool to see aside from the things that are obvious like grand canyon, alcatraz, statue of liberty etc.

Kankan14

I did the helicopter ride over the grand canyon with the missus brought us right back in over the strip. The rest of day one was spent at a cirque du soleil show(a must imo).
The second day we just did some casino gambling just for novelty sake saw the bellagio and caesars and left it at that. Vegas itself is done in two days unless you are into poker in or casino games the whole thing is much of a muchness.