First time to the US - comments on itinerary

[amaroo]

Nice itinerary. LA is a great place to visit .... excluding theme parks (no interest for me)

For those two nights in NY I’d recommend Firmdale Hotels - New York - Crosby Street Hotel

If you hit the link below Planes, Train....
you might see something that interests you.

 

[rock86]

Nice itinerary. LA is a great place to visit .... excluding theme parks (no interest for me)

For those two nights in NY I’d recommend Firmdale Hotels - New York - Crosby Street Hotel

If you hit the link below Planes, Train....
you might see something that interests you.

Thanks for that Amaroo.

I've followed a few or your TR's and trawled through your US ones a couple of times now. From all of your TR's I've seen you most certainly know your food and so have a few on my list to visit which I've seen in your TR's!!

One that seems to get mentioned quite a bit around here for NYC is Balthazar, so that looks to be a definite when we're there - probably something I should get the hotel concierges at St Regis to book??

 

[amaroo]

Thanks for that Amaroo.

I've followed a few or your TR's and trawled through your US ones a couple of times now. From all of your TR's I've seen you most certainly know your food and so have a few on my list to visit which I've seen in your TR's!!

One that seems to get mentioned quite a bit around here for NYC is Balthazar, so that looks to be a definite when we're there - probably something I should get the hotel concierges at St Regis to book??

I'd definitely get the hotel to book Balthazar. Fabulous restaurant - enjoy!

 

[rock86]

Do many on here who visit LA use Downtown ever as a base? I'm leaning towards staying at the InterContinental LA Downtown or the Sheraton Grand LA - mainly due to the very close proximity to Metro Lines but also there looks to be a lot of good food choices fairly close by also.

In saying the above maybe I'm looking at it all wrong, so is staying in Downtown silly?

 

[cove]

We would suggest you stay by the coast when you are in Los Angeles. It will be winter but that tends to be mild. The Metro is easy to run from Santa Monica into the city and that ride is simple and smooth. We take the Big Blue Bus from Marina del Rey to Santa Monica and that is easy.
If you want to go to shows in New York look up the Tony Awards so you get the best ones. We stay at the Marriott Marquis mainly due to the proximity to the theatres. The queue for Hamilton is just outside the hotel door. There could be snow in NYC so being close to locations is a great idea.

 

[clipped_wings]

I personally don't see Downtown as a great core hub to reside in. It's an horrendous trap of traffic, regardless of what mode of transport you are considering. It has very little to offer from a cultural perspective, as it's just the commercial district.

Santa Monica is an excellent option, and it is relatively accessible to most other major spots around LA IMHO.

 

[rock86]

Thanks for the input.

Well, might have to reassess and look at cancelling the IC Downtown booking

 

[cove]

You can always use Uber or Lyft as well as the Metro and the bus service to get to places around Los Angeles.
I just looked up the current price for rooms at Loews at Santa Monica and they are pretty hexy and the Shutters price was worse.
I always found the middle of Los Angeles to be less of what I wanted.
Currently our neighbours are doing Los Angeles using buses and the Metro and it is going well.

 

[aggie57]

DTLA is not a popular option as a base unless you're wanting to be close to places like the Staples Center or the Convention Center. The Metro is expanding but public transport in general is not a popular option for getting around, the place is still geared around the car. If you'd rather not drive then just use Uber / Lyft.

 

[kookaburra75]

You can always use Uber or Lyft as well as the Metro and the bus service to get to places around Los Angeles.
I just looked up the current price for rooms at Loews at Santa Monica and they are pretty hexy and the Shutters price was worse.
I always found the middle of Los Angeles to be less of what I wanted.
Currently our neighbours are doing Los Angeles using buses and the Metro and it is going well.

We found the same when we looked at staying at Santa Monica, and in the past have stayed over at West Hollywood and used the buses to get around, which are quick and cheap. The buses run along Santa Monica and Willshire Bvlds which gets you through some of the 'classic' areas.

 

[clipped_wings]

I love the Tilt (Choice Hotels) at Universal Studios. It's a very basic hotel that offers nothing special, but nice clean rooms and comfy sheets. The decor is hilarious - they renovated some years ago and tried to do the Hollywood glam thing. But it failed miserably and the poor workmanship created a garish but adorable clash of red/black and grey psychedelics. I love it because you can walk to Universal, catch a quick Uber to Hollywood, or jump on the freeway to Santa Monica or the Hills.
Staff are hit and miss and the pool is nothing more than a bowl of water. But it's rates are pretty reasonable, especially closer to your stay date.

PS - if it hasn't been mentioned yet, I'd join a hotel chain loyalty program and gather points if you're planning to stay in the States for a while.

 

[UP4014]

I think I'd do a couple of less locations and spend more time in others. 3 days here and there with flights is going to be a drag. Flying in the US these days can take for ever regardless of the the actual flying time.

While some people have said Vegas doesn't need much time, there are some interesting things there to see. Including the Atomic Testing Museum and a drive on the Extraterrestrial Highway to Area 51 although admittedly not a lot can be seen there.

https://flic.kr/p/2gcnK8p

https://flic.kr/p/2gco5xL

https://flic.kr/p/2gco4BC

My visit there last months was LAX, hire a car and drove to Cheyenne WY, Ogden Utah, back via Moab Utah and Vegas to LA.

These days I prefer to fly to somewhere and hire a care for a couple of weeks then head home. If i want to do another city or area I make that a separate trip.

The purpose of my trip was to see the largest locomotive in the world running across Wyoming and back from Cheyenne.

https://flic.kr/p/2gcoPPk

 

[NoName]

I was originally planning to visit Yosemite, but it will more then likely be closed at that time from what I've seen.

Quite late to this thread and not sure if you have locked in an itinerary yet but will highly recommend Yosemite if you haven’t. It is a magical place. One of my favourite anywhere.

It won’t be closed at that time of year. What will almost certainly be closed is HW 120 from Crane Flat to Tioga Pass and Galcier Point Rd. Yosemite Valley will be open as will other parts of the park. You can still hike up the 4-mile trail to Glacier Point if you want to experience that incredible view.

See this website for historic closing dates for Tioga Rd & Glacier Pt Rd.

Tioga and Glacier Point Roads Opening & Closing Dates - Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

If you have a car in Vegas I would also recommend Death Valley National Park. It’s about 2 hours from Vegas to the closest park entrance. Another amazing place.

Have trip reports with both of these in the trip reports section.

 

[aggie57]

What this tells us is that there is a heck of a lot to see in the US, and in and around LA

 

[rock86]

What this tells us is that there is a heck of a lot to see in the US, and in and around LA

It certainly does!!

It's got me even thinking about dropping the short trip in Seattle, and I know there is a fair bit to see but the main thing I wanted to do there was a Boeing Factory Tour.

Quite late to this thread and not sure if you have locked in an itinerary yet but will highly recommend Yosemite if you haven’t. It is a magical place. One of my favourite anywhere.

It won’t be closed at that time of year. What will almost certainly be closed is HW 120 from Crane Flat to Tioga Pass and Galcier Point Rd. Yosemite Valley will be open as will other parts of the park. You can still hike up the 4-mile trail to Glacier Point if you want to experience that incredible view.

See this website for historic closing dates for Tioga Rd & Glacier Pt Rd.

Tioga and Glacier Point Roads Opening & Closing Dates - Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

If you have a car in Vegas I would also recommend Death Valley National Park. It’s about 2 hours from Vegas to the closest park entrance. Another amazing place.

Have trip reports with both of these in the trip reports section.

Followed your trip report, it was great!! Adding in Yosemite with what we've got at present isn't feasible as much as I'd love to do it this time, it'll probably be pencilled in for the next trip

 

[Hvr]

It's got me even thinking about dropping the short trip in Seattle, and I know there is a fair bit to see but the main thing I wanted to do there was a Boeing Factory Tour.

Book the tour early. They are very popular and often sell out. I'm sure you know that the factory is approximately 25 miles from downtown Seattle so consider how you'll get there as well.

https://www.boeing.com/company/tours/

 

[rock86]

Aaarrgh, seriously why bother...

So we decided to can LA with the view of getting back there in the next 2.5 years and taking visiting Disneyland with our boys at a good age - all good so far (well apart from the parents guilt starting to kick in and the trip is still a few months out!!).

Now SWMBO has decided she wants to visit New Orleans, but also wants to get to NYC on the Saturday evening (making it 8 nights/7 full days). What it means is that with the flight times from Vegas we'd literally have 1.5 days in NOLA, so why bother with such little time to explore I say, the reply "well let's just shave a day of San Fran then"....

 

[rock86]

So another update, which will be the last in regards to the itinerary (finally) - anything after this will be asking about activities/restaurants

So after QF released a fair few additional award seats in November (as cjd posted here QF Classic Award J F SYD-USA Nov/Oct wide open), both myself & Mrs Rock came to a compromise as having less then 2 days in some of the spots just wasn't enough IMO.

We changed our outbound flights from BNE-DXB-SEA in EK F and are now flying a day later BNE-LAX-SFO QF/AA J - blasphemy dropping from EK F to QF J I know Also unfortunately we have dropped Seattle, which I'm a little bummed about but it now gives us a minimum of 3 nights at each city after Mrs Rock added NOLA to the list. Our final itinerary is now as follows:

1. BNE-LAX-SFO (QF/AA J award): 4 nights
2. SFO-LAS (AS Y award): 3 nights
3. LAS-MSY (WN paid): 3 nights
4. MSY-NYC (not booked): 8 nights
5. EWR-DXB-MEL-BNE (EK F/QF J awards)

So overall (after now getting over dropping Seattle as a destination) I'm pretty happy with how it looks

 

[UP4014]

My personal view is too many cities in too short a time.

SF 4 nights would be fun, I stay in Union Square and love to walk and ride the MUNI, the F line even runs Melbourne Trams. the last cable car of the night back from the Gold Dust and Buena Vista bars to Union Square. The Buena Vista

3 night in Vegas is also good, there are plenty of shows and silly stuff to be seen. Take you sugar dose in the morning for all that walking energy for the strip.

New Orleans, I would have split those three nights over all the other places and made it and LA a separate trip.

NY, they don't call it the big apple for nothing. Plenty to do including jump a fast train to the Smithsonian in DC.

 

[Pushka]

My personal view is too many cities in too short a time.

SF 4 nights would be fun, I stay in Union Square and love to walk and ride the MUNI, the F line even runs Melbourne Trams. the last cable car of the night back from the Gold Dust and Buena Vista bars to Union Square. The Buena Vista

3 night in Vegas is also good, there are plenty of shows and silly stuff to be seen. Take you sugar dose in the morning for all that walking energy for the strip.

New Orleans, I would have split those three nights over all the other places and made it and LA a separate trip.

NY, they don't call it the big apple for nothing. Plenty to do including jump a fast train to the Smithsonian in DC.

We loved our train trip from NY to DC. Packed so much in a day and will return. Their Smithsonians are fabulous.