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#1
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Domestic travel within USA?
Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be appreciated! Thanks, Nic -- Nic ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nic's Profile: http://travelforums.org/forums/member.php?userid=578 View this thread: http://travelforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63510 This post was submitted via http://www.TravelForums.org |
#2
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"Nic" wrote in message ... Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be appreciated! Rent a car. Check with Avis or Budget to see what they require for an international license. Larry |
#3
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Thats a lot to pack into a month! For travel between major areas I
would fly as driving would take too much of your time up. Within a particular region I would rent a car (we call it rent rather than hire). Buses are ok for short distances of 1 day. I would never ride the bus for more than a 1 day trip. They are slow especially when there are stops along the way. Forget about trains. There aren't many in the USA and they too are rather slow. Light rails and subway trains in major cities are excellent ways to get around if the stops you wish to see are along their route. In San Francisco you most likely will not need a car. BART light rail and Buses are good there. Vegas and NYC you probably won't need a car unless you venture outside the city area. Nic wrote: Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be appreciated! |
#4
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"Nic" says:
I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be appreciated! "Larry" recommends: Rent a car. For the first four destinations, certainly. All of the others involve much longer distances. In distance terms, if Los Angeles is Perth, then the next three destinations are points in southwestern Western Australia like Geraldton and Kalgoorlie; but New Orleans, Miami, and New York are like Adelaide, Sydney, and Cairns. Of course it would be possible to drive everywhere if you really wanted, but if your interest is in seeing the places you mentioned rather than all the little places in between, then you will need to fly, and even then you won't have all that much sightseeing time. You might want to cut out one or two destinations. Personally I'd drop Miami, especially when you're going to California as well. Once you get to each city, of course, you can rent another car for local travel around the city -- if you want. In New York most people recommend against doing this -- get a hotel in Manhattan and go places by public transport. In New Orleans you probably do want a car if you want to see much of the city, and in Miami certainly. Check with Avis or Budget to see what they require for an international license. Visitors from English-speaking countries just need their regular license. But don't take my word for it. -- Mark Brader, Toronto | "Effective immediately, all memos are to be written | in clear, active-voice English." -- US gov't memo My text in this article is in the public domain. |
#5
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Given the timescale and distance I'd use a mixture. Whilst it's not
impossible to get to Yosemite without a car it's not going to be easy. If you wanted to travel the Pacfific Coast Highway you'd almost certainly have to hire a car. Los Angeles does have public transport but the city is so spread out that a car makes life much easier. On the other hand while you're in New York and San Francisco public transport in the downtown areas is good, combine that with the sort of parking restrictions you'll find in many CBDs and a car is not only unnecessary, it can be a liability. Never been to Miami so I can't comment and 30 years ago New Orleans was somewhere I got around very well without a car but today, don't know. Intercity it's about 3 days coast to coast minimum by car, bus or train and I'd feel like Superman doing it that fast. I'd probably also feel like death warmed up. You can fly domestically at reasonable prices. Talk to your travel agent. Ask aout VUSA fares and airpasses. Talk to more than one travel agency, not all know about these fares. They aren't always the cheapest but they usually aren't bad value and, importantly, they sometimes offer some flexibility to change. The US equivalents of Virgin Blue are Southwest (actually, the original on which all the Virgin Blues of the world are modelled), Airtran, ATA, Spirit, Frontier, to name a few. "Nic" wrote in message ... Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be appreciated! Thanks, Nic -- Nic ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nic's Profile: http://travelforums.org/forums/member.php?userid=578 View this thread: http://travelforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63510 This post was submitted via http://www.TravelForums.org |
#6
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I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in
September/October this year with my boyfriend... I pretty much agree with the other posters -- fly to cover large distances, then rent a car if needed. Actually in most of those cities you can get around just fine with public transportation, but if you plan to leave the cities to visit nearby areas of interest you may wish to rent one. A month sounds like a long time, but when you subtract the days that will be spent mostly just travelling you're left with a very busy schedule. Personally, I'd drop LA from that list and spend more time in San Francisco instead. Most folks find S.F. to be a much more interesting city for tourism, plus there are several good day trips you could make from S.F. such as Muir Woods (redwood forest) and NAPA Valley (wineries) to the north, and the beautiful Monterey Pennensula area to the south. If you're going to Vegas, you might want to consider a side trip to the Grand Canyon, which is one of the top tourist attractions in the country. It's about a 5 hour drive from Vegas, so it's best to make it an overnight trip, but if you're pressed for time it can be done as a day trip (there are one-day tours from Vegas by bus or small plane, or just rent a car). It'll be one of the highlights of your trip. Jim ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Remove "NOSPAM" from my address when sending me e-mail. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ - |
#7
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On 01/20/2005 11:27 PM Nic wrote:
Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be appreciated! Thanks, Nic Decide on either West Coast and interior, or East Coast and Southern. Visit the other on another trip. For example on the East you could fly into New York City. There is so much to do and see in New York City, a week or so won't cover it all. You can use public transport in New York. Then fly down to Washington DC (unless you've already done that.) Stay 4 or more days. From Washington, fly to Fort Lauderdale. It'll be off-season so getting a really nice hotel room will cost less and more will be available. Pick-up your rental car at or near the airport. Ft. Lauderdale is nice, a little more laid back than Miami. But it has plenty to offer. Split up your time between Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and Key West. If you will be there the last week in October, that's Fantasy Fest. It's one week of costumes, body painting and party-party. It's not as big as Carnival in Rio, but it's a great time. Drive back up to FLL - Fort Lauderdale, turn in your car. Catch your plane for N'Orleans. Get another car there. Hang out in The Big Easy - you'll be already relaxed from Key West's mellow attitude. You'll fit right into N'Orleans, the city that care forgot. Depending on cost, visa and other stuff you might plan to fly home from Big Easy or return to your entry point in NYC and catch the plane home from there. Do a the itinerary that others have suggested for the West Coast another time. Note about the weather: September - October is the end point of hurricane season . This could mean nothing or it could mean that regardless of original itinerary or the one I suggest you might have to scrub South Florida destinations and/or New Orleans. Sometimes the weather is excellent during these months and sometimes some of the most deadly hurricanes make landfall in the months of September, October and November. Just look at what happened on the West Coast of Florida and Grand Cayman last season. So any trip including South Florida, the Florida Panhandle, or New Orleans will require some flexibility. Book your air for those segments and hotels 2 or 1 months in advance. You can even cut the time down a little more for hotels, and you will be ok for everything but Fantasy Fest. (That requires advance lodging booking). Look at the weather for this region of the US starting in June. Follow the trends. If there aren't that many storms spawned in July or August - September/October could be very sunny marred only by some brief showers. -- ________ To email me, Edit "xt" from my email address. Brian M. Kochera "Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!" View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951 |
#8
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"Nic" wrote in message ... Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, This first group are best covered by hiring a car, none of the locations are more than day's drive away and with the exception of San Francisco you'll want a car when you get there. New Orleans, Miami and NYC. These are best reached by flying due to the distances involved. Think Melbourne to Perth for LA to Miami. Keith |
#9
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On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 21:17:31 -0800 "--" wrote:
:"Nic" wrote in message ... : Hi there. First post, be gentle :-) : I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in : September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you : would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options : are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, : San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, New Orleans, Miami and : NYC. Our timeframe is about a month, so any recommendations would be : appreciated! :Rent a car. Check with Avis or Budget to see what they require for an :international license. Do you even have a clue as to how long the drive would be from the west coast to New Orleans to Miami to New York? -- Binyamin Dissen http://www.dissensoftware.com Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me, you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain. I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems, especially those from irresponsible companies. |
#10
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I am from Melbourne, Australia and will be travelling to the USA in September/October this year with my boyfriend. Just wondering how you would recommend travelling around domestically? I'm guessing options are bus, plane and hire car. The kind of areas we want to cover are LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, Nic, I know that when we flew from here to the U.S, we bought the ticket from MEL to San Fran and that allowed us our "one free stopover" in L.A for a couple of days. Get a car in San Fran and drive to Yosemite (you don't need an International Licence) I think then I'd look at buying the flight coupons thru your TA, remember that each flight is a coupon, so if you were flying say SF to NY thru one of the hubs it would be considered 2 flights. Debbie (also in Melbourne) |
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