Anyone toured America before? Really need help!

dandy-candy

We want to do a family trip around America, visiting New York, New Orleans and California. I'm trying to work out how long we would need in each place and the best way to do it!

New York - we just want to do shopping.

New Orleans - shopping and doing historic sites like the cemetery tour and one of the old plantations.

California - beach time and a trip out to Yosemite.

I was thinking 2 nights in NY but not sure how long we should stay in New Orleans? And where is a good beach resort in California? All the pictures online look great at every resort!

Am I best to arrange this all myself or is it easier to get a company like Virgin sort it out?

And do I book a coach trip to Yosemite or hire a car!!

So many options and I've never done anything like this - any advise would be very much appreciated!

cubegame

Loads of us on here have.

I would probably advise a road trip myself where you concentrate on one area. Doing a mix of east and west on one holiday will be harder and will limit your time.

If you're not going in high season you can literally book one nights accomodation (the first) and then stop wherever the road takes you.

dondo

Way back in the summer of 95 I spent a summer in the states- working and then touring at the end for a month- bought myself a rail pass and got around that way which was a great way to get around the country

blindman

dandy-candy wrote: »

We want to do a family trip around America, visiting New York, New Orleans and California. I'm trying to work out how long we would need in each place and the best way to do it!

New York - we just want to do shopping.

Waste of a visit TBHO 2 nights BARE minimum should cover basic sights

New Orleans - shopping and doing historic sites like the cemetery tour and one of the old plantations.

Shopping again :cool: Can't think there is anything for shopping. Two nights BARE minum for Beal street, Jazz club and Cemteries.
Plantations a bit further out IIRC-Need a car

California - beach time and a trip out to Yosemite.

I was thinking 2 nights in NY but not sure how long we should stay in New Orleans? And where is a good beach resort in California? All the pictures online look great at every resort!

Spoilt for choice TBHO-Possibly San Diego for beach sights and amusements

Am I best to arrange this all myself or is it easier to get a company like Virgin sort it out? :eek:
DIY it's easy

And do I book a coach trip to Yosemite or hire a car!!

Hire car, stay 2 nights

So many options and I've never done anything like this - any advise would be very much appreciated!

Loads of threads on USA trips

This is West coast but has links to other TR and ideas.

Firstly get rid of this shopping fixation

Your choice of stopovers makes this trip a little less straight forward TBHO.

it's (fairly) easy to fly to SFO\LAX and a have a stopover at NYC. (Either outbound\return)

Adding NO to the mix makes it more complex though not impossible.

How long holiday have you got?
How many in your family?

Red_dog_Sam

The Monterray Bay area is all good for beaches.
Santa Cruz has nice beaches, a funfair , pier (lots of seals) , surfing and a steam train doing trips to the Giant Redwood forests so has a fair few family options. Plus its realtively near to both San Francisco and somewhere like Oakhurst which is at the Southern entrance to Yosemite. I would say you'd need a hire car because it'd be about 1.5hr drive from Oakhurst through the national park to the centre of Yosemite plus you've got the flexibility to visit places like Glacier Point and stop offs you didn't know were there ( Sugar Pine Railway \ Bass Lake). Once inside the park you can utilise the free busses. You should be able to book in as you go as there are loads of places to stay but you can also use something like hotels.com or hotels4u to book in a night or two ahead if you want to be sure of your accomodation.

dawyldthing

a few years ago after camp we went from Boston to New York, flew to Loa Angles, Las Vegas, San Fransisco flew to Miami, flew to Chicago, flew to New York and then flew home.

New York - you could cover a lot of it in 4 days. Book hotels through hotwire.com or priceline.com to get cheaper ones

Los Angles - had Magic Mountains (bit like Alton Towers), Disneyland (for the latter book the tickets there and get the metro to them - will save at least $30 as the tour companies charge you for the joy of booking it) Walk of fame and lots of other different things are all around, and the hollywood sign. Plus Rodeo Drive isn't that far away on public transport, Venice beach is quite close for cycling, roller skating and the like so can be done quite cheap.

I wouldn't miss San Fran - one of my favourite places in the world. Theres this strech of road thats really close, the trams that feature on Mrs Doubtfire, loads of Seals at the main area, cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz (has to be booked beforehand though)

I'd say get around on megabus/greyhound buses and use all the metro systems - soo soo much cheaper. I think I did it all for just over 2k (that was just me and a friend, staying in hostels and some hotels, but we did everything and it was an epic 3 weeks trip of a lifetime)

Check flights out there on travelsupermarket as there usually pretty good. For flights out there check jetblue, virgin, priceline.

One of the best places to visit ever!

dandy-candy

The shopping bit is my DD request! We could drop NY tbh.
New Orleans is where I really want to go, I was thinking of visiting the markets for my bit of shopping - apparently the French Quarter is good for this? And the graveyard/ghost/voodoo tours will be a bit of fun for the kids (ok, and me!)
The DS's all want a beach/water sports, and DH want's to do Yosemite - otherwise I would have chosen New Orleans/ Florida.
The kids are all teens so easy to cater for, and we can go for 2 weeks which I hope would be long enough. I assume DD could get her shopping "fix" in Los Angeles/San Francisco?

blindman

dandy-candy wrote: »

The shopping bit is my DD request! We could drop NY tbh.
New Orleans is where I really want to go, I was thinking of visiting the markets for my bit of shopping - apparently the French Quarter is good for this? And the graveyard/ghost/voodoo tours will be a bit of fun for the kids (ok, and me!)
The DS's all want a beach/water sports, and DH want's to do Yosemite - otherwise I would have chosen New Orleans/ Florida.
The kids are all teens so easy to cater for, and we can go for 2 weeks which I hope would be long enough. I assume DD could get her shopping "fix" in Los Angeles/San Francisco?

Stick to 2 weeks in California

Beaches, amusements, shopping around SFO,LA and San Diego

Save NYC and NO for the next trip

Voyager2002

The shopping can be done on-line: no need to go thousands of miles away from your main destination in order to buy things, when those things can be delivered to you. In any case, the sales tax in New York is so high that most people who live there drive out to New Jersey to do their shopping.

The beaches in California are really nothing special, so you might just as well spend time at a beach resort in Louisiana (near to New Orleans).

All in all, I suggest you plan a holiday based in "the Big Easy". I'm jealous: I have been to the USA several times for work-related reasons, but have never gone to the one destination that really fascinates me, which is exactly where you are going.

claire16c

If youre only going to NYC for the shopping, leave it for a proper visit another time, and get your shopping fix in California, the shops are all the same anyway.

emma.cook3

dandy-candy wrote: »

We want to do a family trip around America, visiting New York, New Orleans and California. I'm trying to work out how long we would need in each place and the best way to do it!

New York - we just want to do shopping.
2 or 3 days to do it justice

New Orleans - shopping and doing historic sites like the cemetery tour and one of the old plantations.
2 or 3 days

California - beach time and a trip out to Yosemite.

I would not bother with California unless you are going to get an internal flight there. It's a long way. If you do go, spend as long as you can.

I was thinking 2 nights in NY but not sure how long we should stay in New Orleans? And where is a good beach resort in California? All the pictures online look great at every resort!

Am I best to arrange this all myself or is it easier to get a company like Virgin sort it out?

And do I book a coach trip to Yosemite or hire a car!!

So many options and I've never done anything like this - any advise would be very much appreciated!

I would recommend starting from new york and spending a couple of days there then hiring a car and driving down through Virginia (beautiful) to Myrtle Beach South Carolina (relaxing) then to Charlston - (Historical) then to New Orleans for 2 or 3 days then to Florida - Disney if you have children and also Miami beach. I would fly back up to New York or fly home from Florida, whichever is cheapest. It would be an amazing trip but a lot of driving but you would see so much of the real America. I am so jealous -lived there and can't afford to visit now.

Just make sure you have good health insurance. It's so important there.