Travel : United States

[hsm]

schweppes:

How old are your kids?

Some of the places worth visiting:

San Francisco
Alcatraz - a definite must go; recommended that you book your tickets online 2 weeks before arrival - esp if u are going during peak period
Fisherman Wharf
Muir Woods
Golden Gate Bridge
Nappa Valley
Union Square
if going in Winter - bring your kids ice skating at Union Square
if got time... then travel to the hinterlands surrounding SF

Food/ restaurants: Cheesecake Factory, Burger Bar, Bubba Gummp (the berry and pear salad is to die for...) :drool: :drool:

Las Vegas
Grand Canyon - definite must go; u can check out going with Grand Canyon Tours http://www.Grand-Adventures.com/(highly recommended tour company for day tour to GC)
The Strip
Shopping at the Premium Outlets - go to the North Premium Outlet (instead of the South Outlet). Have better quality brands. A place to shop-till-u-drop. :moneyflies: :moneyflies:
The shows -if got time to watch

Food/ restaurant: In-and-Out Burger :drool:

Los Angeles
theme parks: Universal Studio, Disney
Hollywood
Rodeo Drive
The Grove (for shopping and farmers' market type food) :drool:

Food/ restaurant: Baja Fresh (a mexican fast food restaurant) :drool:

U can drive inter-state or fly on their domestic flights. Cabs are pretty expensive. So, one suggestion is to stay in the city/central for easy walking access. Join day tours if u don't wish to rent a car.

Have fun planning!!

Hi schweppes

Thanks for the wonderful tips! My girls are 12 & 10 this year. Sounds like 2 weeks is not sufficient Must checkout if the tour packages go to the places you mentioned. Still deciding whether to join tour group or self drive..

I'm sure self explore, we will get to cover more things compared to package tour.. but need alot of plannings..

For the list u mentioned for SFO, do you self drive?

:thankyou:

[hsm]

schweppes:

Can consider flying with Eva Air. Price is more attractive than SQ which is :moneyflies: :moneyflies:


Service is good - inflight entertainment kept everyone occupied on the long haul flight. Food is not bad too. In fact, family and I found Eva Air's overall service and quality better than Emirates.

Transit in Taipeh is another attractive point to consider

yes, i agree!
Most of the airlines including SQ cost abt $8k+ for my family of 4.. except for EVA, it's only $6k+.. my collegue flew on EVA last Dec to West Coast, she said it was good!

[schweppes]

hsm:

Hi schweppes

Thanks for the wonderful tips! My girls are 12 & 10 this year. Sounds like 2 weeks is not sufficient Must checkout if the tour packages go to the places you mentioned. Still deciding whether to join tour group or self drive..

I'm sure self explore, we will get to cover more things compared to package tour.. but need alot of plannings..

For the list u mentioned for SFO, do you self drive?

:thankyou:

Did not self drive for the US trip. dh said that since he drives so much in Spore, he just wanted to relax and leave the driving to others. It worked out well as I cd see he was less stressed without having to worry about route planning and traffic jams (a big headache in LA). Cd enjoy watching the scenery instead of staring at the roads. Whilst having a car has its advantages and flexibility, we were ok without.

For the 3 places we visited, I made sure that the accommodation we booked are in the city - walking distance, so need not rely on cars. We also joined day tours if we wanted to go to further places. If need be, we'll take the cab.

We were there for 10D/8N - wish we cd hv stayed longer but cd not be away too long. So, looking at my list above, we did not go to Napa Valley and Disney as no time. But somehow, we tried to cover as much as we could.

If u have time to spare, u shd visit Yosemite National Parks, esp if your family enjoys nature. Wish I cd visit that place too.

One thing to note is that if u are on F&E, ask your travel agent to arrange for flights to arrive in one city and depart in another.. So we flew in to SFO and flew out from LAX. If ur dh is driving, can consider driving down from SF to LA (or vice versa, depending which airport u arrive in).

Best experiences from the trip : visiting Alcatraz, ice skating @ Unions Sq (for the girls), Muir Woods and ultimate best was of course, Grand Canyon (as it was snowing, my girls made snow angels in GC - that was really amazing feeling)

I enjoy planning for my family vacations. Can be time consuming but so fun. In fact I find it relaxing - a good way to destress from work & my kids school stress.

Our girls are similar in age group and they really enjoyed themselves. Am sure your girls will have a blast.

[schweppes]

hsm:

yes, i agree!
Most of the airlines including SQ cost abt $8k+ for my family of 4.. except for EVA, it's only $6k+.. my collegue flew on EVA last Dec to West Coast, she said it was good!

Ya... paid around $6k+ for 4 pax (inc taxes and surcharges) and with the US$ down, it was a good time to go. As your dd2 is below 12, she'll pay child's fare too, so can save some more

[hsm]

schweppes:

Did not self drive for the US trip. dh said that since he drives so much in Spore, he just wanted to relax and leave the driving to others. It worked out well as I cd see he was less stressed without having to worry about route planning and traffic jams (a big headache in LA). Cd enjoy watching the scenery instead of staring at the roads. Whilst having a car has its advantages and flexibility, we were ok without.

For the 3 places we visited, I made sure that the accommodation we booked are in the city - walking distance, so need not rely on cars. We also joined day tours if we wanted to go to further places. If need be, we'll take the cab.

We were there for 10D/8N - wish we cd hv stayed longer but cd not be away too long. So, looking at my list above, we did not go to Napa Valley and Disney as no time. But somehow, we tried to cover as much as we could.

If u have time to spare, u shd visit Yosemite National Parks, esp if your family enjoys nature. Wish I cd visit that place too.

One thing to note is that if u are on F&E, ask your travel agent to arrange for flights to arrive in one city and depart in another.. So we flew in to SFO and flew out from LAX. If ur dh is driving, can consider driving down from SF to LA (or vice versa, depending which airport u arrive in).

Best experiences from the trip : visiting Alcatraz, ice skating @ Unions Sq (for the girls), Muir Woods and ultimate best was of course, Grand Canyon (as it was snowing, my girls made snow angels in GC - that was really amazing feeling)

I enjoy planning for my family vacations. Can be time consuming but so fun. In fact I find it relaxing - a good way to destress from work & my kids school stress.

Our girls are similar in age group and they really enjoyed themselves. Am sure your girls will have a blast.

Sounds good! Thanks for sharing
Will start to do some research on the nearby hotels for the different attractions.. is possible, will you share the hotels you stay as well? can PM or email me : [email protected] (whichever it's easier) when you have time..

Cheers

[jojo]

schweppes:

hsm:

yes, i agree!
Most of the airlines including SQ cost abt $8k+ for my family of 4.. except for EVA, it's only $6k+.. my collegue flew on EVA last Dec to West Coast, she said it was good!

Ya... paid around $6k+ for 4 pax (inc taxes and surcharges) and with the US$ down, it was a good time to go. As your dd2 is below 12, she'll pay child's fare too, so can save some more

Just booked my tkt to usa with Thai Air, 2A2C below 12 total cost less than 6K.

Anymore has good car rental company to share in usa:please:

[MMM]

Hi,


Anyone with good tips on what to do, see and especially stay in NY?

Will be doing a biz trip to NJ in end May and dh thinking of joining me after my meeting. We intend to fly to JFK and do a 1 week NY. Any recommendations on logistics aspects eg. from airport and subsequent travels ??? Feasible to drive in NY??? Always see/ hear about those robbery at petrol kiosk sort of puts me off.

For sights, both of us have never been to NY before so were thinking of niagara fall, statute of liberty, times square, empire state, of course not forgetting outlet malls. What else???

What about hotels? I think we need a hotel as our base? What would be one that is of reasonable price, ok location and reasonable standard? Any recommendations?

[toddles]

MMM:

Hi,


Anyone with good tips on what to do, see and especially stay in NY?

Will be doing a biz trip to NJ in end May and dh thinking of joining me after my meeting. We intend to fly to JFK and do a 1 week NY. Any recommendations on logistics aspects eg. from airport and subsequent travels ??? Feasible to drive in NY??? Always see/ hear about those robbery at petrol kiosk sort of puts me off.

For sights, both of us have never been to NY before so were thinking of niagara fall, statute of liberty, times square, empire state, of course not forgetting outlet malls. What else???

What about hotels? I think we need a hotel as our base? What would be one that is of reasonable price, ok location and reasonable standard? Any recommendations?

Urm... Niagara falls is quite far away... though if you have 1 week it should be ok. Usually ppl travel (drive etc) up to Buffalo (which is upstate New York - about 8 hrs drive?) and do the crossing to Toronto or see if from the US side near there.

[verykiasu2010]

MMM:

Hi,


Anyone with good tips on what to do, see and especially stay in NY?

Will be doing a biz trip to NJ in end May and dh thinking of joining me after my meeting. We intend to fly to JFK and do a 1 week NY. Any recommendations on logistics aspects eg. from airport and subsequent travels ??? Feasible to drive in NY??? Always see/ hear about those robbery at petrol kiosk sort of puts me off.

For sights, both of us have never been to NY before so were thinking of niagara fall, statute of liberty, times square, empire state, of course not forgetting outlet malls. What else???

What about hotels? I think we need a hotel as our base? What would be one that is of reasonable price, ok location and reasonable standard? Any recommendations?

various museums, broadway theatres, ma ma mia still showing, some hotel offer $30 dinner pre-theatre package, very worth it

ground zero, 5th avenue (shopping), central park, statue of liberty @ staten island, time square ..... steak at spark (where the godfather was murdered)...the steak is not bad......Hardrock cafe at time square - eat, and see the exhibits

and don't drive in NYC, take the metro and / or the famous yellow cab.....

for airport transfer to / from manhattan downtown / hotel - go internet pre-book seat-on-coach per person basis, about $20 each, http://www.goairlinkshuttle.com/JFK-Manhattan; can also take the LIRR (long island rail road linking JFK to Penn Station in downtown Manhattan, at around the 34th street.

rockerfeller centre, nbc studio next to it - live broadcast

NYC/Manhattan is easy to navigate : north-south roads are 'avenues' -- 1st, 2nd, .....5th,.....etc with in between Lexington Avenue, Park Avenue etc ; east-west roads are numbered streets ..... time square is around 39th - 42th street and between 6th Avenue - 8th Avenue ....with Broadway in between

for niagara, you can time it in such a way that your flight from Buffalo to reach JFK around 3 to 4 hours before your departure flight from JFK to S'pore .... less hassle on airport transfer

for hotels, inexpensive ones like Holiday Inn Express offers free breakfast and free internet. They have very good bagel and cinnamon rolls (they claimed theirs is the best in NYC) - free whole day coffee and tea

[LOLMum]

niagara falls is awesome!


shouldnt miss it.