America 2011, Wrap Up
- Overall what we did: 26 days split into: 12 days Houston, 4 days Las Vegas, 5 days San Francisco and 5 days Honolulu from August to September 2011
- Favourite part of America: The (in general) incredibly friendly people, it was great being able to chat with everyone we ran into and to get to make some new friends along the way
- Key tip: One tip we were given before leaving was to move fast after your plane lands and get to immigration as quickly as possible. This was a great tip and is highly recommended to anyone connecting through LA International Airport as the queues for non-citizen entry can get rather long
- Cultural points:
- Tipping: For those us not from a tipping culture, that aspect of America can take a little while to adjust to – just make sure to take plenty of dollar bills and be prepared to tip anyone
- Speech: For Australians, slang and the speed with which we speak can cause great confusion – we had great fun finding out the many languages the locals thought we were speaking before they realised we were speaking English. We had several people thinking we were speaking French or German. Just speak a bit slower and be prepared to explain further if there are confused expressions
- Highlights: Spending time with our family in Houston, flying over the Grand Canyon, wandering around San Francisco and relaxing by the pool in Hawaii
- Best City: San Francisco. Not only is it a beautiful city sitting on the bay with all its’ winding streets, but there is a lot to see in day trips from the city, for example Napa Valley and Yosemite.
- Worst City: Las Vegas. Spectacular at night, but run down during the day. I found it hard to love this city which might due to not being overly fond of casinos or being a bit freaked out by the large number of people flicking cards for call girls on the strip
- Must See Attraction: Yosemite National Park, incredibly beautiful and worth spending more than just a day visiting. Would love to try camping there overnight
- Most Over-hyped Attraction: La’au in Hawaii. Not really an in depth cultural experience – but fine if you just want some average bulk food and light entertainment with a bunch of tourists
- Would I go back? Yes, I would go back to everywhere we visited in this trip except Las Vegas. I think one visit to Las Vegas was enough for me as I just didn’t find the city itself exciting enough to warrant another visit. Definitely have to go back to visit New York seeing as we missed it this time
Original Posts:
So where did we go? A map view:
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