For the Well Travelled Amongst You….

Chicago is superb. Have spent a few months there. The streets are beautifully clean. There are places that you shouldnt go and they mean -Dont go there!

The Shedd Aquarium, the museums, are simply excellant. See the U-505 submarine – looks awesome! If you go you will have a great time. There is something there for everyone.

Can anyone offer their opinion on Chicago? Several people I know speak very highly of it, the fact that it feels like a real classic US city, the kinda ones you imagine in those 1950’s films. Do people agree? Is Boston similar?

Bump!
I was looking forward to a few replys on this one as they’re also on my “want-to-visit” list.

Thanks again for more excellent information everyone.

Shadow1, thanks for that. I shall have a look at Amtrack etc and check prices…but it seems that Toronto as areplacement for Buffalo will work, so cheers!

barrythemod, tipping in different countries is something I’m relatively used to. I have travelled several times to the US, Borneo, Australia, Egypt, Tunisia, Cuba, and all the usual places in Europe. Those links for Grand Canyon tours was excellent, thanks! Cheaper than I expected…$89 for a return trip from Las Vegas.

Can anyone offer their opinion on Chicago? Several people I know speak very highly of it, the fact that it feels like a real classic US city, the kinda ones you imagine in those 1950’s films. Do people agree? Is Boston similar?

Yes, tipping is something you should research before going on your travels. In some countries, it seems to be expected. In others, it’s not expected, but appreciated, and there are some countries where it’s not expected at all.

As an example, I recently returned from Korea and I visited numerous restaurants out there, stayed at a hotel twice, and came across some very helpful taxi drivers (carrying bags etc.) and despite receiving a great service every time, my tips were always turned down. It’s obviously not the done thing over there. I did, however, insist that one particular taxi driver take a few thousand won for hauling my 30kg suitcase down three flights of stairs!

In fact, Seoul is maybe another place you could add to your list? It looks a great place and is becoming increasingly popular with tourists. It’s probably just the cuisine that would be a problem!

Another thaught.
Tipping…..
Don’t know how often you’ve been abroad,but in the USA,tipping is an important part of the economy.During your stay,you will run into many people who will add to your comfort.Of course,leaving a gratuity is always a personal matter,but when in doubt,it’s a good idea to leave a couple of bucks to anyone who provides a service to you.Although it’s their job to make your visit wonderful,it never hurts to say “Thank you”.I’ve always found that between 10 and 15% is acceptable rising to 20% for exeptional service.Hotel bellmen and doormen customarily receive $1-$2 dollars per bag that they handle for you.
Hotel maids usually get $2 per day at the end of your stay ( just leave it on the bedside cabinet with a thank you note ).
Restaurant “servers” EXPECT a 15 to 20% tip for good service.I’m talking about propper restaurants here,NOT McDonalds!!!! Buffet servers,the ones that get your drinks,usually get $1 per head.

The following prices are from 2003…….
For trips from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon see HERE,just one of many.
Shark Reef at the Mandaly is worth a visit at $14.95 per head,as is Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage for $12.It’s really cool watching dolphins swimming in a lit pool at night:cool:but for a free nights entertainment just walk up and down the Strip.There’s ALWAYS something to see:D .

P.S. When in Bangkok,how about arranging a meet with Analayo if he’s up for it? There’s nothing like “local knowledge”,especially on a trip like this:cool: .
There’s no way that I could tell my storys of Bangkok.The moderators would have a field day,and I’m not going to give them the pleasure;) .

Travelling between Toronto and Niagara Falls with Greyhound is a possibility. May I suggest taking the train between Chicago and Toronto. Eleven hours in a bus is harsh on the system. Check out rates with both Amtrack (US railway service) and VIA Rail (Canadian railway service), it might be cheaper than Greyhound which have always been, in my opinion, been more expensive than the train. This could be another option for your travels toward Boston, if that’s a city you wish to visit.

Cheers and good luck with your further planning!

If you do look at going to see Niagra Falls from the canadian side don’t do what I did and forget my passport! I had friends living in Buffalo and one day we decided to go see the Falls. Me forgot passport, got interviewed for hours…had to turn back:o

Boston is lovely, New York is superb, and agree with Barrythemod’s suggestions – reading all your travel plans makes me wish I was back living in New York. As you said travelling by bus does let you see a bit more of the place.

Good luck with your plans

Thanks fo the information Shadow1. As I mentioned in a previous post, it increases the prcie of flights significantly to replace Toronto with Buffalo. Instead, I think I may fly from NYC to Chicago, then take the Greyhound to Toronto. It takes 11 hours and will be a nice way to see some more of the country. If I travel Monday – Wednesday it’s only $110 return. Would I have to take a similar bus between Toronto and Niagara Falls? This means I may have to forget about Boston, as I was planning on going to Boston by bus from Buffalo.

Personally, I wouldn’t even waste my time with Buffalo. Not much to do there aside from maybe a hockey game. The Buffalo Sabres are doing very well this year and are favorites to win the Stanley Cup. The same result would be expected for the 2007/08 season which would still be underway when you are planning to travel across North America. However, you can do all of these things in Toronto which is a hop and a skip away from Niagara Falls.

To be truthfull, I’ve been to Buffalo once and I promised myself I would never return. The reasons being that the city is absolutely dirty and I simply didn’t feel safe. I felt that if I said something stupid, I didn’t know whether or not I would successfully return to Canada. The surrounding area on the other hand is incredibly beautiful. But like I said, I think you might have a better time travelling through Toronto/Niagara Falls and then moving on to one of your other destinations.

Toronto will have hockey, if you are interested, and I recommend you give the experience a try. Watching a hockey game live is quite an incredible thing to do. Toronto also has a pro Basketball team. Not sure if that’s your cup of tea but also something I recommend doing. After that, it’s a matter of preference on where you would rather spend your money. Toronto or Buffalo. Knowing what I know, I would go for Toronto, catch a hockey or basketball game, travel to Niagara Falls for a night or two depending on your schedule and then drive to Pearson International and move on to your next destination.

At least that’s how I would do it. Feel free to private message me if you have anymore questions

As I said previously,if planned well,you can do it in 2 days….
1.Midtown….Central Park (the bottom half),Times Square,Macy’s on Broadway and 35th,then across to the Empire State Building on 5th and 33rd for the afore mentioned night time view.
2.South….start at the bottom with a visit to Battery Park from where you get the boat to Ellis Island and later,on to Lady Liberty.Walk up Wall Street stopping of to see the progress on the Twin Towers replacement.If it’s dark by this time,a walk across Brooklyn or Manhatten Bridge is well worth it just for the view looking back at the Island (stunning),and it costs nothing!
The only attractions on the West side are the aircraft carrier Intrepid but she’s been moved for some much needed restoration and Liberty Helicopters for that once in a lifetime night-time flight.
East side,you could explore Little Italy,China Town but it’s not essential.
Hope you’re gonna take a camera and post loadsa pics:D

That’s fantastic, thanks very much! Sounds like a superb place, I really can’t wait.

Re. the Grand Canyon, it is probably gonna cost too much to fly there. New York – Buffalo – Chicago – Miami – Las Vegas – Los Angeles comes to £203, which is amazing. Then I’d use the buses to get to Boston and Washington, about £30 a time. However, sticking the Grand Canyon in the middle almost doubles that. The same is true with regards to replacing Buffalo with Toronto. So it looks like I’ll have to use the bus to the Canyon, and just use Buffalo as a stopover to get to Niagara Falls, and the bus to Boston.

This has turned into a very interesting thread, many thanks for all the responses!

Niagara Falls

If your trip to Buffalo is short, then fine, just head straight over the bridge to the Canadian side to view the Falls. If staying longer then why replace Buffalo with Toronto, its only a couple of hours drive away and there is more to see in TO.
Would agree with Shadow1, if its still snow, cold and icy, its another spectacle altogether compared to Summer

You can get around in LA by public transport – I’ve had several holidays there and have never hired a car as I don’t drive!

Visit Santa Monica (by bus).

The La Brea Tar Pits can be reached by bus and a walk along Wilshire Boulevard.

The Beverly Center is not too hard to reach by bus and has some decent food stands in there (especially jacket potatoes!)

Go to Little Toyko for superb Japanese food.

I wouldn’t recommend underground travel in LA on account of the fact that it’s an earthquake zone.

You really were confined into a very small area there, or lost an awful lot of time using public transports.

If you are in LA, you really want to see some places in the Inland Empire & Orange County…

A car is the best way, unless you don’t like traffic.

Las Vegas: If you can try to see Fremont Street at night. It is worth it 🙂

Just thaught about travel insurance……absolutly essential !!!!!
I always use Columbus Direct.They do great deals from Back-Packer to Rich:cool: .

Another question I had for other people…how easy is to get to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas?

If you wanna fly,but it’s gonna cost you,no problem at all.Coach/bus trips are available but it’s an early start and a late return.Please work lots of overtime to pay for a flight,you will regret it if you don’t.I did it in a rotary,truely unforgettable in the front seat:D

Many thanks for the superb repsonse, keep ’em coming guys!

barrythemod: that’s some fantastic information there. How much time in NYC is realistic to see the main parts? Bearing in mind we have a relatively tight schedule, so can’t spend too much time in each place.

As I said previously,if planned well,you can do it in 2 days….
1.Midtown….Central Park (the bottom half),Times Square,Macy’s on Broadway and 35th,then across to the Empire State Building on 5th and 33rd for the afore mentioned night time view.
2.South….start at the bottom with a visit to Battery Park from where you get the boat to Ellis Island and later,on to Lady Liberty.Walk up Wall Street stopping of to see the progress on the Twin Towers replacement.If it’s dark by this time,a walk across Brooklyn or Manhatten Bridge is well worth it just for the view looking back at the Island (stunning),and it costs nothing!
The only attractions on the West side are the aircraft carrier Intrepid but she’s been moved for some much needed restoration and Liberty Helicopters for that once in a lifetime night-time flight.
East side,you could explore Little Italy,China Town but it’s not essential.
Hope you’re gonna take a camera and post loadsa pics:D

1 dish in the Siam Paragon, the best shopping mall in Thailand, is only around 40 – 50 Baht (about 1.50 $) in mall’s food center. Basically you can find the food in the street which is cost you around 25 – 30 Baht (about 1 $) In the other province it will be even cheaper or the same price but you will got more than you can eat.

I used to live in university and the living expense is around 3$. In the town you can travell eating with about 100 baht (about 3$) for 3 meal.

The small restaurant is nice. In Yao Wa Rat (China Town), some of them run their small business for 40 or 50 year. You can find them everywhere and you can teste original Thai food which different form Thai food restaurant in your country. If you don’t want spice food, you can say “Mai Sai Prick”. (No chilli)

Some movable shop beside the street is not as good as in the restaurant in term of quality. The mostly sell roasted chicken and pork, noodle, boiled chicken with rice that mix with chicken oil, E-Sarn food like “Som Tam”, or roasted meat ball. But I rarely heard that someone got sick by those kind of food. I buy those food for all my live and I never got sick form it. (Maybe I got an immune. He He He)

About LA…
It’s not a city..think of it as a very weird country unto itself and you’ll be close. It’s worth spending some time in…just stay away from the real touristy
parts of it and be prepared to rent a car.

The place is so big….
My brother in law rented a Cessna to fly from Van Nuys to John Wayne airport to pick up my wife. Even with the paperwork and preflight it was quicker than driving across town. Not because of traffic, but because the city is that large.
When I was there doing some flying out of Chino a few years back I went into Hollywood for a meeting…and you take directions like…”Get on I-10, then switch to the Hollywood Freeway, then the Ventura Freeway”. They use 8 lane freeways there the way we’re used to taking streets.

you could probably expect to live on about £10-15 a day in Thailand?

Easily! 🙂

Excellent Michael, much appreciated! So with a hotel already paid for, you could probably expect to live on about £10-15 a day in Thailand?

Another question I had for other people…how easy is to get to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas?

T5: cheers for that. Do you have an estimate for approximate living expenses in Thailand, eg. how much a meal costs etc?

It’s probably one of the cheapest places you’ll ever visit and you’ll be surprised at just how much money you need to live on!

You can pick up hotels for as little as 6 or 7 pounds a night, and even some of the swanky hotels can be had for around 60 pounds a night (that’s excellent value compared to home). I’d definitely recommend the Amari Atrium Hotel in Bangkok – excellent facilities, excellent staff and excellent food. It’s also positioned slightly out of town, so it’s busy, but not as busy as it could be!

As for food, don’t be put off by the street vendors. You’ll come across local people selling suspicious foods from their motorbikes, but you’ll pay next to nothing for it all, whether it be seafood, sweet/savoury pancakes, chicken and pork on sticks etc etc. I guess it’s a case of ‘each to their own’ – not everybody would eat from a street stall for fear of ending up with a nasty tummy bug. I’ve been to Thailand four times since Summer 2003 and have yet to contract any nasty illnesses as a result of the way I eat!

The small, family-run restaurants (and there are lots of them) are very cheap and are definitely worth a visit. Not only do you get to eat authentic Thai food, but you’ll again only pay a few Baht for the food. You will find no shortage of restaurants serving a curry dish and rice for about a pound. And if you’re after something special, expect to pay no more than about five times that for something along the lines of an ‘eat as much as you like’ barbecue, including seafood.

And if you’re mad about McDonald’s, Burger King and Pizza Hut, you’ll make substantial savings compared to home. But Thai food is wonderful, so I doubt you’ll ever tuck into a Big Mac whilst there!