Hi,
This is my first post so I'll try not to rant too much. Basically my wife and I are very keen to travel to the US & Canada for a white Xmas & New Years.. We are going through a tonne of brochures and are trying to decide what are the best things to do that interest us, and the best way of getting to all these places. Unfortunately is seems that alot of these things are all across the country.
Is it beneficial to take internal flights to hop around to all the different states we want to visit, or bus/drive. We are looking at 4 weeks in the states and 2 weeks in Canada. Ideally we would like to be in NY for a Times Square New Years, maybe Colorado for Xmas..
Also, do we need to apply for a Visa if we are looking at staying for 6 weeks??
If there are any Aussies reading this, is there a ball park figure that you could suggest we should be saving for airfares, accommodation & food for a 6 week period? I know it\'s an open ended question, just after some sort of rough figure if possible.
Reply to this I would say that it is probably not beneficial to take internal flights to hop around to different states. 1) Internal flights around the US are generally pretty expensive; often as expensive as a flight abroad would be or several nights at a decent Bed & Breakfast 2) You will end up spending HOURS of your time waiting around in airports and then waiting to rent a car or find a taxi. I cannot tell you how many times I've been stuck waiting at an airport thinking about how I could have already driven to my destination given all the delays that had occured (on all the major domestic carriers you'll likely be routed through a hub somewhere out of the way of your final destination). The majority of the US does not have the most efficient mass transit system (unless you're in certain metropolian areas in the north-east) so if it were me, I'd save the money spent on airfare to rent a car. We Americans tend to idolize our cars and our automobile culture, for better or worse, and really it's your best bet. Most busses will not provide you with access to lots of the sites you may want to visit.
The US and Canada are very large, and maps can often be misleading about how long it will take you to get from point A to point B (I've even fallen victim to think myself thinking "Oh I can drive that in half a day" Ten hours later....) so you might have a more enjoyable trip if you focus on one area or another. If you want to do NY for new years, maybe head north to Canada for Christmas. Or if you want to find yourself in Colorado, maybe spend your New Years on a city on the West Coast (Portland, Seattle, LA, San Fran).
Also, if you have an Australian passport I do not believe you need a visa to enter or travel in the US as per the Visa Waiver Program. I'm not so sure about Canada.
Reply to this Hi Mike. It's difficult to provide you with good advice on how to get from destination to destination without knowing exactly where you and your wife are interested in exploring. For example, if you're keen on visiting New York City but then also want to check out the Grand Canyon, I would definitely NOT drive. As far as flights go, I travel a lot by plane both for business and pleasure and overall have not had much difficulty in terms of delays. Most of the delays I have experienced have been due to weather issues. If you're here over Christmas, you'll probably not have too much trouble although snow in some areas could potentially hold you up. There are a lot of discount airlines out there as well and getting a flight domestically is also not nearly as expensive as going international (you don't have the same taxes for domestic flights). For instance, you can get a flight from NYC to Phoenix, AZ for under $200 USD if you know where to look and pick the right dates/times. You can also almost always get flights from one coast to the other for under $300 USD which, if you're going to do any flights, that would certainly be worth it as you could cover both coasts and then spend your time driving or taking the train around the areas you want to hit.
If I were you, I would suggest making a list of everywhere you want to visit and prioritize it then see what region potentially has the most destinations in it and then perhaps consider focusing your time there...? Just a thought.
It really is a huge country... I've lived here almost all of my life (except for a year spent overseas) and still haven't seen it all!
Reply to this A great CHEAP internal flight option just opened up. The airline is called skybus (skybus.com is the web site). It has it's hub in Columbus, OH and 10 seats on ever flight are $10 one way. They are pretty limited in terms of where they fly, but you can do some big jumps on the plan and then rent a car, take a bus, whatever. I've booked a couple flights on it already because the price was so amazing. Even after the $10 seats sell out there are some for $30 or $40 or a little higher that are still a great deal.
Enjoy!
Reply to this Hi there,
I went from san fran-portland, seattle-la, la-nashville, kansas city-las vegas, las vegas-fort lauderdale, fort lauderdale-washington d.c., toronto-fredericton, fredericton-toronto, toronto-san francisco all by plane, it cost me about $1500AU because i bought an airpass.. I have no idea how much it would have cost if i bought the air fares by themselves, nor did i have a licence to drive (and the time constraints either, my trip was about 42 days long)....but it depends where you are going so that you can weigh up whether a car costs cheaper.
As for entry into canada, I got in with my Aussie Passport just fine. And entry to the USA should be ok provided you have a machine readable passport...
Hope that helps!
-J
Reply to this if you are planning on skiing i would recommend UTAH best snow in the world!!!! not colorado.
why? well great resort are less than a half hour (ok 45 minutes) from the salt lake city airport.
2) you can stay in SLC which is a hell of a lot cheaper than staying in a ski town, and take buses to the ski hills.
3) and this is a biggy, you can rent a car or take a bus or fly to- vegas, you can visit 5 national parks arches, zion, bryce, capital reef, grand canyon, and several national monuments. you can use SLC as a base. hell you can even gold during the winter in SLC (if you are into golf).
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