US help.

[PNGunited]

Dear All,

I am planning the below 12 Nights US West Coast trip and would appreciate all kind comments/advice:

Day 1-2 (San Francisco)
- Explore Union Square, Chinatown, Lombard Street and Fisherman's wharf.

Day 3 (Monterey)
- Travel from SF to Monterey.
- We are staying a night in Monterey Bay Inn before heading to Visalia the next day. First time visiting Monterey still trying to find out where to go..

Day 4 (Visalia)
- Travel from Monterey to Visalia.
- Explore Tulare town & outlets.

Day 5-7 (Las Vegas)
- Travel from Visalia to Las Vegas.
- Shopping at Barstow Outlet.
- Explore Las Vegas
- Shopping at North Premium Outlet

Day 8-12 (Anaheim/LA)
- Travel from Las Vegas to Anaheim.
- Explore Universal Studios, Warner Bros Studio, Hollywood Boulevard, Walk of Fame, Griffith Observatory, Santa Monica Pier, 3rd Street Promenade.

For point-to-point transportation, we have engaged local driver with van.

Thank you!

 

[liteScribble]

the huge question for you would be what are you looking to experience?? then we can advise you to go east or west coast.
Help us to help you.

thanks for wanting to help..

I cant even help myself right now. so im looking thru the thread and see what i want to experience. I know the pros and cons.. but there isn't one or a few things that's tilting my decision right now.

 

[patryn33]

hey guys. going to be in here a bit more. have my mind set for the US in March 2020.

Never been to the US before so huge question for me is East or West Coast. Read tons of articles online but still cant decide....

Thinking bout renting an RV or smth like that throughout most of the trip.

Right now.... shall read back thru the pages.

Northeast cities on RV, it will be hard to find parking
Big cities like San Fran will be hard in California, west coast say Seattle or Portland will have to park suburbs and travel in.

RV travel is good if u going to outdoor national parks or u plan to go Disney world camping. New York City with RV bad idea.

Here most ppl go the so call west coast which is mainly California and Grand Canyon. March northern USA still cold and still can find snow. Are u comfortable driving in snow? Just one going?

 

[liteScribble]

Northeast cities on RV, it will be hard to find parking
Big cities like San Fran will be hard in California, west coast say Seattle or Portland will have to park suburbs and travel in.

RV travel is good if u going to outdoor national parks or u plan to go Disney world camping. New York City with RV bad idea.

Here most ppl go the so call west coast which is mainly California and Grand Canyon. March northern USA still cold and still can find snow. Are u comfortable driving in snow? Just one going?

Hey Patryn, thanks for bringing this up.. it has also caught my attention on some other info sites that it's a bad idea to do rv in march too. Cause it wouldve been winterized so no water, campsite would be closed, stuff like that.

Comfy driving in snow. Going with my partner.

Back to the drawing board. And still busy reading the rest of the thread, hoping to get some kinda of inspiration on what to do and where to go.

 

[Shiny Things]

hey guys. going to be in here a bit more. have my mind set for the US in March 2020.

Never been to the US before so huge question for me is East or West Coast. Read tons of articles online but still cant decide....

Thinking bout renting an RV or smth like that throughout most of the trip.

Right now.... shall read back thru the pages.

So I'm absolutely biased here, but west coast best coast, 100%. If you like scenery and natural beauty, it can't be beaten. If you like the outdoors, fly into Vegas; you can use it as a base for Zion, Bryce Canyon (though that might be tricky in March), the Grand Canyon, Red Rock, Valley of Fire...!

Don't do an RV, though. You don't want to ruin your entire trip by having to wrangle a giant bloody RV through the national parks; just get a nice rental car and stay in some roadside motels (they're surprisingly good! and Tripadvisor is always good to steer away from the bad ones).

Dear All,

I am planning the below 12 Nights US West Coast trip and would appreciate all kind comments/advice:

Day 1-2 (San Francisco)
- Explore Union Square, Chinatown, Lombard Street and Fisherman's wharf.

You'll want more time than this. San Francisco has so much to do, and you'll want a day to get over the jetlag as well.

Day 4 (Visalia)
- Travel from Monterey to Visalia.
- Explore Tulare town & outlets.

This one baffles me. What on earth is in Visalia that you'd want to see? Or is it just a convenient place to stop over between SF and Las Vegas?

If it's just a stopover, you can do so much better. In the summer, you can drive over the top of Yosemite and stay in Bishop; in the winter, you can make it from SF to Death Valley in a (long) day's drive.

Also, you have a LOT of outlet malls on this trip. I think you're going to be very disappointed after the first one or two, because they're really not that different from each other. Just go to the ones in Las Vegas or Gilroy.

 

[PNGunited]

Many thanks for your kind response. Yes 1-2 days indeed too short for SA. Do you have any good suggestions on the places worth exploring in SA?

For Visalia you are right that we are just doing a stopover in between SF and LV. Likewise for Monterey it is also a stopover. Hope to know places that are worth for a visit in Visalia and Monterey.

 

[Avizoa]

Many thanks for your kind response. Yes 1-2 days indeed too short for SA. Do you have any good suggestions on the places worth exploring in SA?

For Visalia you are right that we are just doing a stopover in between SF and LV. Likewise for Monterey it is also a stopover. Hope to know places that are worth for a visit in Visalia and Monterey.

I'm really confused too, why are you choosing visalia as a stopover town??

It is kind of wierd that you are heading down to PCH then turning inland for Visalia. As shiny things suggested you might as well drive thru yosemite NP and go straight to LV from there. Or even better go straight to death valley.

Monterey you can just go explore the area around the aquarium or you can go for the 10 mile drive?


For the LV outlet, I would suggest south premium outlet if you do not want to pay for parking as it is free there. Unless there is a shop in North premium outlet that you have to visit, otherwise i suggest go for south as it is less crowded and of course free parking.

Seemed that you are travelling to Anaheim from LV but I don't see disneyland anywhere. What is the reason for heading to Anaheim?

 

[willby]

(Edited)

Personally, I liked the West Coast more. Could be due to the fact that I liked our West Coast itinerary. Don't take my word for it though

 

[willby]

Regardless of where you decide to go, I hope you'll enjoy your US trip as much as I did.

 

[PNGunited]

I'm really confused too, why are you choosing visalia as a stopover town??

It is kind of wierd that you are heading down to PCH then turning inland for Visalia. As shiny things suggested you might as well drive thru yosemite NP and go straight to LV from there. Or even better go straight to death valley.

Monterey you can just go explore the area around the aquarium or you can go for the 10 mile drive?


For the LV outlet, I would suggest south premium outlet if you do not want to pay for parking as it is free there. Unless there is a shop in North premium outlet that you have to visit, otherwise i suggest go for south as it is less crowded and of course free parking.

Seemed that you are travelling to Anaheim from LV but I don't see disneyland anywhere. What is the reason for heading to Anaheim?

Many thanks for your kind suggestions. Frankly, it is our first US trip and we are booking the land-tour from travel agency.

The proposed route by the agency:
San Francisco -> Monterey -> Visalia -> Las Vegas -> Anaheim -> Los Angeles

Above route has been confirmed and we are trying to find out on places worth to visit in Monterey and Visalia.

Yes we planned to visit Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim. Any other places worth going?

Thank you!

 

[Avizoa]

Many thanks for your kind suggestions. Frankly, it is our first US trip and we are booking the land-tour from travel agency.

The proposed route by the agency:
San Francisco -> Monterey -> Visalia -> Las Vegas -> Anaheim -> Los Angeles

Above route has been confirmed and we are trying to find out on places worth to visit in Monterey and Visalia.

Yes we planned to visit Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim. Any other places worth going?

Thank you!

Erm in this case, are you sure you have time to explore LA at all? Disneyland and California Adventure will be 1 day each, Universal Studio will also be 1 day. Warner Bro Studio Tour will be a half day event which leaves you to only 0.5 days to visit LA since you will need half a day to travel from LV to Anaheim.

I have already listed what you can do at Monterey as for Visalia, i do not have experience heading there.

 

[patryn33]

I just want to share my experience. Personally, I liked the West Coast more. For reference, I went a few years ago when I was in my early twenties.
These were based off my first impression:

East Coast has the more popular landmarks such as Times Square, Statue of Liberty, White House, etc. but I didn't really like the city vibe because it was similar to here, minus the clean streets.

West Coast on the other hand, had casinos, beaches, and national parks, so there are plenty of things to do. The people were also friendlier.

Your East coast sounds like NYC and DC.. East coast is more than that by definition

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Coast_of_the_United_States

There are lots to do out there, I think u just not aware.
North east a lot more history, if one not into that many cities boring. Cities are closer than California
acadia national park, cape cod to to name a few. Not as grand as Grand Canyon
https://nationalparkobsessed.com/destinations/north-america/united-states/northeastern-region/

 

[FuNkDeViL]

I am heading to SFO tomorrow on Eva Air. Anyone is travelling there as well tomorrow?

As per advice from the forum post here, I have also bought the starhub prepaid 4G sim card ($50) that come with 5GB data roaming. I am going to top up another 8GB at $50 using the pre-loaded credit to make it a total of 13 GB for my 2 weeks travel.

I were looking at the T-mobile unlimited data prepaid but as per my research it will goes to 3G speed if i were to use it as a hotspot so that the reason I didn't get that T-mobile.

Oh by the way, I am planning to take uber from SFO airport to my hotel (Dublin/Pleasanton), do I need to pay any tips to the driver ? And also which is more cheaper option if travelling from SFO airport - Uber or taxi?

 

[Shiny Things]

For Visalia you are right that we are just doing a stopover in between SF and LV. Likewise for Monterey it is also a stopover. Hope to know places that are worth for a visit in Visalia and Monterey.

So Monterey is pretty great. You can spend ages at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (make sure you're there for the otter feeding!), walk along Cannery Row, maybe even pop out to 17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach if time permits.

But Visalia / Tulare: I keep looking at that and saying "what on earth are you thinking...?". There is LITERALLY NOTHING THERE. Tulare, especially, is basically one motel and a truck stop! There's no reason to go there, and "explore Tulare town" is nonsensical.

It's not even on the correct freeway. The correct way to drive from SF to Vegas (if CA-120 through Yosemite is closed) is to take Interstate 5 to Bakersfield and then CA-58 to Barstow, but to stop over in Visalia you have to cut across to CA-99. That's... just completely wrong.

I'd tell your tour company to fix this. Stopping over in Visalia/Tulare is dumb. The right way to go, assuming this is not happening in summer:

1) Don't stop over in Monterey or Visalia, spend the extra time in San Francisco;
2) Drive from SF to Death Valley National Park in one day, and stay at Furnace Creek;
3) From there, it's about two hours to Vegas. You can leave Furnace Creek at 10 and be in Vegas for lunch.

Regarding Anaheim: Disneyland is it. If you're going to Anaheim, you're going there for Disneyland / California Adventure. (I would say you can actually do the two parks in one long day, if you work your Fastpasses right and you're selective about which rides you go on.)

Oh, one other thing: tell your tour company that you're not going to let them base you out of Anaheim for the whole time you're in Los Angeles. Anaheim is only good for Disneyland; getting to Hollywood or Universal Studios (or worse, Santa Monica) from Anaheim is going to be two hours each way in Los Angeles' famously godawful traffic.

Are you sure this tour company knows what they're doing?

 

[invisible999]

Oh by the way, I am planning to take uber from SFO airport to my hotel (Dublin/Pleasanton), do I need to pay any tips to the driver ? And also which is more cheaper option if travelling from SFO airport - Uber or taxi?

Cheapest way would be via BART. Even with Uber you are looking to north of USD $80 for the trip, not counting $15-20 tip. Taxi would cost double of that amount. If you have not looked it yet on map, do it is more than 60km trip

 

[fzhfzh]

If you are visiting sf. There’s no reason to book your hotel in somewhere as far out as Pleasanton or Dublin. The traffic is horrible and it’s a long commute. Definitely not worth whatever savings on hotel you will have.

 

[FuNkDeViL]

If you are visiting sf. There’s no reason to book your hotel in somewhere as far out as Pleasanton or Dublin. The traffic is horrible and it’s a long commute. Definitely not worth whatever savings on hotel you will have.

Yup I am there on a company trip that's why Hahaha..

 

[FuNkDeViL]

Cheapest way would be via BART. Even with Uber you are looking to north of USD $80 for the trip, not counting $15-20 tip. Taxi would cost double of that amount. If you have not looked it yet on map, do it is more than 60km trip

Oh so we need to give tips to uber driver??

 

[invisible999]

Oh so we need to give tips to uber driver??

Yup I am there on a company trip that's why Hahaha..

Generally it is a norm. I don’t know what is percentage for Uber/Lyft vs. standard restaurant 15-20%. If it is work related trip and it comes from your expense account, why would you care?

 

[fzhfzh]

Uber is not taxi, tips are nice thing to do but not expected. Usually I tip 1-2 dollars or 10%.