Los Angles - Las Vegas - San Francisco - New York

Hi guys!

Wow thanks all for such good comments!
Sound like we better of heading NYC first then road trip from Vegas back to LA.

So we're thinking of heading to:

27 Nov - 2 Dec
LAX-NYC (JKF)

2 Dec - 6 Dec
NYC - San Fransico (SFO)

6 Dec
SFO-Vegas
Road trip begins
7 Dec Vegas to Canyon
9 Dec Death Valley NP
10 Dec Mammoth Lakes? (Optional) Should we return car in Vegas and catch bus to Mammoth?
Or 10 Dec hot springs in whitemore or mono? Spend a night there?
11 Dec drive back to LA

So far we only booked return tickets to n from Los Angles MEL for me n my partner. We're just in the brainstorming stages n no clues if it sound doable.
Interests: Road trips, Hiking, museums, art, architecture and foods! Love theme parks but not fussed if we can't make it. Dislike crowds and crazy traffics! As an Aussie we thought 4WD would best for road trip, we haven't the car yet but definitely will just pick normal sedan with GPS then :)
The only reason we wanted to go to Mammoth Moutain was becoz my partner haven't actually been to snow mountain so we thought it might be good to go there from Vegas and spend a night there?

Las Vegas and Grand Caynon
- love to stay a night in each loaction!

NYC, love the list you guys recommended! We still having trouble deciding where to stay, we looking at booking ours accomodation via AirBnB, not sure if it a good idea?

Thanks again guys!

If your partner hasn't seen a proper mountain range with snow on it, then that's a good reason, although it's quite possible to have significant snow out at the Grand Canyon NP South Rim as well. Does the 6 Dec SFO-Vegas mean you're now flying that sector?

Staying in an Airbnb "whole apartment" in NYC for less than 30 days is now illegal ... I have no idea how or even whether it's enforced, but it is the rule.

However if you wish, you can legally stay in a room of an apartment where the owner is also present (how do they enforce that??) ... that remains okay. And in fact it could be substantially cheaper than a lot of NYC accomm. And my view ... stay south of 20th Street - it's the more interesting part of the city for sure.

And my comment about flying without layover now applies in reverse ... when you land into LAX (usually about 0730) just catch the flight onwards to JFK straight away ... and if it's all Qantas ticketed, the onward flight will wait for you. Have fun ... don't underestimate the cold.

I did most of the same major stops on a trip to the USA last year. I went during their Summer though, but this was my basic itinerary:

• Arrived in LA from Australia and just found a shuttle bus at the airport to take us direct to our hotel. Simple, didn't need to pre-book and didn't really do much waiting (maybe 10 minutes max?), and was relatively cheap.
• In LA we did a lot of walking... a MASSIVE amount of walking. If you have parking at your hotel, I can imagine that a rental car would help you see a lot more. We still had fun in Hollywood, Beverly Hills etc.
• Did a day trip out to Disneyland which was a lot of fun. I'm a big Disney fan so found it quite fun for that reason, however, I live in Brisbane and spent my teenage years with successive annual passes to Dreamworld and Disneyland pales in comparison to Dreamworld. If you don't care about Disney, I'd go to Six Flags if you want a theme park day.
• Flew from LA to Vegas for partying and pool fun. Again we walked up and down the strip SOOOO many times, but I feel like having a car in Vegas would be a total hassle.
• Did a day trip from Vegas to the South Rim and got a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. Was a great trip, very long day, but totally worth it. If you have other stuff to head onto from here though, you're better off spending a night as everyone suggests. Helicopter flight is definitely worth it though.

• Flew from Vegas to NYC. Again, walked all day everyday in NYC but there's so much to see and do everywhere, it's the best way to do it. We caught the subway twice - once to get to a laundromat and once to get to Yankee Stadium. Other than that, you miss too much being underground. Stuff I did in NYC that I highly recommend: 1.Walk the Highline (old raised overland train tracks that have been converted into a gorgeous garden pathway); 2.Central Park, obviously. Just walk and discover; 3.Top of the Rock (viewing platform on the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza for the iconic aerial(?) view of Central Park. Totally worth it as the views are just stunning. Unfortunately, the Chrysler building is my favourite and is mostly obscured from 30 Rock; 4.Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. We bought cheap seats way up in the bleachers (which was better for our pale, pale skin in the shade) drank beers (which you CAN'T buy in giant sizes as american cartoons would have you believe! ha!), ate pretzels and just enjoyed the relaxed vibe through the boring, boring game of baseball; 5.Saw a Broadway show (The Lion King); 6.Ate bagels as much as possible; 7.Shopped; 8.Ate amazing pizza; 9.Took the Staten Island Ferry for a view of the Statue of Liberty, which was a cool little journey; 10.Just walked... everywhere. Seriously, it's the best.
  My biggest recommendations for what NOT to do in New York is to eat at the major chain restaurants that we hear about from American TV shows. I ate at TGI Friday's, Applebee's and Chipotle and thought they were all terrible and really badly made. We stuck to mostly non-franchise outlets (delis etc.) which is where New York shines to be honest. Great, cheap, tasty food. Another tip for NYC; we had very little luck finding public toilets anywhere. I don't think we found a single public toilet to be honest. However, this is where a Starbucks on every corner is a great thing, because they all have toilets. If you're wandering around all day and need a toilet, find a Starbucks.

• From New York we flew to San Fran. In San Fran we hired a car. We still did some walking, but driving a car around San Fran was a breeze.
• From San Fran we did a day trip out to Yosemite National Park. Absolutely stunning and my absolute favourite part of the whole trip. I will definitely return for a longer stay.
• Road tripped from San Fran down the Pacific Coast Highway back to LA for our flight back to Australia, with a number of stops along the way as well as an overnight stay in Carmel.

Obviously the major differences for us our the seasons, which makes for pretty different trips, but if you have any specific questions from an Aussie's perspective, feel free to send me a message.

10 Dec Mammoth Lakes? (Optional) Should we return car in Vegas and catch bus to Mammoth?

There is one big problem with trying to catch a bus to Mammoth. There isn't one.

LA by public transport...
We visited for nearly a week in 2012 and used transit everywhere. Our hotel (Westin Bonaventure) was downtown and quite convenient to the Metro Center terminal. Hollywood was easy to reach by subway. We went to Long Beach on the Blue Line. We took the Gold Line to Pasadena and after lunch went across to Hollywood on a crosstown bus. On a Sunday morning we went to the Farmer's Market, got to bus stop and schedule showed buses running every 8-9 minutes or something, that's a lot better than most lines here in Sydney Australia. After lunch caught another bus over to Hollywood (again). We even went to Disneyland by train/bus and back by bus, it did take a long time but still we managed okay and the hotel concierge had said the only way was by organised tour $100+ each.
I suppose if you are used to travelling around town by bus and train then you will do alright, if you tend to drive everywhere you will struggle. The fares are cheap and the information is pretty good, but as someone else said, it's an enormous spread out city and journey times are long. I'm sure even the car trips take forever too!

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