US trip (this July)
 

I don't post often any more here in GD, but some oldies might still remember me. I'm finishing university in June 2008 and to "celebrate" finally finishing studying I'm planning on making a trip to the States in July.

Details are still very modifiable, the only thing I'm sort of sure is that I'll fly in to the East Coast and fly back from the West Coast and moving roughly westwards between the two. I don't know yet how I'll be moving (train? hired car? flying?) but I will be.

Now if any one from here would be interested in meeting up while I am in the States I can try working certain stops into the itinerary. So, either just post here or PM me, and be sure to tell me whenabouts in July things would be good for you and which part of the US you are in.

I'd also be very appreciative of sofas I can crash on along the way.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

nice, any plans to come to Tampa? I know Z lives in Lakeland.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

It all depends on where there are people to visit and places to see. I only vaguely know the start and end points, what's between...I have no idea.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

I'm in Northern Virginia (Alexandria). It's east, but not on the coast.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

whoa?! Lady z you're in alexandria?

I'm in rockville, MD, :D we should all meet up in the capitol area, and show Dplax around.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Blah... you don't want to go to DC... nothing there but big marble buildings and even bigger political ego's... ;)

Actually it's a pretty good place to start... but I would make sure to get up to NYC also, and then head West.

If the idea is to see the country, I suggest rail. There used to be an Amtrack ticket that let you get on and off pretty much anytime you want. It's fairly expensive but gives you a lot of options. Either that or rent a car, although a cross country point to point (non-roundtrip) will REALLY cost you.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

FYI: I've already been in NYC, Washington DC and Niagara Falls and I've seen what is to be seen there. NYC is considered a possible starting point because I'd be looking into meeting someone there.

Oh and yes...point to point car renting...the website I checked gave 7k USD...

Re: US trip (next July)
 

If there is any time at all to head down to Florida to see IW headquarters, stop in NC so I can buy you a lunch or something.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

If you've already been to the big NE cities then don't waste too much time at it. You might think about flying into Montreal (great city) and taking the Via to Toronto (another great city)... and from there it's a nice drive (or a very short flight) to Chicago (my favorite East Coast city). Just make sure all your paperwork is in order at the border - it's a lot tougher to get through than it used to be.

In Chicago you can hop a train to Cali - there's two options that I'm aware of, one that heads pretty straight west and ends up near San Francisco (great city to visit) and one that heads diagonally southwest to Texas then West to LA. I've taken the southern route a couple times and it's always been a great time.

Of course if you're like me you'd be more interested in getting AWAY from cities... in that case there's really outstanding rugged and distance hiking all the way across the country. Near me there's the Adirondacks, which has some of the most challenging hiking in the country, as well as the Presidential Range in New England. To the South there's the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Ozarks in the mid-west. Of course in the west there's the Rockies and Sierras - if you like the outdoors there's nothing like hiking in Sequoia. Also very high on a hikers list would be Death Valley (in the winter anyway), and Joshua Tree National Park. You can find Hostels in many places that will help keep your travel costs down, not as many as you find in Europe though so plan ahead - don't expect to easily find them.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Ooh, lots of nice info. Thanks Thoran! :)

*goes off to plot about the trip*

Re: US trip (next July)
 

If you have time to swing by Boston I might be around - there are a few of us here (Chewbacca and Machinehead). Yorick is in NYC, I'm sure he would love to say g'day to you. I'm not sure if I'll be in Boston July next year (I may actually be in London), but the other guys are here. I think Bungleau is in Michigan though he travels here a lot - maybe he can swing by if you give him enough notice.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Yep... depending where you're at, I may be able to swing by. Speaking of which, I'll be in Boston (briefly) in early February... may not have time to meet up yet, but I'll keep people posted.

Do remember that the distance scale here is quite large... from the east coast to the west is in the neighborhood of 2000 miles, or a multi-day driving trip. You don't want to waste your time traveling...

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Depends on when in July, I'll be in Virginia the week of the 4th. The week after that I'll be home on the 2nd week of my vacation.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

There's an online mapping utility that you could use to plan your route and let board members put pins in their home locations so you can see where you're likely to find places to crash.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

I thought Alexandria was in Egypt?? :D damn dont you yanks make up any of your own place names? :D


hajrá dplax hódítsd meg az amcsikat :D :D

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Tentative itinerary looks something like this:

28 (or 29) june - 3 july new york, boston philadelphia
4-5 july maryland
6-11 july north carolina, atlanta, florida, texas
12-13 july Chicago
14-15 las vegas
16-21 san diego, los angeles, san francisco (berkeley, sacramento)
22-25 seattle, vancouver

???salt lake city
???denver
???southeastern canada
???hiking somewhere

5th and 12th of July can't be moved, the rest can be juggled around. Those with ??? I'm not sure I want to do or not, but can be pushed in somewhere in the schedule if I decide so. Opinions, people who can/want to meet somewhere along the way?

Re: US trip (next July)
 

If you drive where possible and fly where you can't drive...

-NY, Boston, Philly is manageable in 4 days, but time your travel times to avoid I95 and city rush hours.

-Maryland to Florida in 5 days is also pretty easy by car... but Texas will require a flight... as will the return to Chicago... and the Chicago to NV hop (unless you want to spend your entire vacation in a car).

-Vegas to LA to San Diego is a nice drive (6 hours maybe), but SD to Frisco is a long haul (8 hours in perfect traffic... probably closer to 10 or 11 hours in real life) so probably a flight there would save a lot of time.

-I've never been on the run from Frisco to Seattle or Vancouver so I can't help you there... other that to say it's also quite a ways.

You COULD fly from Chicago to Salt Lake and drive from there to Vegas/LA/SD - it's a full days drive though... add Denver in and you're looking at an easy (and very cool) 8 hour mountain drive from Denver to SLC on one day and a full (11-12 hour) second day of driving to get to SD.

There's hiking all over the place... but you'll probably not want to hike in the south or west at low altitudes in July, HOT!

Re: US trip (next July)
 

The trouble with point to point car rentals as I have seen from tests on car rental websites is that they cost quite a bit...

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Well, I don't know what you mean by southeastern Canada, but Nova Scotia is very nice. Cape Breton is rated the most scenic spot in North America. You can bumb the car for a couple of days, since I work from home, or we can go around together.
Halifax is a pretty cool city. We still have a 1600 century Citadel, right in the heart of the city. They still fire a canon every day at 12noon.

Don't listen to Thoran about Montreal! You've had enough French and their's is terrible. ;) No, it's nice, but Quebec city is nicer, to me. Toronto is just cool in every way.

Halifax has 5 Universities, which = moocho chicks!!
(don't tell my wife I said that)

Re: US trip (next July)
 

*grin*

Another thing I thought about and completely forgot about is the natural parts of the US, like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park...seems I've completely skipped those so far. Grand Canyon looks definitely doable from Vegas, but Yellowstone seems to be in the middle of nowhere...with nowhere being very far away from my planned route. :p

Oh and I don't know what I meant with SE Canada. :p Not sure what there is to visit there.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Oh, and I forgot to mention. You can certainly stay here! We have lots of room in our 4 bedroom place.

Re: US trip (next July)
 

Update!

Plans have changed quite a bit. First off, I'm very sorry to disappoint everyone who lives on the West Coast, but it looks like that for several reasons I won't be able to go any farther west than Chicago/New Orleans (whichever is more to the west...). The first reason is that including the West Coast would have sent the expenses up a bit too high and the second reason is that my grandmother isn't very well off lately and I'd prefer sneaking in a few days at the end of July back in Hungary to visit her, because I can't be sure whether the next opportunity I get to go home (in December) would be too late or not (I'm not sure about July either, but there's no way I'm getting home before that...) and in August I'm starting work (that deserves a post by itself, but not now).

Anyway, current itinerary (and the one I have been asking several travel agencies about) is:

June 30 (or 29) leaving from Budapest to Boston
travelling down the East Coast until...
early on July 12 flying from Raleigh, NC to Chicago
and then late on July 13 flying from Chicago to Atlanta
July 16 flying Atlanta to New Orleans
July 19 flying New Orleans to Miami
July 25 flying Miami to Budapest

Re: US trip (next July)
 

I can now reply to this: yes!