Friday, Jan 14, 2011 at 14:54
Hi Michelle,
I have been in the USA for work for the past ~7 months but return next week. Anyway, we have done as much touring as we could in the time I had off. The USA is such a different place touring wise than the USA that a whole different set of rules apply.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the USA is so built up that our AUS "remote travel" experience is about as useful as a difflocks on bitumen. We found the best way to travel around was fly to a destination, hire a car and stay at hotels.
Flights are so cheap, use sites like travelocity.com and you can find something like Florida to Canada for $79ea one way (we were based in Florida). But note that prices change rapidly, I was booking a few days in advance at one stage and the price was going up by the hour.
We then drove back from Canada to Florida staying at hotels booked only one stop away, there are simply so many to choose from plus you can simply stop somewhere if you find some great attraction. We found that by staying at the same chain you know what you will get, plus you build up points for free nights - or some other offer. Price is not always an indication of quality. Also,
parking is not always included, it can be as high as $25/night in crowded
places like NY or New Orleans. It pays to
check if its included, but the websites are great for that.
We looked at hiring an RV but the cost of it (plus extra gas) worked out no cheaper than a hire car + hotel. While the RV's are great out on the superhighways, get into
places like New
York and a car was bad enough. There are heaps of RV's over here, but the fact that 99% are also towing a vehicle behind shows their limitations.
Also, be prepared to queue at attractions, we are so spoilt in AUS with our lack of crowds. But by the same token,
services are generally a much higher standard.
As for how to pay for things, I have found that a credit card offers by far the best exchange rate. There are several that also have a no foreign currecy change fee, most of the big banks charge 2.95% but even so you still get a better exchange rate than any money exchange by far. And in the USA, there is almost nowhere that you cannot pay by credit card - even many vending machines take CC's. Also, get ready to tip for anything where a person is involved. Fast food is about the only place you don't tip!
Enjoy yourself over here, the kids will have a great time and so will you.
Cheers
Captain
AnswerID:
441815
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Sunday, Jan 16, 2011 at 15:04
Sunday, Jan 16, 2011 at 15:04
Thanks Captain, that was a very useful reply for us and you've answered some of our main queries.
Michelle
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714126