Trip to America (Rome, itinerary, airports, price)
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For a budget of £1500, there are many interesting places in America that you can explore, and that are accessible using rental car or cheap flights. For instance, in the southern and western U.S., you could fly into Dallas/Ft. Worth and spend a couple of days there. Ft. Worth is actually a fairly interesting city, where "the west begins." Drive farther south in Texas to Austin, which is "The Live Music Capital of the World," and to San Antonio, home of the Alamo and the major Texas city in which Mexican influences are really noticed the most. These cities are all in Texas, and while Texas gets a lot of flack because of certain aspects of its culture (and Texas is pretty unique), it really is a state that practically personifies "Americana."
Head on over to Big Bend National Park (still in Texas, it's huge!), then up to Santa Fe where you can catch some great art and a gorgeous New Mexico sunset. Drive over to the Grand Canyon (if you want to go a little out of the way), then up to Pikes Peak in the Colorado Rockies, and finally for a few days in Denver and the rest of the Colorado Rockies.
America is much more than just the "biggies"--Florida, NYC, Boston, DC, Chicago, L.A., San Diego, San Francisco--and there are many interesting places to explore that actually are quite easy on the wallet.
Just stay in Holiday Inns and Best Westerns, and not Hyatts and Hiltons.
Another suggestion: a West Coast drive, from San Diego all the way up to Seattle or even Vancouver, Canada. You don't have to stay directly in the major cities, as there are plenty of cheap places to eat and stay at along the way. I've stayed at decent hotels before in the L.A. suburbs for £75 per night or even less, and thus been positioned to explore whatever that area of L.A. has to offer (parks, museums, nature preserves, restaurants, etc.) Actually, the West Coast is almost the solo travelers' dream (assuming that's what you are, of course), and you still get to enjoy some nice weather and hit up some of our nation's most loved cities and highlights.
Aw god thats just way too much for me to do. I just wanted something simple to do but thanks for your advice anyway.. Maybe I will just goto those cities for a couple of days or nyc next christmas.
I think your trip is too ambitious. Why not fly into NYC and take the Amtrak north to do New England? if you rent a car you could visit Boston, Newport, Portland Maine, lots of interesting places. I think the US is best approached in smaller sections. It's like trying to "do Europe" in one visit.
Ugh.. every time I goto America I end up going to Florida. I am fed up going there, I want to go somewhere else.. I think the highest I could save is £2,000 which I thought was a lot for one person.
I think then that you should choose between NYC or DC and decide which one you could stay at for one week.
I'm also assuming that your budget does not include airfare. If it does, then lower that to four or five days.
If you're in your early-to-mid 20's, hostels as suggested may stretch out your stay. If you aren't bringing much clothing with you and don't mind sharing with up to three others, it may work for you.
With all due respect to the DC-area proprietor, I don't know if I'd personally want to rent a room/apartment for my first trip to a particular city overseas. Of course, your mileage - or "kilometerage" - may vary.
Oh trust me. I won't be renting it, I have first cousins away in Winnipeg and well they wouldn't do anything.. I know no one in America if anything were to happen so that is out of the question.
I do have third cousins in Philadelphia but I have never met them so again they'd do nothing.
The best use for the United miles would probably be a one way 'saver' redemption ticket for domestic/internal airfares (either 10K or 12.5K) if you wanted to see multiple cities in the USA. Open jaw tickets (example- Dublin-NYC then Chicago-Dublin) are usually somewhat similarly priced as round trips in you stay in the same geographic region, and then you can use the one way ticket for the missing 'jaw' travel segment.
The only way someone with an American address can use the miles as a cash discount is if they have the United-branded credit card, IIRC.
Airlines commonly have different redemption amounts required to redeem frequent flyer miles based on time of year, number of other frequent flyer tickets issued on the flights, etc. Two and three tier systems are most common; Delta is going to five different redemption tiers for 2015. Under a two tier system, getting a round trip economy domestic ticket prices out to:
Saver round trip- 25K miles or 12.5K miles each way. An airline will say they have 3 tickets available on a given flight at this price, and once they're booked they're gone. And holiday period flights will often be allocated zero saver award seats.
Standard Round trip- 50K miles or 25K each way. The airline will then say they have an additional 7 award tickets on that flight that require twice as many miles to get .
Frequent flyer tickets get released for booking about 330 days before departure. For popular United routings like USA-Europe, it's common for the available saver tickets to get snapped up within 2-3 days after that.
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