paulusta

I am planning to spend around 10 days traveling to San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington DC.

Could anybody advise the obligatory stops for 2 days travel in each city?


thanks,

Grcxx3

WOW! That's a lot of cities in a short time. I would think that 2 days in each city would just barely cover the surface.

Grcxx3

sorry - hit "enter" too soon.

You are hitting 2 different ends of the US and hitting 4 major cities. That's a lot for 10 days.

What is it you are interested in seeing/doing?

speckles

Is that including or excluding travel time?? It's not a lot of time even excluding travel time.

What are your interests? Museums, art galleries, shopping, history, sports, seeing the popular tourist sights? What is obligatory for one traveller may not be for another.

althom1122

Does your 10 days include your arrival and departure days? If not, you could possibly do something like this:

0 Arrival day
1 San Francisco
2 San Francisco
3 Drive the road to LA (assuming some stops along the way, will take the full day)
4 LA (only one day - which I think is too short and therefor not worth it)
6 Fly to DC (will take the full day)
7 DC
8 DC
9 Fly to NY - if you leave early in the morning, you'll have the afternoon. It's only an hour flight - but it can take awhile to get into the city and setled.
10 NY
11 departure day

It's doable... but would be too hectic for me. I'd recommend cutting one city - probably LA. Then you'd be able to do...

0 arrival day
1 SF
2 SF
3 SF
4 Fly to Washington
5 DC
6 DC
7 DC
8 Fly to NY
9 NY
10 NY
11 departure day

Alternatively, cut a day from DC and add to NY.

Highlights:
NY - Statue of Liberty, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim, Empire State Building, Central Park
(recommend Circle Line sightseeing cruise), a play on (or off) Broadway, South Street Seaport

LA - Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Santa Monica Pier, tour of movie stars homes, Universal Studios, Getty museum

SF - Alcatraz, ride a cable car, Chinatown, cross the Golden Gate (the park is worth a visit), Fisherman's Wharf (very touristy); not sure you have time, but a side trip to the Napa Valley would be great

DC - Smithsonian (esp the Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, National Art Gallery, and Holocaust Museum - there are many others - those just happen to be my favorites); the Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WW II Memorial. White House tour is good, but time-consuming. Suggest a moonlight tour of the monuments (go on the trolley if you'll be there in the summertime). If you have kids, they might like the Spy Museum - otherwise skip it - too much else to see in your limited time.

Hope this helps!

nytraveler

You don;t have 2 days in each - since much of your time will be spent in travel. SF to LA will take a good half of a day, as will NYC to DC. From coast to coast you will lose a whole day. IMHO NYC needs at least 5 days and the others need 3/4 days each to see even the most basic sights.

I would either do at least a few more days or cut at least one city (probably LA - which I find extremely tedious with not that much to do).

The obligatory stops in each depend on who you are and what interests you have.

If you look at destinations above it will give details - as will about a zillion posts below.

If you tell us something about you (are you 20? 40? 80? - do you like or hate museums? are you a foodie?) people can make suggestions that will help.

wliwl

It can take a LONG time just to get in and out of NYC from the airport. This is a lot of ground to cover in 10 days!

Where are you coming from, have you been here before, what time of year, what do you like to do/see?

GoTravel

Day One Arrive San Francisco.

Day Two San Francisco

Day Three leave San Francisco Fly to LA

Rest of day three LA

Day Four LA

Day Four leave LA on Redeye arriving NY on day five

Day Five NY

Day Six NY

Day Seven fly or train (same time when you include arrival time at airport and get from airports to inner cities) to DC

Rest of day seven DC

Day eight DC

Day nine DC

Day ten crash and burn on a plane home from the exhaustion of above trip.

More sane way to do this trip?

Five days in San Francisco and five days in NYC.

paulusta

many thanks for the replies.
the 10 days are excluding the travel time and I plan to fly from one city to another.

Some more information about me:
I am 30's, male. A visitor that is currently staying in Houston-TX.
When traveling, I like to take pictures around the landmark of the city and enjoying the new experience (riding cable car in SF sounds like a plan).

I prefer to take a quick tour. for instance, taking picture around of The Alamo and having dinner in Riverwalks are enough for me.

any other suggestion for my itinerary?

Need more suggestions here..
- What would be the efficient way to commute from one place to another place within the city?
I mean, is it better to take taxi? or should I just rent a car?
(efficient here means, not time-consuming - like waiting for a bus, but with lower budget).
- Is it worthed to take the city tour package? because I often see their ads in a brochure but not sure if the tour is really worth the money.


thank you...

Ackislander

You certainly don't want to rent a car in any of these cities EXCEPT LA. You will spend more time looking for parking than seeing the sights. For a visit focused on photographing the high spots, I would begin with a Gray Line tour and then go back to anything you found interesting.

suze

You'll lose the entire day flying between west coast back to DC/NYC, what with the lenghth of the flight & the time change working against you.

So in reality it will look more like: 2 days SF, 1 day changing citiesh, 2 days LA, 1 day to fly back east, 1 day DC, 1 day changing cities, 2 days NYC = 10 days.

dmlove

Within the 4 cities you plan to visit, other than LA, you absolutely do not need/want a car. Traffic is a mess, parking is expensive, there are much more efficient less expensive ways to travel. In NY and Washington, which are quite compact, use the subway (or bus, which is slower but at least you can look out the windows). In San Francisco, which is also compact, take the cable car, buses or trolleys. In LA, a car is best because it's very spread out.

suze

In Los Angeles you definitely want a car, in San Francisco and New York you do not.

Sorry, don't know about Wash DC.

Anonymous

No need for a car in DC, which has an excellent public transit system and plenty of taxis.

paulusta

thanks again for all the replies...

What would be the recommended hostel in each city (LA, SF, NY and DC)?
I am looking for hostel which is located near the main sightings.


thanks.

nytraveler

Sights in NYC are spread out over an area 8 miles long and 2 wide - plus islands in the harbor. So there isn;t any one place near all - or more than a few - of the sights. The only Hostel I'm familiar with is Hosteling International (103rd & Amsterdam) which is not near major sights (except the north of Central Park and the Cathedral of St John the Divine). But it is very near 2 subway stops (the best way to get around NYC).

The people I run into who are staying there seem satisfied. I believe a bed in a dorm room with locker is about $40 per night.

Also - in terms of photography you should know that NYC is under a permanent orange alert, and while normal travel snapshots are fine - there are security regs against photos of any sensitive area - and if you try to set up tripods, etc you may be stopped.

nytraveler

Oh - and I agree you need a car in LA - but it is worse then useless in the other 3 cities.

Your best bet from NYC to DC - or vice versa - is Amtrak. The trains run very frequently, it won;t take any longer than flying (since you're doing downtown to downtown) and it's WAY more comfortable than flyiing.

jent103

If you're starting from Houston (and haven't bought tickets already), why not fly to the East Coast first? That way when you move to the West Coast, you'll actually benefit from the time change.

Brutforce

Pick a coast...all you'll be getting out of that trip is jetlag.