Practical itinerary to US & Canada
Mar 9th, 1999, 02:20 AM
#1
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Practical itinerary to US & Canada
My family plan to visit New York City, Orlando, San Francisco, Washington D.C, Vancouver B.C, Victoria B.C and Toronto. We would like to arrange the stopovers in the best logical order. We also prefer direct flights from/to Sydney. We thought of flying direct from Sydney to San Francisco as the first stopover for 2 days, then to Washington DC but haven't figure out what is the best way to getting there. After 2 days in Washington, next is cross country to Vancouver BC for 2 days, not sure how to get there yet. Then to Victoria BC for 2 days. Flight back to US to Orlando for 3 days, and to New York City for 2 days, again not sure how to get there. Toronto appears to be the only stopover that has direct flight back to Sydney, so we have to cross border again to Canada from New York. We greatly appreciate your expert advice. Thanks
Mar 9th, 1999, 09:21 AM
#2
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Get out a map of the US and Canada. Make a note of which cities are on the Pacific Coast (San Francisco, Vancouver) which are on the Atlantic Coast (New York, Orlando), and which are in the middle (Toronto). Then note that the two coasts are 5000 kilometers apart!! Also note that both New York and Toronto are in the north while Orlando is in the south; again, the two areas are over 1000 km apart. Visit the cities on the Pacific coast, then Orlando, then New York, and finally end up in Toronto. A family traveling thousands of kilometers will either use up a lot of time or a lot of money, and will ALWAYS create a lot of strain. Do NOT travel these thousands of kilometers unless you have to!
Mar 11th, 1999, 01:09 AM
#3
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AMAZING itinerary. All that travel in less than two weeks? Well, be sure to let us know how you manage it. I don't know whether to be impressed or dumbfounded.
Definitely take Paul up on his suggestions. Also note that there is a LOT to see in these cities ... If you have kids I think they would be exhausted by this much travel; I know I would be and I'm an adult.
Perhaps you could stick to just one coast? Do NYC, DC, and Orlando. You can drive from NYC to DC if you wanted to; or take the train. That would cut out so much flying, but it would take more time.
Or perhaps you could do Vancouver, Victoria and San Francisco. They are all on the West Coast.
All of these cities have plenty to keep you busy. I spent over a month in DC and still look forward to going back someday to see the many things I missed.
Good luck!
Definitely take Paul up on his suggestions. Also note that there is a LOT to see in these cities ... If you have kids I think they would be exhausted by this much travel; I know I would be and I'm an adult.
Perhaps you could stick to just one coast? Do NYC, DC, and Orlando. You can drive from NYC to DC if you wanted to; or take the train. That would cut out so much flying, but it would take more time.
Or perhaps you could do Vancouver, Victoria and San Francisco. They are all on the West Coast.
All of these cities have plenty to keep you busy. I spent over a month in DC and still look forward to going back someday to see the many things I missed.
Good luck!
Mar 11th, 1999, 07:47 AM
#4
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Dianne, are you flying cross country or driving? If you are driving, forget it.
You will not see anything but the endless black ribbon (or white if concrete) of Interstates and the inside of motel rooms.
Sounds like my Dad's kind of trip:
success was measured in miles driven per day, miles per gallon, and how little he could pay for a motel room. Two hours at the Grand Canyon was enough, we could look at the pictures when we got home. Problem was he didn't have a camera.
Let me ask a counter question. Would you seriously consder the following itenerary? Fly to London, drive via the Chunnel to Madrid, then drive to Moscow, then Vienna, Oslo, and back to London for the flight home?
If you flew from SF to New York, drove or took the train to DC, then flew to Orlando before flying to Vancouver, you plan night not induce rebellion in the ranks, but you would miss the best of the West without the National Parks.
My suggestion is to take one coast at a time. You could easily spend the whole time without going east of Yellowstone National Park.
If you push yourself to the limit you night drive from SF to NY in 4 days. But I think you would be in a grouch of a mood.
Unless you take your car back to where you rented it, you will pay a major league dropoff fee, in most cases.
But your plan will eat up a lot of airfare money as it is.
You will not see anything but the endless black ribbon (or white if concrete) of Interstates and the inside of motel rooms.
Sounds like my Dad's kind of trip:
success was measured in miles driven per day, miles per gallon, and how little he could pay for a motel room. Two hours at the Grand Canyon was enough, we could look at the pictures when we got home. Problem was he didn't have a camera.
Let me ask a counter question. Would you seriously consder the following itenerary? Fly to London, drive via the Chunnel to Madrid, then drive to Moscow, then Vienna, Oslo, and back to London for the flight home?
If you flew from SF to New York, drove or took the train to DC, then flew to Orlando before flying to Vancouver, you plan night not induce rebellion in the ranks, but you would miss the best of the West without the National Parks.
My suggestion is to take one coast at a time. You could easily spend the whole time without going east of Yellowstone National Park.
If you push yourself to the limit you night drive from SF to NY in 4 days. But I think you would be in a grouch of a mood.
Unless you take your car back to where you rented it, you will pay a major league dropoff fee, in most cases.
But your plan will eat up a lot of airfare money as it is.
Mar 11th, 1999, 09:46 PM
#5
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Boy, you are a glutton for punishment. It looks like you are trying to do all of this in 2 weeks. Just not reasonable at all. I would do one coast or the other. In fact I would travel to just one area like California which has more than enough to keep you occupied for several weeks let alone days. Take another trip to Vancouver/Victoria/ That area certainly warrants more than 4 days. Same thing with the other locations. Your proposed itinierary will leave you so exhausted that you will never remember what little you saw other than airports.
Mar 12th, 1999, 05:21 AM
#6
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A flight across the continent to will take you at least 5-7 hours. I would definitely try to limit your trip to either one coast or fewer locations at least. I would suggest something like: San Francisco, Vancouver, Washington, New York, Toronto - if you really can't leave much out. Orlando is certainly way out of the way. However, if you stick to the East coast, then Orlando isn't hard to do. With places this far apart, I would probably choose 2-3 cities and then see places around them. For example: Toronto and Niagra Falls, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore (or Gettysburg Battlefield), San Francisco and Yosemite National Park, Vancouver and Seattle + surrounding waterways and islands, Orlando and Florida beaches or NASA.
