The USA is such a huge place. We're spending about a week and a half there. Rather than try fit in both coasts, we are just sticking to the West Coast.
We fly into Los Angeles and spend a few nights there. Everyone asks if we are going to Disneyland- no we are not planning to. I know it's awesome but it was a choice of doing Disneyland (minus any rollar coasters because I still get a lot of pain from my C-Section scar) or going to San Francisco. We chose the later.
In LA we're hoping to check out Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Venice Beach. We arrive about lunch time, having flown all through the night, so for the first day we're not planning much. Driving is going to be an adventure, on the 'wrong' side of the road. Plus it's hard to imagine the traffic...you don't realize how small a city Christchurch is til you've been elsewhere!
It's the end of summer over there so the weather should be pretty good. A lot of the hotels talk about having swimming pools, like it's a must have, which is quite a novelty. Most of the outdoor pools in chch are closed for at least half the year!
Next stop is San Francisco. Must do things there are Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars, and checking out some of the neighbourhoods like Chinatown. San Frans got such a good reputation for public transport so we aren't using a car there.
We're taking a bit of a gamble with the place we are staying. In LA we're two nights in Hollywood, one in Santa Monica, and then two in Union Square in San Fran. We've gone for the best of the cheapest; places that are cheap or reasonably affordable, no frills, but have good reviews from other travellers. We've gone for location over luxury, figuring we won't be spending much time in our rooms anyway!
Once we get to Las Vegas, we are staying in a friends condo (thanks so much Karina!) We're spending 4 nights there as it makes it cheaper, and my uncle who's recently been to Vegas says you could easily spend that much time there. Bring on the casinos!!! I'm not much of a gambler, the pokies is about all I've done, but they have lots of free attractions to that have nothing to do with gambling.
We're also taking a day trip to the Grand Canyon. After much thought, we're skipping the most popular South Rim (which gets 90% of the parks annual visitors) and the far away North Rim to go to the controversial West Rim. This part of the Grand Canyon is not actually a part of the National Park. It's owned by the Hualapai tribe who built a skywalk jutting out over the edge.
People who have been to the South Rim say it's the best and that the views at the West Rim don't compare, however they are still amazing views. The pluses we found is that we can make it a day trip rather than an overnight excursion, meaning we could fit it in easier to our limited time. The downsides are it is way more expensive and once you are there you must go along with the self-guided tour by the tribes people. You can't just go hiking on your own or anything. However if it's a case of doing the West Rim or not doing it at all, well, West Rim it is!
Our last day is spent in LAX til about 10pm at night. I figure it's one of the worlds biggest, busiest airports so it will keep us busy!
Then we arrive back in Auckland 12ish hours later, then catch a flight back home to Christchurch :-)
Have an amazing time! You two really deserve this!
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