Washington DC
Hilton Garden Inn – 1333 N Court House Road, Arlington VA
Again, you will not find this hotel in the travel brochures. We chose to stay in Arlington as it was cheaper. We were 3 minutes walk to the Metro (train) station and 7 minutes into the centre of Washington. They checked us when we arrived, 2 hours before the official check-in time.
The hotel was lovely, the rooms a little on the small side but very comfortable and clean. There is free wireless internet in the room.
No breakfast but there is always free hot coffee available in the hotel lobby.
Washington DC Tips
· The Old Town Trolley Tour was brilliant. Hop on hop off privileges at all the big attractions. There are three loops, downtown, uptown and Arlington Cemetery. It can be fairly busy and hard to get on at the main train station stop if you don’t get going early in the morning.
· If you want to go to the top of the Washington Monument, get there by 9am to get a ticket for your return time. The queue is long and you will more than likely have to come back a few hours later for your time. The ticket is free.
· Near the hotel is a group of restaurants, all brilliant; a café, Italian and Thai.
· Supershuttle was terrifying and we cancelled our return trip (and got our money back). He did 20 miles over the speed limit and almost had two accidents. We took a taxi back to the airport which was cheaper than the shuttle cost.
Niagara Falls
Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls - 114 Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, NY
We chose to stay on the US side because it is cheaper. The hotel is dreadful to look from the outside but inside was lovely. We couldn’t check-in until 3pm so we had 3 hours to kill after we arrived.
We had a room on the top floor but overlooking the car park. The other side of the building looked towards Canada. The room was lovely, with a floating timber floor. The bathroom was very small and the exhaust fan never turned off and even when you shut the door, you could still hear it.
The hotel offered free cable internet in the room.
The area is very run down and a lot of places are deserted. Just walking to the casino in the daylight was pretty scary.
Niagara Falls Tips
· You can do the Maid of the Mist tour from either side, US or Canada. We chose to do The Niagara Falls and Great Gorge Adventure Pass on the Canadian side including Maid of the Mist, Journey Behind the Falls, White Water Boardwalk (formerly Great Gorge Adventure), Butterfly Conservatory and on off on the people mover bus. The tour on the US side had a Cave of the Winds but we really wanted to go behind the falls (and loved it).
· Walking across the bridge between the US and Canada takes less than five minutes and can be faster than driving (because of the border crossing).
· A car is handy as shuttle buses from the airport to the area are reasonably expensive. Also there isn’t many places to eat in Niagara Falls and it is handy to be able to drive to other areas for food.
New York
Avalon Vincci Hotel - 16 East 32nd Street, New York, NY
Hotel is very conveniently located, just around the corner from the Empire State Building. Rooms are what you expect for New York, small but surprisingly, the bathroom was the biggest we’ve seen anywhere. We paid A$328 a night which was expected for New York. However the bed was reported to be a queen size but it was a double bed. It had a floating timber floor and surprisingly, a refrigerator/mini bar. There is free wireless internet in the foyer but we found by putting the laptop on the window sill in our room, we could access the internet.
The staff weren’t very friendly and even being in the most expensive hotel of our trip, they wouldn’t cash a travellers cheque.
New York Tips
· The Supershuttle was slow and tedious, moving in and around the New York streets. The shuttle cost us A$40 for the two us but for US$45 (a flat fee to and from the airport) you can get a taxi get there a lot faster. It took us two hours from the airport to the hotel in the shuttle and 45 minutes in the taxi.
· The 48 hr All Loops Double Decker Tour bus is a great way to see all of New York. Each loop takes about three hours and there are three of them so you can see why it is two days. We bought our tickets online and had to go to the main office to exchange our voucher, which was three blocks over and nine blocks up. However, on almost every street corner you could pick up tickets for half of what we paid.
· If walking around, avoid 5th Avenue. If you take Madison or another street, you’ll find less people and reduce your walking time.
San Francisco
Grant Hotel – 753 Bush Street, San Francisco
Hated it. The place was old and very smelly. The beds were so old and the pillows, all two of them, were so thin you needed had bothered. It was very noisy from the street, people next door and people upstairs. It was close (2 minutes) to the cable car. Free wireless internet in the room. We were expecting it to be cheapish but this was dreadful so we left after one night.
Radisson Hotel Fisherman’s Wharf – 250 Beach Street, San Francisco
Loved it. We booked it on Expedia and made our way down. They checked us in immediately at 11am. The room was smallish but very comfortable and clean. Free wireless internet in the room. It was a bit noisy early in the morning from the street.
San Francisco Tips
· Supershuttle was dreadful. The shuttle itself had a broken side mirror and dents all over. The shuttle driver banged me in the arm with someone elses bag and didn’t say sorry. He didn’t get a tip.
· The taxi driver we had from hotel 1 to hotel 2 explained that the shuttle industry was deregulated a while ago and now these guys are owner drivers. The company doesn’t have any control over the drivers or their vans. We cancelled our shuttle back to the airport and got a taxi, again it was less than the shuttle would have cost us.
· We did a Gray Line Deluxe City Tour. 2½ hours and it stopped at various locations like The Palace of Fine Arts, under the Golden Gate Bridge, beside the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge and a guided tour of other areas. Very interesting but cold. Take a jumper or sit inside.
· Best meal I had the entire time we were away was at the Blue Mermaid Chowder House & Bar, 471 Jefferson Street at Hyde, just a few minutes from Fisherman’s Wharf. The crab cakes were to die for.
Honolulu
ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel – 2570 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu
Beautiful hotel. We booked an ocean view room and were not disappointed. 18th floor, balcony overlooking the beach. I just sat out there and read my book, looking at the ocean and listening to the live music coming from the bar in the hotel which started at 4pm. The room was spotless, and beautifully decorated, with a LCD TV. Bathroom was a bit small. Cable internet in room for a US$9.99 a day charge. They had an offer of stay two nights get a third night free so we ended up paying A$252 a night. Well worth it.
We could not check in until 3pm.
There is a lagoon area right across the street, which keeps the waves out. If you want to be in the surf you have to go further up but we liked the lagoon. The main market place is only 6 minutes walk.
Honolulu Tips
· We booked through Viator the hotel transfers. We made an enquiry of Viator a week before our arrival and they emailed back saying they had cancelled it for us. We never asked them too. All attempts to have them reinstate the booking failed. They even telephoned us and left a message on our home answering machine, totally not caring that we were in the USA. However, when we arrived at the airport, the company was there to pick us up. We don’t know what happened. The transfer was quick and easy as was the return to the airport for our flight home.
· We did the Arizona Memorial/Honolulu City Tour booked by you, Kylee. It was supposed to be a 4 hour tour. We choose to book this one as we assumed being on a tour you’d get preference at the memorial, not so! It was badly organised. We were picked up at 9.15 moved to a second location to get on a bus. We arrived at the memorial at 10.30 and our ticket for the tour wasn’t until 12.15, not enough time to do the city tour so we had to sit around. We didn’t get out of the memorial until 1.30, already over 4 hours and the city tour was going to take another 1.5 hours. We decided not to continue as it was our last day, and returned back to the hotel in a taxi.
OVERVIEW
· If you have the time, book the trip yourself. www.expedia.com.au gave us the best prices. 90% of our trip was booked through them, with one hotel being booked through www.zuji.com.au We booked park tickets through their direct sites and buying online saved money. We paid US$35 a ticket for Magic Mountain and the price at the gate was US$. We had the travel agent, Flight Centre (WE DO NOT RECOMMEND AT NORTH SYDNEY) book most of our airline tickets for us. We later discovered that had we booked directly with the airline we would have
- Gotten a cheaper price
- Had been able to book our seats straight away and would have avoided having to sit apart a lot of the time
- Not had gotten the high security checks, taking forever.
- In hindsight we would have avoided New York. We didn’t have a great time. Everyone was rude, from the expensive hotel to the service in restaurants.
· Discovery Cove is a must recommend for anyone going to Orlando.
· I’d never recommend Supershuttle and on many occasions, the taxi was faster and cheaper (except for Anaheim).
· All hotels were what we expected for the price except Grant Hotel in San Francisco. I would recommend all of the others if it suited their price range and expectations.
No comments:
Post a Comment