Observations from my American road trip

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jonnyburgojonnyburgo Frets: 12258
The people - really nice and friendly, we Air BnB'd it mostly and the hosts that we met were lovely, full of local advice and ideas. 
The places - Seattle was great, we were near Alki beach which was nice and not too close to the city - Portland was Meh but Oregon itself is outstanding, we stayed in a place called Sandy about an hour out of Portland, absolutely stunning, mountains, river swimming, loved it. San Francisco - loved it, very vibrant and a real upbeat feeling city, we stayed in Berkeley again about an hour out of San Fran but an easy ride in on the BART system. If you are visiting Frisco, I heartily recommend Berkeley as a base, much cheaper that the ridiculous rents in SF Very liberal place, University town, interesting shops and eateries, nice culture.

 LA/California - we stayed in Van Nuys which again is a more affordable spot, but our house area was really lovely clean and peaceful although you knew you could find trouble close by if you were looking for it!

I loved Santa Monica and Venice Beach, such an energy, we rented bikes and rode right up the coast on the path, beautiful. Tons of freaks and weirdos in Venice and I reckon it could get a bit sketchy after sundown, but wow what a buzz of a place in the day, people of every pecadillo out and about doing their thing.

Malibu beach , beautiful, awesome sea for swimming / getting trashed by big waves, the kids had a ball.

Hollywood Hills, had a nice hike around the Hollywood reservoir which is a great spot for pics of the sign, about as close as you can get to it. The sign ain't all that really though, it brought to mind the times when my kids were small and id give them a big piece of paper and ask them to draw something and they'd do a little doodle in one corner, that's kind of how the sign looks in the hills.

Universal and Warner studios were both great days out.

Las Vegas, We were there for the last 1 and 1/2 days, which wasa day too long for me, Imagine a bigger better Blackpool which is designed to take all of your money even if you're not a gamber, 4 subway sandwiches and 2 drinks - $65. I guess its worth it to see it in all of its kitsch glory though.

Downsides - tipping, I still dont really know if I was doing it right, sometimes I didnt do it at all.

People with untreated mental illness - quite a few people in a bad way, waking down the street screaming/crying/threatening (themselves mostly) Big homeless problems pretty much everywhere.

A big class divide,We rented a car but used public transport to get into central placesPublic transport is only used by the poor, the ,mentally ill, homeless and drug addicts  Nobody walks anywhere especially in LA.

Driving - Holy shit those freeway are crazy, 5 or 6 lines on each side, everyone doing at least 80, no indicating, switching lanes, not letting you in, not letting you out, exits on BOTH side of the road, sometimes youd get on the freeway only for the sat nav to tell you to get off on the other side in 1km, across 6 lanes of traffic, all doing 80. Not for the faint hearted.

I'm very jet lagged, its 2.20am and Ive been awake for about 30 hours


"OUR TOSSPOT"
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  • danodano Frets: 1568
    Great summary. I've been to most of those places and had a blast in them. Seattle is probably my favourite city in the US, a really great place to live.
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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    edited August 2019
    Sounds like a great trip. There’s a few places on your list I’d love to see. 

    The tipping takes some getting used to, it’s usually a minimum of 15% but 20% is more generally accepted as the norm. I’m amazed you got away with paying nothing... the servers can often give you a very hard time if you don’t stump up.   
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    I think it was 1989 or 90 when I went to Las Vegas and I had a similar reaction, I expect the continuous expansion since won't have helped how I feel about it. My abiding memory is going into a MacDonalds for a coke and they had slot machines in there. There was something on the telly the other night about staying in Las Vegas and a couple who go there all the time from the UK but live basically for free once they get there, using voucher books, budget restaurants, places with free refills,etc. Although doing that for your holiday sounds possibly worse than paying $65 at Subway.   


    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    I think it's traditional to pick up hitchhiking serial killers.
    You've missed out on a big part of Murican culture.
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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    I quite liked Vegas. Take it as an adult Disneyland, don’t get hooked into the gambling and treat the whole thing as a huge laugh and it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to spend more than three days there but it’s a good base for seeing other things like the Hoover Dam, Red Valley and the Grand Canyon. 
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    I hated Vegas- the whole place is sad.

    Love Cali, Utah, Arizona.
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  • Sounds like you had a great and varied trip.

    We did a similar one from SF down to San Diego and found much the same kind of things, though I didn't care much for LA apart from the observatory. For every nice street there were 6 bad ones which could have been in a Snoop Dog video surrounding it, that I felt quite vulnerable in as a weedy tourist in a Nissan Note. The buses were more terrifying for me than the 6 lane each side motorway (but probably because we hit it in rush hour traffic so quite slow moving). I though the buses were bad in Birmingham! They were like an outtake from Resident Evil. 

    I too was a bit alarmed in both SF and LA about the homelessness and number of what could only be mentally ill people as you say, wandering about and being completely and utterly ignored. Four or five times in SF we actually stopped to check that a homeless person was not in fact dead on the pavement but most other people were simply stepping over or around them. Other than that I loved SF.

    I felt in general it was a bit like London - all well and good if you were comfortably off and had means but would be one of the most soul destroying awful places if you did not have means.
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  • AlexCAlexC Frets: 2396
    Sounds like a great experience.
    But did you sell your soul at the crossroads though?
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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    boogieman said:
    I quite liked Vegas. Take it as an adult Disneyland, don’t get hooked into the gambling and treat the whole thing as a huge laugh and it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to spend more than three days there but it’s a good base for seeing other things like the Hoover Dam, Red Valley and the Grand Canyon. 
    Totally agree. And research where to eat cheaply - you can get vouchers as said, and eat-as-much-as-you-want buffet day passes to a lot of the mega-casino restaurants. The casinos look close because they're so big, but they aren't and it's regulalry 100F - so a long walk can be arduous - use the free mono-rail.
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  • Oh, and in LA Mrs Thecolourbox wanted to spot some celebs (despite her not being into that kind of thing normally and her not being particularly knowledgeable about who's who) so she had us walking up and down the posh shopping bits trying to recognise anybody. Turns out a lot of people there look quite rich so it wasn't very fruitful.

    But while we were waiting at a pedestrian crossing, a well dressed chap stands next to us just as the Mrs was ranting about not seeing anybody well known. I happened to look at this chap as I was checking for the lights and thought "hmm he looks a bit like the chap from Red Dragon", just as he looked straight at the Mrs huffing dramatically and went to walk off. Turns out it was indeed Ralph Fiennes! He did look a bit bemused when I said "I really enjoyed Red Dragon" to him to try and make up for it, as I couldn't remember what else he'd been in. The Mrs looked at me like I'd lost the plot, but she was gutted when I remembered he was Voldermort!
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  • LodiousLodious Frets: 1942
    We just got back from a 3 week tour of the West Coast National Parks. We took the kids and drove over 4 thousand miles in a comedy size SUV. I totally agree about the highways, I generally find US drivers pretty laid back, but on 101 from SF to San Jose it was chaos. People don't indicate and even they are not driving that fast, they change lanes really quickly.

    Single carriageway roads were dead easy though, and trucks move at the same speed as cars, so there is no pressure to overtake. Some the speeds the trucks go is mental, especially with the steep gradients. It's easier to park a monster SUV over there than an estate car in the UK.

    Tipping was a ballache. We bought 3 ice creams from a counter and got presented with options of 18/20/22% for the tip (and zero....which is what they got). We tipped 18% for sit down meals, but TBH, some of the service was not that great, and once you have paid the tip, they pretty much ignore you. 

    The only bit of the holiday I wasn't keen on was Vegas.I'm afraid I just don't get it at all. 

    San Francisco with the kids was an experience. We got on a bus at 8:00PM and it was the maddest thing I've experienced in a long while. Kids found a knife (weapon, not kitchen) as soon as we got on the bus, then a lunatic got on and started abusing mum's with young kids while selling stuff he'd obviously just stolen, the bus then broke down and ejected us into the middle of downtown SF with loads of crazy people. It was a hell of an eye opener for the kids :-).

    We got to see Steve Earle in Bosie for free! it looked like it had sold out so I went to the theatre on the off chance of getting a couple of tickets and the guy on the box office just handed over two tickets which someone who couldn't make the gig had handed in. Amazing gig too, really good band with a blinding pedal steel player. 

    The National Parks were amazing. It only cost something like 80USD for a years family pass. That's got to be bargain of the century. We did Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce's Canyon, Tetons, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon, Crater Lake then came back down the Oregon coast and had a couple of nights in SF. 
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  • ronnybronnyb Frets: 1742
    Lodious said:
    We just got back from a 3 week tour of the West Coast National Parks. We took the kids and drove over 4 thousand miles in a comedy size SUV. I totally agree about the highways, I generally find US drivers pretty laid back, but on 101 from SF to San Jose it was chaos. People don't indicate and even they are not driving that fast, they change lanes really quickly.

    Single carriageway roads were dead easy though, and trucks move at the same speed as cars, so there is no pressure to overtake. Some the speeds the trucks go is mental, especially with the steep gradients. It's easier to park a monster SUV over there than an estate car in the UK.

    Tipping was a ballache. We bought 3 ice creams from a counter and got presented with options of 18/20/22% for the tip (and zero....which is what they got). We tipped 18% for sit down meals, but TBH, some of the service was not that great, and once you have paid the tip, they pretty much ignore you. 

    The only bit of the holiday I wasn't keen on was Vegas.I'm afraid I just don't get it at all. 

    San Francisco with the kids was an experience. We got on a bus at 8:00PM and it was the maddest thing I've experienced in a long while. Kids found a knife (weapon, not kitchen) as soon as we got on the bus, then a lunatic got on and started abusing mum's with young kids while selling stuff he'd obviously just stolen, the bus then broke down and ejected us into the middle of downtown SF with loads of crazy people. It was a hell of an eye opener for the kids :-).

    We got to see Steve Earle in Bosie for free! it looked like it had sold out so I went to the theatre on the off chance of getting a couple of tickets and the guy on the box office just handed over two tickets which someone who couldn't make the gig had handed in. Amazing gig too, really good band with a blinding pedal steel player. 

    The National Parks were amazing. It only cost something like 80USD for a years family pass. That's got to be bargain of the century. We did Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce's Canyon, Tetons, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon, Crater Lake then came back down the Oregon coast and had a couple of nights in SF. 
    Mmm, 101 SF to San Jose. Been up and down there a few times. Mrs Ronny usually drove so i bought her this to remind her.
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  • blobbblobb Frets: 2914
    I was in San Diego on Xmas day. Yay! sounds great. Until you realise that everyone spends Xmas day with their families, so the only people in San Diego that day were me and anyone who didn't have any family. It was like a Zombie Apocalypse.

    Then I went to Tijuana. Hated it. Like an immigration theme park. I walked along the 'main' street until I got to the end and some bloke comes up to me "have some Tequila, my friend". Tell you what, I really enjoyed the walk back. Dancing in the streets with the locals, music everywhere. God knows what was in that tequila.

    Then back to the zombies walking round the shopping malls. And the homeless too, they were still there.

    Santa Monica was lovely.

    Feelin' Reelin' & Squeelin'
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  • AdiAdi Frets: 331
    San Francisco is an epitome of liberal utopia , full of shit, drug addicts and homeless people , living next to Silicon Valley millionaires as one happy family
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  • jonnyburgojonnyburgo Frets: 12258
    Adi said:
    San Francisco is an epitome of liberal utopia , full of shit, drug addicts and homeless people , living next to Silicon Valley millionaires as one happy family
    Didn't know those things epitomised a liberal utopia, oh dearest @Adi do you find no joy in life?
    "OUR TOSSPOT"
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    I'm going to San Francisco on the 6th for a few days then driving to Vegas for a few days then driving to LA to stay for a week. I've driven from Florida to Dallas before so pretty much know what to expect on the roads, the freeways in Dallas were just mental 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • jonnyburgojonnyburgo Frets: 12258
    edited August 2019
    That sounds great, not being parronising but you do realise the distance between SF and Las Vegas? I would suggest a stop over if possible, still long drives with a stop off. LA to Las Vegas driving is about 5 hrs which is ok but SF to LA is quite a big one. Pismo beach is a good halfway stopover between SF and LA
    "OUR TOSSPOT"
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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    ronnyb said:

     
    Mmm, 101 SF to San Jose. Been up and down there a few times. Mrs Ronny usually drove so i bought her this to remind her.
    Best bit of 101 is after San Jose/Santa Cruz going south through Big Sur
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  • That sounds great, not being parronising but you do realise the distance between SF and Las Vegas? I would suggest a stop over if possible, still long drives with a stop off. LA to Las Vegas driving is about 5 hrs which is ok but SF to LA is quite a big one. Pismo beach is a good halfway stopover between SF and LA
    If I was driving SF to LV I’d go through Lee Vining and stay there a night. That would leave 2 x @5hr drives but takes in Tuolome Meadows at Yosemite , sunrise at Mono Lake and that a half day in Death Valley NP.  And all the driving on that route once you get near Yosemite onwards is amazing.   
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  • The whole tipping thing in the states drives me mad. We’ve several friends over there and apparently you’re supposed to tip the basic amount even if you have bad service. Fuck that!

    I’m actually a good tipper but if I receive shoddy service and they still expect 15% you’re getting nothing. They hold their hand out for tips there for doing naff all 
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