Gap Year Travelling America (2013)

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Reply 20

michaelo

and sorry did you buy all the passes(travel and attraction ones) when you got each of the places?

Reply 21

Emma_B

We stayed at the Morningside Inn, and I would definitely recommend it :smile:

There were not many hostels in Manhattan that were within our budget, but this one just about fit. We had a private double room but with a shared bathroom, but it was all very clean. It was around the corner from a subway station and a few shops, about 5 blocks from Central Park and a block or so from a smaller park called Morningside Park. It felt like a really safe area (I think it was a by a university so it was quite a 'student-y' area), even at night, so we were not worried about getting the subway to and from the main areas such as Times Square once it got dark. However, I think that they like to class themselves as a hotel (even though we found it on hostelbookers) and I'm not sure that they do dorm rooms there, not sure what your accommodation plans are for your trip but if you intend to stay in a dorm if there are a lot of you going, it may not be suitable for you.

Reply 22

Emma_B

And we bought all the attraction passes before we left at attractionticketsdirect.com (they send them to your address so you have them before you go) and bought travel passes once we were there, usually from the first subway/train station that we found.

Reply 23

michaelo

Okay thank you, yeah like you say maybe a bit small for possible travel plans but i'll check out the location and see if there are hostels in that area.

Big thank you for all of you help! :smile:

Reply 24

101stAirbourne

Hey everyone,
I've been thinking of doing this for a while aswell so am very interested. The ideas so far sound great, how about seeing a sports game maybe aswell?
Let me know what you think! :smile:

James

Reply 25

Emma_B

Original post by 101stAirbourne

how about seeing a sports game maybe aswell?

That is actually one of the things that we regretted not doing. We were hoping to see the Yankees or the Red Sox but by the time we checked it out, the only tickets left were the mega expensive ones! So try and book early if you do want to do something like this!

Reply 26

michaelo

Thans Emma :smile:

Hey james, thanks for posting man. I'm off to work now but i'd definitely be up for that. If you've got fb that would be good too, send me a pm if you're okay with that. just makes it easier to contact etc.

thanks dude!

michael

Reply 27

LRod

Wow, Emma has been so helpful! Loving the ideas people are putting out there too. :smile:

Reply 28

purplerain1197

Hi.
I'd be quite interested in doing this too!

I'm a 22 year old student graduating this year and been thinking about travelling next year, either round America or South East Asia.

Definitely want to go to New York and California, so quite like the look of this plan!

Emma

Reply 29

michaelo

nice nice

yeah just cool to hear from people and maybe start thinking about plans or whatever in a month or two :smile:

michael

Reply 30

jp572

Hey, I'm graduating in July this year and then working in London until December to save some funds up for travelling. I'm heading out in Jan 2013 and the plan is to go SE Asia --> Aus+NZ+Fiji --> USA (mainly West Coast) or the other way round i.e. USA first. I plan to go away for around 7/8 months as hopefully I will have a graduate job to start in September 2013. Most of my mates have already graduated and either travelling at the moment or currently knee deep in their graduate jobs. I'm keen to be kept up to date with plans of other people as would be cool to head out with a few!

Reply 31

faye_b

Hey Guys,
My names faye and i'm 23. just read your posts & i am also interested.
The places and things mentioned are exactly what im wanting to do also :smile:

Reply 32

shaun12345

I'm driving from New York to LA next June and my budget is £3,000
Google for hotel prices, you'd be surprised how much the hotels can vary from place to place! Chicago and NY were over twice the price of more rural locations or just smaller cities (Salt Lake, for example)
If you're hiking you must include Grand Canyon and general Utah scenery, it all looks amazing

Reply 33

michaelo

thinking amtrak dude, like nyc to chicago to denver to san fran to l.a.

yeah yeah, hostel world is pretty sweet for all that stuff

Reply 34

RibenaRockstar

A few things:
- in NY I stayed in the West Side YMCA, which has tiny tiny rooms and bunk beds but the bathrooms were quite good and it was right by the Lincoln Center so quite handy for the subway
- I'd recommend seeing one of the less amazing sport teams, as they're often a bit cheaper and you can still soak up the atmosphere - we saw the Washington Nationals Baseball team, and it was an amazing experience.
- the Museum of Modern Art in New York is free on a Friday evening - or was in July 2011 and that had been a long running offer, so is probably still the case. It's sponsored by Target.
- cheap eats in downtown NY, there's a McDonalds right on Times Square, it kind of felt right to eat there :smile:

- there's an amazing place called Ellen' Stardust Diner at Broadway and 51st where the waitstaff are all people who want to be on broadway, the food was really good too. Maybe if a broadway show is out of budget, you go there :smile:

- Top of the Rock .(Rockefeller building) was amazing, apart from anything else you can actually see the empire state building, which you can't if you're at the top of it.
- we walked most places in New York from said YMCA (63rd st), which was fine.

thanks for sharing!

Original post by michaelo

thinking amtrak dude, like nyc to chicago to denver to san fran to l.a.

yeah yeah, hostel world is pretty sweet for all that stuff

I did Amtrak Chicago to San Francisco, stopping in the Rockies in a little town called Glenwood Springs for a night. Then flew to San Diego, bus up to L.A. - it was meant to be train to L.A. but the tracks had been damaged by a recent earthquake so we were put on a bus instead.

If you're travelling using Amtrak prepare for delays....I'm talking 2/3/4 hours is common and 10 hours plus isn't unusual. Freight trains have priority so your train can just end up sitting on the tracks for an hour or more at a time. This means you have to plan your stopovers carefully - we wanted to go to Denver but the train was due to arrive at like 11pm, meaning that if it wasn't on time (likely) then we'd be arriving at an awful time. At one point our San Fran train was running 10 hours behind, but in the end we arrived 5 hours late....at 10.30pm. It's not a huge deal since you'll obviously be on holiday, but just be prepared for it.

Reply 37

johnnyfh

Hi guys/girls,

Sounds amazing, and something that I would also love to do.

Do you have a rough estimate on dates, because I am also going to do a ski season?

John

Reply 38

michaelo