Advice on trip to USA

[Vulpix0r]

That is exactly what I meant. We have to be alert of our environment. Simply panning a city based on prejudices and preconceived misinformation is absolutely no use at all. Washington DC is for many years has one of the worst crime rate in the US, however, it all depends on where you go. Anywhere around the government buildings, like the White House and Capital Hill, I never felt safer.

Just use your judgment. Unless, that is what is lacking.

What were you doing in Amherst? Have not been back there since high school

Nah, just relating what my friend said. He was kinda unfortunate to have moved to some of the shady cities one after another due to his jobs. He was in Detroit, Amherst and finally in New York where he felt NYC was so much more safer than the other two places. :bsmilie:

 

[Ingraman]

This is a good guide for New York (including areas that you should avoid). NYC still suffers a bit of a bad reputation due to crime in the 80s/early 90s, but is generally pretty safe. Just be street smart and you should be fine.

However, there are some cities that tourists should avoid, these include Philadelphia and Detroit.

 

[hetfieldpaul]

haha im studying in malibu high school, but guys if you visit the west coast you should start from san francisco -> Lake tahoe -> reno -> fresno -> Las Vegas-> Grand Canyon -> Anaeheim -> San Diego -> Los Angeles. Relatives came over to visit a year ago and my dad took them on this route speding about 4 weeks in total.

 

[Lolrence]

haha im studying in malibu high school, but guys if you visit the west coast you should start from san francisco -> Lake tahoe -> reno -> fresno -> Las Vegas-> Grand Canyon -> Anaeheim -> San Diego -> Los Angeles. Relatives came over to visit a year ago and my dad took them on this route speding about 4 weeks in total.

That's a weird route to take.. taking those places u mentioned into consideration, I would go from SF, east to Lake Tahoe (along with reno which is an hour's+ drive up from south tahoe), down to LA (Yosemite along the way), Anaheim (disneyland), down to San Diego, east to Las Vegas, further east to Grand Canyon.

Driving from Grand Canyon back to SF will be a torture :bsmilie:

 

[Wolfsfire]

I've been to all those places mentioned on that long route and they are all worth seeing and photographing, no doubt on the trip from the Grand Canyon to San Fran..can you say lumbar support..lol Also a place that's really beautiful that wasn't mentioned in CA is northern California, the Mt. Shasta area around Redding is gorgeous.

 

[Deadpoet]

haha im studying in malibu high school, but guys if you visit the west coast you should start from san francisco -> Lake tahoe -> reno -> fresno -> Las Vegas-> Grand Canyon -> Anaeheim -> San Diego -> Los Angeles. Relatives came over to visit a year ago and my dad took them on this route speding about 4 weeks in total.

I had been to all the above sights many times, if I were to put a one month driving trip together, this is what I will do.

SF-Lake Tahoe-Yosemite-Mono Lake-Death Valley-Grand Canyon-Bryce-Zion-Las Vegas-Palm Spring/Joshua Tree-San Diego-LA-Santa Babara-Monte ray/Carmel-SF.

This is an aggressive driving schedule. there will be plenty of time to shoot, but not a lot of time to do that and sight see. However, I had friends from Germany that did it and enjoyed the trip immensely.

 

[gregsz]

I had been to all the above sights many times, if I were to put a one month driving trip together, this is what I will do.

SF-Lake Tahoe-Yosemite-Mono Lake-Death Valley-Grand Canyon-Bryce-Zion-Las Vegas-Palm Spring/Joshua Tree-San Diego-LA-Santa Babara-Monte ray/Carmel-SF.

This is an aggressive driving schedule. there will be plenty of time to shoot, but not a lot of time to do that and sight see. However, I had friends from Germany that did it and enjoyed the trip immensely.

I had a bad experience in Las Vegas although many people walked around outside Casinos on the street. Drunk man came and took away my flash when I was tooking pictures for beautiful lighting of Las Vega. Although the policeman could immediately come in and caught the drunk guy, my flash had already damaged by him.

 

[hetfieldpaul]

@ lypklypk: Yes i would be a torture, therefore we made a few stops some where before driving to anaheim, sorry forgot to include, nice places in nevada such as laughlin before that.

Once last summer, dad decided to drive down from orlando to keywest, it was a torture

 

[hetfieldpaul]

2 years back , headed to the east coast to explore with my family took this route New york - > New jersey ( Atlantic City ) -> Philadelphia -> Washington Dc by driving, took a domestic to Buffalo -> Boston, then took another domestic to Orlando-> Miami -> Key west. Spent 2 weeks in Florida and the other 2 weeks touring the east coast before heading west back home.

 

[gregsz]

2 years back , headed to the east coast to explore with my family took this route New york - > New jersey ( Atlantic City ) -> Philadelphia -> Washington Dc by driving, took a domestic to Buffalo -> Boston, then took another domestic to Orlando-> Miami -> Key west. Spent 2 weeks in Florida and the other 2 weeks touring the east coast before heading west back home.

Since sharing the east coast route, New Orleans in Louisiana is an interesting place to visit too.

 

[intelemark1]

Hello...
Thank you veruy much for posting useful tips.i m planning to go to us next year,and your tips will be a great help...

 

[tSkye]

Off I go! Will feedback and update as I go along...

 

[fionalee16]

Avoid the Bronx area when you are in New York City. Very helpful if you have the MTA map for new york city.

 

[tSkye]

in HK now. i am in transit. shall post more when i am at SF.

 

[Lolrence]

in HK now. i am in transit. shall post more when i am at SF.

Lol, and I just sent you a PM about it... if you're anywhere near me, I'll meet you up. I can probably go with you to one (or few) of the National Parks during the weekends (if it fits your schedule).

 

[ray_stinger]

I'm currently in SF too, will be good to meet up with fellow Sgreans around the area. So if you all are planning visit any national parks these coming weekends, do drop me a pm too.

 

[tSkye]

ray_stinger, please PM me your number? i am thinking of doing a roadtrip through yosemite to mono lake, up to lake tahoe and back to SF this weekend. probably on Friday to Monday.

 

[slacker123]

NYC is the safest big city in the US.

Just avoid central park after dark - in any case, the park will be deserted, except for homeless guys, drug traffickers and maybe not so good characters.

i have been there perhaps 19 times in the last two years, and its always a great city to visit and enjoy. my best friend lives there and i can say that NY tourism and NYPD has huge incentives to keep the city safe to keep the tourism economy going

if you have questions, you can ask me, I'm back for the summer right now, but have been in the US for the last 5 years and have photographed everywhere from alaska to hawaii to wyoming to montana to utah to arizona, nevada, california all the way to east coast cities from vermont all the way down south to key west. not forgetting the middle states of illinois, indiana, ohio, missouri, tennesse, kentucky and virginia and west virginia.

as my PM box has been full since about 2004, just ask in this thread and i will do my best to answer your travel questions.

i do have to say that 50 us is a very tight budget, most motels are around 30 usd a night, conservatively speaking, and food is not cheap in the US - think about this way, i think the cheapest thing you can buy would really be fast food, and i really hope you aren't gonna eat fast food all the way throughout your trip. you could, but its SO BAD for your health.

 

[slacker123]

oh you should come to Boston too! its beautiful in new england during the early summer! just take the chinatown bus from canal street for $15 and 4.5 hours. buses depart every hour and there's much to see in Boston as well (hint hint: Harvard & MIT) and experience the atmosphere of one of America's most historical cities - and certainly its most intellectual.

 

[Parka]

I'm going to San Diego Comic Con on 22 July.

Anyone been to San Diego before?