North America Road Trip 2014

06 Feb

06Feb

In the summer of 2014, I experienced the most amazing 4 weeks of my life, travelling across the North of America from East to West, with my Mum, Dad, Nan, Grandad and younger brother Cameron. We visited all the main tourist cities and landmarks across the country driving or flying from one destination to another. Some of the places were absolutely breath-taking, with others being less so

I thought I would give a quick overview of our journey, and review my top 5 places to visit giving little tips and tricks of things to see and do.

Our trip in order:

New York City ---> Philadelphia ---> Washington DC ---> Niagara Falls ---> Niagara on the Lake ---> Detroit ---> Chicago ---> Denver ---> Vail ---> Grand Junction ---> Bryce Canyon ---> Grand Canyon ---> Las Vegas ---> Los Angeles ---> San Francisco

Top 5 places I visited counting down to the best:

5. Niagara on the lake

Without a doubt, this was the most stunning hidden destination I have ever seen and I am so glad we found it. Don’t get me wrong – Niagara Falls itself was amazing; it was lit up in different colours and we had the chance to experience the falls themselves via the Maid of the Mist boat trip. However, the actual town where the falls is located is very similar to Blackpool, with the arcades and cheap sort of vibe, so that was a little disappointing (we were on the Canada side). But literally just a half an hour drive away from the falls was Niagara on the lake; a little town by the Lake Ontario. It was so peaceful, with a gorgeous market, small independent shops, cafes and bakeries. There was a beautiful band stand which looked out onto the lake we managed to find too which was my favourite spot of the whole holiday. An absolutely stunning, hidden gem of a location we visited on our trip which I would love to visit again.

4. Bryce Canyon

Now I know everyone has heard of the Grand Canyon…but have you heard of the Bryce Canyon? It’s located in Utah so we drove here before we drove to the Grand Canyon. Don’t get me wrong…the Grand Canyon was breath-taking and amazing, but it was so big, you couldn’t really see all the different shapes of the ground that had been left. The Bryce Canyon however, was this bright orange and rusty sort of colour, and the shapes were so clear and you could get a lot closer in the view points as it wasn’t as big. To me I found this much more impressive (and less scary because there were actual railings unlike the the Grand Canyon where there was only a knee high stone wall stopping you from plummeting to your death…bit dramatic but my Mum didn’t think so at the time).

3. Vegas

I can’t even begin to describe the heat in this place, but it was purely magical here. Vegas is in the state of Nevada and is literally in the middle of the desert…in the middle of nowhere. We stayed at the Aria Hotel, and I couldn’t recommend it anymore. When we arrived, the system for check-ins was down, but we explored the hotel with it being the size of a city! It had a gorgeous pool area, a night club, its own casino, huge restaurants (we had breakfast in a buffet restaurant where you could get whatever you wanted…pretty sure I had steak, curry and ice cream for breakfast). We were only in Vegas for 2 nights and 1 whole day and we did so much. It was way over 40 degrees Celsius when we were here; we spent one evening watching the Penn & Teller magic show which was so good – I loved getting to see a show in Vegas. We walked along the strip both in the day time and night time, but it was so hot we were practically melting during the day. We ended up going on a gondola ride in the Venetian hotel, which was amazing. It was really difficult with me only being 14 at the time as I wasn’t able to experience proper Vegas within the casinos, and I didn’t get chance to go on the rides at the top of the Stratosphere building, so Vegas is 100% on my list of places to revisit.

2. New York

What is there to say that you surely don’t already know. Even if you have never visited New York city, I am sure you can imagine how amazing it is. This was the first place we went on the trip; it was like magic arriving in the Big Apple to start our road trip. I have been lucky enough to visit New York twice, this time in the hot summer, and in 2018 I visited in the winter. This time, we enjoyed the gorgeous weather in the city by hiring bikes and riding around Central Park, as well as going up both the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Centre. We also had the most exciting open top bus ride experience on our first evening; it was dark, and it began to rain hard, so everyone ended up going downstairs and standing in the shelter. Me and my Dad actually stayed upstairs and got soaked by the rain, but it didn’t matter because it was so warm! It thundered and lightning struck across the city, and whilst looking out at the city skyline, this was just mesmerising. What a special city New York City is.

1. San Francisco

Surprisingly, San Francisco was my favourite place of all the places we visited on our road trip, and it was also our last. It’s kind of hard to explain why this place was the best out of them all. One of the reasons being that the legend that is Robin Williams sadly passed away during the day we were driving to San Francisco. With San Fran being his home town, there was a feeling of togetherness mourning his passing, which was really special to experience. The trams that go up the huge hills of the city were so much fun but so scary…you could literally just let go and fall off! For me though, the most exciting part of the visit was visiting Alcatraz prison. I had never heard of it before we visited, and I had never seen the film ‘Escape from Alcatraz’. We got a boat to the island the prison is on, and got headphones which had an audio tour so it would take you around the prison in your own time and your own language, telling you all about prisoners who were kept there, and gave you a real personal experience. I was absolutely blown away, and for some reason I really grew an interest in the place and its history. As soon as I got home I watched the film and really enjoyed learning more about the stories behind the prison walls. I never managed to visit the Golden gate bridge, and I wish I had a bit more time to wander around the city itself. I remember the centre where all the shops were had lots of building work going on at the time, so I would love to see what it looks like now.