How to plan a sightseeing trip in US?

How do you plan a sight seeing trip in US? What is the process involved? What are some useful websites to gather information regarding your travel, places to see, hotels to stay, etc., How to get the best deals when booking car, hotel, flights etc.,? Where can you get some useful feedback from 'real people' (as opposed to just marketing blurb)? You'll find answers to all such  questions in this post.

What qualifies me to write this post?! Well, I've visited 32 different states in US and have made at least 15 sight seeing trips in a row with my family (which includes a toddler). I'm more than excited to share the art of planning for a trip, with all of you. (Disclaimer: The more trips you've made in US, the less useful this post will be to you.)
 
In the best interest of my readers' time & to improve the readability of the post, I've decided to make it as a multi-part writeup. The first part will talk about 'Selecting the Destination and Places to See'.

The first thing you should decide when planning a trip, is your travel destination - "Where do you want to go? Do you want your vacation to be relaxing or tightly packed? Are you interested in doing a lot of activities or do you just want to do sight seeing? Do you want to drive to a destination or do you want to fly? Lots of these factors go in, during the decision making process. Also, it depends on your family members, their health/fitness conditions, your interests, etc.,

Once you have identified a set of destinations for your trip, the next thing you have to find out is "Is this a right time to go there?" For example, you should visit places like New Hampshire in Fall, Portland during Spring, & Glen Canyon or Crater Lake during summer. Your timing of the trip is very important and it influences your travel destination.

The third big question is "Will the trip or destination fit my budget?". If you have budgeted just $200, all you can do is a simple road trip to a nearby place. At the same time, if you have $2000 or more, you can do a fun-filled trip to Hawaii or you can take a cruise. So, your budget for the trip is very important in deciding the "destination".

The fourth question that you should ask is "How many days do I want the trip to be?". The number of days of your trip is dependant on your work schedule, the destination, your family members, your budget etc., Most of my trips were about 3 - 5 days long and it worked out well for me.

After finalizing your destination, you have to identify the list of places to see in/around that destination. You need to do a lot of research for this. Here are some tips:

1. Look at Trip Advisor. This website gives lot of useful tips regarding 'places to see' with real user reviews.  
2. Visit About.com. They have lots of interesting articles about special destinations (such as New York, Hawaii, etc.,) 
3. Visit US National Park Service website. This website provides useful information regarding all National Parks in US, monuments & historical sites 
4. Search Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives information regarding the destination, culture, people, important land marks, etc.,
5. Look at State/City web sites (or Chamber of Commerce websites). Each state/city in US maintains a web site and those websites have tourist/visitors section listing the 'sight seeing places'. For example, this is the website for the City of Idaho Falls and there is a link for visitors.     
6. Search through Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers has a travel section and there are so many active participants there. You can get lots of useful tips, suggestions and help from the folks, there
7. Look at the List of Places to See in USA article 
8. Do Google Search. A simple "places to see in " would show thousands of entries. Of course, you need to read 100s of articles to gather information
9. Search Google Maps. Google Maps also provide some information regarding the attractions near to a place/locality. Just type "attractions near " in the search box. You'll see lots of results. 
10. All modern day GPS devices provide travel details regarding nearby attractions, museums, historical sites, etc.,. They make your trip planning very easy. If you have postponed the job of 'selecting the places to see' till the day of your trip, just buy or rent a GPS. You are all set for the trip. In fact, GPS helped me very much during our road trip. Otherwise, we would've got stranded.

Hopefully, this post gives you enough tips to select your travel destination and the list of places to see in each of those destinations. The next post in this series will give you tips regarding How to get the best deals for airline, car, and hotel booking?.

Foliage trip - New Hampshire & Vermont (Fall Colors)

New Hampshire

1) White Mountains Places to See

http://www.new-england-vacations-guide.com/white-mountains.html

http://www.visitnh.gov/why-new-hampshire/exploring-the-great-outdoors/waterfalls.aspx

http://www.visitwhitemountains.com/things-to-do/attractions/default.aspx

Address: 200 Kancamagus Highway, North Woodstock NH

2) Mount Washington

            This is in White Mountains Region

3) Kancamagus Scenic Byway

            http://gonewengland.about.com/od/nhsightseeing/a/aakancamagus.htm

4) Rocky Gorge Scenic Area

            Located along the Byway, 9 miles west of Conway.

            This is part of the Kancamagus Scenic Byway

5) Flume Gorge

This is in Franconia Notch State Park

Vermont

1) The Green Mountains

Green Mountain National Forest
231 North Main Street, Rutland, VT 05701

2) Jenne Farm

The Jenne Farm is in central Vermont, about a 15 minutes drive south of Woodstock on Route 106. If you are driving south on 106, go through South Woodstock, then follow the road up Reading Hill. After it crests and you start to go down, slow down and look for a small sign on the right hand side. (There will also be a sign for the Jenne Farm Road) See our road map of the area.

3) Woodstock

            Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP

5302 River Rd, Woodstock, VT - (802) 457-2355 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (802) 457-2355      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (802) 457-2355      end_of_the_skype_highlighting‎

(Billings Farm & Museum)

4) Quechee Gorge

Route 4, Quechee, VT 05059 (Quechee State Park)

5) Ascutney State Park

1826 Black Mt. Road , Windsor, VT, 05089, Phone: 802-674-2060

For Foliage Reports

http://www.1-800-vermont.com/seasons/report.asp

http://www.foliage-vermont.com/

Also read:


My personal trip experiences
How do you plan a sightseeing trip in US? 
Tips to get good deals on flight, hotel and car  

List of places to see in USA

This blog post contains the "List of places to see in USA" including top U.S attractions, important sight seeing places, travel experiences, and tips for planning your trips in USA. I have shared my travel experiences to these places. Hope you find them useful.

Also read:  

How do you plan a sightseeing trip in US?
Tips to get good deals on flight, hotel and car

Arizona (Trip Planner)

RV Driving and Motor Home Experience
Sedona & Flagstaff
Places in Phoenix
Navajo Canyon Ferry
Glen Canyon, Page  

Miami & Bahamas  (Trip Planner)

Royal Carribean Cruise Experiences

Maui, Hawaii

Maui Trip Planning - Tips & Recommendations
Maui Trip Preparations
Maui Parasailing
Hana Lava Tube & Haleakala Crater Visit
Trip to Iao Valley, Tropical Plantation, and Snorkeling
Maui Atlantic Submarine Tour
Banyan Tree, Jodo Mission, Luau Visit

Washington DC, New York & Niagara (Trip Planner)

Pittsburgh Trip, Pennysylvania
Visit to Niagara Falls, Canada
Visit to Liberty Statue & Ellis Islands, New York
Visit to New York Downtown, New York
Washington DC Trip

Denver & South Dakota

Colorado, Denver & Mount Rushmore

Oregon, Seattle Vancouver (Trip Planner)

Seattle, WashingtonVancouver, Canada
Portland, Oregon
Columbia River Highway, Oregon
Crater Lake & Mount Shashta

Wyoming, Utah & Idaho (Trip Planner)

Yellow Stone Attractions

Road Trip (Southern States) (Trip Planner)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Little Rock, Arkansas
Memphis, Tennessee
Atlanta, Georgia
Birmingham, Alabama
Jackson, Mississippi
Shreveport/Monroe, Louisiana
Dallas, Texas

New Hampshire / Vermont (Trip Planner)

Fall Foliage Colors Trip

Chicago, Illinois (Trip Planner)

Chicago Trip Experiences

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon, Nevada

California

Mendocino - A stay in Cabin
Death Valley VisitSacramento Day Trip
San Francisco Downtown / Golden Gate Bridge
Carmel by the Sea
Los Angeles (Disney Land/Universal Studios)

2008 Road Trip (Day 9) - Return to SJC from DFW

28th Dec, 2008

We got up early and left hotel by 8 am. We drove for about an hour and a half to the Dallas Airport. Dallas Airport was designed differently. There were a few entry points for departures and you have to know your airline departure gate well in advance. We wasted some time to find out our departure gate (Well, the AA employees misguided twice before we found our correct departure gate). I dropped everyone there and went to return the Rental Vehicle. It took a few minutes to find the way to the Rental location. The Rental location is located a few miles away from the airport.

We boarded the flight on time and reached SJC at around 2.30 pm. We came home by 3 o'clock.

Wow! It was a very memorable trip. Despite the heavy winter weather, we managed to see a number of places. My little one was co-operative throughout the trip. She had her meal on time and took her nap on time. My wife did a wonderful job of preparing our healthy & tasty meals. Mother nature co-operated with us too. Thought it was a bit cold, it never rained when we were sight seeing.

This is the FIRST of its kind trip, for us, on many aspects:

- We got Honda Accord as the rental vehicle
- We did sight seeing continuously for 9 days in a row
- We visited 8 states in 9 days
- I drove 2.2K miles, as a single driver
- We took lesser than 100 photos per day
- Museums & State Capitol Buildings dominated our sight seeing places
- We stayed in 9 different places for 9 different nights

You can find my trip planner here - 2008 Road Trip Planner

2008 Road Trip (Day 8) - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

27th Dec, 2008

We started our trip at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. We spent nearly 2 hours there. They entry fee was $15 and it was a bit over priced. They have done a wonderful job of creating a lasting impression about the atrocities of terrorism and the trauma that the people of Oklahoma have undergone.

We had our lunch and then visited the Oklahoma Capitol Building and the War Memorial. We went to the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History that was located right adjacent to the Capitol Building. We spent nearly 2 hours there. They museum reflected the history of Oklahoma and they also had a good collection of Indian artifacts. There is a cafe inside the museum. This is our last official sight seeing spot in the Road Trip.

We left the museum and drove to Ardmore, Oklahoma for our night stay. There was a Garden of Lights in Ardmore. We checked-in to the hotel, freshened up and came out to see the Garden of Lights. I was surprised to learn that there was no entry fee. This is the best I've ever seen and it was almost a mile and half long. On the way back, we had our dinner in Burger King.

2008 Road Trip (Day 7) - Little Rock, Arkansas

26th Dec, 2008

We started our sight seeing with Central High School. It is located in a residential locality. They have a visitor center close to the school. The school was very majestic and has a historical importance. It looks like the school is being used even today. We spent an hour in that area and then went to see the State Capitol Building. After spending sometime there, we went to the Old State House Museum. It has a good collection of items used by famous people from Arkansas. Of course, Bill & Hillary Clinton dominated. The entry was free.

We then went to the Riverfront Park. Little Rock is not a 'little' city. The name was quite deceiving though. The Riverfront area was quite busy. You can walk down the Big Dam Bridge and take a Trolley tour of the city. My wife & daughter spent about an hour in the Children's Discovery Museum. My daughter liked it very much. The Riverfront park has a lot of play areas for kids. You can spend nearly 1/2 a day in that area.

We drove to Oklahoma City and stopped at Fort Smith, AR on the way. We visited the Fort Smith National Historic Site that served as a Jail & Execution Chamber for the Indians, during 'those' days. We spent an hour there and headed to Oklahoma City.

2008 Road Trip (Day 5) - Atlanta, Georgia

24th Dec, 2008

We had our breakfast and went to Atlanta Botanical Garden. This was reasonably good, even in winter. We spent nearly 2 hours there. There was a kids 'discovery' area in the park. I believe, the Garden would be at its best in Spring/Summer. There is also a small train ride ($2 charge). The conservatory had a number of tropical and desert plants.

We had our lunch and went to Atlanta downtown. The downtown was quite busy and a bit more spacious than other downtowns. We parked our car for $10 in the Georgia World Congress Center. There were cheaper parking areas available closer to the Centennial Olympic Park. We walked to the CNN Center. The CNN tour was closed for that day. We were disappointed. The CNN Center was HUGE and beautiful. I wish we were allowed to take the tour. There is a food mart in the first floor and many folks were sipping their coffee and watching news on the huge flat screen.

We then spent some time in the Centennial Olympic Park. They had a very tall Christmas Tree in the center of the park. There was a also skating area in the park, that was quite busy. They had a musical water fountain which was a attraction for kids. We spent about an hour in the park and went to World of Coca Cola.

You should learn from Coca Cola about how to charge people for advertising your brand. World of Coca Cola is a brand building center for Coca Cola. They had a number of age-old Coca Cola advertising posters and artifacts. There is also a demo of Coke manufacturing process. You get to taste 65 different varieties of Coke products across the globe. It was quite amazing to see that Coke has THAT many flavors. You can also carry a complimentary Coke bottle to home, at the end of the self-guided tour. We spent nearly 1.5 hours there.

We headed to Birmingham for our night stay. We stayed in the same hotel that we stayed on the 22nd night.

2008 Road Trip (Day 6) - Memphis, Tennessee

25th Dec, 2008

This is a day full of drive. We started at about 8 am from the hotel. There was a 6 hours drive from Birmingham to Little Rock, Arkansas. On the way to Arkansas, we stopped in Memphis to see THE PYRAMID. We stopped at Elvis Presley famous Sun Studio, but it was closed for XMas. So, we skipped the Civil Rights Museum also (assuming that it will also be closed). We took a number of breaks during the drive.

I was surprised to see almost all the shops closed on Christmas. Normally, I've seen that the shops will open in the evening during holidays. There were no open shops in the evening too. The roads were also completely deserted. You hardly see any people walking on the streets during Christmas. We made several trips to Grocery stores and were disappointed every time. It was unique experience. Fortunately, Walgreens was open. We could buy some milk there.

We watched movie and had dinner in the hotel room.

2008 Road Trip (Day 4) - Birmingham, Alabama

23rd Dec, 2008

We had a good sleep. It was very windy and cold in Birmingham. We got ready, had our breakfast and left hotel by 8.30 am. We also washed our clothes in the hotel laundry facility. We went to the Temple of Sibyl in Vestavia Hills. It looks like this is a replica of the Sibyl Temple in Rome, Italy. We spent a few minutes there and went to the Vulcan Park. Vulcan Park is a nice and calm place in the busy city. We spent about an hour there, learning about Birmingham's history. From the top of the Vulcan building, you can get a glimpse of the whole city. It looks like the Iron Industry was so popular during the WWII times.

We then went to the Civil Rights Museum and learned about the atrocities that the black has gone through in America. The treatment of black people was quite similar to the treatment of the 'untouchables' in India. They've renovated the museum and the artifacts are really good. We also spent sometime in the park opposite to the Civil Rights Museum.

We then had our lunch and went to Desota Caverns Park. It was about an hour drive from Birmingham. There were hardly any people there. They had lots of play structures too. They charged about $18 per person. It is a very old cave and most of the cavern formations are dormant. But, the cavern was HUGE. They had a musical light/water show about Jesus Christ inside the cavern (after turning-off all the lights). That was well done. The chocolate fudge served in the visitor shop was delighting. We, in fact, bought 1/4 pound of fudge and I ate most of it :)

We drove to Atlanta, Georgia for our night stay.

2008 Road Trip (Day 2) - Shreveport/Monroe, Louisiana

21st Dec, 2008

We had a very nice sleep and got a bit early, today. We had our breakfast and left hotel by 9 am. We first went to the Gardens of the American Rose Center. But it was also closed for the winter :)

We then went to Barnwell Memorial Garden. We spent nearly 2 hours in that area. We went to the Eldorado Casino and spent sometime there (Hey! I made $1.50). There was a Riverview Park near to the memorial garden. It was a bit cold, there. It looks like there will be cruise ships during the regular season. We had our breakfast also in that area.

We then went to see "The Duck Pond". The Duck pond wasn't that attractive. But, there were lots of play structures for the kids. My daughter had an amazing time there. She almost climbed on all the play structures. There were also lots of picnic tables. It is a nice place to spend the afternoon.

On the way to Jackson, Mississippi, we stopped at Monroe. We went to Biedenharn Museum & Gardens. This place was beautiful. It looks like people will visit this place for taking professional wedding photos. We spent about an hour and a half in this place.

We visited the Aviation Historical Museum of Louisiana. It is a small-renovated musuem that houses lots of World War II aviation pieces. There were no huge aircrafts, so we were a bit disappointed.

We had our Starbucks coffee in Pecan Land Shopping Mall. My daughter went on the carousel and she enjoyed it.

We drove to Jackson, Mississippi and reached there by 8 pm.

2008 Road Trip (Day 3) - Jackson, Mississippi

22nd Dec, 2008

We got up early and left hotel by 8.30 am. We went to the Jackson Zoo. We realized that all the animals were also celebrating their Christmas holidays. Yes... they were all gone on vacation. We saw a few Ostriches, a couple of Zebras, a Deer. There were some peacocks too. We had to leave early because it was VERY cold and there were not much animals to see.

We then headed to the downtown. We visited the City Hall, State Capitol Building and the War Memorial Building - all by walk. Since it was very cold, we decided to go to some museum.

We visited the Nature and Science Museum in Jackson. It is a must-to-see place, especially if you have kids. They have Dinosaur miniatures and they look very real. We spent about an hour there.

We then went to Mississippi Petrified Forest. It is a privately owned property and they had a small walking trail. There is nothing significant about this forest. But, you can walk around the trail to see some of the petrified trees.

We left Mississippi at around 5 p.m and reached Birmingham, Alabama in the night.

2008 Road Trip (Day 1) - Dallas, Texas

19th & 20th Dec, 2008

We reached SJC by 2 pm to catch the 3.15 pm American Airlines flight to Dallas, Texas. The flight was delayed by 2 hours and departed only at 5.30 pm. No wonder why these airlines are in a deep mess. AA charges you for even the check-in of the first bag and doesn't even provide a snack during the flight. We reached Dallas at around 10.30 pm. We rented a car, purchased some groceries on the way and reached our hotel by 12.30 pm.

We had our breakfast and left hotel by 9.30 am. Our first sight seeing place was Ft Worth Water Gardens. It was in the Ft Worth downtown area. The Water Gardens was unique and awesome. We spent about 30 minutes there and left to the Ft Worth Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden was almost deserted. I believe Winter is not the right time to visit this place. My kid was sleeping and so, my wife stayed in the car. My brother and I went inside. They didn't charge us inside the Botanical Garden. They charged $1 for the conservatory. The conservatory was maintained well - it had mostly tropical plants.

We then went to Reunion Tower. The tower was closed for maintenance. We had our lunch in that area and then went to Fair Park. Fair Park had all sorts of recreational activities. Some of them were closed for winter. We went to the Planetarium and to the IMAX movie theatre. The IMAX movie theatre was the best that I've ever seen. It had a half-dome screen. They showed an inspiring movie (Amazing Caves) about folks who go out on cave exploration. It was wonderful.

We started from there and drove to Shreveport, Louisiana for our night stay. We reached Shreveport by around 9 pm.

New Hampshire Trip

Oct 11th - 13th, 2008

New Hampshire trip totally changed my perception towards fall colors. I've seen fall colors only in pictures. I used to think that the fall colors shown in pictures are exaggerated and artificially colored using some software technology. Well, my perceptions were proved to be wrong during the New Hampshire trip.

We reached Manchester airport (MHT) on 11th Oct in the morning. The arial view from the flight was awesome. It appeared as-if someone sprayed colors all over Manchester. Fall season was at its best. I rented vehicle from Alamo (the rental facility was located within the airport. You can walk down to the rental car parking area). We headed to Boston, to visit my wife's relatives. You could see fall colors everywhere, even along the side of the highways. It was hard for me to resist my temptation to pull over and take some pictures along the road side. It took us about an hour and a half to reach Boston. We reached Boston at around 12.00 pm. We had a delicious lunch. We stayed there for a few hours and went to Rhode Island. We reached RI by around 6 pm. We wasted nearly an hour trying to find my friend's house in RI (Google Maps screwed-up as always!). We had a heavy dinner in my friend's place. My family & my friend's family left RI to Vermont. We reached our hotel (Yankee Village Motel), in Ascutney, VT by mid night. It was a decent hotel.

We got up early and vacated the hotel. We had our breakfast in one of the (actually, the only) mom & pop fastfood restaurants in that area. We first visited Ascutney State Park. It was just a few minutes drive from the place we stayed-in. The park was very beautiful than I had anticipated. Most of the trees had pale yellow colored leaves that were glittering in the sun. We spent about an hour there. We then went to visit Jenny Farm. Jenny Farm is one of the famous photo shoot spots. You can see several artists & professional photographers there. It is a must-to-see place in Vermont. We spent about an hour there and took some nice pictures.

We left Jenny farm to go to Woodstock. Woodstock is a very busy town. There were lots of places to shop & lots of activities going on in that area. We parked our car in Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller farm. We had our lunch there. My friend's wife had prepared lunch for all of us. It was so good to eat home-made food in the park. After having our lunch, we walked to a waterfall that was nearby. We spent sometime there and then left to Quechee Gorge.

Quechee Gorge was about 45 minutes (?) away from Woodstock. We reached there by 4.00 pm. Surprisingly, they didn't have any entry fee :) The Gorge looked OK. It was not all that great. The hike to the bottom of the Gorge was nice. We took a few pictures there. There is a miniature golf facility opposite to Quechee Gorge. We watched people playing m.golf for a while. Then we started our drive to Plymouth, NH. It took us about an hour and a half to reach Plymouth area. Most of the places along the highway was deserted. Plymouth had some decent population. I was surprised to see Walmart, Burger King etc in Plymouth. We stayed in Red Carpet Inn & Suites, Plymouth for that night. It was a good hotel (complimentary breakfast was not all that great).

We got up early, had our breakfast in the hotel and went to White Mountains area. Kancamagus highway was gorgeous. You see colors almost everywhere. We first visited Flume Gorge. Flume Gorge was majestic and beautiful. The hike was a bit demanding (especially, when you carry a 2 year old kid on your arms :)). We spent about an hour there. We then had several stops along Kancamagus highway. There were not many great options for dining in that area. We grabbed sandwich along the way. We reached Cog Railways by around 2.45 pm. It was amazing to see the steam engines pulling carriages over the steep Mt. Washington. We concluded that our Dodge Caravan isn't fit enough to take us to the top of Mt. Washington. We decided to return back to Rhode Island.

The commute to Rhode Island took nearly 4.5 hours. We had dinner at my friends place. We slept for about 5 hours, woke up at 2.00 am, got ready and drove to MHT airport. We reached Mancester by around 4.45 am. We had about 2 hours for the flight. We boarded the flight at 6.45 am and reached SJC by 11 am.

This was a very relaxing trip. We didn't do lots of driving. We had time to admire the nature.

(Note: It is hard to find an accomodation in Vermont/New Hampshire during fall season. I would recommend anyone planning for a trip during the peak fall season to book your tickets in advance. You can look at my NH-Vermont trip planner, for the places to see.)

Chicago Trip

Oct 10th 2008

We had a chance to spend a day in Chicago on our way to New Hampshire. We took a Southwest flight from SJC to MDW airport. Southwest had good deals for SJC -> MDW. The flight reached MDW airport at around 1 pm and it was 2.30 pm, by the time we reached Super 8 Motel close to the MDW airport. We were lucky enough to get a free upgrade of rental vehicle from Hertz. The vehicle also had a navigation device. All the car rental facilities are inside the Airport and it was so convenient. Most of the rental facilities were open late in the night (even at 2 pm).

We spent the whole day in the downtown area. The city is very beautiful. The downtown is garlanded by Lake Michigan. The downtown appeared to be busy with lots of financial institutions. You could see people from diverse cultural background. The downtown was clean & also safe for tourists. I didn't see 'strange' folks along the road side. We visited Sears Tower, the second tallest building in North America. We then went to see Union Station, one of the oldest train stations in US. A trip to Chicago wouldn't be complete without visiting the Millennium Park. I was amazed & surprised to see the Millennium Park. The park is in the heart of the city downtown area. It was very crowded even on a working day. You could see school tour groups, tourists, people having their lunch, people who are submerged into their novels/study materials & people who are sitting there and just relaxing. The "Bean" in the park carries the beautiful reflection of some of the nearby downtown buildings. The park also has dining and parking facilities.

The parking in Millenium Park was relatively cheap (they charge about $18 for 8 hours) when compared to the other nearby parking facilities. We then walked around in the downtown. I saw lots of buses in the Chicago downtown. If you want to spend a few days in the downtown area, you don't even have to rent a car. You can complete your trip with just the public transportation services. Driving in Chicago downtown wasn't very tough (unlike New York downtown, which requires a bit more driving skill & extra alertness).

We took a 90 minutes ferry tour, organized by the Chicago Architectural Foundation group. We sailed Lake Michigan to see some of the downtown buildings & the Navy Pier. There are several tour operators near the Michigan Avenue bridge. This tour costed about $22 per person and I felt that it was worth it. There were 100s of people who took this tour every hour. We left the downtown area by around 5.30 pm and drove back to our hotel. We wanted to see the Buckingham Fountain but didn't have the time to do it.

Overall, the trip to Chicago was very peaceful and relaxing.

Chicago Trip Planner

Bahamas Cruise (Bahamas & Miami Trip)

26th - 30th Sep 2008

This is one of the much anticipated & exciting trips. I had planned this trip with my friends, a month in advance. We booked flight tickets in AA website. After doing some research, we decided to take the Royal Caribbean (RC) cruise ship. We booked cruise tickets directly from the RC website. RC charged $300 for the first person, $300 for the second person & $200 for the third person. It cost me about $800 for my family. The round trip flight tickets from SJC -> MIA airport cost about $300 per person. (Also read: Places to see in USA)

Day in Miami

We took the AA flight from SJC -> Miami on Sep 25th. One of my friends have to drop-out in the last minute due to a family emergency. We reached Miami airport on Sep 26th at 7.30 am. We had a few hours to kill before boarding the RC cruise. We rented a vehicle from Alamo. There was a very long queue in the Alamo rental location. By the time we took the rental SUV, it was about 10.30 am. Miami was greenish everywhere. You could see large Banyan Trees along the sides of the streets. We went to the Fairchild Tropical Garden. It is such a beautiful place with lots of colorful flowers, ponds, and gardens. You can spend nearly 1/2 a day in the Fairchild Tropical Garden. The tickets were somewhat pricey ($20 per person). Weeekend visits are free and that explains why the garden was deserted on the weekday. This garden was mostly run by retired folks & volunteers. The garden was maintained very well. We took the narrated tram tour. We walked around for about an hour or so. We then drove back to Alamo rental facility to drop the rental vehicle. Alamo has a free pickup/drop off service from/to the Port & Airport (Note: The last pickup/dropoff service to the Port was 3 pm).

Bahamas Cruise

We reached the Port of Miami at around 3.30 pm. It took about an hour to complete the check-in process and to reach the stateroom. Our first impressions of the Cruise Ship was great. In fact, it didn't look like we weren't in a cruise ship. The ship looked like a five star hotel or a shopping mall - with elevators, restaurants/dining areas, bars, huge lobby, casino, swimming pool, theatre, play areas etc., The ship wasn't wobbling at all. It is hard to sense the ship's motion and so, you don't have to worry about sea sickness :)

We got ready and went to the dining room by 6 pm (We had requested for the 6 pm dining slot). We have to sit in pre-assigned dining tables. My friend & I got it changed, so that we can be in the same dining table. You can order food from the menu and also customize the order. The waiters were very professional and courteous. We had a heavy dinner. There was a stand-up comedy going on in the night. We watched it for about 30 minutes. We were too tired and went to sleep early.

We got up early on the second day of the cruise. The ship was docked in Cococay, a private island of Royal Carribean.We had our breakfast (which was a buffet). There was nearly 100+ items to choose from. Even for a vegeterian, there were lots of options. I had a heavy breakfast (as if, I'm eating for the whole day). A small ferry boat took us from the cruise ship to the Cococay island. Cococay is a very small island. There were some shops in the island (including restaurants). There were all kinds of water sports in CocoCay island. In fact, that is the only thing that you can do in CocoCay. I had a nice fun time with my kid in the beach. My kid was busy collecting shells & playing with the sand along the shore. Around noon, it started to drizzle a bit and we went back to the ship. The lunch was a buffet as well. We had a heavy lunch :) My friend had brought some card game and we played it until evening. We then got ready and had our dinner. We spent an hour or so chatting in the upper front deck sit-out area. We played again during the night.

The cruise ship was docked in Nassau, Bahamas on the third day. We had our breakfast early and left the ship by 8.30 am. However, we have to wait in the Nassau port until 9.45 am, for our Discover Atlantis tour. We used that time to take a few pictures in the Bahamas port & a few pictures in front of our cruise ship :) The Discover Atlantis was a narrated tour and it was nice. It costs a few $$s extra if you book the tour from RC website. Majority of the Bahamas population is of African origin. People sell water bottles & other things along the road side. We spent some more time in the Atlantis resort after the tour and returned back to the cruise ship. We had our lunch & took a nap. We spent about an hour or so wandering in the ship. We then went to the same sit-out area in the upper deck watching the sun set. We then had our dinner and started packing our 'stuff'. We left the suitcase along the side of the corridor (for checkout in the morning).

We got up early on the fourth day, got ready and had our breakfast. It was 9.30 am in the morning by the time we got off the cruise ship, collected our luggages and cleared the US immigration process. I realized that we should have kept our baggages with us (instead of handing over them to RC, the previous night). That delayed our checkout process by about an hour. If we had had our baggages with us, we could've got down from the ship early in the morning. Now that we had checked-in our baggages, we had to wait until our turn, to collect them. In the early morning, there was not many people in the checkout queue. You can just swift through the checkout process in minutes.

We didn't have much time to explore Bahamas during our trip. However, the cruise experience was very memorable. We felt that our time in the cruise ran very fast. The top two things that I liked in the cruise was Food & Service. I was amazed by the level of service provided by the RC crew. I wasn't expecting individual attention - but the RC crew did provide individual care to everyone. Even my little kid enjoyed the cruise experience. She had lots of places to explore in the ship. If I had to do take a cruise again, I would definitely choose Royal Caribbean.

2 Days in Miami

We had to wait for about 1/2 hour (some people have waited for an hour) for the Alamo rental shuttle to pick us up from the Miami Port. The same Alamo car rental shop services customers from both Port & Airport. We rented an SUV and drove to Key West. On the way, we stopped near the famous "7 miles bridge over the sea". There was a nice beach close to the bridge. The water in the beach was sparkling & crystal clear. My daughter had lots of fun in the beach. It took us about 3 hours to reach the Key West area. We stopped at a Starbucks to get our energy drinks (Lattes). We then visited Fort Zacher Taylor's park to see the sunset. We killed nearly 2 hours in that park by taking some pictures & by playing a card game. However, Mr. Sun disappointed us. We then headed back to Miami for our night stay in Metropole Hotel. Metropole Hotel is located in the downtown area. The outward appearance of the hotel was not that great (in fact, it was scary). However, the rooms very nice with brand new appliances - most of them, designer class.

The next day, we got up early and visited Vizkaya Museum & Gardens. We had our breakfast in Dunkin Donuts (I used to think that they just have Donuts. But, DD has lots of other items too. I liked their hash browns. It was yummy!). It was raining heavily when we visited Vizkaya Gardens. I thought we have to abandon our plans. However, the rain stopped in a few minutes. The garden was fresh & gorgeous (Thanks to the morning showers!). There are some nice photo spots in that garden. You could see a few newly wed couples busy with their photo shoot sessions. We spent nearly 2 hours in the Vizkaya Gardens. We had our lunch in a fine Thai Cuisine in the downtown. We then visited a few road side parks, took pictures of the Miami Skyline and then went to Miami South Beach. Miami Skyline was not all that great. South Beach had a long shore line and lots of parking space. It was almost deserted (we visited on a weekday). I personally felt that the Key West beaches are more beautiful than the Miami beaches. We left South Beach, returned our rental vehicle and reached Airport in the evening. We reached SFO at around 10 pm. We had parked our car in Anza Parking, San Francisco. We picked our car and reached home at around 12 pm.

Our Bahamas/Miami trip was very relaxing and memorable.

Miami Trip Planner 

[Update - Bahamas Tourist Visa]

If you are a US Citizen, you don't need a tourist visa to visit Bahamas. If you are residing in US on a work or a visitor or a dependent visa (H1B/H4/L1/L2/B1/B2 etc.,), you need a tourist visa to visit Bahamas.

I applied for my visa to the Bahamas consulate in NY.

http://www.un.int/bahamas/Consular_Travel_Information.htm

The following private website provides the details that you need for applying for a Bahamas visa.

http://bahamas.visahq.com/

Talk to the Bahamas consulate directly to find out more details.

I was able to get my visa in just one calendar week (5 days). I overnight couriered the application/passport on Monday and got the visa on Friday.

Denver & Mt. Rushmore Trip

Aug 8th - 11th, 2008

"If anything can go wrong, it will". Murphy's law came true during our trip. We boarded a Southwest flight from SJC on Aug 8th. The flight got delayed by an hour. We reached Denver late in the night. It took us about an hour to rent a vehicle from AAdvantage. I didn't realize that customer service could be THIS BAD. It took another 2 hours to get to our hotel in Colorado springs. By the time we reached our hotel, it was about 2 am in the morning. The receptionist in the hotel took another 30 mins to check us in. Finally, the hotel keys didn't work. I have to come back to the reception to get that fixed. During this trip, we were accompanied by my friend (Santhosh Ram)'s family also.

The hotel served a complimentary breakfast (just muffins & orange juice). We went to Pikes Peak & Royal Gorge Bridge on the first day. Pikes peak drive was nice. It was an awesome view from the top of the peak. There was hardly any oxygen to breath. We spent about an hour there and drove to Royal Gorge Bridge.

Royal Gorge had lots of activities. I think you can spend the whole day there. We went on the Aerial Tram & Inclined Railway. We walked over the bridge & spent a few minutes at the Inspirational Point. The Gorge was beautiful. But the bridge didn't create a 'Wow' effect! There were a few rain showers in the evening. My daughter had lots of fun in the rain. She also enjoyed her time in the carousel.

On Aug 9th, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent the whole day there. The rock formations looked great and it is a very scenic location. There were lots of gorgeous lakes and rivers. Rain spoiled our day. We hardly spent any quality time in the park.

In the evening, we returned our rental van and rented individual cars. I drove to Hot Springs, SD. My friend decided to spend the 3rd day in Colorado. I had a 6 hours drive to Hot Springs. We wasted about 30 minutes to find our hotel (Google maps screwed up as usual!). Finally, I stopped a cop vehicle to get help. He guided us to the hotel - nice cop! :) The stay in Rodeway Inn, Hot Springs was very comfortable (except for the poor complimentary breakfast. They had just muffins & orange juice. There was no milk also).

On Aug 10th, We drove to Keystone to visit Mt. Rushmore. It is a very beautiful & amazing place. They had spent about 14 years to carve the memorial. The memorial has carvings of George Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson, & Lincoln. It is a perfectly done & well maintained art work. We spent about 2 hours there and left to Crazy Horse Memorial. The entry fee was 20$ per person (It was just 10$ per person in Mt. Rushmore). It looks like Crazy Horse Memorial is getting constructed from public funds. Hence, they are charging more money. This memorial is being constructed to honor the sacrifice of Red Indian Soldiers. They had already spent about 60 years already. It would look as if the work has just begun. It is amazing to see that people have dedicated their entire life for this kind of construction. We watched the video show in Crazy Horse Memorial that explains the history a bit. We then had our lunch & started driving to Denver. Well, I forgot to mention about my car. I had rented a 2008 LE Camry - it was sooo... comfortable driving it. We reached Denver airport on time, boarded the flight & reached SJC in the night. The best part of our trip is the visit to Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse Memorial.

Crater Lake & Mount Shasta

3rd - 5th July

This was our second attempt to go to Crater Lake & Mount Shasta and we made it :)

We planned for a trip to Crater Lake during the beginning of spring & we had to cancel it in the last minute due to snow storm.

We had a horrible 7 hours drive to Mt. Shasta from the bay area. We got fettered in the long weekend traffic. We reached Mt. Shasta at about 11 pm.

The next day morning we drove to Crater Lake. Crater Lake is about 2.5 hours drive from Mt. Shashta. Crater Lake wasn't very crowded (may be the 'season' hasn't begun yet). We spent about an hour in the visitor center watching few videos & having our breakfast. We took the Rim drive and were disappointed to see the lake fully covered with fog. The lake wasn't in its traditional light blue attire. Imagine how you would feel when you drive for 10 hours to see the lake not looking at its best. One of the rangers said that they were expecting to see the sun around noon. What would you do when you are hungry and you didn't get your favorite double cheese burger to eat. You'll start to enjoy the cold veggie sandwich that you have in your hand. Thats what happened. We started to admire the beauty of the lake in her current form.

We drove a few miles and reached "Cleetwood Cove trail". We decided to walk down the trail to get our feet drenched in Crater Lake. It took us about 1 hour to get to the bottom, with our 20 months old kid. We took several breaks in between- well, our legs wouldn't co-operate otherwise. By the time we reached the bottom, the lake was glittering in silverish blue color. The view from the bottom of the trail was amazing. Boat rides for the season hadn't started yet. We spent a nice 1 hour there. My daughter had more fun than us, by playing in the water. She collected pebbles from the shore. Our return hike was even more strenuous. We took more than an hour to come back to our car. We were very hungry and had our lunch in the parking lot. Thanks to my wife for preparing a delicious meal!

The rays from the Sun had wiped off all the fog. The lake was shining in fresh blue color. It was exciting to see the lake. We stopped in a few locations along the Rim Drive and took some pictures. We drove back to Mt. Shasta and reached hotel in the evening.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and drove to see 'THE MT. SHASHTA'. Mt. Shashta had a few snow lingering around. Since it wasn't fully covered with snow, it was not as beautiful as Mt. Hood (Oregon). We then went to see Lake Shashta Caverns. It was a guided tour. They took us on a boat, followed by a bus ride to the Caverns. Lake Shashta had very little water (due to drought!?). Lake Shashta Caverns is a must-see place if you are in that area. The caverns was formed out of melting limestone deposits. They looked marvellous. NPS has been maintaining it well. Interiors were neat & clean & well lit. The only thing is you've to have the energy to climb about 200 stairs (& walk down 200 stairs). Our tour guide was very friendly & knowledgeable. It takes about 2+ hours for the entire trip.

We stopped over in Redding to see the Sundial Bridge. I believe the bridge will be more beautiful to see during the night than in the day. We spent very little time, there. I guess you can spend more time in Turtle Bay acquarium if you have toddlers. It is a very 'commercialized' place. I was surprized to see lots of people there.

We drove back to California & reached home in the evening.

Yellow Stone Trip

12th - 16th June 2008

Yellow Stone is a very beautiful place. It is one of the best national parks that I've ever visited. The park has terrains that belong to different weather patterns. You can see mountains covered with glaciers, spurting waterfalls, gushing geysers, hot springs, and lots of wildlife. The place is very safe to visit. You don't have to be a hiker to visit Yellow Stone. All the attractions are very accessible from roads. You don't have to have a all-wheel drive vehicle. I traveled with a 19 months old kid and I didn't have any problem at all. She enjoyed it too. The park has boardwalks everywhere. You can even take strollers with you. Yellow Stone is a nice & relaxing destination. There is plenty of lodging and dining facilities inside & outside the park. There is plenty of hiking trails. There is plenty of parking everywhere. Yellowstone is also a nice camping destination.

We stayed in West Yellowstone (Montana). This place is located near the West entrance. You can get to the center of the park in about 30 minutes from West Yellowstone. West Yellowstone is more developed when compared to the North entrance.

We took a flight from SFO (Sanfrancisco) to SLC (Salt Lake City). We reached SLC at about 7 pm. We took the rental car and drove to Idaho Falls. We stayed in Idaho Falls for that night. We got up the next day and went to Grand Teton Natiaonal Park. This park is located close to the South entrance of Yellowstone. We spent the whole day in Grand Teton. The drive in Grand Teton was beautiful. We visited Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center. They've a mini museum. We took the boat ride in Jenny Lake to get to the Hidden falls. The short hike to Hidden Falls was nice. It was hard to find a parking near Jenny Lake. Grand Teton is a nice place to camp. There are lots of campgrounds filled with RVs & tents. We saw the Grand Teton mountain covered with snow. The park officials have tried to make the visitors 'Bear-Aware'. We were not fortunate enough to see a bear :) We visited the Indian Museum and the lake (Colter Bay) close to it.

We didn't see a lot of things in Grand Teton. We drove to West Yellowstone from there. We reached West Yellowstone at about 6 in the evening. We had our dinner and slept early on that day.

The next day, we got up early. We visited Firehole River, Old Faithful, Lower & Upper Yellowstone river falls, Artist Point, Fountain Paint Pot, Upper and Middle Geyser Basin, Mud Volcano, Yellowstone lake on the first day. The access to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was closed. So, we had to miss it. We reached hotel early, had our dinner and slept early.

The next day we visited Roosevelt Arch (North Entrance), Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin (Steam Boat Geyser). We also saw Roaring Mountain on our way to Mammoth Hot Springs.

It is hard to miss wild life in Yellowstone. You can see Bison & Deer everywhere. You can see'em even on the roads. They don't do any harm to you or your vehicle. Do not scare them for them to not scare you :) We were luck enough to spot a bear deep in the woods.

On the last day of our trip, we got up early, checked-out from the hotel and started our return journey to SLC. On the way back, we stopped at Idaho (visited Idaho falls, & Idaho Falls Church of Christ). Idaho falls was small & beautiful. There is a park with picnic tables adjacent to the falls. We then drove to Salt Lake City and stayed in Salt Lake City for that night. We visited the "Cathedral of Madeline" in Salt Lake City. The church was very beautiful. There are other churches close by (notably, Temple Square). But we skipped them. We reached Holiday Inn and stayed there for that night. We took the early morning flight the next day and reached SFO by 7 am. I took my car from Anza Parking Lot (SFO) and drove back home. We reached home by 8.15 am.

Yellowstone trip was very memorable. It was very lightly packed and we all enjoyed it. The place was different from the other places that we had visited in the past. Yellowstone is a collage of natural colors. There is not a single place in Yellowstone that we didn't like. Every attraction was beautiful on its own. You can cover all the places in just 2 days or 2 months. It depends upon the passion and interest that you have.

If you are planning a Yellow Stone Trip you can refer to my Yellow Stone Trip Planning Sheet

NY Trip - Pittsburgh (Day 5)

26-May-2008


We got up early, checked-out and started our journey to Maryland. We had plans of visiting Pittsburgh Venkatachalapathy temple in-between. We drove for about 3.5 hours to reach Pittsburgh. We reached the temple at around 11.30 am. (Get directions using the co-ordinates given by the temple website. Do not directly enter the temple's address in Google/Mapquest. The temple is somewhat located in a remote area. But they've very clear signs to guide you on the way). We spent about an hour in the temple and also had our lunch there.

We drove back to Maryland. We took several breaks during the day. So, the drive wasn't very tiring. We reached Baltimore airport (BWI) at about 5 pm. Our flight was later in the night. We dropped our rental car and had dinner in the airport. Mitra (my little one) had lots of fun wandering the airport. We reached SJC late in the night (in fact, early next day !).

This trip was very packed and involved lots of driving. I drove for about 24 hours in 5 days. I even felt drowsy during the drive. I decided not to keep the trip so packed here afterwards.

If you are planning a New York Trip, you can refer to my New York Trip Planning Sheet

NY Trip - Niagara Falls (Day 4)

25-May-2008


We crossed the border to visit Niagara from Canada side. Border crossing didn't take a lot of time. The officer asked a few questions and let us go. It was a sunny day. . I had visited Niagara before in the night. But I was not impressed much (may be because I visited in Winter !?). The view of the falls was amazing, this time. We found a convenient parking right in front of the falls. They charged 20$ (They accept only cash ! :().a (Note: If you are traveling from U.S, make sure that you have enough cash. The debit cards do not work in the ATM machines. You've to go to a foreign exchange to get cash using your ATM card. AMEX is not accepted in many places) My VISA card didn't work (I think my bank didn't grant international use of the card. Crazy folks.). I had to walk for about 30 minutes to get to a Foreign Exchange to get cash.

We took the Maid of the Mist ferry. The ferry takes you close to the bottom of the falls. That was one of the best experiences that I've ever had. Don't miss the "Maid of the Mist" ride. I bet that you'll get fully drenched (inpsite of wearing a Pancho).

We came back and had our lunch in front of the falls. We stayed there for sometime and returned back to the hotel. We prepared and had our dinner in the hotel.

The area around Niagara Falls has plenty of other attractions & activities. You can spend even 2 - 3 days in that area. All you need to have is "money" to spend :) The view of the falls in the night will be good. But we skipped that to take some rest in the hotel. My wife, daughter and I went for a little walk in the evening.