United States of America - Planning Your Trip

I was very fortunate last year to be sent to Chicago for training. And I took the opportunity by taking a week off after that to check out Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Before I rave about how great the trip was, here are some tips I would like to share :

 

 

Book your flight and apply your visa early, especially during summer (mid year). The visa application can be a long process due to the need to get your employer's letter and attending the interview.

Ensure transit time is long enough. Most airlines flying off from KL will stop by either at Hong Kong, Taipei or Tokyo before proceeding to either Los Angeles or San Francisco. Security checks to US bound flights are more stringent and requires longer time. Hence it's best to have enough transit time to avoid missing your connecting flight.

Upon arrival in either LA or SF, you'll need to get your passport stamped and lug your luggage to the next connecting flight. Therefore you'll need to go through the whole process of security checks again. Please ensure you have at least 3 hours of transit time.

Los Angeles International Airport or LAX is more low tech than Subang Airport. They don't have enough runways and immigration counters to cater for the amount of inbound visitors. Hence they constantly face runway traffic jams, especially during night time arrivals (peak time). Then there's that super long queue at the immigration. So if you need to catch a connecting flight from LAX, please ensure you have at least 3 hours of transit time.

In LAX, the International and Domestic terminals are not connected internally. You'll need to exit the International terminal and depending on which airline is your next flight, either catch a bus or walk to the Domestic terminal. Best to at least take a look at the LAX map from their website before you go.

US is BIG. Very very BIG. Plan your trip down to the geographical details and factor in traveling time from one spot to another. Do not trust their "1 block away" description. Use Google Maps to gauge the distance yourself. Even if it might be more expensive, but it's worth staying in a hotel that's near the place you plan to visit to avoid spending too much time traveling.

Public transportation in most US cities are not very good and taxies are expensive. Most popular tourist spots have special bus pickups from most hotels. Or sign up for a local tour from your hotel or online.

If you're a girl traveling alone or in small groups, it's safer to stay in a more reputable hotel chain like Sheraton. During summer, it's around USD 120 a night. Don't forget it's easy to get guns there.

Most of their places of interests are big too and usually takes a whole day. Don't be too greedy and limit yourself to 1-2 places per day.

Summer have longer daylight hours and you get more time to have fun! Remember to wake up early.

Each city may have their own tourist-friendly packages, for e.g. Chicago City Pass which includes public transport with entrance fees for half the price. So do a lot of Googling before going.

Check your money properly as all the notes look the same.

Most cities have a factory warehouse nearby selling branded goods at bargain prices. You'll be able to find a USD 12 Liz Claireborne handbag.

I personally think it's more fun and worth it to plan a free and easy US trip on your own instead of signing up for a tour package. Most tour packages will try to cover many more places, but a lot of time will be wasted in traveling from one spot to another.

Of course more time and effort is required to research on your own, book the hotels and buy tickets online. But in return, for the same price, you get to see more things and most importantly, spend less time on the road.