Here's a trip that James Bond wouldn't have the time for. But if you do, your Bond girl will never forget it. "She'll be catching her breath for six months."
Start in Orlando for a few days at DisneyWorld and get a hotel near "Downtown Disney" or at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Then take AmTrak from there overnight to Philadelphia.
From the Philadelphia train station rent a car (with a navigational system) and drive to Atlantic City to sea the boardwalk, the Atlantic and gamble a little. There's not too much else to do besides gamble and eat, so after 3 hours head off to Lancaster county to see the Amish locations via a tour that leaves the visitor's center.
Next drive southwest passing through the Gettysburg civil war battle field and monuments. Drive through Tennessee ending up in Memphis. Stay at "Heartbreak Hotel" (small, but convenient) and tour Elvis' Graceland. Go down to Dallas and visit the book depository museum were JFK was shot and "JFK" was filmed. Stay at the North Dallas Hilton next to the Galaria Mall.
Next, head to Albuquerque and stay at the Sheraton Old Town Hotel. Shop and eat at old town. Don't miss the "Rattlesnake Museum". Small, but creepy.
Then it's up to Monument Valley where the only place to stay is Gouldings Lodge. Drive to the visitor's center where you can hire a Native American to take you by jeep to see the sights. But I prefer to use my own car and enjoy the sights on my own.
Next drive down to the Grand Canyon and stay at one of the rim hotels as mentioned before. Then down to Flagstaff and back track 30 miles to see the Meteor Crater. Yes, it's just a big whole, but it also has an interesting museum and there's a Subway sandwich shop there for a quick bite.
On to Las Vegas by driving over the Hoover Dam, where you can take a 20 minute interior dam tour and ride the paddle boat on the very blue Lake Mead for some "Planet of the Apes" type scenery. It looks similar to the Lake Powell location where Heston crash landed his spaceship.
From Vegas, stop over a few minutes at the California stateline and see the "Bonnie and Clyde Car" at the Primm Casino Mall. Be forewarned, it's not the movie car. It's the real thing, as is Clyde's death shirt. There's a Fashion Outlet mall there, for your girl to shop and you can ride "The Desperado", which premiered in 1994 as the worlds tallest, steepest and longest steel coaster.
Next, hit the Los Angeles attractions. Stay at the Disney Pier Hotel. See Disney's two parks, Knott's Berry Farm, and the Movieland Wax Museum. Then stay a night at the Universal Hilton and visit the studio attractions.
After surviving the Jurasic Park dinosaurs, drive North toward San Francisco, stopping at the small Scandinavian town of Solvang for some quick eating, shopping, and gambling (at the Chumash Indian Casino).
Next stop is Monterey where you can sleep at the Doubletree Hotel next to Fisherman's Warph and go whale watching the next morning. Just 15 minutes from there is Carmel. Park and walk down Ocean Ave to see the shops and end up at the beach. Then back up to your car and on to Santa Cruz to ride the Giant Dipper at the Beach Boardwalk. Find the Bazookas that shoot baseballs at targets and blast a few.
From there it's 90 minutes to San Francisco. Stay at the Fisherman's Warph Hilton for a few days. Don't miss the 45 minute bay cruise, the cliff house, and Chinatown. The "motorized cable car" tours near the pier have great 90 minute and 3 hour tours. After that turn in your rental car at the airport and fly home, knowing you surpassed any trip James Bond has been on.
You can do this trip in sections or in one long glorious adventure. If you need more detailed suggestions, email me via my web site.
| ©2005 Paul Kyriazi. All rights reserved. |
In 2004, I completed two Inuit art buying trips to Iqaluit
(formerly Frobisher Bay), the capital of Nunavut, Canada's newest
territory. For both trips, I flew out of Ottawa on Canadian North
airlines. The other airline that services Nunavut is First Air.
Only the last half of the jets was allocated for passengers as
the entire first half was for cargo. Being so remote, Canadian
Arctic Inuit communities pretty well have to have everything
shipped up there by plane or by boat during the summers since
there are no roads connecting to the rest of Canada or even
between each Nunavut community. The Arctic landscape from the air
was desolate,
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One can get a taste of old Europe right in North America when
visiting Québec City in Canada. Québec City is the capital of the
province of Québec. It can be easily reached by a short flight
from points in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
It is a three hour drive from Montreal. The high season is the
summer when visitors from all over the world visit. Recently, the
number of tourists from the United States and Europe has
increased dramatically. This may be partly due to the fact that
even some cruise ships originating from eastern US ports are now
including Québec City as a port
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One of the most popular ports of call for Caribbean cruise ships
is St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. On the three
Caribbean cruises that I took so far, two of them included a
stopover in St. Thomas. On both occasions, there was a consensus
among other passengers we met that St. Thomas was one of the
nicer islands visited. Although the driving in St. Thomas is on
the left hand side, it is still U.S. territory so this Caribbean
island features many other conveniences of being American soil.
These included easy telephone connections for calls back to the
mainland, the use of U.S. currency and English
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Niagara Falls has certainly grown over the last thirty years. When I was a kid, I remember that it was Niagara Falls itself as the only real attraction here. This natural wonder of the world consists of two main falls; the semi-circular shaped Horseshoe Falls where daredevils in buckets have thrown themselves off and the smaller American Falls to the left of it.
The Floral Clock,
Maid of the Mist boat rides that take visitors up close to the
falls were already there as well as the cable gondola over the
whirlpool just minutes up north but that was about it. The
Minolta Tower was also there but the
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When people ask about the top sights to see in the south Florida
area including Fort Lauderdale and Miami, I always advise them to
try and make some time to go down to the Florida Keys. The
Florida Keys are the string of islands just south of the Florida
mainland and runs 120 miles from end to end. Fort Lauderdale and
Miami are fun but for a relaxing change of pace, the Florida Keys
is the place to be. For snorkellers and scuba divers going to
south Florida, I would consider Florida Keys a must. The waters
around Key Largo are a protected marine park with a very
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