The United States is a large country with 50 states. You will find something for everyone. From big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas to endless road trips past fantastic National Parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon. The best-known regions for a tour of the United States are Western America with the states of California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada or the east coast of the United States, where the state of Florida and cities such as New York, Washington and Boston are often visited. . Looking for a unique dream destination? Then visit the islands of Hawaii!
United States
maart 9, 2021After an amazing time in Las Vegas, it was time to head to San Francisco. This time, we traveled by Greyhound because there were no Flixbuses on this route. To be perfectly honest, I kinda prefer Flixbus over Greyhound as they were much cleaner. Maybe also due to the fact that on our Greyhound bus there was this dude that seemed pretty high on drugs and kept going to the toilet and afterwards tried to play innocent and complained about the dirty toilet. Like dude, we all know it was you? It was quite a long journey from Las Vegas to San Francisco. We left around 7 in the morning and arrived around 9 in the evening so that was a very long day!
It was a bit “chilly” in San Francisco after staying in Vegas. It was around 18 degrees so I had to wear a blouse and jeans, which was new to me. Hadn’t worn anything besides shorts and crop tops. In San Fran we stayed in an airbnb with a lovely host. José rented out two rooms and lived with, we presume, a roommate. A roommate who was a huge fan of Dwayne, the rock, Johnson. The roommate didn’t speak much and was mostly watching videos on his cellphone. José was a treat! He was so nice and friendly. The house was near a BART station so it was pretty easy to get to the center of San Francisco. Thanks to a friend of my aunt’s, we had 90 dollars worth of BART tickets. She went to San Francisco with her family and there was still a large amount of money left on their tickets. Which was great for us, of course!
I really enjoyed San Francisco, the city by the bay was just marvelous. We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and there you have an amazing view of the city. We explored the city and I ate my first corndog ever! I quite liked it. I almost bought a baseball jersey but it was crazy expensive so unfortunately I had to leave the jersey in the store. We also tried out in-n-out burger, which is a fast food joint and it was great! Loved the fries and burgers. Furthermore, I decided to get a haircut in San Francisco as my bangs were getting way too long. The hairdresser was incredibly kind and cut my hair for free. She told me to have a great trip and to enjoy myself, so sweet!
Once again, we rented a car! We really wanted to visit Yosemite and therefore we needed a car. Yosemite was very impressive but way too big! We only anticipated on going for one day but the park is immense. So we chose some nice view points and drove up there. One of the view points we visited was Glacier point. During the winter, you can see a lot of snow and ice but as we were there during summer, there was none. Nevertheless, the view was amazing. Another tourist attraction we visited, was Alcatraz. We did the audio tour on the island and it was super impressive. The stories of the prisoners and the stories of the guards were very compelling. You also get an incredible view of the city when you are on the island. As they tell you in the audio tour, it was hard for the prisoners to hear and see the city but not be a part of it. The trip to Alcatraz does cost a bit but it is definitely worth your money! The only annoying thing was the fact that there were so many flies on the island.
The end of our USA trip was approaching and it was time to get ready to fly to Beijing, which is a story for another time! Stay tuned. [...]
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maart 1, 2021It was time to head to Las Vegas! As the cheap skates we were, we booked our bus trip to Las Vegas at 3 in the morning. That meant that we had to leave our airbnb and wait somewhere else. So after dining at chick-fil-a we went to a bar and ordered some drinks. We simply sat there with all our luggage waiting for time to pass. People were kinda wary of us because Flagstaff is not really a big city so everyone in the bar seemed to know each other, except for us. Two foreigners sitting there with all their stuff until 3 in the morning. I must admit, it must’ve been a bit weird.
So I was pretty happy to get on our bus to Las Vegas. Unfortunately we were not able to sit next to each other as almost all the seats were already taken. I had to sit next to this super douchey guy with a huge Louis Vuitton bag. We finally arrived in Vegas around 8 in the morning and this super douchey guy started to take selfies on snapchat, captioning it “I’m in this bitch!”. Please, stop. So there we were, in Vegas at 8 o’clock in the morning. I called the hotel we were staying at to ask if an early check-in would be possible. Thanks to a lovely lady called Jody, we were able to get an early check-in! Once we arrived in our room, there were two huge ass beds and I was so delighted. I threw myself on the bed and instantly fell asleep. Best nap of my life.
As for Las Vegas, it kinda felt unreal! Such an amazing experience though. It was hot, all damn day so these airconditioned hotels were great. These hotels were unreal, they had casino’s, malls, restaurants, it was crazy. We even decided to gamble a bit in Caesars palace and Bellaggio, of course we didn’t win anything. I saw black jack tables, where people were playing for 200.000 dollars! Before losing our money (it was just 20 dollars), we bought two vodka slushies at fat tuesday. So we weren’t that sad (nor sober). We also discovered Panda Express in Vegas which was amazing! I was instantly obsessed. I’m still sour over the fact that we don’t have it in Europe. However, that wasn’t the only fast food we ate. We also had delicious burritos at me gusta taco and went for dinner at el pollo loco. Due to the fact that we were staying at a hotel, we had to get a little creative with dinner. Some nights we would go for some fast food, other nights we’d eat pizza or sandwiches in bed.
We also rented a car in Vegas to do some sightseeing. We drove to Red Rock Canyon, which was pretty cool. We also visited Hooverdam and Lake Mead. I didn’t find these two very impressive. It was just extremely hot so I was in a bit of a whiney mood, I suppose. Finally, we went to Bryce Canyon, which is situated in Utah. It was quite the drive but the park was exquisite! It was so beautiful, so definitely worth it. The rest of our days were mostly spent at the pool of our hotel. Such a good feeling to go swimming around 9 in the evening and the temperature still being 38 degrees. All in all, Vegas was great! [...]
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februari 23, 2021The next stop on our journey was: Flagstaff, Arizona. This time, we managed to travel with flixbus to Flagstaff. It was quite the trip because before embarking on our journey to Flagstaff, we had to take the bus to LA again. So around 9 on a sunday morning we hopped on the bus back to LA. After arriving in LA we transferred to another bus which was headed to Phoenix. When we left Phoenix around half past 11 in the evening, it was still 38 degrees. It was so freaking hot! So off we went to our final destination: Flagstaff. I think we arrived around 3 in the morning and we were lucky to find an Uber to take us to our airbnb. The funny thing about our airbnb was that it advertised itself as a “room with a mountain view”. However, when you arrive at 3 in the morning, you don’t see these mountains. So when we woke up the next day, we were kinda stunned with the amazing view of the mountains!
Our hosts were once again just lovely! Ashley and Brian were great people and so friendly. It was however my first encounter ever with someone who had a firearm on him. For me, this was quite a strange realization but in the USA this is normal. They also had 2 pickup trucks in their driveway, which I thought was typically American. We put their kitchen to good use, as we cooked every evening and we watched a lot of Netflix on their huge tv!
We soon came to the conclusion that renting a car was a necessity in Flagstaff, not just for getting around the town but also for visiting other places. So we went to a car rental that was kinda cheap but soon came to the realization that this was a very bad idea (understatement). They had pretty bad reviews on Google and we didn’t trust them, as they didn’t really seem to know what they were doing. That’s why we looked up a more expensive car rental with positive Google reviews. It was kinda scary to rent a car for the first time because it’s a lot of money for backpackers. We made sure to take pictures when we got the car so they wouldn’t be able to blame us for any damages. They didn’t because they were nice people.
So with the rental car came this new acquired freedom! We could go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. During our stay in Flagstaff we visited the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe bend and Sedona. Let’s start with the most impressive one: the Grand Canyon. It kinda gave me goosebumps seeing this for the first time. It was overwhelmingly and breathtakingly beautiful! I had never seen anything like it in my entire life. I simply loved it. We spent a whole day in the Grand Canyon. We hiked some bits and drove to some awesome viewpoints. We even encountered my neighbours from back home! It’s a small world after all.
We visited the Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe bend in one day. We booked a tour through Antelope Canyon, as you can not wander there by yourself. It was really stunning but looks might deceive you. Even though you appear to be alone in all of your photos, there are 25 other people waiting behind you to take the same photo. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth visiting. At Horseshoe bend I once again managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders. The American sun didn’t agree with me. However, Horseshoe bend was very cool as it has the shape of a horseshoe, obviously. We had one rainy day in Flagstaff which resulted in us driving up to Sedona. A little drizzle wasn’t going to kill us. The drive up to Sedona was pretty impressive as you drive through a huge ass forest. I quite liked Sedona and it’s reddish mountains.
Of course, we also had to try some fast food in Flagstaff. So, on our last evening we went to chick-fil-a! I had some amazing waffle fries with an avocado wrap and to top it all of I got a free ice cream! A good way to end our stay in Flagstaff. [...]
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februari 22, 2021After our first stop in Los Angeles we decided to travel a bit more to the south. We booked a Flixbus to San Diego! However, this journey didn’t go as planned, which is apparently quite common when you are backpacking. Our bus got cancelled but we didn’t know. So we were waiting for a bus that never came and due to flixbus regulations another bus couldn’t take us with them. There was even a driver nice enough to make some phone calls for us but unfortunately that didn’t make a difference. He advised us to take the train to San Diego. So off we went with our big backpacks to the train station! Buying train tickets was a bit of a bummer because the prices were much higher than flixbus tickets but the train ride was amazing. The views were great and the Americans on the train were very chatty. We met a lovely elderly couple sitting across from us. They were heading to a university reunion. The husband even told us stories about his time in Europe. Right there and then we decided that that would be us in 50 years.
I enjoyed our stay in San Diego a lot. I think it’s my favourite stop on our journey through the USA. We stayed in a very cute white picket fence house, it was perfect: the porch, the fence, the garden and the dog. For me, this was what I imagined American homes to look like. Our host, Margo, was such a doll. She provided us with breakfast, free netflix and lots of tips! Thanks to her, I had the pleasure of eating the most amazing fish taco’s ever. We even watched a whole evening of Sex and the city with her and her dog Jack.
As for the sights, we visited Coronado island. It was such a magical place! We rented some bikes and discovered the whole island. From the island you had a great view of the San Diego skyline, it was beautiful. We also went to La Jolla to see the seals. I got quite a sunburn on my shoulders there but nevertheless, I thought it was wonderful. Kest was a little less excited than I was due to the smell of the seals, a bit fishy! Furthermore, we visited Balboa park where Kest discovered “the bird”. Quite an expensive little thing but it is fun to “bird around”. There was also this spot, where you could make some awesome photos with super high waves. Kest thought it would make a great photo. I waited for half an hour to take the photo but none of the waves came high enough. Afterwards, I said I’d like a photo there too and guess what? The wave we had been waiting for finally hit.. This made Kest jealous but I wasn’t very pleased as well as the wave went over my head and I was totally soaked! See picture down below.
And last but not least, I must say that the sunsets were quite sublime in San Diego. If I had to choose one city from our trip to visit again, it would definitely be San Diego. I liked the ambiance and it felt homey. The city was big enough but not too big like LA. [...]
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februari 18, 2021Due to the fact that we are not able to travel at the moment, let’s take a trip down memory lane! Back in the day, in 2018 Kest and I decided to travel for approximately 4 months. At first, we didn’t really agree on where to go but we compromised. Our first stop would be: The USA. Specifically, the route depicted above. We flew all the way from Amsterdam via Iceland to Los Angeles. It was quite the trip for me. Prior to 2018 I had only been outside of Europe once. When we went to visit my sister in Australia. So it was also my first time in the USA, which was really exciting. I had only seen America in movies and tv shows.
After arriving in LA, we took our very first Uber to our airbnb. Our airbnb was situated (unfortunately) nearby Compton, which I hadn’t really given any thought. Maybe not the brightest idea I have ever had. However, besides the location our airbnb was amazing. It was our first encounter with staying in an airbnb so we were quite nervous. We didn’t really know what to expect. But our hosts were just wonderful and very caring. David even took us on a day trip to the Griffith Observatory and took us out for drinks on a rooftop bar.
The whole experience in LA was very unreal for me. Everything was large and big, and I had never seen any city like it before. We visited places like Venice Beach and the Santa Monica pier, Beverly Hills, the arts district and, as I mentioned, the Griffith Observatory. We even wandered around for a bit in China town but decided to not do that again as we were heading to China after our roadtrip. I really liked LA but it wasn’t my favorite stop on our journey. I think it was too big for me. I did however enjoy the weather very much.
As backpackers we didn’t really go out for dinner. We decided that it would be cheaper to cook for ourselves. I really enjoyed doing groceries in the USA. For the first time I saw poptarts, twinkies, frozen waffles and many more products. It’s a weird habit of mine, I love going to foreign grocery stores. They are always so different from what I’m used to so I’m always delighted to spend some time in the grocery store. Besides cooking, we did go to shake shack. I mean we were in the USA, we had to try fast food! We also met up with one of Kest’s old roommates from Barcelona for dinner and drinks in the arts disctrict. We visited this cool local bar where you could only eat sausages. Like, very big ass sausages, it was great! [...]
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