Thank you

The response from the various US tourism agencies has been overwhelming. Nearly everyday we are receiving things in the mail following email inquiries. I am interested in American History and studied the Civil War at school (all those years ago) You guys are really set up for tourists. Apart from the fact that we will chave to change our brain to allow us to drive on the other side of the road, driving looks like a great option. Someone suggested to fly between major centres, hire a car for a few days and then move on.

quote:

Originally posted by darcar:
Well,now I have to throw my "two-cents" in here too! I'm from California, and I don't think any visit to Ca. is compleate without taking Hwy.1 up the coast to San Francisco.(I live about 20 min. outside of Los Angeles.) The drive is very winding however, so it would be best if you have a rental car to do your own driving. I don't think I've ever seen a tour bus on that road, but I could be wrong. I hope you enjoy whatever tour you end up with in the U.S. There's ALOT to see.

[This message has been edited by darcar (edited February 14, 2001).]

Hi
You said that you were interested in the Civil War.You might want to consider visiting
Charleston, S.C.There are some beautiful
Plantations that you can visit,including the one where Gone With The Wind was filmed.Plenty of History there.The first shots of the Civil War were fired in Charleston.

Thanks for the info.

The Charleston - What a great dance also!!.

quote:

Originally posted by SOUTHERNDEMON:
Hi
You said that you were interested in the Civil War.You might want to consider visiting
Charleston, S.C.There are some beautiful
Plantations that you can visit,including the one where Gone With The Wind was filmed.Plenty of History there.The first shots of the Civil War were fired in Charleston.

Hi! It seems everyone has a lot to say about North America. I just wanted to give some helpful tips (I live in Canada). You said you wanted to see Niagra Falls (which is a good idea) and definitely try to fit in the Rockies in Western Canada.

No one has mentioned the province of Quebec yet! Montreal and Quebec City are good bets if you are interested in seeing the french canadian culture. I didn't particularly like Montreal but it could be a matter of personal preference. Quebec City, on the other hand, was very interesting because it has retained more of it's French culture (in my opinion) and it's more interesting historically. I can tell you not to plan much time in Manitoba or Saskatchewan. There really is no major reason to visit these provinces because there is very little to see and there is not a lot of interesting scenery. I don't mean to insult anyone from these areas (I live in Manitoba myself), but in terms of tourism and the time available, it just isn't worth it. Your best bet would probably be to check out Southern Ontario and possibly Quebec and then head south into the states and travel west, then go back up into Canada when you are south of Alberta or British Columbia. I don't want to tell you how to plan your trip but I hope you'll take my pointers into consideration. Good luck with planning your trip!

Just for the record: If anyone is planning on travelling through Canada and they have a good amount of time, Winnipeg, MB does have a few interesting things to offer. I can't speak so much for Saskatchewan since I have never spent a whole lot of time there. I don't want to discourage people from visiting these places! Most places depend on tourism to make places more tourist-friendly, right?

If you visit the state of Washington you can take a helicopter tour over Mt St. Helens,then drive to the Seattle area. Mt Rainier National Park is near Seattle, you can drive up to Paradise and have lunch, it's beautiful. Then you could drive up to the great city of Vancouver, B.C. It takes about 3 hours or you can take the train. The city of Victoria B.C. is fun to visit, you can take the Victoria clipper which leaves from the pier in Seattle. You might enjoy having tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. Just some ideas I thought might be interesting to you. I hope that you have a good trip.

Thanks for the info. We are adding this to the rest

quote:

Originally posted by Daisy:
If you visit the state of Washington you can take a helicopter tour over Mt St. Helens,then drive to the Seattle area. Mt Rainier National Park is near Seattle, you can drive up to Paradise and have lunch, it's beautiful. Then you could drive up to the great city of Vancouver, B.C. It takes about 3 hours or you can take the train. The city of Victoria B.C. is fun to visit, you can take the Victoria clipper which leaves from the pier in Seattle. You might enjoy having tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. Just some ideas I thought might be interesting to you. I hope that you have a good trip.

Best advice to see the US/Canada: Try to pick a topic of interest to you (an historical era, or an event such as the US Civil War, or mountains), and then base your trip on that. I have driven cross-country many times and it takes four days of driving 10-12 hours a day at speeds 10-15 percent above the posted speed limit to get from coast to coast (assuming good weather). Do that several times and your trip is up!

If you have a particular interest it is much easier to plan a trip. The US (and I assume Canada's, though I've only visited big cities there) interstate system is generally good, though there can be frequest construction delays in the summer. But you can get just about anywhere fairly quickly by car. The train system is OK but not like Europe. Don't know where you have already been, but a few places that are well worth a visit are Washington D.C. (many free museums and monuments), San Francisco (one of the most beatiful cities in the world) and the Rocky Mountains. Generally you can skip the Midwest (where I lived for 8 long years) unless you are driving through, anyway (one possible exception: Chicago).

AlSueMurray, just in case you are still listening here is my opinion - for what it is worth ... If you have 30-40 days, pick 8 cities/ locations and spend 3 or 4 days in each location. Flying within the US can be very expensive, and so you may want to minimize that. I suggest that you select 4 locations on the east coast and 4 on the west coast.

Fly into Washington DC, rent a car and visit the following east/midwest locations:
Washington DC (you can see some Civil War sites by driving out of DC), New York, Niagra Falls (pop into Canada from here), and back into the US (and perhaps to Chicago).

Fly to Los Angeles, visit San Diego (and pop into Mexico at Tijuana). Visit Las Vegas and then see the Grand Canyon. Then to Death Valley and Yosemitie and finally on to San Francisco. Fly back home from San Francisco.

This will require you to do a substantial amount of driving. It would help to have more than one driver. The roads are very good and there are great maps available. My favorite toy on long road trips is my lap top with a $150 (US) Earthmate GPS system hooked up.

[This message has been edited by Italybound (edited February 19, 2001).]

Yep, we are still listening and realise you can never have enough information especially for the US as it is so big. All of these sugestions are great and we will be considering them.

quote:

Originally posted by Italybound:
AlSueMurray, just in case you are still listening here is my opinion - for what it is worth ... If you have 30-40 days, pick 8 cities/ locations and spend 3 or 4 days in each location. Flying within the US can be very expensive, and so you may want to minimize that. I suggest that you select 4 locations on the east coast and 4 on the west coast.

Fly into Washington DC, rent a car and visit the following east/midwest locations:
Washington DC (you can see some Civil War sites by driving out of DC), New York, Niagra Falls (pop into Canada from here), and back into the US (and perhaps to Chicago).

Fly to Los Angeles, visit San Diego (and pop into Mexico at Tijuana). Visit Las Vegas and then see the Grand Canyon. Then to Death Valley and Yosemitie and finally on to San Francisco. Fly back home from San Francisco.

This will require you to do a substantial amount of driving. It would help to have more than one driver. The roads are very good and there are great maps available. My favorite toy on long road trips is my lap top with a $150 (US) Earthmate GPS system hooked up.

[This message has been edited by Italybound (edited February 19, 2001).]