From Las Vegas to the Death Valley

 

The Death Valley alone is worth a trip to the USA, especially if you have never seen a desert before. It is hot. Really really hot. An beautiful and lonely.

You can see several things in the Death Valley which are all awesome. And some are not. Something I cannot recommend is the ghost town Ryholite. There are several blogs and travel guides that say it an great ghost town, very interesting, with a lot of history blabla bla. Here are come links/blogs that recommend to see Ryholite and think that it is one of the seven best ghost towns in the US (http://www.myreiseblog.de/sehenswurdigkeiten-usa/ghost-towns/rhyolite-ghost-town-nevada/; http://lasvegas.us123.info/wordpress/archives/geisterstadt-rhyolite/; http://usa-reiseblogger.de/7-schoensten-geisterstaedte-usa/) If this is true, than no ghost town is worth your time.

Some of the buildings are around 100 years old – I mean the three buildings that you can see there. And the rest is basically garbage somebody put there so the tourist have something to look at. Honestly it not worth your time, because from LAS Vegas it is quite a drive and it is not near the Death Valley Junction where all the other cool tourist spots are. But if you need need need to see a ghost town on your trip. There is one thing about Ryholite that I liked – the bottled house.

TO DOs in Death Valley:

• Badwater: this is the deepest point in the US and believe me the hottest!!
• Artist’s Palette: is a beautiful stone formation which is glowing green and rosa becouse of some chmical reactions 
• Devil’s Golf Course: is an incredible salt plan formation on pictures
• Sand Dunes: for me it was the first time in my life to see real sand dunes. The sand was setting and it began to cool down (just a little bit) and it was beautiful. If you like or love Star Wars than the Death Valley sand dunes are a MUST. A lot of scenes were filmed there. There are even some blogs that show you where which scenes were filmed with funny pictures from fans recreating some of the best movie scenes (http://www.panamintcity.com/exclusives/starwars.html).

 

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Some Don´ts in Death Valley or Dos if you have time:

• The ghost town Ryholite – boring!
• Furnace Creek: it is an oasis in this desert. The visitor center, museum, and headquarters of the Death Valley National Park are located at Furnace Creek. We didn´t have the time to go there and I love to be more in nature, but it is up to you;)

Here are some Tips for your Trip to the Death Valley:

• Again again again: Be careful! I took a ton of sunscreen, I dressed up from  head to toe, I drank  a lot of water and even dashed myself with water before getting out of the car and exploring the Bad Water Basin – still I almost got a sunstroke. My boyfriend couldn´t wake me up the next day before 11 o´clock. I swear our thermometer in the car showed 150°F.
• Take a lot of water (at least 5 liters) and than some more, because your car might break down in the middle of nowhere.
• Take a charged phone and look up the number of the next car towing company before you go
• Like every National Park in the US you have to pay for the Death Valley National Park as well. And it is not cheap ($25 for 7 Days). You can easily miss the automates where you can pay the fee. We didn´t and there was nobody controlling whether we payed it or not. So decide for your self what you want to do.

 

Las Vegas & Hoover Dam & Gran Canyon

 

There are actually some travel guides that don´t cover Las Vegas and restrict themselves to the Californian border (e.g. my travel guide from Beadeker (https://www.amazon.de/Baedeker-Reisef%C3%BChrer-Kalifornien-GROSSER-REISEKARTE/dp/3829713975) which is actually a shame, because you HAVE TO GO to Vegas, if you visit California. Just do it! If you don´t drink, then gamble. If you don´t gamble then see a show. If you don´t like shows, then eat. If you don´t like to eat too much then just book a nice and for the service (comparing to the rest of California) very cheap hotel and enjoy a spa day.

You can have a drink at any hotel on the strip and you can gamble in any hotel, but I would really recommend the Ceasars Palace and the Planet Hollywood. In the latter we saw Britney Spears and it was just worth it. Even my boyfriend, whose music taste is totally different from mine, said it was an amazing show and event and totally worth the money.

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I lost 30 $ in the first 15 minutes of my arrival. So if you want to gamble, you should know some of the rules. Standing by and watching others play is never as much fun as to join in. And even if you have seen the Hangover movies a thousand times it doesn´t help to win.

 

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A MUST SEE or better a MUST DO in LAS Vegas is:

• Go to the Strip and look at the beautifully ligthen hotels and casinos at night
• Take a cab and take a picture at the „Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas“ Sign
• The fountain in front of the Bellagio Hotel is beautiful and even romantic at night
• Downtown Las Vegas has some old Casinos which are also very nice
• The Hoover Dam is only half an hour away from Las Vegas and a nice spot to visit during the day
• If you have a lot of time and energy and didn´t already spend the last days in a car you can go and see the Gran Canyon. It is beautiful, but it takes you more or less 2 hours just to get there and two hours back. Another option is to go directly by a helicopter from Las Vegas and see it from above (70$ and more). This might even be not as expensive as you think, if you count the money for the gas and the entrance fee to the Gran Canyon. The area is restricted and believe me there is no way to get close enough to the Gran Canyon without paying the 50$ for the bus (each ticket). And then you are still not on the Gran Canyon Skywalk which is at least another 50$ per person. You might find some cheaper offers online or at the ticket offices in Las Vegas.

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Here are some tips for your Las Vegas Trip:

• Maybe start your US trip at Las Vegas, because sometimes there are very cheap flight to Las Vegas and you might be in a good party mood in the beginning of your trip
• Don´t take your boy-/or girlfriend to Las Vegas or go in larger group. I don´t want to say that you have to cheat on each other, but it might be more fun to have a „girls night out“ or to be with the boys and go to a strip club or something
• There are coupons for everything in the US, but especially in Las Vegas – use them, its worth it!
• Don´t be cheap – the hotels are already not very expensive, but take a hotel on the Strip so you don´t have to drive and can have more fun drinking and partying! (we went to Old SAM Town or something, which was cheap and still very nice, but as I said…I would do it differently now)
• You can park for free in almost every hotel on the strip – only the valet parking is quite expensive
• Know your limit! Don´t drink and don´t play to much. You are still in a foreign country  – try and be safe
• It can get very very hot in Las Vegas – you are in the dessert – so drink a lot and always have enough water in your car, if you go and visit the Hoover Dam or the Gran Canyon (it was 47 degrees outside when we visited Las Vegas)
• Go three days and at least 2 nights, you might think its much, but it´s not;)

 

L.A. & Hollywood

Hollywood Walk of Fame

 

L.A. was a big surprise for me. I heard the worst stories about it and how ugly and unappealing it is for tourist. But my boyfriend didn´t want to spend a lot of time at the beach and so we decided to go and see L.A. and in the end I wished we had more time to see everything.

On our arrival ( Friday about seven o´clock) we didn´t go straight to our hotel, but took a detour to the Rodeo Drive which is the biggest and richest shopping mile in L.A. (Beverly Hills). This was actually really cool, because at this hour the streets were crowded with rich people and very expensive cars. We went to the Rodeo Drive the next morning, but the people and cars were gone, but it was still fun to look at all the shopping windows and displays. And of course if you have some money to spend – that´s the place to be.

Rodeo Drive

You should also take a walk around Beverly Hills. It´s next to the Rodeo Drive and you can almost always park there for free (5 minutes away). But you should of course take a good look at the parking signs and the day you visit Beverly Hills. The houses are great an it´s fun to have a walk and take some cool pictures. My travel guide told me that that would be a bad idea, because the owners are very protective of their property and might call the police or something. Well that didn´t happen. The streets are free and if you look like a tourist Beverly Hills is not the neighborhood you should worry about.

Beverly Hills

A MUST SEE spot in L.A. is of course the Hollywood Boulevard with the walk of Fame and the Big Chinese theatre. There are always a lot of tourists there. Take your time. Maybe go see a movie there somewhere. But be careful, because some streets in Hollywood get crowded with prostitutes and other people at night (as we all learned from the movie “Pretty woman”. Therefore rethink where you want to stay in L.A. You might find some cheap places in Hollywood, but if you like it save save stay somewhere else.

– Somebody with a great idea –

Another MUST SEE spot in L.A. is the Hollywood Sign. Although actually nobody is allowed to park there. You can leave your car (like all the other tourists) there for a minute and take a picture. Make it glamorous;) If you don´t want to park illegally for a minute. Take a cab. The drivers might actually be more than happy to drive you there and take a picture. But of course this is the more expensive alternative.

Street impressions of L.A.

 Dos in L.A.:

• Getty Center (we haven´t been there, because my boyfriend was fed up with Art, but the building alone is great)
• The cathedral: its architecture is really special and modern and it is one of the biggest cathedrals I have ever been to. The entrance is free and you can get your parking ticket validated if you attain the service)
• Downtown L.A. is really cool and has some great buildings and architectureà don´t go there in the evening or by night (as we did). The streets get deserted and there are a lot of drug addicts and homeless people on the street and going there around eight o´clock was maybe the first time in the US that I really felt unsafe.
• The Beach: As I told you I haven´t seen it in L.A., but the weather is often better there and from L.A. down the cost are different ocean drifts, therefore the water is much warmer
• If you missed China Town in San Francisco then go there in L.A. (of course it´s not the same!), but still you have an idea about the cultural diversity in the US and of course it´s FUN
• Go and eat somewhere fancy, try some fresh made Smoothies and some sushi

Don´ts in L.A.:

-Please don´t waste your time and don´t go to the Farmers Market. I know every travel guide tells you that this is somehow the greatest and most romantic place in L.A. It is not! It´s crowded with a lot of tourist. It´s expensive and honestly the products don´t seem to come from local farmers or anything. If you have been to smaller farmers markets somewhere else or seen a German Christmas market – well it doesn´t compare.

-Don´t go to Bel Air in order to see the mansions of some big stars. You can´t see anything, but the famous one which was used in the famous TV comedy „Price of Bel Air“. If you still want to go. Don´t buy map of the stars at some street corner in bBl Air (they ant to rip you of). Go and buy it somewhere Downtown and don´t spend more than 10-20 $ for it.

Bel Air

Here are some general tips for your L.A. trip:

• Near the L.A. cathedral are a lot of other tourists’ attractions, if you go there by car, park at the cathedral. The rates are much, MUCH cheaper than anywhere else in this neighborhood!
• It´s not difficult to drive in L.A. if you don´t use the highway. But you might have to and if you are not the most secure driver then you can take a tourist bus. There are a lot of options and tours and you can take the bus two days in a row, but it is about 50$ for each ticket and if you already have a car…
• Don´t always trust you navigation system! There are neighborhoods (e.g. Compton or Watts) where you should not go at night (or at any time). Don´t get out of the car, don´t ask for directions, just drive to the next bigger tourist attraction and be safe. I am telling you this because we went to Cypress Avenue, because my boyfriend loves the band and wanted to take picture there. Well there was a moment when we thought we might die, although of course nothing bad happened in the end, it was a the worst ending for our L.A. trip. Therefore we also didn´t see the Watts Towers which are also highly recommended in some Travel guides and I think are very interesting if you don´t like the mainstream tourist spots. But they are in Watts, so maybe you should visits them with some locals or a travel agency or something like that.

 

 

San Francisco

San Francisco is a great city to start your California trip. But start at your trip on a Saturday otherwise you might belief only tourists live in this city. And actually this might be true. Rents are high and most jobs are in Silicon Valley. People work more long hours and the Hippie culture is not as present as it used to be. Nevertheless wandering through the streets you can almost taste the smell of weed. I think in order to change the emptiness of the city during the week the city started programs to connect regional needs with the Start Up Culture (https://startupinresidence.org/).

You can find some cool Start Ups near the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; https://www.sfmoma.org/artists-artworks/), but not only there.

This would be my first recommendation for you. But this is personal. If you LOVE modern art, than this is the place to be. Duchamp, Frida Kahlo, René Magritte, Matisse, and a lot of the great Pop Art pieces are exhibited there.

If you don´t love modern art then don´t spend the 25$.

Besides going to the Golden Gate Bridge –  which is a MUST – you can also go and see Alcatraz. I did´t. I can only tell you that every bigger tourist attraction is about 50$. This is a lot and if you only have so  much time, you have to decide whether it is worth it…

I would really recommend, that you spend some more time at the Golden Gate Bridge and look around the Fort Point under the Bridge the view from there up the Bridge is amazing (and free).

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From there you can see and feel the power of the pacific ocean. Sometimes one might even forget that the city is so close to nature.

If you are an individualist and vegan is not your first choice for lunch then look around Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco and eat a typical California shrimp cocktail (or something else with fish). But please do this just once if you are not a big Fish-and-Sea-Lover, because along your trip there are a lot of wharf’s that are much cooler (e.g. in Monterrey).

One big advantage of San Francisco vs. other cities like L.A. is that you can go around easily by public transportation like bus or cable car (http://www.sftodo.com/cable-car-san-francisco.html). The latter is a absolute MUST experience in San Francisco.

And this is a list of other things that are FUN to DO in SF:

• Golden Gate Bridge and  Fort Point
• Cable Car
• SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Alcatraz
• Fisherman´s Wharf
• China Town (grab some lunch)
• Russian Hill/Lombard street (if you love funny streets, great cars and/or play video games)

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• Have a walk South of Market (there are a lot of homeless people there, just be careful and you are fine). Have a walk around some non tourist corners and you might find a much cooler SF than the other tourist.

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If you have some time, then go to…

• Golden Gate Bridge Park (there are some museums and a Japanese Garden there, but only go there if you have the impression you did already do everything there is in SF). And it´s 8$…
• You LOVE NATURE? Near SF you can find old Redwood trees in Muir Woods (they are really high, but not as big as in other parks, so go if you have time and love nature, don´t if you don´t.
• Japantown? If you LOVE Sushi an original Japanese cuisine – that´s the place to go!
• Near the Civic Center are some cool coffee shops as well as the Asian Museum of Art and stuff..nice place to take a walk and some cool pictures.

Here are some practical tips for your San Francisco trip:

• Don´t take a rental car at the airport!! The parking fees are crazy in SF (around 30$ a day) and most hotels don´t have a free parking lot. Furthermore you don´t need a car in SF, because you can easily go by bus or by foot between South Market an Golden Gate Bridge.
• And you can save some money and spent it on a better hotel in SF. Even 150$ per night are not an assurance to NOT get stuck in the elevator (which YES happened to us!).
• If you need to find a cheap parking space then park at the Civic Center. Belief me or not this central parking lot is the cheapest we found – and we spend a lot of time looking for the best one.
• You are afraid to go around in unsafe neighborhoods, that homeless people and drug addicts call their home? Don´t stay at a hotel near South Market. If you like hip and exciting neighborhoods, well…
• The weather is better in October, if you go earlier (like September or August) than always always take a jacket, because the temperature differences do get crazy!
• Never spend any money on breakfast at a hotel. Go outside, spend some money in cool american diners. And if you don´t want to spend to much money go to a Dennys 🙂