don't know where to go with my free ticket...

[Jihforce]

Alright, I got a free ticket to go anywhere in the US. Now I'm debating whether to save it for m\a trip to Hawaii (which I have been wanting to take in about 4 years) OR use it to go the east coast and visit some of the cities I missed while I lived there (Boston, NYC, Atlantic City and DC). What would you do? Suggestions of other places to go?

[Ice-9]

IMHO, skip DC and Atlantic City. Booooring. NYC is awesome, but not really a vacation - too fast-paced. Boston's pretty cool, though. Guesss it depends on what you want - you want to relax, or you want to do EVERYTHING?

You could always check out Nawlins (New Orleans, for the uninitiated), too. Definitely one of my favorite cities in the States.

[fabfore1]

My mothers husband took my sister to England, so he said he owes me a trip to where ever I want to go for 3 nights and 4 days. I live on the East Coast so 1st thing I said was Hawaii, even though half of my trip would be in the air. I figure I might never get a chance to go there again.

I say go to Hawaii if you've never been there, you can get to the East Coast some other time.

[plutarcho]

Originally posted by Ice-9

You could always check out Nawlins (New Orleans, for the uninitiated), too. Definitely one of my favorite cities in the States.

One of my favorite cities too, but not in the summer!

I've never been to Hawaii, but would like to go sometime. Problem there is that the hotels and food are so expensive. But if you've got a free ticket, you might be saving enough money to make a good deal out of it.

[IntegraTypeR]

go to hawaii for sure! :P

[Chinpoko_Mon]

Originally posted by plutarcho
Problem there is that the hotels and food are so expensive.

Or maybe you could use some of them pizza coupons posted on the deals page... are they good in Hawaii? :P

Anyone have any coupons/rebates for motels/hotels in Hawaii? ;)

[Jihforce]

Heehee, if I eat too much pizza i'll end up being a beached whale in Hawaii.
I think I'm leaning towards Hawaii still...however, the good side to the east coast is that since I used to live in NY some of my friends moved to the city...(which means I get to live for free for the time I'm in NYC),so expenses may be cut down dramatically.
Nawlins definitively is a future destination...I just hear too much good stuff about it that I need to check it out. (Besides I wanna eat some cajun shrimp) Only been to their airport during a stopover so I wanna check it out for sure.
I guess I kind of want this trip to be both relaxing and entertaining/eventful. It would be a 1-2 week vacation so I wanna make the most of it.
Aaargh...so many places to go, so little time/money/free tickets. :laugh:

[Tuvi]

what about alaska??? i'd go there. i mean what are you really gonna do in DC, NYC, or some other east coast city besides shop, eat, and take pictures of tourist attractions? i hate the touristy scene. thats also why i wouldn't go to hawaii. if i were to go to an island, it would be someplace more exotic. (although it would be nice not to have to deal with money conversions). plus, more than 50% of the plants in hawaii are not native. so yeah, alaska would be my choice. i'd go kayaking and do lots of groovy things like that. its such a unique place and people often overlook it in favor of going to a beach or big city.

also, the grand canyon is awesome.. there's lots of cool things you can do there like ride donkeys down in the canyon, go white water rafting in the river, etc. but if you go to that area, skip the petrified forest. all you do is drive through it and stare at pieces of wood that look like rocks.

but if you do go to a city, i'd say go to NYC. its so much bigger than DC and theres lots more excitement and different things to do than in DC. i've never been to boston tho.

[Tuvi]

as for new orleans... it is soooooooo hot there!!! terrible. and i hated the food. but thats just me. i'm sure other people like it.

what about the florida keys? if you go there, stick to key west. the other keys are not that great.. but if you go there, somewhere between marathon and key west there is a rope swing thing at the water. i meant to swing on it, but for some reason i forgot about it.

the one thing i didn't like about the keys was that there weren't really any beaches. but the dry tortugas island off the coast of key west was awesome. the snorkeling there is great.

[plutarcho]

Originally posted by Tuvi
as for new orleans... it is soooooooo hot there!!! terrible. and i hated the food. but thats just me. i'm sure other people like it.


So sorry to hear that Tuvi, where did you eat? I have a hard time not stumbling into one fabulous restaurant after another! Plus, the prices are much better than the other "Great Food Cities" (NY, SF, Chicago). I go to NO pretty often and can't remember the last time I had a bad meal (save for that lucky dog at 4am on Bourbon St, but what do you expect).

Alaska would be cool. You can go whale watching too.

[Tuvi]

i really dont know where i ate. i was only 9 when i went there haha.

[Ice-9]

Originally posted by Tuvi
what about alaska??? i'd go there. i mean what are you really gonna do in DC, NYC, or some other east coast city besides shop, eat, and take pictures of tourist attractions? i hate the touristy scene.

In defense of NYC, there are SOOOOO many things to do that tourists have no clue about. I'll write you up a list if you do decide to go there. Rigoletto's, on 69th and Columbus, by the way, has the greatest pizza on earth. Stuff like that, I can help with - my dad lives on the Upper West Side, so I'm there fairly often.

But the Keys are supposed to be really cool, too. Can you even fly there? I think it involves some puddle-jumper airplane flights, so I don't know if that's applicable for this ticket, but if you do go, send me some real key-lime pie. I ordered some recently, and it was green. :( Stupid restaurant had no idea.

Asking people here for suggestions may not have been such a good idea - now you'll have so many places you want to go you'll never be able to decide! :D Good luck!

[Jihforce]

Originally posted by Ice-9
Asking people here for suggestions may not have been such a good idea - now you'll have so many places you want to go you'll never be able to decide! :D Good luck! [/B]

Haahaa, yeah good point.
Most likely, I think I'm going to do both Hawaii and NYC and make it 7 days each...I did all of the tourist stuff for NYC already, I'm ready for the REAL NYC experience. Haahaa. (minus the being robbed at gun point and getting shot by police) I'll just use the free ticket for the more expensive flight. I found flights to NYC for 250 round trip from LA, that doesn't seem too bad.
Thanks for all your input guys/gals. I definitively got a lot new ideas. NO and Alaska are definitely in my 'to go' list now. I wanna do Alaska on a cruise though. :D