US had never been in my bucketlist but with almost 4 out of 10 years visa in hand, kids fascination for the big apple and of course due to pandemic almost nil international travel since 2 years made america a better choice to spend our this may vacation. Almost 20 days prior to the trip date we bookee our tickets though the air price was sky high but that was expected as amidst the fuel hike due to russia ukrain war a lower price will b a far fetched dream.
We were contemplating to do either one of the coast but than decided lets do the touristy things n finish both the coasts in one go as frankly came across many ppl who after finishing either of the coast have never visited back either due to have done one side so its ok the other is similar only but thats not the case as both the coast are diverse in terms of language, terrain, timezone n of course attitude too.
So we started from san francisco then hired a car and did road trip to los Angeles and vegas and thn bu flight went to dallas as had a very close cousin staying there. Later on by flight reached florida and again by road did miami post that we again caught a flight and reach buffalo and then again a mini flight to New york and then finally back to home ground india. It was a total duration of 35 days and trust me it was a mixture of fun, adventure, love, family, and in the end exhaustion.
Befire researching for this trip i spoke to many people who had visited US and many ppl who were staying there but trust me they all share only glorified details covering the reality part of their trip which we come across wn we are actually there. The sad reality is tgat we too do the same thing when someone ask us fir advice on the same trip we took for themselves. In my this post i would like to actually write only the factual things we faced rather then giving only the good part.
So we left for san Francisco on klm flight which is a dutch airlines with a very small layover at Amsterdam say around 2.5 hrs. Our total flying hours was around 20 hrs. Fot such a big journey proper timing and good airlines is a pre requisite as to kill time mid air where majority of time you are chair bound luxury and facility is a must. The best part of our flight was that it was a 2am flight so we reach mumbai international Airport by 11..the entire day activity relating to last minute packing and all had made us the right amount of tired that by the time we boarded n settled in our flight we were fast asleep waking only by the time they were serving breakfast and afyer that in a couple of hour we landed for our lay over in Amsterdam. So the first leg of our journey was a breeze. By the time we freshened and immigrated it was time to board our flight again for San Francisco. Though immigration was a huge task at Amsterdam with mamooth lines and only 3 points of exit but however we were lucky that the chaos startef only after we cleared our immigration. My heart gies to people who were stucked in the line with only minutes to spare for the connecting flight. The staff was not friendly at all in Amsterdam adding fuel in the chaos. However we again settled in and started out next 8 hrs journey but that too passed in a breeze as we catched up on few movies from their flight entertainment but trust me the collection was outdated for somone who is a movie buff as it had only 4to 5 hindi movies that too super flops. Before we could catch up on boredom we heard the announcement that we are landing in SF and that added more bounce to our renewed energy. Afyer landing our excitement was palpatable reading the sign board and looking at the neat n clean airport. Immediately we went to the enquire desk and asked them to help us book a cab to reach to our relative place. The staff was very polite and assisted us with downloading the lyft app for cabs which works as uber n ola there. They also told us to take exit from a level up floor where gate d is for exit n lyft pick up. They also told us that as soon as you book your cab will b there in few minutes so in amatter of half an hour we collected our bags, downloaded, booked reached the exit gate got our ride settled and were off to our relative place which too was only at a distance of 40 minutes. Our cab driver was a mexican and very entertaining he too after knowing our intention of hiring a car for our journey gave us valuable tips such as the very first lane on the higheay touching the divideder is a fast track lane in which only cars which have more then 2 passengers can travel or else due to high resolution cameras they are fined heavily. In order to encourage car pool the government has taken this initiative a good one i should say. He also told us that the roads here are si well connected to that in case you miss a turn don't try to reverse but go ahead in few blocks u will be reconnected with your map in few turns n exits. The speed limit also he mentioned that if its declared 50 then you can only go upto 65 not more then that. So acquiring all that info and also solid support from our relatives we hired the car next day n set out on our journey to explore SF.
We covered alcazar island, Sausalito island, Yosemite National park, Mystery point, cavern, pier 39,fishermen wharf, palace of fine arts, lands end, nobbs hill, ghirardeli, umbrella alley, China town, crooked street, golden gate Bridge, golden gate park, apple showroom, and many more such things. We took a tram ride, boat ride , cycle ride etc. It was so much fun navigating n exploring on our own but the key word here was time management. In a day if you want to pack up major attraction then you need to map out your entire route. For day 1 we had intentionally taken a subway ride to the city to feel the place walking on foot however with the help if my bhabhi we haf mapped the place in our phone as after getting down the station the first stop we should do is alcazar as it is just 10 min walking from the station then post that u do pier 39 n fishermen wharf as its all next to each other with proper lunch restaurants available and also the daytime favourable with all activities going around then go to nob hill catch a train ride go to crooked street do a mini jog on the hairpin bend street then go to china town enjoy the scenery for the evening and then return back home calling it day. This way we didnt waste our time going from point a to point c then b but doing everything in chronological order and also finishing at leisure and not getting tired inspite of walking the entire day
Second day we had taken our car so again it was mapped out where we first started with the caverns then went towards yosemite in that also we didnt had to go round and round as in the google map all the points to visit were feeded in a straight line by my bhabhi by also mentioning the places to halt for lunch n snakes.
Third day too we started with golden gate bridge to Sausalito island which is avery cute tiny but happening town on the other side of the bridge which has many vista points to capture golden gate Bridge in its full glory then we did golden gate garde with all points to visit neatly marked in our map which made us save lot of time and enjoy maximum. However food was an issue fir us as being jain we were looking for vegetarian restaurants but we did get them at few places. We were planning lake tahoe too but due to bad weather on that day we had to cancel it midway n then we visited apple office though however the silicon valley which has facebook, meta all huge headquarter there post covid has banned outsiders visit in their offices so only the parking lot n the cafes are accessible. Post that we visited mystery point a fascinating place where law of gravity works otherwise. It has few activities overall a must place to visit. Then we visited target as had to pick few things for all our relatives residing there. Target, costco all are so cost effective for tourist as well as locals out there. I mean you get fresh stuff in abundance and at a cheap price too. We also got our simcard from T mobile there which gave us a very good deal for month usage. The climate was windy througout my stay there i was not carrying any winter jackets but then again my relatives came to my rescue. The roads and the traffic is such a delight to negotiate there compared to streets of Mumbai and that place is full of Tesla and Dodge and these cars are truly a delight to ride in. Sf was a beautiful city well spaces with cute houses with porch n backyard on the outskirts and equally good architecture in the city the place has its own pace to walk and people are very soft spoken and friendly. Over all it was a good experience however will cover my road trip to La n vegas in my next blog till then enjoy reading this.
