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So the wife and I are coming to America in August 2016 for her brothers wedding, in New Jersey.

We'll both be taking approx. 3 weeks off work, and we'll have about $4000 to play with on the trip, not including the cost of flights.

We'll have to start in New Jersey, but what should we do after? Neither of us have been to America outside of New York before, and we'd love to visit Vegas, perhaps go on some form of roadtrip. I'd like to visit some awesome powerlifting gyms if possible.

So if you had 2.5 weeks outside of New York, what would you do?

I wouldn`t visit powerlifting gyms.You`ve got plenty of nice mountain ranges you could hike (would help with your fat belly as well !).Why not see if you can visit some of the nice people that write here?

Because he knows no one is even remotely interested in meeting him.

Well, Iron Sport gym is just outside of Philly, https://www.facebook.com/IronSportGymInc/.

Upstate NY is beautiful and would be much more pleasant weather-wise in August. If you like cities, you may want to spend a few days wandering around NYC, Ginger Beard Man is a resident there and could probably tell you what's worth doing there. There is the jersey shore as well, nice enough if you like paying to walk on the beach. I personally think the Carolina beaches are far superior, but that would be an 8-10 hour drive from where you will be.

It all depends on what you like to do.

Would take the train to Boston for a few days, rent a car and hit Portland, Maine. Then take a train to DC or Philly where Ironsport is located. Maybe finish at the beach, maybe Ocean City Maryland. Go see a minor league baseball game. Drive over to Delaware Water Gap and walk a little Appalachian Trail.

If,you really have your heart set on Vegas, fly out there for a day or two, then rent a car and drive to LA, then head down to San Diego. You could probably hit Lake Tahoe, too.
You're money might go farther if you don't fly out west. PL 54 and Syaigh both made great suggestions re Philly, the Jersey Shore, Boston and Portland.
Syaigh is right about the beaches. Outer Banks so far superior to the Jersey Shore. Not so much because the beaches themselves are that much nicer, but the communities around them are.

As you'll see, the US is big and you can't see it all.

I'd suggest two loops.
1) Northeast: Upstate, NY / Mass to Maine OR Mid-Atlantic loop that includes the Blue Ridge mountains, DC and VA/NC shore.
2) Vegas to SoCal

Since you'll be in Jersey, check on flight costs from Philly, Newark, LaGuardia, or JFK to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Long Beach, or Ontario. With all these options you should be able to find a cheap flight. Then rent a car and drive a big loop or pay the extra $$ to pick up the car in one place and drop it off in another.

You don't have to rely on the big three airlines. Southwest Airlines goes most places, and there are a variety of regional airlines going into and out of Vegas.

This will give you the east coast & Atlantic Ocean, multiple mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and SoCal stuff. Since you're from a gloomy land, I'd put more time out west. Sun, sun, sun, and dry heat.

Thanks guys. I think West sounds better. We've both spent plenty of time in New York, but not outside of New York, so not much interest in hanging around after the wedding.

I'd love to go to Washington and see the White House and other shizzle, and we'd both love to see Vegas for a couple of days. We'd like to spend time in the sun. So maybe a good plan would be to go to Washington from New Jersey, and then fly west?

I recommend an epic road trip. Start it by flying into New Orleans, then go up through Vicksburg (awesome civil war site and Mississippi River stuff) and angle up from there to Denver. Or maybe straight across through New Mexico and Arizona. From, there, head for Vegas via Utah and the Rockies. Do Death Valley and the California desert on the way to the pacific coast. Drive from LA up to San Fran. Fly back from there.

While the places like Vegas are cool, it's the space in between (Great Plains, western deserts, central coast of California) that I think you will remember. The route takes you by at least 1000 cross fit boxes too.

nafod wrote:I recommend an epic road trip. Start it by flying into New Orleans, then go up through Vicksburg (awesome civil war site and Mississippi River stuff) and angle up from there to Denver. Or maybe straight across through New Mexico and Arizona. From, there, head for Vegas via Utah and the Rockies. Do Death Valley and the California desert on the way to the pacific coast. Drive from LA up to San Fran. Fly back from there.

While the places like Vegas are cool, it's the space in between (Great Plains, western deserts, central coast of California) that I think you will remember. The route takes you by at least 1000 cross fit boxes too.

I'd love to do something like that. Rent a mustang and drive through the US, but I'll be with my wife, who wants to "actually see and do stuff". She doesn't like the idea of 5 days of the holiday spent driving.

Hence why I was thinking of confining it to the west coast. I'd get to do a bit of driving, and see the grand canyon, and she could see Hollywood, Vegas etc.

I would do Boston and Portland and then DC, then fly to Vegas, drive to LA for a few days then drive up to SF by way of Pao Robles and South Lake Tahoe. Maybe cut over to Yosemite if possible. If you have time and money continue to Oregon for Portland#2, Bend, crater lake and Washington state if possible.

we have gyms in Britain dude, visit something worth visiting. Mickey O'Neill's signature pics for example,

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:I would do Boston and Portland and then DC, then fly to Vegas, drive to LA for a few days then drive up to SF by way of Pao Robles and South Lake Tahoe. Maybe cut over to Yosemite if possible. If you have time and money continue to Oregon for Portland#2, Bend, crater lake and Washington state if possible.

Thanks, I'll look into all of that.

I'm not really fussed about seeing any gyms one way or another.

From Jersey, first thing to do is get out of NJ, Hudson Valley, Adirondacks, Lake Placid, Thousand Islands, Kingston Ontario, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Finger Lakes, go home.

I'd visit:
1. San Francisco
2. San Antonio
3. New Orleans
4. Boston and/or DC

All are completely different from the others, and all are absolutely American.

Beer Jew wrote:So the wife and I are coming to America in August 2016 for her brothers wedding, in New Jersey.

We'll both be taking approx. 3 weeks off work, and we'll have about $4000 to play with on the trip, not including the cost of flights.

We'll have to start in New Jersey, but what should we do after? Neither of us have been to America outside of New York before, and we'd love to visit Vegas, perhaps go on some form of roadtrip. I'd like to visit some awesome powerlifting gyms if possible.

So if you had 2.5 weeks outside of New York, what would you do?

Well, 2.5 weeks that includes Vegas and excludes NY/NJ, I would do a tour of the west coast with a detour to Vegas and some other place.

Start at the north end or south end, hit Seattle, San Francisco, Vegas, Los Angeles, there are interesting places at each end to go if you get bored somewhere along the way. I would try to build a layover in my flight that allowed a stop in New Orleans, a Texas city (Austin, for me), or Chicago. Those are all culturally different but hard to otherwise build into a trip, because cities in the center of the country are so spaced out.

Assuming the layover is out, the east coast is pretty close together. A trip to Boston or D.C. would be easy.

The US is culturally pretty different culturally depending where you go. This is something I imagine is a well-solved problem by the tour guides.

Don't leave New Jersey.

Please.

I've changed my mind. If you want to see Amuricah, then see Amuricah including the vast fields in the middle. Drive from NJ to Vegas and beyond if you care to. Pull one all nighter in the middle.

Beer Jew wrote:So the wife and I are coming to America in August 2016 for her brothers wedding, in New Jersey.

We'll both be taking approx. 3 weeks off work, and we'll have about $4000 to play with on the trip, not including the cost of flights.

We'll have to start in New Jersey, but what should we do after? Neither of us have been to America outside of New York before, and we'd love to visit Vegas, perhaps go on some form of roadtrip. I'd like to visit some awesome powerlifting gyms if possible.

So if you had 2.5 weeks outside of New York, what would you do?

I don't know where you are from but seeing things you cannot see at home is what I would want to do anyway. So if you live in a city then I would head to the plains and mountains. Of course you will end up in cities here and there anyway but the American west is pretty spectacular.

As a non-U.S. visitor to Vegas and west coast, who has 'done Vegas' at VIP levels, I would allow 2-3 days tops in LV.
If time is tight you could fly in and out. Drive from LA to LV is boring, the drive SF to LV has more stuff but is longer.
Your time is way better spent in, around and between SF and LA. SF is a great city to feel into. You can do the wineries, head to Yosemite then back down the coast. LA has the tourist tick lists. Come down through Malibu, August will be beach weather (SF also has a pretty coast, worth seeing but farrrking cold water even in July).

For Vegas, base yourself in Vdara hotel or similar (usually cheaper than the casinos but still right in the middle of the main strip area). Do see the Grand Canyon. Even though I'm used to big sky and open spaces here in Oz, you gotta go and see that canyon. If you have time go to the Grand view lookout past the south rim area at sunset - wow, totally fucks with your perspective for big. On the way down or back stop at Hoover dam and the lake etc. If time is short just do the skywalk. If you have the dollars a helicopter flight from Vegas to Canyon and back would be best.

Do the gambling thing. Be disappointed that no one actually wears suits like in the movies and the only girls that dress up all look like cheap tramps from Jersey. See a show or two, walk up and down the strip through the casino foyers etc, have a meal in one of the better places. Shoot a machine gun, etc and that's pretty much all there is. Flamingo Casino did/does a classic LV style cabaret show, very good (and with lots of nice titties as a bonus), the Cirque Du Soleil shows are always good.

Any more specific info you want from a fellow out-of-towner just pm.

Newark is gorgeous this time of year

$4 grand to spend? hire me to bang your wife.

Wait, is she hot?

Hit Smith and Wollensky in Vegas and get a Cajun Ribsteak.
And remember, we tip 20% for good service in America. You're countrymen have a knack for ignoring that part.

(If you're accustomed to leaving double the tax on visits to NY, be aware that sales tax varies state to state and city to city, so you really could screw people unintentionally.)

4 days is a shitload of Vegas. I would plan on three.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:4 days is a shitload of Vegas. I would plan on three.

Yep.

Make a trip to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon @ the see through balcony over the canyon.