Touring Around The U S of A

I am so excited about our honeymoon trip to the USA and have everything and I mean EVERYTHING organised and booked in for us. 

I've gone way over the top with the organising and planning for this holiday.

I don't know if it's because I'm being overly organised with the wedding planning and this holiday is part of that or if leaving things to chance doesn't appeal to me so much as I've gotten older. 

All our accommodation is booked and paid for in advance so I know exactly where to go when we  get off the plane and where our head will rest each night, which is the best feeling.

Mr P wanted to just rock up in a foreign country and look for our hotel when we arrived and all I could imagine is us lugging our suitcases from one hotel to the other and having no choice but to check into the most expensive room available .... there's no way that's going to happen future husband to be!

We are using Airbnb for the first time and while I was a little nervous about it at first now I'm really looking forward to staying in someone's apartment in New York City and we've saved money by booking through Airbnb owners for hotels rather than going through the hotels direct.

All our flights are booked in and I've signed up with all the airline frequent flyer programs in the hope that we may get a free upgrade. It's on my bucket list to fly first class .... imagine how awesome an upgrade to first class would be!

We are flying a lot, I'm talking 5 domestic flights and 2 international flights and with plane changes it's a total of 11 flights over 3 weeks. I worked out we will be flying 60+ hours and that doesn't include stop overs and waiting time, that's just being in the air.

My e-reader will be charged up ready with books and if there's free WIFI at the airports I'll be able to keep myself amused. Mr P is on the lookout for a new tablet or laptop to load up with games and movies to pass the time.

With only 2 to 3 days in each town I really want to get the most out of the places we're travelling to and discover the history, see the sights, must eat foods and bars.

So I've booked us on 4 different tours with local tour guides. I don't usually book tours because I like to be an independent traveler and make my own way around, and see what I want, when I want. But with our short time constraints it really is the best way to see and do everything and get the most out of our time there.

I rely on Trip Advisor for everything and anything travel related and all the tours I've booked I found on Trip Advisor by checking out all the reviews to see if the tour would suit what we're looking for.

These are the tours I've booked so far ..... 

I'd love to hear from you if you've been on them!

New York - I love the idea of the pay what you think tours and I booked one of these for New York with Free Tours by Foot it's a 6 hour walking tour 'All In One Downtown NYC'.

After flying 24 hours I don't know how we'll feel about doing this tour on our first day in New York but the beauty of this tour is we have reserved our spots but not paid any money so if we sleep in or can't make it, we'll just cancel no money lost and no harm done. 

Louisville - We are booked on a full day 'Bourbon Trail South' tour of the Kentucky bourbon distilleries and beautiful countryside with Mint Julep. We had to book this tour well in advance as it was Mr P's dream to visit bourbon country, imagine getting there and all the tours were booked out, it would be a very sober bourbon country trip!

I have gone one step further and the next day we are booked on 'the everything tour' with City Taste Tours. The lovely operator was very understanding that we may be sporting a hangover after our bourbon trail adventures so has reserved our spots and will allow us to cancel if we have sore heads!

Las Vegas - Not far from Las Vegas is one of the seven wonders of the natural world the Grand Canyon which is a sight not to be missed. It would take a day to drive out to the Grand Canyon and back but there are lots of helicopter tours on offer that take you in a quarter of the time.

We are booked with Sundance Helicopters on the 'Grand Canyon Picnic' and I'm sure this tour will be one of the highlights of our honeymoon. I am so excited about this one it's going to be amazing!

Los Angeles - We are in LA for just 24 hours before our flight home and I can't go to Tinsel Town without seeing the Hollywood sign, Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills and hopefully a few celebrities too! 

The best way to make that happen was to book on a sightseeing tour so we are doing the 'City + Celebrity Homes'  tour with Legends of Hollywood.

New Orleans and San Francisco are the only places I haven't booked any tours YET!

Have you been on any of these tours in the USA? 

I'd love to hear from you if you have!

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