Traveling with RW in the USA

[viking]

There are any number of posts where a marrried AM to an RW says he would love to go back to the FSU and visit a certain city or area because he found it interesting. And there as many of those same people who take their wives to some excotic location for a vacation. But the U.S. offers so many areas of interests, my question here is how many of these couples explored what is in the U.S. itself? We have a hundreds of  beautiful national parks and things to do. Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Lake Powell, White water rafting down the Snake in Idaho, the drive from San Francisco to San Deigo, the Everglades, the Smoky Mountains/Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennesee, the Florida Keys, Gettysburg and not to mention cities like New York or Washington DC. Just to name a few things.

As much as I have enjoyed Russian culture and areas of interest in my travels there ( and yes would like to explore more as well) , I know I would want to take my wife (when that will eventually happen) to some of these places. I have travled very extensively around my country and know there are some great places to visit. Have you guys done the same.? What were their reactions?

[Gator]

Viking,

My wife is looking forward to doing exactly what you described. 

When here three years ago, she and I visited NYC, DC, and San Fran plus a couple of parks.  She enjoyed it immensely. 

We are driving to the Smoky Mountains in a couple of weeks with some stops along the way.

[Admin]

There are any number of posts where a marrried AM to an RW says he would love to go back to the FSU and visit a certain city or area because he found it interesting. And there as many of those same people who take their wives to some excotic location for a vacation. But the U.S. offers so many areas of interests, my question here is how many of these couples explored what is in the U.S. itself? We have a hundreds of  beautiful national parks and things to do. Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Lake Powell, White water rafting down the Snake in Idaho, the drive from San Francisco to San Deigo, the Everglades, the Smoky Mountains/Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennesee, the Florida Keys, Gettysburg and not to mention cities like New York or Washington DC. Just to name a few things.

As much as I have enjoyed Russian culture and areas of interest in my travels there ( and yes would like to explore more as well) , I know I would want to take my wife (when that will eventually happen) to some of these places. I have travled very extensively around my country and know there are some great places to visit. Have you guys done the same.? What were their reactions?

Let's see .....

Olya and I have visited:

Washington DC
Grand Canyon
Phoenix
Las Vegas (several times)
San Diego
San Francisco
Atlanta
Park City, UT
numerous places in Colorado

Soon we will add New York City and Vancouver, BC to the list.

Still have to do a Florida tour.

So far I think her favorite city was San Diego. She loved the warmth and the ocean. It seems everyone from the FSU enjoys Las Vegas immensely - for a visit.

The first couple of times we went camping in Rocky Mountain National Park, we had elk wandering through the campgrounds next to the tents, and she found that VERY exciting.

She has seen a fair amount of the country and several of its premier sites. She always enjoys them a great deal - although where I feel more awe with natural beauty, she is taken aback by some of the human achievements.

- Dan

[GalinaF]

While I’ve been to many places in the US, there are many other sites that I would like to see. When we travel, I usually book the plane tickets and hotels, and I plan the whole trip: what places to visit, what tour to take, what show to see, etc. I do a lot of research, trying to book the cheapest and most convenient flights (not always possible) and reasonably priced hotels. My husband is very picky when it comes to comfortable accommodations and travel in general, but he often forgets to take into account our financial situation in general. So, he can complain about a flight that takes off at 6am, forgetting that a later flight would have cost us two-three hundred dollars more... Michael doesn’t like red eye flights, and it may be a challenge to find a convenient flight from Las Vegas, for instance. I think that we have accounts with all the major airlines. Each time we are going somewhere, it’s a new cheapest carrier…

 If I have to book a hotel that has a lot of negative reviews on tripadvisor or yahoo hotels (like Radisson in Key West), I have to warn my husband far in advance and provide a detailed explanation why I did that. Sometimes, the hotel turns out to be not that bad – no lizards in the room. So far, the best hotel I booked through priceline was Gaylord Palms in Orlando. It cost us $95 a night for a suite + resort fees. As my husband receives “points” from his company when he does his numbers, we often stay in different Mariotts as they accept these points. I’m not picky at all, and Fairfield Inn is perfectly okay with me. I was surprised to see my daughter complaining about a modest Mariott in Philadelphia – she has acquired a taste for good hotels so quickly!

One of the most challenging tasks when planning a trip is to decide what attractions we should actually see. Sometimes I have to decide myself (Florida, Washington DC, upstate NY), sometimes Michael takes over (Gettysburg). I study Russian sites (privet and russian-fiancee) and sites like virtualtourist and tripadvisor trying to figure out what sites are worth seeing. The best advice I usually find on the privet.com. E.g. being in Key West, I insisted that we should take a boat tour to Dry Tortugas NP – it turned out to be the highlight of our whole Florida trip!

As we live in CT, we have probably been to all the major attractions in New England. This summer I hope we’ll go on weekend trips to Acadia NP in Maine and Long Island, NY.  We have already planned a trip to Arizona – Utah – Las Vegas at the end of June – beginning of July. This June I’ll go to Tucson, AZ for a ten day workshop, and then, Michael will join me, and we’ll drive to Grand Canyon. Then, I’d like to see Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon in Page, Bryce, and Zion. We’ll fly back home from Las Vegas.

As you can see, I enjoy traveling around the country! I’m lucky that my husband bears with me…

[viking]

If you go to Bryce Canyon, make sure you take the horseback ride down into the canyon. You will feel like you are on another planet. Also, if you can get down to Page, AZ. rent a boat and go out on to Lake Powell. I once spent 4 days (with 3 other couples) on a houseboat. It was truly fascinating. It's part of the Glen Canyon recreational Area.

[Muj]

My wife has been here for about a year and a half.
So far I've shown her the Grand Canyon, San Francisco and some of the Great NW.  NYC, DC, LA on the list .

[KenC]

When Lena and I moved to California, we drove from Michigan.  I really did not look forward to it in any way as Lena was always bored to death after an hour in the car.  But much to my surprise it was a very enjoyable trip.  It was wonderful for her to be able to see first hand the change in the geography.  Afterwards she had a true appreciation of some of the beauty in this country.  Seeing the Great Plains change into the Rockies was amazing for her.  Utah was breath taking too.  Some other places we have visited:
San Francisco (her favorite)
Las Vegas (One time with her parents)
Los Angelas
Detroit
Up State MI including Mackinaw Island
Phoenix
Orlando
Miami
Tijuana & Rosarito Beach
Ensonada
Honolulu
San Juan
St Martins
St Thomas
Palm Springs
Malibu
Vail Colorado
We still need to hit NYC.
KenC

[viking]

Ken

This thread is about the USA. Last time I looked St. Thomas, St. Martin and Tijuana were not part of the US. I'll give you a pass on San Juan since PR is a territory of the US. They are all great places, I know this first hand, but I was more interested in how you folks introduced your wife to what we have here. Please do not take any offense on the geography lesson.

And yeah, when I was driving through the plains and then made this turn and all of a sudden the Rockies were in front of me, I had to stop and just stare. Amazing wasn't it? And have you tried going up to the Pacific Northwest? The San Juan islands?

Seems many are interested in visiting NYC. Since I lived in Manhattan for about 20 years, and in the burbs only a short distance away for more years than that, I completely enjoy being a tour guide. I'm just a native "New Yawker". Let me know when you get here.

[55North]

I have long since travelled and 'socialised' the length and breadth of the UK, and therefore got out of the habit of domestic touring.  With only a couple of weeks to go before the arrival of my wife here, I have begun to turn my mind to a series of (long weekend) trips to various parts of these islands to give Alla a true picture of them.  Later in the year maybe, a fortnight in the sun in the Mediterranean!
 
Unlike some others I have met, Alla is also positive about returning to Russia as a tourist, to visit those secret corners I have always wanted to go to.  Like Kamchatka!  

Having just discovered she has an unvisited Uncle in the Altai, I'm already pencilling out a trip, say, Barnaul - Altai Mts - Tuva - Irkutsk.  Then there's her Uncles in Ukraine..........   

[KenC]

Viking,
What do you mean Tijuana isn't part of the US!  It's a suburb of San Diego.  Yeah, OK, so I guess I did get carried away and extended my list to include all of North America.  But FYI, St Thomas Virgin Islands is also part of the US. 
KenC

[Kuna]

This thread is about the USA. Last time I looked St. Thomas, St. Martin and Tijuana were not part of the US. I'll give you a pass on San Juan since PR is a territory of the US. They are all great places, I know this first hand, but I was more interested in how you folks introduced your wife to what we have here. Please do not take any offense on the geography lesson.

OUCH!  I'm hesitant to reflect on an Aussies view of this... but what the hell North55 has jumped in with the UK too!   

Of course my Wife and I want to return to Russia and Ukraine regularly - but we have a list of other places we want to share together.

We've already done a few short trips within Oz and it's been interesting to hear her opinon on them... 

Funnily enough we were in I/O's home town today and while driving through town my wife said, "This is a nice place for living too" but when finally arriving at our destination and on getting out of the car she reached for her coat and said, "But it's far too cold for anyone to live here". 

To be fair it was a VERY cold day "up o the range" today.

As Asian stopovers are required to get to Moscow we'll change route often to see some places my wife is interested in...  HK, Singapore, China, Thailand, etc but domestic travel is still essential I believe, to show her the real Australia (Outback, Bush, Reef, Rainforest, Islands, etc)

[viking]

 Kuna

Ok. I'll bite. NP. I think what I was personally trying to feel out is this. I have traveled extensively throughout the US and there are just so many wonderful areas (mountains, the plains, cities etc) due to the depth and breadth of our climate, topography and so forth, (and proud of it) I wanted to know how many people took their proud RW to see these places. For example, there are castles in Russia but we have our Vanderbuilts and Hearsts.

I am not too familiar with OZ (forgive me here), but I would think as a proud Aussie you might want to do the same. So I would expand this by asking others if they "showed" their respective countries to their new wives.

As a way of how I got here, I remember a St. Pete woman taking me all over the place to show me her city. Same thing happened in Kiev. I think if I moved there, they would also want to show me some other aspects of their country. Since an RW makes a commitment to move to another country would she also like to know and see more about her new home? Just curious.

[KenC]

Viking,
Lena has formulated the same local pride of San Diego as you describe.  She is very proud of San Diego and has become a first class tourist guide of the area.  She recently took a Japanese student under her wing and made sure she went back home with a most positive image of San Diego.

Amazingly, Lena also had to show another good friend of hers the highlights of San Diego too.  And this girl was born here!  Very sheltered though.
KenC

[viking]

Beautiful thing Ken. Last time I was in your area, some years back, we stayed in Mission Bay. And I am sure we missed a few things, but did hit some high spots and the jet skiis were great. Next time I will call Lena for the $5 tour. 

[groovlstk]

Having spent every vacation day from 2003-2007 in Ukraine or Russia (or an airport hotel or terminal on my way there or back) prior to marrying, I've been very happy to have spent the last 1 1/2 years since my wife's arrival on US soil. We have plenty of cities in Europe and Asia on our planned vacation list (we'd also like to visit Montreal around xmas time), but for now we're content here. We've spent time in Vegas, New Orleans, a few weeks on the NJ shore, did some skiing in Vermont in Feb., and we returned yesterday after a week in St. Croix (I'll post some photos later this week). Funny enough, my wife loved all our destinations (except for New Orleans, which she thought was seedy and raunchy - which I couldn't convince her was part of the charm!) and checks out the local real estate wherever we visit to plan our retirement days

[viking]

Hey Groove.

Checking out all the local RE markets? That will keep her busy for the next 25 years!!

[ScottinCrimea]

A couple of months ago I took my wife on a drive from SLC down through Southern Utah, Las Vegas and Southern California on our way to visit family in the central valley.  There wasn't a whole lot to see south of SLC until you arrive in St. George where my mother lives.  The landscape there with the bright red cliffs, etc. was fascinating for her.  She hated Las Vegas, but since it was only an overnight stop for us, she really didn't get to experience it much.  While she enjoyed Disneyland, I didn't get the eye-popping reaction from her that I had expected and she felt that it was more of a place for children.  She did enjoy some of the wilder rides though, as there is nothing like that in Ukraine (If you don't count the roads).  I think next time we will hit somewhere like Magic Mountain of Knott's instead.  Venice Beach was a hit, first because she had never seen an ocean (the Black and Mediterranean seas don't count for her), and second because it's such an interesting place to just shop and people watch.  One thing that really impressed her was Sequoia National Forest.  The scenary on the drive up the mountain is spectacular, and the trees themselves are amazing.  She felt like she was in a fairy land.  On the way back, she spotted an orange grove, and because she had never seen orange trees before, we had to stop for pictures and to pick a few.

This trip was a good for a first adventure because she got to see a very wide variety of geography and landscape.  since we live so close, of course we have spent time in Park City but since neither of us ski it is just a shopping and dining destination.  Being a local I know of other places here in the mountains that have more to offer.

I have traveled extensively over all of the US and I find it difficult to decide the priority list of places to take her.  It seems I want her to experience everything I have over 40 years all at once.  Another difficult thing to know is which places will appeal to her the most.  Some places I thought she would love, she was actually rather ho hum about, and other places that are unexciting for me were her favorites.  I guess the best approach is just to start locally and work our way outward.  There is so much in the Western US that this could take some time.

[GalinaF]

If you go to Bryce Canyon, make sure you take the horseback ride down into the canyon. You will feel like you are on another planet. Also, if you can get down to Page, AZ. rent a boat and go out on to Lake Powell. I once spent 4 days (with 3 other couples) on a houseboat. It was truly fascinating. It's part of the Glen Canyon recreational Area.

Thank you for your advice! I can’t imagine Michael taking a horseback ride… but a boat tour around Lake Powell is quite feasible. We can spend an entire day in Page, so I’m looking into a possibility to go on a 3-hour afternoon tour. Is it worth going?

[viking]

Yes, yes and ...hmmmm... yes. PM me if you want more info.

[thompsongunner06]

We have been to DC,Disney,NYC,Williamsburg VA,Savanna GA,Atlantic City, but the best is any cruise in the tropics! RW look great in less clothing  .