Our quick stopover in Hollywood began with a meal at Hard Rock Cafe and a visit to the Walk of Fame and Chinese Mann Theatre.
We've been to LA before but decided to visit again as myself and my siblings were quite young last time. We went to a shopping centre to see the Hollywood sign in the distance and my brother visited a couple of guitar shops.
We only had a couple of hours in Hollywood but it was a nice touristy place to visit; it is a shame that is was such a flying visit but I would love to go back to LA at some point to stay for longer.
I am a massive Disney fan and haven't been to the California park since I was about 11! I managed to schedule a day in with my family at the end of our trip. We got up really early and were lucky enough to be around for the 60th Anniversary celebrations.
We stayed at a nearby hotel and had dinner at Cheesecake Factory (one of my favourite places to eat) and then went back to our hotel to watch the fireworks from the window, which was amazing.
We did both parks in one day and managed to see Paint the Night, Soundsational Parade, Disneyland Forever and World of Colour in the evening.
We began our day in California Adventure where we queued up for Radiator Springs Racers which was so worth the wait. We used fastpasses throughout the day and before we left California Adventure we went on Soarin', Grizzly River Run, California Screamin', Tower of Terror and Monsters Inc. We also watched Aladdin which was so amazing.
We then headed over to Disneyland Park, we went on the Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Indiana Jones Adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Bobsleds and Star Tours. We did some souvenir shopping and ate lunch at Village Haus Restaurant and dinner at Hungry Bear Restaurant.
We had such a magical day and managed to get on so many rides!
Vegas was so much fun, we stayed at the Tropicana at the end of the strip near MGM. Everything is completely larger than life in Las Vegas. We explored the strip and visited different hotels and casinos.
Our first evening was spent watching Jersey Boys at the Paris hotel which was fantastic! We ate dinner at Mon Ami Gabi where you can look out over the strip. While we were in Vegas we went on the Big Apple Coaster in the NY hotel and went shopping in a few of the malls. We watched the fountains at the Bellagio, visited Carlos's Bakery and went to Caesar's Palace to look around.
From Vegas, we travelled to the Grand Canyon and had the most amazing pink jeep tour. We took a helicopter ride and a boat tour at the bottom of the canyon and drove round visiting different areas of the Canyon. The view was absolutely amazing and we heard some great stories from our tour guide.
The other trip we took from Vegas was a horse riding visit at Bonnie Springs Ranch. We went on a trail on our horses and enjoyed breakfast at the ranch.
I loved the Vegas part of our trip, I think there is just so much to see and do. It is a great experience and I would absolutely love to go back at some point.
The drive from Monterey to Yosemite was quite long but Yosemite was so worth it. I would definitely suggest getting food/petrol beforehand as inside Yosemite it is really expensive. We got out at El Capitan which was massive and then we drove to look for the Tunnel view which is the postcard view of Yosemite.
We drove out towards Bishop and stayed at the Vagabond motel on the other side of Yosemite. It had a pool - which was very welcome in the heat - and some great places to eat nearby.
Death Valley is not too far away from Bishop so we didn't have to head off too early. Death Valley is one of the hottest places in the world, but just so amazing to see. We began our trip with a visit to the information point where they shared a map with us and directed us to a couple of places we wanted to see like Badwater Basin and a few sites where Star Wars was filmed. Definitely enter Death Valley with lots of water in the car and a map in case GPS does not work, because it really is extremely hot!
On the way out of Death Valley we went into a ghost town which was really interesting to see - it is a town that is now abandoned and only warranted a quick trip but all the same, good to see.
On our fourth day we woke up early to set off for the start of our road trip. On the way from San Francisco we visited Santa Clara as my brother is a big 49's fan. We got our rental car and drove to Big Sur and Carmel-by-the-Sea. It was a really lovely scenic drive. We drove to McWay Falls and managed to see some whales which was so amazing!
We drove to Monterey and stayed at Motel 6 in Marina. Our first motel was actually ok! I had stayed in a motel before, but it was great value for money.
There was a Denny's attached to our motel so we went there for breakfast before continuing our drive to Yosemite.
In Summer 2015, alongside my family, we flew out to San Francisco and began a mini road trip around the West Coast of America.
We arrived in San Francisco and stayed at the Da Vinci Villa Hotel. It was a great location although it did involve walking up and down lots of hills. From our hotel room we could see the Golden Gate Bridge which was amazing! The first evening we went to Pier 39 and saw the sea lions and found somewhere to eat near Fisherman's Wharf.
During our three days in San Francisco we stayed busy with lots of sightseeing and we ate at some great places. We headed out on a City Tour which is one of my favourite ways of seeing a new city. We went over Golden Gate Bridge and visited Golden Gate Park to see the bison and to eat hot dogs! We caught the bus to the painted ladies and then to Union Sq to have a quick shop. That evening we took the night tour over bay bridge and went across the Golden Gate bridge again. We had dinner at the Ferry House Building at Gott's Roadside which I would highly recommend.
We got up early on our next day to head to Alcatraz. We had booked out tickets in advance, this is definitely suggested at some dates sell out for particular trips. For lunch we went to Fisherman's Wharf and ate at Boudin's Bakery where they make sourdough bread. We finished off lunch with ice cream at Ghirardelli Sq. We caught a cable car up to Union Sq afterwards and completed the rest of our bus tour, taking us to Chinatown and then Lombard Street. That evening we finished with Mac n Cheese on Polk Street.
The final stop on our trip was the beautiful Thailand where we spent three amazing weeks.
Our Stops
Chiang Mai, March 12th to 17th
Chiang Mai was our first taste of Thailand and we had an amazing time. We stayed at DeeJais Backpackers which had been recommended, and it was definitely somewhere I would stay again! Our first day we walked to the 3D Art Gallery, which was such an interesting experience! It was so much fun, we ended up spending quite a while there. We found an American restaurant for cake and ended up going back for dinner! That evening we watched Cinderella as we wanted a little break before a few busy days! The next day we headed to the Elephant Retirement Park and spent an amazing two days there. They look after the Elephants properly and don't let people ride them, rather they explain how they look after them and you get to play with them. I'm so glad we stayed the night, it was so much fun and we met some lovely people, it was nice being somewhere that didn't feel commercial. The second evening we got home and headed out to the massive night market, got dinner and went shopping. The following day we went to Sammy's Organic Cooking School which I would definitely recommend, they helped us make some authentic food which tasted so good! Chiang Mai was such a brilliant experience.
Phuket, March 17th to 19th (and March 27th)
The hostel in Phuket, the Karon Living Room Hotel, was the best hostel we stayed at in Asia, it was so nice staying there after the rest of our Asian hostel experiences, plus it was super quiet. We spend a couple of days on the beach and finding some nice places to eat and then travelled over to Koh Lanta.
Koh Lanta, March 19th to 25th
This was the most beautiful island. We had such a relaxing week here chilling out on the beach. We settled into a routine where we would get up to lay on the beach, eat lunch from 7/11, have dinner at a cute street food restaurant and chilling out in the evening. We had massages on the beach, ate breakfast on the beach and watched the sunset every night before evening walks. It definitely wasn't a party island, it was a relaxing break and I really would recommend this beautiful, friendly island. We stayed at Isara Lanta for the first two nights in our own bungalow, which was amazing and had a lovely Greek restaurant, although the beach was quite rocky.And for the last four we stayed at the Lemonade Boutique Inn further down the coast where the beach was much less rocky and left us lots of space for swimming and laying on the sand.
Koh Phi Phi, March 25th to 26th
Phi Phi was a completely different experience to Koh Lanta and I'm so glad we went. It was crazy and we met so many lovely people. While we were there we had some great nights out, and we also headed to Maya Bay where they filmed 'The Beach' which was an amazing experience, and we were also able to do some snorkelling! I would have liked a couple more days as I would have liked to have visited some more of the island.
Bangkok, March 28th to April 1st
Our final stop and such a great place. We stayed at Chern Hostel which I could not recommend more. We had a really cheap private room which was perfect for the end of our trip. It was maybe a little far out, but we like walking everywhere anyway so it really didn't matter! Over our four days in Bangkok we did lots of shopping and visited MBK, Platinum Mall, Chatuchak Market and Khao San Road lots of times. We ate lots of nice food like 50p pad thai, mango sticky rice and condensed milk toast. We had massages and pedicures on Khao San Road, and visited Wat Pho. We had such a great time there. It is a crazy city and somewhere I would love to visit again.
Thailand Spending
(In Thai Baht)
Transport: 2655 THB
Accommodation: 6891 THB
Food and Drink: 3470.5 THB
Day Trips (inc. Elephant Sanctuary/Wat Pho/Cinema/Cooking Class/ Maya Bay): 7156.5 THB
Shopping and Beauty Treatments: 2032.5 THB
Total in GBP: £472.94
Days spent in Thailand: 20 days
Average per day: £23.65
