Travel Vlog : Los Angeles, Las Vegas & New York City

Finally, I get around to finish the details of this trip, one of the best deal about travelling is to experience the culture and do what the local do. So we did just that, rent a car and drive from city to city and enjoy the scenic view, looking at shooting stars and breezing through the deserts. This was such a wonderful trip and I would do it again anytime.

My travel dates were rather crazy since we had last minute changes, but in any case, I give you the breakdown so at least you understand why we schedule our trip this way:

3-5 Oct

Los Angeles (Flew in via Delta Airlines)

2 way Air ticket SIN-NRT-LAX-SIN - SGD1154 - You can get this price if you plan the trip early and schedule your time during off peak season.

On the very last minute, we change our flight to leave Singapore 2 days earlier, since we were afraid that jetlag and fatigue might set in for our road trip giving us extra 2 days to adjust, was a swell idea.

Accommodation: Airbnb - La Brea

(SGD110 per room per night for 2 people, which include a bath, use of laundry machine and use of living room with Netflix. Reasonable price for accommodation compares to hotels and it's a walking distance to shopping malls, restaurants and taking an uber everywhere we go)

We book an Airbnb near the La Brea area so that we would be near The Grove, Farmer's Market and Wholefoods, Since we are not really planning to cook in our Airbnb we made sure the vicinity around us was just nice for us to hunt for food and do some shopping.

To be honest, just skip Farmer's Market (next to The Grove) food was terrible and it's very crowded with tourist. I suggest you try Wholefood, the food is reasonably priced and it's healthy options if not, there is a lot of food delivery or restaurant which you can simply google it.

I do highly recommend you stay in an Airbnb, to experience the LA "living" style. But do take note if you are spending a longer time in LA I do highly suggest you rent a car. But of course, Uber-ing around LA is also another alternative, you can also share your ride with a stranger which is totally safe and public transport just suck in LA so either car rental or uber.

5-8 Oct

Las Vegas

(Flew in via Delta Airline on their domestic flight) One way ticket from LA to Vegas USD$93.10 (Exclude check-in baggage)

This city is hardcore, with casinos, slot machines, hotels and lights beaming everywhere, this city just doesn't stop. I do notice that I get very tired easily with Las Vegas, but then again there were pretty much shopping for us at the outlets, since we are not a gambler we don't even bother about it. All we did was rent a car from Alamo a white Jeep Cherokee which was big enough to store our gigantic luggage and spacious enough for the 4 of us. Just take note, US is a left-handed driving and everything else is on the left, the road signages are tiny I guarantee you miss a few of them and obviously you need a GPS! But then driving in Vegas is easy actually it's just up and down the strip.

Accommodation: Hard Rock Hotel

(USD129 per room per night. There is better option in Las Vegas I suggest skip this and head to Bellagio or Encore)

In Las Vegas, we stayed at Hard Rock Hotel and with all honesty please don't stay here the service is horrible and the only time when the service was actually good when we dine at Pink Taco other than that I think the bed is horrible, we literally had to drag our bags across the lobby since they didn't have any bellman to help us with it, the check in took so long and we had to wait for our room despite checking in way past the check in time and ultimately I would say NO!

At the strip, you can just soak in the atmosphere of the malls, casinos, beautiful hotels and condensed tourist from all over the world. We went to Miracle Mile Mall, where you can do some shopping there, but I suggest you head over to their North Premium Outlet where the real shit happens (LOL!) my advice just bring whatever money you can get and spend it here. Since the sales tax is 8% compare to LA or NYC, Vegas is one of the lowest so why not, right?!

The next day, we went to drive 6 hours to and from Grand Canyon, I admit that some part of the drive I doze off but the drive there was so amazing. Driving along the rocky mountains, through the valley was just awesome guys. I do highly recommend driving to Grand Canyon instead. When we drove back from there it was so amazing to be driving through dessert and I could literally see all the stars. A M A Z I N G!

Going to the Canyon can be tricky, but we followed the GPS and head to one of the viewing points. I do want to spend a little more time but the travelling took us very long and we are not able to stay any longer but then again it was worth it, such an amazing experience.

Next day we drove to Los Angeles!

8-13 Oct - Los Angeles!

(We drove the car rental to Los Angeles)

A great way to travel is to drive, it was such an experience to drive for about 5 hours to LA, we got lost due to the road detour but if there wasn't a detour we would have reached LA in 4 hours. But then again the experience like what you see in the movie, driving past deserted roads, crappy petrol station, speeding car and monster trailers was all worth it.

One of the most memorable time was when we drive through a dessert and we could look up and see all the stars. It was amazing!

We reach our Airbnb right after midnight and after that long stressful drive, we had to deal with another issue with parking the car. The parking lot was so tight I could die just trying to navigate my cousin just to park. Aside from that, our Airbnb was in a nice location in Hollywood and we went to many tourist attraction.

Firstly of all I must Scientology is like freaking everywhere in Hollywood and it's so annoying when they keep coming up to you to "promote" their belief. Anyway, Hollywood is really interesting and I finally get to see the Hollywood, but, of course, I was a little disappointed to see it coz it isn't how I imagine it to be but then again the experience that counts.

For the next couple of days, we spend time at the Griffith Observatory, drive around LA (as usual, shopping), Venice beach and walk around Abbot Kinney. My favorite place was Venice and Abbot Kinney, there were so many places to see and visit. I do like the area and houses are nice especially those by the canals.

It is definitely a good way to experience LA by driving, we manage to go a lot of places. I supposed if you don't drive LA public transport is not so reliable unless you Uber your life away in LA.

Also, the weather during this time was pretty alright it wasn't too hot/dry and cold at night.

13-17 Oct
(Took a flight from Los Angeles to New York City via Delta Airlines for USD386.20 exclude baggage)

Now we are travelling to New York City! Another amazing city I would say and surprisingly I was more drawn to NYC then LA or Vegas. People are realer here and we also get to stay at a relative place which was awesome.

We stayed at a relative place in Brooklyn which is really nice coz we gotta live just like a New Yorker. We took the bus and train to the city centre and travel back to Brooklyn which is really an eye opening experience, took the subway and the local bus. It's so much different than in Singapore (we shouldn't even complain about SMRT and SBS)

Visited a few places while we were there for about 3 days and walk almost 90% of the time, so I suggest wear damn comfy shoes. We did miss out a few places like the grand central station and museum since we were short of time. But of course, we will leave that to the next visit I supposed. But one of my favourite places is Chelsea Highline, such great view, less traffic and just love walking along the houses there.

I know this is a lengthy post but it will be so much lengthy than this without the youtube videos. So here is the link to my youtube channel : https://m.youtube.com/user/ChannelLifeissuperB

And don't forget to subscribe, I have Krabi, Thailand Vlog coming up!