Latest Update:
Great to be back home--as always. My trip was as memorable as it was enjoyable. It wasn't a very warm welcome though. For absolutely no reason, other than my name and appearance, I was "referred" to a control check at immigration. They took me to a room and said it will take a maximum of 20 minutes. The officers inside were very unprofessional. So much so that if this was Pakistan, passengers would have made a scene. There were two desks working on cases ranging from asylum seekers to potential terrorist threats. The officers chatted amongst themselves more than they worked. They were no very happy about--in the words--dealing with "shit" like us. And they really treated us like shit--very rude. The officers would take frequent breaks often leaving both desks empty. They told each other "why should we care when they (obviously referring to their higher-ups) don't?" I also got the impression they were convinced that this detention did not help.
When after two hours, I lost my patience and politely asked one of the officers how long it would take. He said 8 hours. When my turn finally came after around 4 hours of waiting, they asked me what I do, why I was here and when I'm going back. It took about two minutes and could have easily be done at the main counter. It was fairly obvious what race and religion were being profiled and going by the mood of the room, profiling only increases resentment towards the USA. The worst part of my experience though, was that the officer forgot to stamp my passport. I don't know if all officers are like this but at the end of my trip I concluded that JFK must be the worst airport to land at. Airline staff and TSA (I passed smoothly, but some others did not) were equally rude.
However, the immigration team partially redeemed themselves when I crossed back from Canada. They took a couple of hours trying to find the missing stamp and then the officer was kind enough to stamp my passport. He said without a stamp, I would have been harassed again at the airport.
Anyway, the 4 hour long detention meant that I missed my shuttle into NJ. I was too tired to drive so I decided to stay at a hotel. My mistake was to go for the cheapest--Super 8 was bad. But it was only on night before taking the bus to NJ so it wasn't too bad. In the morning, a friend showed up at the hotel, took us around Manhattan.
We visited the Empire State, Macy's and then walked to the Metropolitan Museum. The museum was impressive even though we did not have enough time to see it all. Fun day all in all, and provided a day is hardly enough to experience a city, I prefer London.
Over the next week, we travelled to Cornell and then to Niagra Falls. Horseshoe falls are amazing and Maid of the Mist was one boat ride I'll remember for a long time. Great experience. Our real vacation started when we flew to Las Vegas.
Day 1 Stayed the night at Mesquite and then drove to Zion NP. We did the Narrows trail and it was one of the highlights of our trip. Amazing.
Day 2 Next day we went to Bryce. The views were breathtaking.
Day 3 We had intended to take a swim in Lake Powell but there were strong winds and they weren't renting boats. We surveyed the area, visited a few viewing points and Glenn Damn.
Day 4 Lake Powell--Some jet skiing and swimming. I got sun burnt pretty bad. My bad. Should have used lotion. From there we drove to Las Vegas.
Day 5 and 6--We stayed at Encore by Wynn and while the hotel itself and its rooms are posh, the service was no where near 5 stars level. Our bags arrived an hour late, the WiFi in our rooms did not work, and they were about to charge us for a bottle of water from the mini bar that was never there to begin with. From there we flew to Orlando. We saw Ka which was pretty good. The death of one of its actors just two days later came as a shock.
Day 7-- Islands of Adventure is absolutely awesome. Hogsmeade and Hogwarts were like a dream come true. The best amusement Park I've visited.
Day 8--Wet N Wild. Decent waterpark with rude staff. It was a rainy Sunday with long queues. We stood for one hour and there was a storm and the ride was closed. Luckily, most people left and even though it was cold by early evening, we were able to do almost all rides with little wait.
Day 9-- Universal has been totally revamped since I was there in 1998. Only a couple of rides that were still there. The new rides? Awesome: Simpsons and Despicable Me were absolutely hilarious.
Day 10-- Some shopping. Not impressed by the Orlando Mall. Nothing to see.
Day 11 (3 July)--Magic Kingdom. I regret going there. There was nothing new--and while the fireworks were spectacular, I should have visited Seaworld instead.
Day 12--More shopping in the 4th July sales in outlets. Everything else closed early so we missed out on home shops.
Day 13--flew back to NJ, visited some homeware shops and left for home.
____________________________________
New Update:
I have a revised plan for the West Coast. What do you think?
I'll be arriving around the 14th of June. I have some business to take care off and will be spending a few days in the Eastern Cities as well.
25th June Fly to Vegas from Phil/NYC 4 nights
29th Fly to Salt Lake City, rent car. Sleep in SLC overnight.
30th Drive to Tetons National Park. Sleep in Jackson overnight.
1st Drive to Yellowstone NP
3rd Drive back to Jackson. Fly to NYC
Excluding food and shopping, that trip is costing me at estimated $2500 for the both of us. Seems right?
Where should I spend the fourth?
5th Back to Karachi
The only thing with this itinerary is that I will miss LA/SF. I could fly to those cities on the weekend preceding the 25th (which is a Monday), but I'm getting a feeling it will get too hectic. A friend of mine has an Intervalworld holiday exchange membership which he is letting me utilize. There are frequent slots in LV but I can't find one on my desired dates as yet but they might open up. There are many slots available in Orlando and 5* hotels keep popping up now and then. It would cost me an additional $300x2 for the tickets and $200 for the exchange fee for the week. It would also mean I would have to sacrifice a couple of days from Vegas and Yellowstone at the least to get 4-5 days there. My wife isn't too keen on Orlando, but with a nice resort I may be able to convince her. At the moment, I'm not convinced myself.
______________Original Post____________
My wife and I planning a trip to the USA in June lasting 3 weeks. We're a young couple interested in:
1) Nature (national parks, lakes)
2) Historical architecture.
3) Shopping. We are furnishing our new house and wanted to buy some (practical and aesthetic) accessories.
4) Las Vegas
5) The wife also wants to visit Beverly Hills.
I have an uncle in NJ and that's where we are going to land. We also considered an Alaskan cruise, but my wife does not have a valid Canadian visa.
Budget: $6000
Great to be back home--as always. My trip was as memorable as it was enjoyable. It wasn't a very warm welcome though. For absolutely no reason, other than my name and appearance, I was "referred" to a control check at immigration. They took me to a room and said it will take a maximum of 20 minutes. The officers inside were very unprofessional. So much so that if this was Pakistan, passengers would have made a scene. There were two desks working on cases ranging from asylum seekers to potential terrorist threats. The officers chatted amongst themselves more than they worked. They were no very happy about--in the words--dealing with "shit" like us. And they really treated us like shit--very rude. The officers would take frequent breaks often leaving both desks empty. They told each other "why should we care when they (obviously referring to their higher-ups) don't?" I also got the impression they were convinced that this detention did not help.
When after two hours, I lost my patience and politely asked one of the officers how long it would take. He said 8 hours. When my turn finally came after around 4 hours of waiting, they asked me what I do, why I was here and when I'm going back. It took about two minutes and could have easily be done at the main counter. It was fairly obvious what race and religion were being profiled and going by the mood of the room, profiling only increases resentment towards the USA. The worst part of my experience though, was that the officer forgot to stamp my passport. I don't know if all officers are like this but at the end of my trip I concluded that JFK must be the worst airport to land at. Airline staff and TSA (I passed smoothly, but some others did not) were equally rude.
However, the immigration team partially redeemed themselves when I crossed back from Canada. They took a couple of hours trying to find the missing stamp and then the officer was kind enough to stamp my passport. He said without a stamp, I would have been harassed again at the airport.
Anyway, the 4 hour long detention meant that I missed my shuttle into NJ. I was too tired to drive so I decided to stay at a hotel. My mistake was to go for the cheapest--Super 8 was bad. But it was only on night before taking the bus to NJ so it wasn't too bad. In the morning, a friend showed up at the hotel, took us around Manhattan.
We visited the Empire State, Macy's and then walked to the Metropolitan Museum. The museum was impressive even though we did not have enough time to see it all. Fun day all in all, and provided a day is hardly enough to experience a city, I prefer London.
Over the next week, we travelled to Cornell and then to Niagra Falls. Horseshoe falls are amazing and Maid of the Mist was one boat ride I'll remember for a long time. Great experience. Our real vacation started when we flew to Las Vegas.
Day 1 Stayed the night at Mesquite and then drove to Zion NP. We did the Narrows trail and it was one of the highlights of our trip. Amazing.
Day 2 Next day we went to Bryce. The views were breathtaking.
Day 3 We had intended to take a swim in Lake Powell but there were strong winds and they weren't renting boats. We surveyed the area, visited a few viewing points and Glenn Damn.
Day 4 Lake Powell--Some jet skiing and swimming. I got sun burnt pretty bad. My bad. Should have used lotion. From there we drove to Las Vegas.
Day 5 and 6--We stayed at Encore by Wynn and while the hotel itself and its rooms are posh, the service was no where near 5 stars level. Our bags arrived an hour late, the WiFi in our rooms did not work, and they were about to charge us for a bottle of water from the mini bar that was never there to begin with. From there we flew to Orlando. We saw Ka which was pretty good. The death of one of its actors just two days later came as a shock.
Day 7-- Islands of Adventure is absolutely awesome. Hogsmeade and Hogwarts were like a dream come true. The best amusement Park I've visited.
Day 8--Wet N Wild. Decent waterpark with rude staff. It was a rainy Sunday with long queues. We stood for one hour and there was a storm and the ride was closed. Luckily, most people left and even though it was cold by early evening, we were able to do almost all rides with little wait.
Day 9-- Universal has been totally revamped since I was there in 1998. Only a couple of rides that were still there. The new rides? Awesome: Simpsons and Despicable Me were absolutely hilarious.
Day 10-- Some shopping. Not impressed by the Orlando Mall. Nothing to see.
Day 11 (3 July)--Magic Kingdom. I regret going there. There was nothing new--and while the fireworks were spectacular, I should have visited Seaworld instead.
Day 12--More shopping in the 4th July sales in outlets. Everything else closed early so we missed out on home shops.
Day 13--flew back to NJ, visited some homeware shops and left for home.
____________________________________
New Update:
I have a revised plan for the West Coast. What do you think?
I'll be arriving around the 14th of June. I have some business to take care off and will be spending a few days in the Eastern Cities as well.
25th June Fly to Vegas from Phil/NYC 4 nights
29th Fly to Salt Lake City, rent car. Sleep in SLC overnight.
30th Drive to Tetons National Park. Sleep in Jackson overnight.
1st Drive to Yellowstone NP
3rd Drive back to Jackson. Fly to NYC
Excluding food and shopping, that trip is costing me at estimated $2500 for the both of us. Seems right?
Where should I spend the fourth?
5th Back to Karachi
The only thing with this itinerary is that I will miss LA/SF. I could fly to those cities on the weekend preceding the 25th (which is a Monday), but I'm getting a feeling it will get too hectic. A friend of mine has an Intervalworld holiday exchange membership which he is letting me utilize. There are frequent slots in LV but I can't find one on my desired dates as yet but they might open up. There are many slots available in Orlando and 5* hotels keep popping up now and then. It would cost me an additional $300x2 for the tickets and $200 for the exchange fee for the week. It would also mean I would have to sacrifice a couple of days from Vegas and Yellowstone at the least to get 4-5 days there. My wife isn't too keen on Orlando, but with a nice resort I may be able to convince her. At the moment, I'm not convinced myself.
______________Original Post____________
My wife and I planning a trip to the USA in June lasting 3 weeks. We're a young couple interested in:
1) Nature (national parks, lakes)
2) Historical architecture.
3) Shopping. We are furnishing our new house and wanted to buy some (practical and aesthetic) accessories.
4) Las Vegas
5) The wife also wants to visit Beverly Hills.
I have an uncle in NJ and that's where we are going to land. We also considered an Alaskan cruise, but my wife does not have a valid Canadian visa.
Budget: $6000
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