RTW Trip

Just wondering if anyone has been to Moscow, Egypt, USA, Tokyo. I’m planning a RTW trip and need info on costs in AU$ of food, trasport, sights to see, things to do in each city. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

For the US, buses you’ll be mainly looking at greyhound, trains- amtrak, although I’d recommend flying between NY and LA unless you either want to be on a bus for a few days or you’ve got several intermediate stops between you’d like to go. Try kayak.com for flights, and check out the websites of those other companies to get their prices.

The big cities in the US have hostels like Europe does, but not as much of a selection. You could also look at cheap motels which are a bit hit-or-miss in the cleanliness department, but have more privacy. For new york, book at least a few weeks ahead for accomodations, a few summers ago we tried to book on the road a few days in advance and ended up having to stay across the river in a semi-sketchy part of new jersey in an econolodge because it was the only thing vacant in our price range. (not a bad room though, just smelled a bit of smoke) The only thing was that we had to ride a bus to the subway station and then take the subway over to manhattan, which was a bit of a hassle. I would recommend staying in manhattan if possible. I know there are some hostels there which should be pretty cheap. hostelworld or hostels.com are good for this. Food is cheap as there are mcdonald’s/burger king, etc everywhere in the US. I’m not sure about groceries as I would imagine they are more expensive in LA/NY than where I live in the US. xe.com is the best currency converter that I have found though.

Thanks so much for your help. What is there to do in New York and L.A and San Diego? I’m thinking of staying only 4 days in N.Y then flying over to L.A for 4 days before I head home to Australia (I wanna head down to San Diego zoo). I don’t really know the best attractions for these cities.

for the san diego zoo, youll need to set aside most of one day to see it all. it is extremely huge, you also have seaworld there also which is fun.

for egypt of course the pyramids are a great attraction, you will also have to check out the egyptian museum, i would recommend a guide for the museaum, it is so big with so much stuff that if you did it alone you would miss all the really cool pieces. also in cairo go see the mohammad ali mosque which sits atop of a hill over looking all of cairo, the mosque is also in the citadel which is a “crusades” era fortress. there is also some cool churches in coptic cairo, they have the first christian church built and is the one were mary, joseph and baby jesus stayed at when they traveled through egypt. for shopping you can go to the khan el kalil bazaar, it is very tourist shopping though.there is alot to do in cairo, it is very hot so bring your sunscreen. the exchange rate is still pretty good in cairo, i was there last august. you can get a 2L bottle of water for around 50 cents american, not too sure about AU$

as for tokyo, tokyo is kinda of split up in three different cities, you have tokyo,shibuya,and rapungi. the tokyo part is mostly business, shibuya has alot of shopping and the busiest intersection in the world. roughly a 1000 people cross the street every light. and rapungi is the party side. many nice bars, dance clubs, hotels, also tokyo tower which looks like the eiffel tower is a fun place to stay for the day. has for the exchange rate here it is pretty bad right now. its 90 yen to the 1$ dollar. cabs are very expensive especially in tokyo, so expect to pay about 10$ US dollars just to get in the cab. the train system is very easy to understand. thats about the basic’s. have fun on your trip.

There’s loads of stuff in new york. (I’ve never been to LA or San diego sorry) Empire State Building, central park, ground zero/wtc memorial, statue of liberty, grand central station, times square…
The madame tussaud’s wax museum in times square is really cool, although a bit expensive (I think the ones in Europe are more expensive though). They’ve always got one on display right outside and the first time we went, it was Michael Jackson and my friend thought it was really him! haha.
If you’ve got the money, you could try to catch a broadway play. Or you could try to get tickets to a talk show like Colbert or something. (sadly Conan isn’t in NYC anymore) There are also alot of great museums in NY like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.
There’s a GIANT Toys-r-us store in the middle of times square as well. When I went, it had a 3-story ferris wheel INSIDE, a lifesize Barbie dream house, and a moving, “living” t-rex from Jurassic Park (it roared and moved it’s head and body— not feet— like it was real).
Also, there’s Chinatown, Soho, Tribeca, etc. I’ve never been to them though so I can’t tell you exactly what there is to do there.