USA & Canada Travel Tips
This section is open to everyone to post those oh so useful tips when travelling to America or Canada. Anything from gratuities to which is the best way to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, feel free to post your best tips so that others can get the most from their travels.
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Basic Driving Tips
1. All cars are left hand drive.
2. 99.9% of vehicles are automatic transmission - dead easy!
3. In North America they drive on the right
4. On multi lane highways you can undertake vehicles legally on their left hand side.
5. Roundabout are rare, traffic light controlled intersections are common place and you are expected to turn right on a red light if no other traffic is coming.
Well that is 5 tips for starters, if anyone else can think of more then please post away!
Fog In San Francisco
During the summer months when the heat of the summer is at it’s greatest, foggy days in San Francisco are common place. The city has water on 3 sides with the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Summer temperatures in the city can reach 100 degrees some days. Combine this with the cool waters a little onshore breeze and much of the city becomes enveloped in fog quite regularly.
Tip here is have some warm clothing to hand, when the breeze brings the fog in under the Golden Gate Bridge it makes for great pictures but it gets really cool.
The fog often tends to clear towards the latter part of the day, again making for some great pictures over the bay.
As the inland temperatures start to cool in September and October the fog is less common and this can be the best time to visit San Francisco. The same can be said of May.
It should also be noted that many areas along the California Coast can experience the fog though as you head further south this tends to be limited more to June.
Sat Nav (GPS)
If I was only allowed to recommend 1 thing every traveller on a drive program should pay for it would be a Sat Nav for the car rental - I simply would not travel without one. They are most effective when cross referenced with the tailored routings we give you as you should not always follow the Sat Nav, unless you want to spend the whole time on Interstates (Equivalent of our motorways) but in the heart city or just for monitoring progress they are invaluable and in conjunction with our special route maps it’s a winning combination!
Phone Cards.
If you think you may want to make telephone calls during your time in America or Canada then please please make it a priority to obtain a pre-paid phone card from a convenience store like Walgreens although many places sell them.
You will be able to make International calls for a fraction of the cost encountered using mobile phones or indeed dialling directly from a hotel phone.
You can still use a hotel phone, you simply dial a free phone number on the pre-paid card, enter you unique pin number and then the number you want to dial.
As an example a $25 card will last most people 2 weeks if you were to call a landline in the UK for say 5/10 minute call once a day, where as just ONE call of the same length dialled directly from a hotel phone is likely to cost the same.
Petrol
The price of gas varies widely across the USA but you may find the following link useful to check on the going rates currently. Please keep in mind there can still be quite wide local variations particularly around National Parks where you should expect to pay more.
Click Here for current gas prices.
As an alternative that includes Canada prices also click here
Car Parking
Unless otherwise stated on the hotel website expect to pay for your parking. This is more common in the cities. Most hotels rather than motels offer the option of self-parking or valet parking (Where you drive up to the door and an attendant takes your car) the latter obviously costing more and again is a more common option in the cities or hotels/resorts that might considered to be 4-5 star. Charges vary wildly but in the major cities could be $20-$30 per night.
City Tours
There are not too many major cities in America now that don’t offer some form of hop on hop off city tour. I am a big fan of these particularly if taken on your first morning there. Great way to get around and very quickly get an overview of the city. You can then go back to anything you are really interested in that afternoon or another day. Most tours last about 2 hours assuming you are not hopping off and hopping on! You can buy tickets there or we can pre-book for you - Some cities offer a ‘City-pass’ ticket which includes tours and entrance fees to other attractions, these can be great value - so worth enquiring about.
Alcatraz (San Francisco)
If there is one attraction in the whole of America you should pre-book before you go it’s Alcatraz. For days in advance the ferries that take you across to the island are booked up, particularly in summer so please if you are going to San Francisco speak to one of our specialists who will be happy to book it for you and add it to your package with us. By the way it’s well worth it - fabulous experience!
Tipping
A real hot potato for us Brits.. In America it’s part of the culture and ultimately it encourages some of the best customer service in the world. So what do you tip? Well I am trying to think of the most common times you will need to offer a tip (Gratuity) so if anyone else has any tipping experience please feel free to post. These are very broad guys there is no set rule.
Dining - Between 15% - 20% is normal.
Luggage assistance (Hotel Bellman) - If you accept help with you luggage on arrival at hotels $1 per bag is normal, this would be the same if they collect your luggage from the room and load your car up for you on departure.
Hotel concierge - Tricky one this, I would tip $5-$10 depending on what they did for you. If they arrange the most fabulous table at a wonderful restaurant and the chef comes to say hello as happened to me you can always go back to the concierge at the hotel, thank them and offer them a further small tip.
Parking - If you valet park pay $1 each time the parking attendant fetches your car from the parking lot for you (Your valet parking charge will be billed seperately to your room).
I think they are the major ones for now, I’ll add anymore I think of but anyone else feel free to post… it all helps!
Drive South on the Pacific Coast Highway
If possible plan your itinerary to drive south along the Californian Pacific Coast Highway - this puts you on the coast side of the highway and affords better views. Driving north is fabulous too and there are lots of pull outs to stop for pictures so this tip needs to be kept in context but if you have the choice my tip will give you just that little bit extra on one of the worlds most amazing coastal drives.
Las Vegas check-in
When checking in at your hotel in Las Vegas expect to see airport style lines… Rather unique to Las Vegas but such is the size of each hotel and the numbers of people that come and go every day that check-in here is on a grand scale - Just a heads up to be prepared.
Public holiday dates in the USA
Travelling during major public holiday periods in any country will mean you are likely to encounter more people at hotels and attractions. The U.S is no different although their organisation is invariably better than what we are used to. To help we have listed below all major public holiday dates and please keep in mind that dates such as Labor Day and Thanksgiving are stretched by most to include the weekend.
January 1 New Year’s Day
January 18 Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
February 15* Washington’s Birthday
May 31 Memorial Day
July 5 Independence Day
September 6 Labor Day
October 11 Columbus Day
November 11 Veterans Day
November 25 Thanksgiving Day
December 25 Christmas Day