We booked the 'BIG TRIP'

So.. We took the plunge last week and booked flights to the USA. I've always wanted to spend NYE in New York, so we're departing 31st December and spending 4 nights in NY. So excited. I have a file of cuttings from newspaper travel sections that I've kept for the past 3 years with cuttings on what to do in NY. So with flights booked, we looked at hotels. Hmmmmm.. New Years Eve in NY is extortiante! We ended up booking a 3 star hotel - The Washington Jefferson within walking distance from Times Square. I always thought I'd stay somewhere uber cool, tiny and in Harlem when I went to NY, but sadly, everything seemed to be already booked or ridiculously expensive, so middle of the road hotel in a tourist area it is.

We also made the decision to drive across the US. Yeehah! We're going to leave NY and then drive to LA. We've spent a good deal of time over the past 2 weeks studying the map and seeing what would be the best route to take in what we want to see. Here's what we've come up with:

New York
Washington
Nashville
New Orleans
Dallas
Roswell
Grand Canyon
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Los Angeles

Here's the route:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1pn=Newark+Liberty+Intl+Airport&1c=Newark&1s=NJ&1a=10+Toler+Pl&1z=07114&1y=US&1l=40.710106&1g=-74.190677&1v=ADDRESS&1id=21508340&2c=Washington&2s=DC&2y=US&2l=38.892143&2g=-77.036156&2v=CITY#b/maps/m:map:2:35.510979:-98.378905::::::1:1::::/l:Newark+Liberty+Intl+Airport:10+Toler+Pl:Newark:NJ:07114:US:40.710106:-74.190677:address::1:::21508340/l:::Washington:DC::US:38.892143:-77.036156:city::1:::/l:::Nashville:TN::US:36.165798:-86.784401:city:Davidson+County:1:::/l:::New+Orleans:LA::US:29.957079:-90.0625:city:Orleans+Parish:1:::/l:::Dallas:TX::US:32.783298:-96.800003:city:Dallas+County:1:::/l:::Roswell:NM::US:33.394199:-104.522499:city:Chaves+County:1:::/l:Grand+Canyon+National+Park:Highway+64+N:Grand+Canyon:AZ:86023:US:36.0544:-112.1386:address::1:::/l:::Salt+Lake+City:UT::US:40.760799:-111.890297:city:Salt+Lake+County:1:::/l:::San+Francisco:CA::US:37.775002:-122.418297:city:San+Francisco+County:1:::/l:::Los+Angeles:CA::US:34.0522:-118.242798:city:Los+Angeles+County:1:::/io:1:::::f:en_US:M:/bl:/e

The car is all booked and very resonable too! Darren's dad found us a great deal!

Trip-planning at the moment is focused on New York. I have spent hours pouring over guide books, TripAdvisor and NYCgo.com, as well as asking everyone I know for recomendations.

New Years Eve in Times Square doesn't really get the best of write-ups in cyberworld. Apparently we should be expecting to be penned in with no access to toilets, food or drink in sub-zero temps for 7-8 hours. So we looked into other options - booking a restaurant/bar for the evening.

Bubba Gump Shrimp was $350 for a ticket - this included all food, open bar, a t shirt and most importantly being inside the warmth of the bar in the middle of times square from 7pm until 2am. Sounded good, a tad on the expensive side, but the real downside was having to pick up the tickets by 30th December - no exceptions. This is not very useful when we are arriving on the 31st and they won't post the tickets.

The Marriott at '2 Times Square' has a nice looking bar so I rang them and asked how much it would be to book a table/attend their pre-organised evening. $2500. Yes, that's right, $2500. For food and drink in Times Square.

Then I stumbled across The Olive Garden restaurant. Also addressed '2 Times Square' and from what I can see, directly below the Marriott, they had a similar deal to Bubba Gumps - all food, open bar and an outdoor (ie on times square) viewing area where you can see the famous ball drop. Lovely manager told me he'd be happy to UPS the tickets to us and the cost was even better than Bubba's at only $250 per person. But, just to complicate things, he needs a 'check' in US$ - he can't take credit card or PayPal or anything else. So we have to figure out how to get a cheque in US$ and post it to them.

Part of me thinks we're gettting totally fleeced, but then again, 7-8 hours outside with no toilets, food or drink after getting of a flight from London doesn't really sound like it will fulfill my dream of being in NY for NYE. I think I'll take the warmth, toilets and all-you-can-drink alcohol any day.