ALL OF USA TOUR

The day started at 8.30 a.m. for a visit to the Grand Canyon as an optional site visit. One of the world's most powerful and inspiring landscapes, this phenomenon is 446 kms long, 29 kms wide and 1.6 km deep through which the Colorado river passes from Arizona to California. It takes 2.1/2 hours to reach the Canyon by bus from Las Vegas. On the way we could see Boulder Dam and American Canal, local Casinos, Mahavir ranches and world's largest number of Joshua trees.

There are different options to visit the Canal from different points called rims. The South Rim is more popular. The North rim contains mostly montane forests. The West Rim is where the helicopters pick up passengers. There is a ground tour where the shuttle buses pick up the travellers and take them around the canyon to the different points like Eagle Point, Guano Point and skywalk point.

The most exciting is the West Rim Air and Ground Tour with Helicopter and boat ride. In this tour, a helicopter will pick up 5 passengers at a time (in fact large number of helicopters are in service to cater to the ever increasing visitors) and take them to the bottom of the Grand Canyon which takes about 7 minutes and there you board a pontoon boat for a 9 minutes ride on the Colorado river. This is a photographer's delight. After the helicopter picks up the passengers and drop them back on the helipad, there is a ground tour by shuttle buses covering the Eagle Point, Guano Point and Skywalk point. Number of buses ply every few minutes so there is not much delay. An estimated 5-6 million people visit the Canyon every year. Skywalk is on a U platform made of glass where you can see the view of the Canyon to the depth of 2000 feet. This phenomenon of Grand Canyon was declared as a World Heritage site in 1979.

Visit to Grand Canyon is the most thrilling experience watching the nature's miracle of creation of the Canyon and the flow of Colorado river through it which flows to a distance of 1400 miles.

The evening was free for visit to the local Casinos. Overnight stay at the same Monte Carlo Resort and Casino.

On completion of the tour of West Coast, it was time to move to the East Coast. As the distance between Las Vegas to Buffalo (to go to Niagara falls) is roughly 2650 kms, travel by road was not possible. Hence, we took a flight of Southwest Airlines at 10.00 a.m. and reached Buffalo at 5.15 pm.

In the evening, we could witness the grandeur of Niagara Falls with beautiful illumination from the Canadian side. The meeting point of Lake Erie into Lake Ontario provides a horse shoe view from both United States side as also Canadian side. While the view from US side is sideways, the Canadian side provides a front side view of the falls. That's why tourists prefer to watch the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. The horse shoe fall has a drop of about 50 metres which is the highest in the world. The falls are located in the Niagara State Park.

People holding visa to enter Canada, can pass through the Rainbow Bridge into Canadian side of the Niagara Falls.

Night halt was at Radisson Hotel Niagara Falls - Grand Island. This hotel has a beautiful lawn and lake view. Watching sunrise from the room balcony was an exquisite experience.

After watching the Niagara falls by night, it was time to visit the falls during day time. After checking out of the hotel, we moved by bus to Niagara Falls for the second time to take a boat ride called the 'Maid of the Mist'. The huge vertical drop of the water fall to a depth of 50 metres creates a mist around the fall which rises to about 8-10 feet above ground level.

We took a boat ride on the Niagara river and approached the horse shoe, where the force of the mist almost blew us out. It was a wonderful experience getting wet in the mist near the fall and hear the roar of the deep fall at close quarters.

After lunch, we moved to Williamsport at 2.00 p.m. and reached there at 6.00 p.m. after taking a short break in between travelling a distance of about 350 kms by bus.

Overnight halt at Genetti Hotel, Williamsport. This is a smaller hotel but the rooms were clean and tidy.

Dinner was at Long Island Pizza restaurant. As no Indian restaurant is available at this place, we were happy to eat pizza at this outlet.

It was time to move to Washinton DC. After breakfast, we moved by bus from Williamsport at 8.30a.m. on way to Washington DC. at a distance of 320 kms.

On the way we visited Hershey Cholocate Factory Outlet located at Pennsylvania at 10.30 a.m. to see how the Cocoa beans turn into delicious chocolate. The tour of the chocolate conversion process was quite interesting. The outlet also provided a large variety of Hershey's chocolates, which are otherwise not available at a single store in such variety. Chocolate shopping was an interesting experience. The outlet also contains a Theme Park with large number of visitors every day.

Lunch was at Comfort Inn - Passage to India restaurant, Harrisburg at 12.30 pm lasting 45 minutes. The food quality and service was good. Thereafter, we drove to Washington DC reaching there at 3.30 p.m.

Upon arrival, we were taken on a guided tour of Washington city, first visiting the National Air and Space Museum which contains a large number of aircraft models and details of space technology used by USA in the past. It takes quite some time to see the various models of old aircrafts and space shuttles. Later, we visited the Lincoln Memorial. Front view from this memorial provides a view to Washington memorial. Opposite to the Lincoln Memorial is the Vietnam Wall which contains the names of the 58300 personnel killed or missing in action in the Vietnam war. We also visited the Capital Hill where the Parliament of USA is housed, and then to see the White House where the US President resides.

An interesting episode was explained to us by the Tour Guide i.e., from The Capital Hill, the White House is not visible which is because then President Andrew Jackson built the Treasury Building between the two, blocking a direct view between the two monuments.

Overnight stay at Courtyard Marriot Hotel, Virginia. The rooms were quite spacious with all required amenities. The surrounding area to this hotel is filled with beautiful flowers.

After breakfast at Virginia, we moved to New York city by bus at 8.30 a.m. reaching there at 3.30 p.m. covering a distance of 540 kms. The bus journey provided a view of the greenery between the two cities.

On reaching New York, we were taken on a local tour to see Wall Street where a bronze bull is installed on the road side, which is supposed to be a good omen to those visiting the Wall Street Building for trading, and Rockfeller Center, United Nations Building, 9/11 memorial and a glimpse of the Central Park. As it was raining at New York on the date of our visit, we could see these places briefly. Dinner was at Simon Indian Palace in New York. This is a busy Indian restaurant in New York, yet their service was good and food quality was also good.

Overnight stay at The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel. This is a busy hotel in Times Square. We were checked in pretty fast and staying on the 16th floor did not pose any delay as there were 4 lifts operating at good speed. The room quality was pretty good and important amenities required by tourists are provided in the room. And the most important was that shopping area was at walking distance from the hotel.

Times Square at night is full of illumination. From 42th street to 47nd street which constitues Times Square and from 32nd to 41st Street, people of all destinations could be seen shopping around even till late in the night. The total number of visitors to this square is estimated to be 131 million a year. Some of the bigger malls like Macys, H & M etc. provide scope for longer hours of shopping. Times Square is the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop when an estimated one million viewers visit the square to witness New Year celebrations.

After a continenal breakfast at Hollywood Plaza at Times Square, we set out to visit the Statue of Liberty in the Liberty Island. The island could be reached by ferry leaving from Battery Park near the Hudson river. The Hudson river divides New York on the one side and New Jersey on the other.

The Statue of Liberty, which is made of copper has turned into green color owing to wear and tear over the years. Large number of tourists visit this spot and take pictures. On the way back, we saw the Ellis Island, where the travellers to America were first required to embark in the early part before entering the country.

After lunch, we visited the One World Observatory, the new building constructed on the destruction of the earlier World Trade Center in the bombing attack, which is 101 floors tall with a height of 1776'. We were taken by lift to the 101st floor to have a panoramic view of the entire city of New York and New Jersey. In the lift there was a slide show depicting the rise of New York city. On the way back, we paid homage at the site of what was once World Trade Center.

Overnight stay at The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel.