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LaVida's Travel Guide, Recommendations, and Journal
So, I've been to a lot of places and quite seriously, I'm starting to forget some of them, starting a little journal would help remind me and advise others so here we go :) (PS. Feel free to post! :D)
NOTE ABOUT PHOTOS: All photos posted are tiny versions of large high quality ones on my Mene album under "Exploration". http://www.menewsha.com/forum/album.php?albumid=7806 Shorthand: SPR=Spring W=Winter SUM=Summer F=Fall P=Past(visited multiple times in the past) Food and attractions per person: No Dollar Signs=FREEHotels (1 room, 2 double/twin/standard/queen beds): NOTE: All prices are calculated in CAD and AFTER tax. North America Canada Ontario: Niagara Falls SPR2014 (Apr-May) Niagara-on-the-Lake SPR2014 (sometime after niagara falls SPR2014) United States of America Hawaii: Big Island/Hawaii Island W13/14 (Dec-Jan) Maui W13/14 (Dec-Jan) O'ahu W13/14 (Dec-Jan) New York: New York W14 (Dec23-27) Asia China |
Sorted by Activities Food and attractions per person: No Dollar Signs=FREENOTE: All prices are calculated AFTER tax. Activities will be sorted into 3 basic categories: Soft Adventure [S] Little or no excercise required. Medium Adventure [M] Not for the faint of heart, but also won't scare you to death. Will need some courage and/or physical excersions. Hard Adventure [H] For adreneline junkies. Usually a lot of exercise involved. Flora, Fauna, & Nature (Plants, Animals, and Nature) Bird Kingdom (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) $$ [S] Black Sand Beaches (Big/Hawaii Island, Hawaii, USA) [S] Huanama Bay (O'ahu, Hawaii, USA) $ [M]/[H] Gaming Casino Niagara & Fallsview Casino (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) [S] Skylon Tower Arcade (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) [S] |
Restaurants Food and attractions per person: No Dollar Signs=FREENOTE: All prices are calculated AFTER tax. Love Cafe $$ Eastern European [website] 430 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Vezzo $$$ Pizza [website] 178 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Hotels Hotels (1 room, 2 double/twin/standard/queen beds): No Signs=FREENOTE: All prices are calculated AFTER tax. Doubletree $$-$$$ Lodge Themed [website] 6039 Fallsview Blvd, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada L2G 3V6 Embassy Suites $$-$$$ Business/Falls Focused [website] 4700 Fallsview Blvd., Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada L2G 3W6 |
Niagara Falls Hotels: Doubletree $$-$$$ Lodge Themed [website] 6039 Fallsview Blvd, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada L2G 3V6 Pricing similar to Embassy Suites, although the falls are but distant lights from the windows. The pool is well designed with a salt base as sanitizer. It includes a shallow end and a deep end in two separate pools. Nice, clean, an average hotel room. Although, they do have very delicious free cookies :) It is a little bit of a walk to get to anything such as the casinos or the falls, but it is recommended for people that like to stroll to their destination and back. Embassy Suites $$-$$$ Business/Falls Focused [website] 4700 Fallsview Blvd., Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada L2G 3W6 One of the cheapest views you can get of the Niagara Falls. It is also VERY close to the Horseshoe falls so the view from the window is amazing in the afternoons and mornings, but since there is only illumination on the American falls, you can't see the Horseshoe falls during the night. Also, unless you get the American falls suites, you don't get to see the American falls at all. All of their rooms are nice suites that include a small dining room separate from the bedroom and a sizable washroom. Their facilities are nice as well, but the swimming pool is actually quite shallow and with no deep end so the deepest is only a bit over a meter. I believe they use a mix of chlorine and salt water in the pool. The pool is also usually warm and not cold. A nice bonus of 2 separate jacuzzis as well. Although the rooms and washrooms are nice, the dining room can really use some better interior design because although the chairs and tables are very nice and sturdy, the colouring and design look kind of cheap and used. The lighting in the dining area could use a change as well. A very short walk to the Fallsview Casino. The link below provides some of the best deals you can get without signing up for their newsletter (which has even better deals sometimes). http://www.embassysuitesniagara.com/hoteldeals.html The pictures below were taken from the window of the hotel room :) [Super-large version photos can be found in my album]. http://www.menewsha.com/forum/pictur...041007&thumb=1 http://www.menewsha.com/forum/pictur...040910&thumb=1 Activities: Bird Kingdom $$ [S] 5651 River Road, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada L2E 7M7 Really a fun place very close to Casino Niagara, especially for people that like birds. It has a really big area at the top of the building where they have free-flying exotic birds. There's also a parakeet feeding area, but we didn't try it out since my boyfriend already has a birdie at home XD If you plan to go, look around for discounts and usually the online price is cheaper if you can't find a better deal. Price: $10-20 depending on the discount. Below is a photo I took in one of the last big rooms at Bird Kingdom. Totally one of the best photos I ever took. The bird was soooo close!!! http://www.menewsha.com/forum/pictur...215224&thumb=1 Casino Niagara & Fallsview Casino [S] Surprisingly they use the same PAC (Player's Card), then again, they are both owned by the government. If you go to either of these casinos, get the PAC, it's free and gives you free parking along with points depending on how much you bet/exchange money for chips in the casino. The points are quite useful because you can redeem them for anything from food to actual hotel rooms in the Fallsview Casino hotel. And just by having the card you get free parking and sometimes get discounts and free plays. Actual casino space-wise, Fallsview has a larger slot machine area than the table area, but the table area of Fallsview and Niagara are about the same. Although I have to mention, Casino Niagara has this cool digital black-jack with a full-screen digital dealer which was pretty cool. As for shopping areas and interiors outside the gambling area, Fallsview has Niagara beat because it is connected on the inside to the mini mall and it has quite a few cute novelties like this chocolate place and the pepper palace which sells all kinds of hot sauce. Skylon Tower Arcade [S] 5200 Robinson St, Niagara Falls, Ontario , Canada L2G 2A3 In the basement of Skylon Tower. If you get tired of gambling and want to play some arcade games, this is the place :) To get here from Fallsview Casino, just go across the outdoor bridge located on the north side of the casino (also can be reached by turning left from coming out of the food court). Activity Packages: Unless if you want to go to all or at least most of the attractions, it ain't worth it Parking: Indoor: Casino Niagara & Fallsview Casino I suggest getting a casino card and park in either of the casinos for free by getting a free PAC (Player's Card) from the casino. Outdoor: IMAX Theatre Parking around the area is usually similar but notable cheaper places would be the IMAX theatre, you can tell it by its pyramid shape and bright lights. It is very close to Fallsview casino also has an outdoor bridge to the casino. Beside Skylon Tower Not at the tower, but beside it. It has a very cute small trail that goes down to the falls through the trees and a small garden. The parking was once very cheap, but because of it's location to the mini-trail the price became average and fluctuates with surrounding rates. Road Side Parking: Near the Falls If you want to find parking near the falls, there is road-side parking at the police station but I also suggest looking to the small parking lot BESIDE the skylon tower. Any parking lots near the falls that are right beside the road tend to be very expensive. |
Big Island/Hawaii Island Activities: Black Sand Beaches [S] There are multiple black sand beaches on Hawaii Island. I only visited a small one, but that was interesting enough. The sand is acutally made of crushed volcanic rock and usually has tiny pieces of coral and the mini semi-precious gemstone I believe to be peridot/olivine. |
O'ahu Activities: Huanama Bay $ [M]/[H] Although hanging out at the beach would count as soft adventure, to actually experience Huanama Bay, you need to actually go into the water. Snorkeling and scuba diving are probably the best ways to explore the area. Snorkeling gear and floaties are available for rent. Floaties are probably the best deal because they are quite a hassle to drag over all the way to Hawaii and I just used a floatie and swimming googles instead of snorkeling gear. The floatie will also help keep you afloat so you won't have to move too much and scare off all the fish. NOTE: When they say "deep" and "shallow" for snorkeling, DEEP IS FOR BEGINNERS, SHALLOW IS NOT (kind of the complete opposite of swimming). Try to stay on the sand. If you step on something that you think may be rock, it is probably coral, and you DO NOT want to step on those. Watch out for the currents, the further away you swim from the beach, the harder it is to swim back. The line between an okay-ish depth that's easy to swim back from and the kind of deep area that's hard to swim back from is a very thin line. Entrance fee of $7.50. |
New York Restaurants: Love Cafe $$ Eastern European [website] 430 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10010 The food is very savoury and has really cute and pretty decor. Crepes came a lot bigger than expected. Their goulash reminded me so much of my boyfriend's cooking that i almost cried in the restaurant (he wasn't with me for this trip >.<). The Skazka was very delicious too. It was creamy but not overly cheese flavoured. It wasn't too sweet either. Vezzo $$$ Pizza [website] 178 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Their thin crust pizza was the most delicious thin-crust pizza I have ever eaten. Totally worth visiting. Great service as well. |
I want to go to Hawaii and Alaska.
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I haven't been to Alaska before, but Hawaii is sooo gooood. Try out their macadamia nuts if you can :3 make sure you get the fresh ones tho!
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I already do like macadamia nuts. For the past two years I've been toying with the idea of making a quick weekend visit to Hawaii. I'd like to see a black sand beach and the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
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They got tons of black sand beaches apparently. But, the green sand beaches are more rare and harder to get to. And I found a wikipedia article for it too ;3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papakolea_Beach ---------- Post added 11-17-2015 at 06:14 AM ---------- hummy>> It's very very hot, all year long XD bring lots of sunscreen :) But they have a lot of nature and cool volcano-based stuff. I'm going through my hawaii stuff right now, so hopefully I'll get some stuff posted soon :d |
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