TREK AMERICA: 6 WEEKS TO GO

It is exactly six weeks until I fly to New York to start my Trek America adventure so I thought i'd do a post explaining exactly what I am doing and why!

It all started about six months ago after thinking about 2015 and plans for my big 30th birthday. I knew I wanted to do something a bit different of the big 3-0 and thought about travelling. America has always been top of my list to explore because its so vast and has so much different culture within one country.

I have previously visited the US for family holidays to Florida and have been to New York before, once with college and most recently to work at a summer camp in New York for three months. Whilst working in New York previously I worked in the Catskills and was quite close to Niagara Falls, but never got to visit and the week in NYC at the end of my trip was hindered by a hurricane and storm warning so a lot of attractions were closed whilst I was there.

So that was it! I knew I wanted to visit NYC again and Niagara Falls, and thought about visiting a few other places along the way. This led me to the Trek America website. The site looked amazing, and had me hooked instantly, I could travel in a small group, with people my age, on a mini-van and see a lot of the sights of the US in a relatively quick timeframe whilst getting an amazing experience.

At this point I was still a bit unsure and hadn't been able to decide out of all the options what I may like to do and where I might like to visit specifically.

After thinking about this trip for months on end, I finally decided in February 2015 to go for it and booked!

After lots of thought about where to go and cost, I settled on the Northern BLT and combined it with the Las Vegas to Grand Canyon Hotels treks.

I picked these treks as I knew I wanted to see a bit of the east coast that I hadn't seen and as it was for my 30th I wanted to have more of a road trip and see some of the west coast. My family had been to LA before but I never have, so thought this would be a trip of a lifetime.

If money was no object I would have booked the Grand BLT but I felt it was a bit of a stretch for me, having been studying and still being a freelancing artist.

I picked the Northern BLT as Niagara and other points are places I want to see the most.

I still want to see the south and Washington D.C., but i can't do it all on this trip and it gives me the option to book another holiday in the future when i've saved up a bit more.

I also decided to combine these trips instead of the Grand BLT, as I wanted to spend a bit longer on the west coast than that provided. With the way the dates fall, it will give me just under a week in LA at the end of the 21 day Northern BLT before I go to Vegas and have a 4 day trip to the Grand Canyon. After this i'll have another week in Vegas to explore, who doesn't want to do a trip to Vegas for their 30th!!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a little nervous, never having really travelled, apart from the usual 2 week family holidays when I was younger, and organised trips with college. Even when working in the US I only combined it with a few days before and a week after in NYC, so not really travelling in that sense.
We also don't know exactly where we'll be staying but we find out on the first day of trek, with the BLT that i've chosen it will be a mixture of hostels, hotels and cabins…so, although they have it planned we have a bit of mystery and a chance to explore all kinds of accommodation, which I thought was great and suits me better than camping!

But Trek America seems to provide for people just like me, who want to travel solo and see what they want to see, but not be completely alone and i'm not really a camper so they also provide for that too…with getting older as well I was pleased to see their trips are aimed at 18-38 year olds, so I don't feel too old to do this, lots of other companies aim at younger markets but this seems perfect!

Thats the why, now the what, so…about the treks...

NORTHERN BLT

Heres the route I will be taking on my trip!! We will start in New York (well, technically Newark, NJ ...but I will have had 4 days in NYC before this), for my fifth night in the states I will make my way out to the gateway hotel in Newark so I can get myself organised and regroup after NYC to prepare and get up early for the start of the trek. Trek America provide this as an optional extra so you can possibly meet a few people before your trek and so you're not facing an even earlier morning trying to make it to the start point…they think of everything!

Then I will spend 21 days making the way across to LA with stops on the map listed. I believe there are more stops than this and its flexible, so if theres something interesting to see that our tour leader knows about we should be able to do that.

The trek stops in cities, national parks and other interesting places along the way, so i'll get to see all different parts of America.

Following the three week trek I will spend a week in LA before making my own way to Vegas…

LAS VEGAS TO GRAND CANYON (HOTEL)

Once in Vegas I will make my way to the gateway hotel for the night before the trek so I can be ready for the early start on trek day. The hotel is non gaming, so that will be interesting in the gambling capital!
Then I will do this four day trek, going to Zion first and then onwards to the amazing scenery. Once we get back to Vegas I will have a free week to explore the bright lights before making my way home.
This trip is run in conjunction with Trek America's sister company, Grand American Adventures…which means there can be people of all ages on this trip, so it won't just be young un's, this should be an interesting mix for the scenic four days as opposed to my three weeks before with a mix of younger peeps :)

Heres what my time in the states will look like:

Day 1:               London, UK - New York City, New York
Day 2 - 4:          New York City, New York
Day 5:               New York City, New York - Newark,  New Jersey
Day 6:               Newark, New Jersey - (Cayuga Lake) New York                       (Trek America Day 1)
Day 7 - 8:          Niagara Falls, New York - Pennsylvania - Lake Erie, Ohio
Day 9 - 10:        Indiana - Chicago, Illinois                                                  
Day 11:             Minnesota                                                                                  
Day 12:             Badlands, South Dakota                                                          
Day 13:             Mount Rushmore, South Dakota                                            
Day 14:             Cody, Wyoming                                                                      
Day 15 - 16:      Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming                                
Day 17 - 18:      Jackson and Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming            
Day 19:             Idaho - Lake Tahoe, Nevada                                          
Day 20 - 21:      Yosemite National Park, California                                    
Day 22 - 23:      San Francisco, California                                                    
Day 24:              Monterey and Big Sur, California                                        
Day 25:             Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, California                               (Trek America Day 21)
Day 26 - 30:      LA, California
Day 31:              LA, California - Las Vegas, Nevada                  
Day 32:             Vegas, Nevada - Zion NP & Bryce Canyon, Utah           (Trek America Take 2 Day 1)
Day 33:              Monument Valley, Utah and Arizona                    
Day 34:              Grand Canyon, Arizona                                      
Day 35:              Grand Canyon, Arizona - Las Vegas, Nevada                 (Trek America Take 2 Day 4)
Day 36 - 41:       Las Vegas, Nevada
Day 42 - 43:       Las Vegas, Nevada - London, UK

A pretty epic trip if I do say so myself…14 states, over 6 weeks, memories for a lifetime!!!


Heres some links to the trip, if you fancy a nosey or doing something similar: Northern BLT and Las Vegas to Grand Canyon (Hotel)

I'm going to update this blog with everything that happens along the way and hope this blog can inform others wanting to do these treks particularly, as I struggled to find specific reviews about this two treks.

Lets see where this adventure takes us!!