Nice! How bad were the queues?

Mauritius weather holding up so far. It's winter, so we had stop start rain yesterday but still warm. A bit windy. 

Today is clear, warm at 26 degrees. Nice.

But sister and her family, plus mum and aunt with us... not so relaxing?

Off or the gym now while everyone else spends boring pool time.

We started looking at Florida seriously yesterday. It all looks so cheap (well, doable) until you add in the flights. Family of 5, two weeks, villa and a few parks, maybe £10k all in, more than half of that in transport.

How do other people manage it? Am I missing a trick?

WorKid wrote:

We started looking at Florida seriously yesterday. It all looks so cheap (well, doable) until you add in the flights. Family of 5, two weeks, villa and a few parks, maybe £10k all in, more than half of that in transport. How do other people manage it? Am I missing a trick?

9 of us in Mauritius, 5 star resort, direct flights with (cheaper than Emirates and rubbish in comparison) Air Mauritius, all inclusive, 9 nights..... £14k. And that's leaving it late when prices gone up.

We (me with wife and our 2 kids) spent a week in Dubai earlier in the year and spent £10k but including some trips and spa treatments.

Holidays are indeed expensive, but with busy day to day lives with working and earning money, it's the only way we get to spend quality time with kids and family.

Barcelona. Don't rent a van.

No idea tbh. Have three girls of various ages, I suspect Universal would be of interest but I basically know sod all about it. That site looks great - daunting - but very helpful, thanks.

Not exactly a exotic holiday, but took a day trip to Bournemouth. Beach is really nice (for the UK). Never been before, pleasent day out.

On a side note, anyone been to island of Nosy Be (off coast of Madagascar) or futreventura (one of the canary islands)? Looks like our choices for holiday destinations this year have been limited by zika (the cdc map is depressing viewing) and the fact we can only get away in early November.

@gremill I'm well jealous would love to go to Disneyland and Universal but it's a no go destination for us (damn you zika!).

@Dinostar - Fuertaventura is nice, been there a few times. Some amazing beaches if you like that sort of thing.

Holiday is going very well so far - picked up the car yesterday and drove from Hollywood to Pismo Beach today. Arrived about an hour and a half ago - intending to do a mega post on what we've been doing but I'm too knackered. Maybe tomorrow.

We fly out of San Francisco on the 31st, but have Pismo, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Yosemite and SF still to do.

Just quickly, because the bottle of rum I bought at 'Bev Mo' (the most amazing liquor store I've ever been in) is having its effect on me as I speak, but the drive here was fucking phenomenal - every 20 miles or so I had a 'fuck! I've driven this road in GTA-V!' moment.

Yeah, as far as it'll take us - there's a big section closed though, after a landslide last year.

Man, it's been a busy couple of days. After we did Disneyland we were onto Universal Studios, which meant picking up the car. We got a Ford Escape which is a small SUV by American standards, but big from our perspective. The size of some of the cars out here is utterly ludicrous - the 5 litre, V8 jacked up Dodge Ram pick ups are comically huge.

So my first experience of driving in the US was a 90 minute trip through heavy traffic on a 5 lane freeway from Anaheim to North Hollywood. I absolutely loved it - just the experience of it was overwhelming, passing Camaros, Chargers, Mustangs, Bucks, Semi-trucks like in smokey and the bandit and the odd Corvette. Seeing this kind of stuff was amazing:

That's Century City - Nakatomi Plaza is in there somewhere.

We went straight to Universal which, surprisingly, wasn't as good as Disneyland. Queues were insane and unlike the house of mouse they don't offer an affordable quick pass (would've been an extra $260 on top of the $500 I'd already paid!) so we didn't ride on much but there was still plenty to see.

Studio City:

Lower Lot, with Jurassic Park water ride (fucking brilliant fun) and The Mummy ride in shot:


Went on the studio tour, which was really interesting and fairly cheesy but fun. The King Kong and Fast & Furious 360 4D sections were really well done but I loved the practical effects stuff more (how to make a flash flood and a subway-set soundstage with exploding petrol tanker and crashing trains), the Bates Motel and House and of course this:


Also went on the Walking Dead 'experience' which was utter shite but gave a real insight into American healthcare:

Whereas the Waterworld stunt show had some genuinely impressive stunts and explosions and shit - it performed the rare feat of making me want to watch the film again:


We then stayed at The Garland in North Hollywood, which appeared to be full of the cast of made in Chelsea and staffed by a bunch of up their own arse hipster cunts who took every opportunity to sneer at us and were actively unhelpful at times (refusing to book a taxi for us because we couldn't tell them exactly where we were going). My chip on shoulder may be due to my shock at paying $13 for a pint of average lager though.

I did, however, have a fucking boss shrimp taco with some absolutely incredible fries. So tasty. It was washed down with a watermelon infused pale ale which was also great. The taco:


Next day, it was off to Hollywood for the obligatory tour of the Stars houses, stalker style. But first, breakfast of coffee and a bagel on Hollywood Blvd:

Then some star spotting:


Onto the Tour, which was more interesting than I thought but also quite depressing. Why was it depressing? We live in a world where Vinnie Jones lives in a $13m house on mulholland drive:


With amazing views of the San Fernando Valley:


The real treat though, apart from seeing Gwen Stefanis house ($35m), the house that Bieber got evicted from (rent $59k per month), Denzels pad ($85m) and the house that Jackie died in was seeing the house that DJ Jazzy Jeff got chucked out of every week:


I'm finding myself quite emotional about mundane stuff like road and street signs - everything I see is just so iconic and representative of things from my childhood and teenage years. I'm taking too many pictures, like a tourist schmuck.

Anyway, after a busy morning and afternoon it was time to head North to Pismo Beach - driving the roads of GTA-V and getting goosebumps every 20 miles or so. It doesn't get much better than driving into the sunset on the Pacific Coast Highway:


Also, here's a gratuitous picture of a spicy chicken sandwich with blue cheese coleslaw, cheese and more fucking stupendous fries.


I'm going to need a chinook to carry me home at this rate.

Great stuff Greg. Love that weird déjà vu feeling when you're in America, is it your first time?

We did almost exactly the same stuff as you in Universal, but it wasn't too busy. I loved Waterworld too, really well done.

The coleslaw is the bottom layer Nina - inside the sandwich...

Sparky - yeah, it's my first time in the states. Acting like a total tourist and loving it.

Loving the pics Grem! Looks like you're all having the best time. 
Hopefully I'll get back to LA someday myself with work. Managed to see next to fuck all when I was there.

g.man wrote:

Loving the pics Grem! Looks like you're all having the best time.  Hopefully I'll get back to LA someday myself with work. Managed to see next to fuck all when I was there.

Yeah I've been twice now with work and seen hardly anything outside the commute to the office and restaurants / bars in the evening. Next time gonna take some annual leave and see the place a bit.

I did make a joke when we saw a broken down car in Beverly Hills, said must be a banana in the tailpipe. No one said anything. I'm wasted on these people.