Be Excellent To Each Other

In October Myp and I are going on our honeymoon. As we never ever go on holiday, apart from to scummy festivals we decided to do a bit of a special tour. We're doing the following.

7 nights in Oahu, Hawaii
3 nights in Las Vegas
5 nights in Cancun, Mexico
3 nights in New York

Wooo! I'm muchly excited!

Has anyone ever been to any of these places? If so please advise us of must see/do things.

Thanks

Dunno, but I've heard America is quite different to the UK.

Surf
Gamble
Drink Tequila
Harmonise around a bin that's on fire

Cancun is Ibiza for Americans... depending on when you go it might be full of American college students going 'SPRRIIIIING BREAAAAAK! WOOO!' Lots of malls and fast food and drinking-orientated restaurants. Some gorgeous beaches and lots to do, and also some ruins and a proper town to visit as well if you're that way inclined.

New York... was only there for two days but definitely go up a tall building like the Empire State if you can, and the USS Intrepid is pretty cool if you want to see a real aircraft carrier and real nuclear missile submarine.

Run down the steps of the NYC Library, like on Ghostbusters.

Cheers, though. I think we'd like to go off the beaten track at some point in our holiday, so the town sounds good.

Las Vegas is awesome, although very odd. If you're going to gamble, I'd recommend finding a table game rather than a slot machine - they're more fun and you spend slower ( well, I did by miles on a low limit roulette table ). The Bellagio fountains are awesome, I'd recommend seeing those as well.

What hotel are you staying at?

Watch whales in HI

Hire a car and look for women desperate to get home from the shops within the next 2½ minutes.

If he's got Test Drive Unlimited. Confiscate it now.

Excalibur I don't think Myp's too happy about staying in a princess castle, but I can't wait!

Too late. I've been driving around it looking for cool places to rag the hire car for the last few months...

Won't you laugh when they give you a Saturn Astra.

We stayed in the MGM, just across the road. Sadly, I was not allowed to see The Tournament of the Kings

Getting a day bus pass can save you loads of cash going up and down the Strip, but it can take ages compared to a cab.

THe NYNY rollercoaster is fun, if you like rollercoasters, but nothing amazing. Downtown is cool, as everything is right all together and you don;t have to walk miles form place to place. Also, right up the other end of the Strip, near Circus Circus, there is a coffee shop called "Sexpresso" I heartily recommend that.

Cool

We only have one whole day in Vegas to do tourist stuff due to attending a wedding while we're there, we're going to be running round like mad!

It feels like any other American mall town, I really didn't like it at all, not even remotely Mexican. If you are determined to stay near there, then I totally recommend staying on the small island just a short ferry ride from Cancun called Isla Mujeres. If you want to do the American mall Cancun things, you can easily pop over on the ferry (30 mins) but go back and stay on the island which is a million times nicer and really relaxed, great beaches, food. I sat in a hammock reading books for a week there, lovely place. You can also (if you get up early) stay on the island and get over to leave from Cancun to do a pyramid trip one day, I thoroughly recommend going to see Chichen Itza, which you can do on a bus tour from Cancun in a day.

I went to the top of the World Trade Centre when I visited, I can totally recommend it, it's really high and you get an amazing view over the.... oh.

Try the wine.

In New York, I'd advise the Brooklyn Art Gallery as well as the more well trod ones like the MOMA. The farmer's market is a laugh. Clothes shopping in the Village is fun, as you can laugh at the pretentious people, and buy clothes all at the same time! I can't remember the name of the massive toy stoe, but go there. Hopefully they'll still have the big keyboard on the floor like in Big.

To be honest, we're not going for a Mexican experience. By the time we get to Cancun we'll just want a rest, I expect.

I wouldn't mind a potter out to the town, etc, though.

Not the local wine, such as it is, from any of those places.

Vegas and New York are good for fine dining though, if you want me to root out some dinner suggestions - they'll be secondhand as I've never been but from reliable sources.

my sister was there for her honeymoon and she did all those token tours. But instead of going on a regular tour they went by themselves there by regular public transportation. It was much cheaper and more geniune.

Cool, you're not gonna get the "Mexican experience" on the Yucatan coast anyway, it's either too American or too Caribbean (the latter not being a bad thing, of course), but definitely if you are wanting chill, staying actually in Cancun is not advised (unless you're gonna chuck mega money at one of those rich tourist hotels on the reef), Isla Mujeres is the complete opposite though, very Caribbean and lovely.

public transport would get you there cheaper, but the tourist bus is cheap in our terms of costs and less hassle if you're wanting chilled travel (local travel is a fun adventure, but often rather mental) and as soon as you get there, don't bother with the guided tour crap (not included in the tourist bus cost), just explore and have fun yourselves, much more fun

My brother in law went there with his surfboard in tow. Also did Pueto rico for the same reasons.

He concluded Rico was about half the price and a much nicer 'less fucked with' place, and the cops could be brought too.

I didn't do that sadly.. I did, however, go to Philadephia and yell out "I CAN SEE... I, I HAVE LEGS.. OH SHIT"

Much to the embarassment of my wife and her cousin.

Why would you want to take the police on holiday with you?

Why would you want to take the police anywhere?

Hi5.

Prepare yourself for the 2 million Nigerians trying to sell you fake sunglasses and baseball caps.

"Hut Gluss?"

Don't worry, I'll tell them I'm a 419 eater.

hahahaha. Just tell them you're from immigration.

Word, bra.

So the foreigns won't stand, won't stand, won't stand so close to you.

And for 3 nights he'll be an englishman in New York and it's alsways nice to be with people who know what that's like.

28 bananas to be divided equally between Zardoz and Dudley. (Sorry for the low scores chaps, it's the deflationary pressure in the marketplace)

For silly cheap prices you can snorkel, rent jetskis etc, but if you go to the tourist information centre they'll tell you the best place to go and swim with dolphins that week.

It's about £40 for a brilliant experience.

are those sunglasses holograms?

I think we're planning on doing all that in Hawaii, but I'll check it out, deffo. Cheers to everyone for their suggestions so far - keep them coming!

Don't know if this is any help, but Myp's boss has been to New York... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2377&hilit=new+york

Where in Oahu are you staying?

Things to see:

Pearl Harbour
Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of The Temples
Giovannis Shrimp Truck (North Shore) is a must
Sandy Beach is way better than Waikiki. Well, any beach is better than Waikiki.
For tourist food, California Pizza Kitchen is well worth it, as is Cheeseburger in Paradise.

The Circle Island Tour is superb (I'll look up who we did it with.) Normally I hate touristy things, but this was awesome, plus you got to see Pearl Harbour properly and places like Pali Lookout, Dole Plantation, macadamia nut growing and Magnums P.Is house. And lunch is at the most stunning public golf course in the world.

Is that FAO Schwarz? It's not that big, sorry BIG.

NYC is all about the night life really. And being single. Ahem, go somewhere else

Sadly we've booked the holiday as a package so we've got no choice where we stay. We're staying at an all inclusive (I know!) resort called The Oasis, I think.

Ooh that sounds fab! I wanted to swim with dolphins in Hawaii but all the places I've had quotes from have been quite expensive.


Pardon my ignorance, but is English widely spoken in Cancun?

Cancun is completely a tourist trap, with the main attractions being the super-nightclubs at night, and massive markets during the day.

As such English is very widely spoken, with the most common phrase you will hear being "wanna buy some Charlie?"

On the plus side, there's no "no touching" rules in the lap dancing clubs.

We're staying in Wakiki (if that's how you spell it). I've had a look at a few tours that include Pearl Harbour and the Dole Plantation but I'm not sure whether we're best booking online before we go or waiting til we get there?

Oh, well just stay there and get mullered, then.

Mebbe. I need to watch Big again to check.


Hush, silly. I had an ace time there with my Noo Yorker ex. Bars staying open until we wanted to leave was a personal fave.

For the first week in Hawaii, we stayed in the Castle Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki. A block from the seafront and much, much cheaper than the seafront equivalents (we were in a Diamond Head View Suite on the 19th floor, complete with kitchen, for 58 quid a night for the room).

Having looked it up, our tour was the Circle Island Tour, run by Discover Hidden Hawaii. We booked it through Expedia and have absolutely no complaints about it, even though it was the sort of thing we normally would avoid like the plague. The guide/driver was Kenn, a sort of cross between Isaac Hayes and Samuel L Jackson, with a wicked sense of humour.

It starts at 6am and lasts for about 11 hours, including lunch. Reason for the early start is that tickets to Pearl Harbour are free, but it is very, very busy. The ticketing system is first come, first served and there are only so many tours during the day, so the tours get there early. You see a very interesting film of the attack, plus a boat ride and abut 20 minutes out at the USS Arizona. From memory, we got to PH at 7.45am and our showing was 9.00am.

It is absolutely fascinating, very moving and totally free of all that US gushing sentimentality and patriotism.

From there, a stop at Dole Plantation - I hate pineapple normally, but fresh, fresh pineapple is lovely. Then various spots on the island, beaches, a nut plantation. Some of the places where they filmed Lost, Jurassic Park and so on. All the while getting a feel for the history of Hawaii - totally, totally brilliant.

Looking at the receipt, it was £74.40 for the pair of us. Lunch was included I think, and was most excellent. Proper restaurant at Koolau Golf Club.

You won't see the Byodo-in Temple though, but what it does do is give you a chance to scout the island a bit. When we got back to Oahu, we had to hire a car (long story), so we ended up at Byodo-In and it was just beautiful. The car also helped us get to Sandy Beach and the blowholes, about 20 minutes out of Waikiki.

Waikiki is a bit too touristy and cramped to be honest. Wonderful, clean, relaxing, but the beach can be cramped. (And it is imported sand as well.) It is a lovely honeymoon destination though, and the sunset is spectacular.

I think we'll be doing the Circle Island Tour, then.