Posts under ‘USA’

The Aladdin was one of the first of the theme resorts on the Vegas strip, but that has made way for one of the most exciting Planet Hollywood Las Vegas. This 2600 room resort has 9300 square metres of gaming and huge show rooms and shopping strips. Just renovated the resort has one of the freshest looks on the strip. A drink or two at the Mezzanine is a must for any visitor it has spectacular views of the video walls and neon of the gaming lounge and a great way to escape the Vegas heat. Planet Hollywood has some great dining too, the Spice Market Buffet is a must for anyone hungry with an international selection of dishes. For fine Japanese its hard to go past KOI it has an amazing candle lit atmosphere and for steak lovers the Strip House offers some of Vegas’ juiciest steaks.

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The medieval themed Excalibur opened in 1990 and has been a favorite on the Las Vegas Strip. Having just over 4000 rooms and over 9300 metres of beautifully themed gaming space the casino is a treat for young and old alike. The hotel was the worlds biggest hotel at opening but many more Vegas mega hotels have claimed that title since. The resort features one of Las Vegas’ longest running and most popular shows THE Tournament of Kings. This amazing show features medieval jousting and is a lot of fun and can be done as a medieval dinner show. For the ladies there’s plenty of buff action with the Thunder from Downunder show and there is always some entertainment playing around the complex. Being a family hotel the kids haven’t been forgotten either underwater legend Sponge Bob Square Pants features in an incredible 4D adventure ride and the huge pool is one of Vegas’s best.

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Opening in 1959 the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum is regarded as one of New York’s City’s most impressive architectural landmarks and is home to some of the most renowned works of art found anywhere in the world. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright the white concrete building is a amazing piece of artwork in itself. The artworks are displayed along a helical spiral ramp which stretches the entire building. The centre of the building is lit with an incredible skylight which shines sun on the forecourt and ticketing area. The Guggenheim has become such a success in New York other Guggenheims’ have been built around the world, including Venice, Bilbao, Berlin, and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The museum has an ever changing collection of art with Impressionist, Post Impressionist, early modern and contemporary making up most of the collection. The Guggenheim can be found on the Upper East Side overlooking the beautiful Central Park.

Standing on the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street the 102 Story Empire State Building is the tallest building in New York which it has held the title of for more than 50 years, (from its opening in 1931 to 1972 and then again from 2001 to present after the destruction of the World Trade Centre twin towers in lower Manhattan). Only the Chicago Wills or Sears Tower is higher in the USA and has only just fallen outside the top 10 tallest buildings in the world. The Art Deco structure has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers and any visitor to the magnificent building will have no doubt why it is an amazing and beautiful engineering feat. The Empire State offers a magnificent observation deck with 360 degree views from the 86th floor and for a few dollars extra you can visit the 102nd floor, but from the Empire State Building you see all of Manhattan except the beautiful Empire State itself- so here at Tripandom we have a tip for you- try the Rockefeller Tower instead- It has a great observation area on the 70th floor offering an amazing look at the Empire State Building- this is where we took today’s photo.

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Times Square is known as the Crossroads to the World and is one of New York’s most exciting intersections. The square is really just a huge junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretches about three blocks from West 42nd Street to West 47th Streets. The intersection is a dazzling display of huge video screens displaying all the must have products being advertized by whoever is the celebrity face of the minute. Once a bit of a sceeedy area the area is now family friendly and home to many iconic restaurants, bars, cafes and specialty stores, including New York’s Hard Rock Café, the M&Ms store, Toys R Us, Virgin Megastore and Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. Then there are theatres including the New Amsterdam Theatre home to Mary Poppins and the rest of Broadway is only steps away. Currently Times Square has been closed to cars, as a trial to turn the area into a pedestrian only zone, trials have been good and have hopefully after some studies of traffic flow and the surrounding area the area may become permanently car free. New Years Eve is the biggest celebration of the year at Times Square, hundreds of thousands gather in the often freezing temperatures to watch the crystal ball drop at the count of midnight.

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Linking Manhattan Island with Brooklyn the 1825 metre long Brooklyn Bridge has spanned the East River for over 125 years. Opening in 1883 the bridge was designed by John Augustas Roebling and like the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty is one of the most iconic structures in New York City. Upon opening the bride was the longest suspension bridge in the world, infact it was nearly twice as big as anything previously built, but it soon lost its title in 1903 to the Williamsburg Bridge which also crosses the East River to Brooklyn. The bridge has a clearance of about 41 metres at mid span and the huge brick Gothic towers rise 273 feet. For visitors the Brooklyn Bridge has a wide walkway open to both pedestrians and cyclists and offers some spectacular vistas of the Manhattan Skyline from a different perspective.

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Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Clavert Vaux , New York’s Central Park is one of the worlds’ great urban spaces. Taking up a huge 1.32 square miles or 843 acres on Manhattan Island the park plays host to over 25 million visitors every year. The park is a very popular tourist attraction for visitors with so much to see and do year round. There are magnificent landscaped greens with lovely plantings and two spectacular lakes, many sporting facilities including plenty of paths for jogging, bike riding and just strolling. The park is home to the Central Park Zoo which is one of the world’s great zoological gardens and the park is a well known venue for entertainment, with plays, opera, open air theatre and some of the biggest music events ever being staged in the park. The park is home to 37 playgrounds making it a favorite with the young and there is plenty of wild life, birds, chipmunks and plenty of squirrels. The park has some spectacular pieces of art and many monuments including the moving Strawberry Fields which is dedicated to the Late John Lennon who was murdered outside the Dakota Apartments overlooking the park in December of 1980.

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Only a little over an hours drive from Walt Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando Florida is the Kennedy Space Centre home to the Apollo Missions and the Space Shuttle, it was also the setting for the popular ’60’s comedy I dream of Jeanie. The centre offers an amazing chance to get up close to some of the world’s most amazing technology and for some lucky people even the chance to see a launch. The centre has an incredible visitors centre with many artefacts and even an IMAX cinema but the highlight is catching a bus and going out onto the facility and visiting the launch pads where the space shuttle is launched and to visit a proper Apollo rocket and Saturn V modules. The size of these objects are just staggering and the items on display are breathtaking. The centre offers a great option to escape the hustle and bustle of the theme parks for a day and see up close an important piece of America’s history. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Fair Lane is the property built by Henry Ford founder of the Ford Motor Company. Located in Dearborn a suburb of Detroit in the USA. Work commenced in 1913 and the Ford family moved in in January of 1916 and hundreds of craftsmen were used to construct the sprawling house all set in magnificent gardens and natural forest. Built of rough Ohio Limestone the house had some amazing technological and architectural features including its own hydro electric PowerStation, a bowling alley and magnificent carvings and lead lights. The budget for the residence was set at $250,000 but final cost blew out to a staggering $1.8 million dollars (remember that is 1916 money) and then there was another $175,000 spent on decorating. Today the estate is a National Historic Landmark and is owned by the University of Michigan and is open for tours by a dedicated team of volunteers.

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Alcatraz Island or the Rock as it is commonly known is one of the major tourist sights in beautiful San Francisco. Located in the centre of San Francisco Bay the island has had a long history as a fort and more notably both a military and a federal prison, becoming home to many of the most notorious criminals of the USA before it closed in 1963. Today the island is administered by the National Park Service and ferries leaving Pier 33 near Fisherman’s Wharf offer trips and tours of the facility. The island has an abundance of wildlife and rare plant life and is nesting grounds for many birds. The island is free to visit although ferries are the only way to get to the island, which have a transportation charge, booking should be made in advance as only so many people can be transported a day. The tour thought the grounds and the prison facility is accompanied by a fantastic audio tour which really give you a first hand experience of what the prison was really like- its quiet eerie.

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