Aussie World Travel Blog

Well, my wife Pip and I are back in Australia and have settled back into our normal routine. We are both just starting to realise just how amazing the trip was and how well we were looked after during the entire tour. Because we have both travelled extensively around the world, we are in the very fortunate position of being able to compare all of those organised tours, which invariably were coach tours, with the tour that you and AussieWorldTravel provided us with. There is absolutely no comparison between the two types of tours. We didn’t have to worry about a single thing from the moment we left our home to go on our holiday until we arrived back at our home at the conclusion of our holiday. We are telling all our friends that we had a five star American Holiday because that’s really what it was. Because just picture this: In 21 days, after a comfortable twelve hour flight from Sydney to San Francisco, arriving at 7am to a beautiful clear sunny day, we were greeted at San Francisco air port by our Tour Guide Phil Kennedy and his lovely Chevrolet Impala hire car where he then took us for a walk over the Golden Gate bridge. We have always wanted to do this and it didn’t disappoint. From there we could see Alcatraz Prison on an island, naturally we had to go and see it first hand. The accommodation was excellent the whole trip by the way. After a sumptuous seafood meal at Fishermans Wharf and a couple of cold beers upstairs at a nearby jazz bar listening to a lovely old Negro tenor sax player, playing some of my favourite tunes, we called it a night. We caught a ride on one of the famous cable trams, drove down the world’s crookedest street, visited a fantastic chocolate factory and purchased enough chocolate to last the three of us for the entire 21 day trip which incidentally was just over 8000ks and travelling through 8 states. By the way, after all this writing, I have only covered the first 2 days of our trip so I’d better not go into so much detail from here on. After leaving San Francisco we tasted a few wines in the wine growing district in the beautiful Napa valley, visited 9 National parks, which included the Grand Canyon, which was awesome, Bryce, Zion, Yellowstone, where we saw a Grizzly bear, Heaps of American Buffalo and Mule Deer. Capital Reef, Yosemite, Grand Tetons, Arches etc. We loved Los Angeles where we saw Disney Land and Hollywood where incidentally, I picked up a slightly soiled Academy Award in a little Chinese shop for $3.50. An absolute steal I thought. Las Vegas was another standout where we stayed in another great hotel for 3 nights and saw 2 really good shows, Caeser’s Palace, the Dancing Fountain and we also were taken out to Hoover Dam. One of the special places we visited was a beautiful snow resort town of Breckenridge where my wife Pip had a massage and us blokes had a hot spa and a swim in the heated pool. Colorado Springs was another beautiful city that we visited. Our Tour Director Phil even went to the trouble of arranging for my wife and I to have a half hour guided tour of the city on the back of a Gold Wing Honda motor bike which we both thoroughly enjoyed and put us up at his beautiful home in Colorado Springs where he and his lovely wife Golden made us both feel very welcome. While we were travelling down the Californian Coast on the way to Carmel, ( where Clint Eastwood lives)  we came across a beach that was crammed with hundreds of Walruss Seals which was an amazing sight. All in all, my wife and I had the holiday of a life time. Our Tour director Phil even lent me a pair of swimming togs so that could have a swim in the surf at Malibu Beach. Now, I could go for hours telling you about our experiences, but the best way for you to understand what I’m trying to say is to get out there and “just do it”.

On behalf of my wife Pip and myself, thank you Phil and Golden for a wonderful adventure that we both will cherish for the rest of our lives.

Regards,

Bob and Pip Hamilton

Bellingen, nsw, Australia.