Are you an Australian thinking of Going to America?

Hotels/Car rentals
Climate
Directions
Getting there
Tipping
Sales tax
If you’re visiting New York:
Safety
Getting Around
Things to Do
Zagat Guide
Peek at Times Square


Hotels/Car rentals

An American website where you can make reservations is Travelocity. You can make reservations there for flights, hotels, and car rentals for most of the major airlines and car rentals. The hotels include some of the small companies as well as the big chains.

Climate

Depending on where you are going and when you are going, the weather can be quite cold or quite hot. For best information you can go to www.weather.com and check on what the temperatures have been doing that month for your destination.

Directions

I have something I tell Americans who are going to visit Australia: “If you are thinking of driving from Sydney to Perth, consider if you would drive from New York to Los Angeles.” By the same token, if you were thinking of driving from New York to LA consider--well, you get the picture. Granted, there are more cities to visit between those points in America but it is not a day trip by any stretch of the imagination.

For driving directions within the U.S., the best website I know of is Mapquest. You can not only locate just about any place on a map but get driving directions there. I don’t think Mapquest will supply driving directions from Sydney but that’s more because it doesn’t know where Sydney is, not because Australia is an island.

Getting There

When flying from Sydney to the US you will probably land first in L.A. When you arrive in L.A. you will need to collect your checked luggage, and clear customs and immigration, even if you are not staying in L.A. If you are Australian you will need a tourist visa--probably because the Australian Government requires Americans to get a visa when going to Australia.

If you are going on to another flight, once you have cleared customs and immigration you can re-check your luggage where it will be x-rayed and sent onto the next flight. Because of the x-rays, you won’t want to have film in your checked luggage. Digital cameras would, of course, be fine. Your checked luggage may be hand searched as well so you may want to lose the padlock on your suitcase. There are sanctioned locks and there is a website that says what locks you can use but I can’t recall what it is.

Domestic flights are from another terminal but we generally find that the thing to do is to go outside and take the escalators upstairs to the departures area and walk to your new terminal. L.A. has warm sunny weather for most of the year and after all of that time sitting in an airplane breathing stale air it is a welcome change.

If you are not into the walk, don’t have time before your flight, or the weather is rotten, there is a shuttle bus. Look for the signs, and the good news is that the busses run frequently.

Tipping

When you take a cab or go to a bar or eat in a restaurant you should tip. 15% is standard, if the person did a great job you can tip more. It is up to you. The easiest way to calculate 15% is to take the bill and figure out 10%, add half of that 10% again and you have got 15%.

In some cities, like New York, if you don’t tip your bartender you will never get a second drink, no matter if the bar is empty except for you and your friends. But if you take care of your bartender he or she will take care of you by giving you drinks on the house.

Sales Tax

Instead of GST, America has sales tax. In Australia if you buy one thing and the price marked on that thing is $1, when you go to pay that will change you $1. In America, that $1 item will cost anywhere up to $1.10 because of sales tax, and the tax changes depending on the state, and in some cases, on the city. So don’t think they’re cheating you.

The real difference is that in Australia the price marked includes the GST and your receipt will indicate how much tax you paid. In America the tax is added at the register.

If You're Visiting New York

Safety

New York is a very safe city, more so that it used to be. Nonetheless, use your “big city” common sense when riding the subway, or when going anywhere:

Getting Around

New York is a great walking city. If you don’t know what you want to do, pick a direction and walk.   You can calculate distances quite easily, if you are going North-South (along an avenue) 20 blocks equals one mile.

If someone tells you not to ride the subway, ignore them. The subway is a great way to get around. The trains run all night, the stops are frequent, being generally about ten blocks apart and it is fairly safe. Subway information: NYC MTA.  Depending on how long you are in town there is a week-long ticket that lets you ride the subway and city busses as much as you want for seven days from when you first use the card. As an alternative you can buy a ten-trip card to use however and whenever you want.

A great (and free) way to see the New York skyline is to take the Staten Island Ferry. It is free to pedestrians. The town at the other end in Staten Island is quiet but generally there isn’t much of a delay before the ferry goes back to Manhattan.

Other types of transportation
MetroNorth: Commuter trains to Long Island, Connecticut, New York State
NJ Transit: New Jersey Train/Bus information
PATH trains between New Jersey and New York City
NY Waterways: New York Waterways Ferries between Weehauken, Hoboken and New York City
Staten Island Ferry: Staten Island is part of New York City
Amtrak: Trains between Boston-New York-Washington, DC

Taxis are an easy way to get around and are a good safe alternative and most New Yorkers take taxis regularly. Taxi prices are regulated by the City and are a flat rate from the airports into Manhattan. Beware of using a non-regulated taxi from the airports, they are known for taking advantage of people who don’t know the way to go.

Things To Do

If you are going to New York you probably already have an idea of what you want to do or things you want to see. Maybe it’s Times Square, or a museum, maybe you are going for the jazz or just checking out the city. What I’d like to do is let you know about a few resources you might not already know about.

TKTS
This is a great idea: the theaters on Broadway and of Off Broadway sell same-day tickets at half price. This means that you probably won’t be able to get tickets to the most popular shows but the price is incredible. This is not scalped tickets, they’re real tickets and this system is condoned by the theaters. They have a board near the ticket booth that tells you what shows they have tickets for and the sell them for cash or travelers checks, no credit cards or ATM/EFTpos.

TKTS ® Times Square Theatre Centre
47th Street & Broadway, N.Y.C.
Hours: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for 8pm performances: 3pm - 8pm
Wednesdays and Saturdays for 2pm matinees: 10am - 2pm
Sundays for matinees: 11am - 3pm
Sundays for evening performances: 3pm to closing

TKTS ® Lower Manhattan Theatre Centre at South Street Seaport
On the corner of Front and John Streets, at the rear of the Resnick/Prudential Building at 199 Water Street
Hours: Monday - Friday: 11:00am to 6:00pm
Wednesday matinee tickets are available on Tuesday ONLY
Saturday: 11:00am to 7:00pm
Sunday matinee and evening tickets will be sold on Saturday.
Please note that there are no tickets for Saturday matinee performances available on Saturday.

Zagat Guide

The Zagat Guide is available for many cities, not just New York but New York is where it started. This is a guide to restaurants that is based entirely on input from people who have been to the restaurants. Now, the down side is that this is not free, but you can subscribe to the website for 30 days for US$3.95 or buy the book for $17.95.

What’s so great about the Zagat Guide?   They have ratings for décor, service and food, there are pithy comments from the readers who have submitted surveys, and then the usual information about whether they take credit cards, or are handicapped accessible, etc. The general consensus among New Yorkers is that if a restaurant is featured it is probably good. They also have lots of categories: are you looking for a restaurant in the Upper East Side? With a fireplace? Or seating outside? You can find lists of restaurants based on all sorts of unusual features.

If part of why you are going to New York is for the great food, this is the source for you.

Peek at Times Square

To whet your appetite, here is a view of Times Square. You can see the TKTS booth (mentioned above) or you can look at people at street level.