This is the America road trip that actually ended up being half road and half flight! I will tell you about it anyway as we did some super fun stuff that trip like going to Hershey chocolate world and the Jack Daniel’s distillery!
The beginning of our trip
New York City
We started off by flying into New York City and we stayed in Times Square for a couple of nights.
Times Square was honestly breathtaking. I had never been to such a fast moving city before, but I had also never been to a place that had so many huge screens on the side of every building with different adverts passing over them. Although they were adverts, it’s the one time in my life I hadn’t been annoyed by them!
My eyes lit up as I looked around and I felt so much of a buzz in that moment with all the sights and sounds I was taking in… but then I jostled out of my revere and pushed around by all of the people rushing around the streets. That for me was the only big let down, but when you are going to such a place, what can you expect right?
I must say that I’m not really a city person. I much prefer being in a relaxed, slower moving environment. However, even baring this in mind, I still loved this place.
One of my favourite things we did there has to be the Broadway musical that we watched – The Bronx Tale. You can’t go to Times Square and not watch a show! I highly recommend this one, it was so entertaining, super fun and I left wanting to watch more. The only downside to this was that the tickets were really quite expensive but, in my eyes, it was worth it. Wicked is another great one to watch along with Aladdin but there is such a wide choice that I recommend you look into what’s available and book a few days or even weeks in advance to avoid disappointment.
Top tip - the price of your ticket will change drastically with where you choose to sit. For example a seat at the back to the side could cost 25 USD minimum less than a ticket at the front in the middle.
There are lots of cool little diners in New York as well, they have such a lovely atmosphere as the decoration is to a high standard and the staff are always super nice (especially if you have an English accent, they love people from England!). I would 100% recommend that you go to at least one when you’re staying there.
We also walked over Brooklyn bridge. I definitely recommend walking over it rather than driving as there are little pieces of information about the bridge dotted around on the walk over. There are also fantastic views that you can really take in and enjoy during the walk. The structure of the bridge is really interesting so you wouldn’t want to miss having a proper look at that and there are lots of great photo opportunities for both Instagramers and also more serious photographers looking to capture the landscape.
It only takes around 30-40 mins, and there is no need to buy a tour of the Brooklyn bridge as you can see it all yourself for free. If you start on the New York City side, you will cross over to a place called Dumbo.
I adored this place! It has lots of cute and yummy places to eat, a Brooklyn bridge park (you should go to this, it has a lovely view of the bridge from sea level), incredible photo spots, funky markets, fun graffiti, cool art galleries and it apparently has some of New York’s best pizza on offer. So if you love food, art, picturesque scenes and friendly people; I highly recommend that you take a day to go around Dumbo.
The next thing that we did was walk across the High line – an abandoned railway. This was awesome! It’s raised up above ground level, with gorgeous of New York from up there. It’s interesting to know that you were once on a working railway which has now been transformed into this modern park with cool benches of various designs and beautiful flowers. It’s 100% worth the visit. You do not need more than an hour there so it won’t take up much of your time! There are also little food stands so that you can have a little snack on your way.
I did this road trip with my dad and he is obsessed with photography (which is great for me, I get content everywhere I take him!) and getting new camera equipment so we had to pop into BHP Photos – the largest camera shop in the world. It was honestly like heaven for my dad, I think that was the part of New York he enjoyed the most! If you’re into photography, my dad highly recommends visiting this place.
Times Square itself was also full of attractions such as Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and Madame Tussaud’s. Two super fun places to go no matter what age you are. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not is full of fun facts that, believe it or not, make you question whether they are true (super random facts/ world records etc…) and it’s such an interesting place to go! Madame Tussaud’s is full of exact wax replicas of famous people like Rihanna; if you want to get a photo with a famous person, this is the best place to go as they look so real!
We went to New York during gay pride month which means we got the awesome chance to take part in the actual day that the gay pride parade took place! It was such a high vibe environment with lots of singing and dancing, it really was super good fun. If you visit anytime during June check out that year’s dates for the parades as they are definitely worth going to.
We also had a stroll around China town which was quite cool but not really much different to the average street over there, apart from all the signs were in Chinese. If you have a tight schedule or a short amount of time there, there’s a lot of other places that I would prioritise above this.
The Empire State Building is so gorgeous and has the best views of the New York skyline. It provides 3 stories of outside area at the top so that you can see the view from different heights and they also provide telescopes (you have to pay, but it’s cheap) to properly zoom in on what’s going on.
If you want more information and tips about New York, feel free to check out my blog dedicated to it.
The next part of the trip
After New York, the next part of the not-so road trip road trip was to fly into Tennessee. Oh by the way, are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see ;)
Anyway as I was saying, we flew into Nashville Tennessee and picked up a hire car once we were there. That’s when the road trip actually started.
We hired a Jeep, which for most people is probably a wonderful idea. If, like me, you suffer with travel sickness, I will say they are very easily blown about by the wind which means that when we were driving along the car would shake a lot. Not the best choice for fellow sufferers, it’s possibly better to look for a saloon car.
We drove from Nashville into Lynchburg which takes around 7h 40 mins. We stayed in a cool little motel that I must admit scared me quite a lot when we first got there as it looked like one of those typical murder motels that you see on TV, but it was far from that luckily! Once I got over the look of the place, I could really appreciate how cool it was. The staff were pretty nice and it was in a quiet area which was perfect. There are lots of typical American motels like this along the route, staying in one feels like part of the authentic experience!
One of my favourite things about Tennessee has to be it’s incredible sunsets, the sky’s clouds would light up pink making it look like someone had taken a paintbrush to them.
The whole reason we went there was because my dad has a *slight* obsession with Jack Daniels and Lynchburg Tennessee is home to the Jack Daniels distillery which is actually quite funny considering that it is a dry state!
A dry state is a place where no-one sells or serves alcohol as it’s illegal. Although as Wikipedia states: “the County now allows sampling tour at the distillery. It is also now possible to sample wine, rum, vodka and whiskey in shops where it is distilled on premises, and only beer is also available in local food establishments when served with a meal.”
Something I found absolutely hilarious was one of the places there was called “The Bottle Shop” which of course can’t sell alcohol, they just happened to sell bottles that came with alcohol in!
The Jack Daniels distillery itself was more than awesome. It was really cool to see how it all gets made. We had a tour through the whole factory and they showed us the barrels that the Jack Daniels was being made in and the massive distillers they use. I was wowed by it all!
Of course my dad was in absolute heaven, he was loving every second of it and was super chuffed by the end.
If you are passing through or stopping in Lynchburg, I highly highly reckoned that you visit this amazing place.
If you are over the age of 21 (the legal drinking age in America) then you can even go on a tour where you get to taste some of the Jack Daniels they make as you go along. As you can probably imagine, my dad has made it very clear that we are going back there as soon as I turn 21!
Tickets are super affordable as well; of course the ticket prices depend on what type of tour you want to take, for example a normal tour around the distillery (1h 10mins) costs only 15 USD per person, the Jack Daniels tasting tour (1h 30mins) costs 25 USD per person, a more advanced tasting tour (1h 30mins) costs 30 USD and then the price jumps on the last tour that they have to offer which is a two course meal in the distillery, a tasting of Jack Daniels and the tour (3hrs) that costs 125 USD. I recommend that you do at least the 15 USD tour, it’s so worth it and a great value for money.
The staff were also super friendly there, they really made our experience extra special.
Part 3 of the road trip
Here, we got another plane instead of driving. We drove back to Nashville to then fly to Harrisburg Pensilvania, however we were diverted due to a storm that hit. We got diverted to Washington DC but unfortunately didn’t get the chance to visit it properly as we landed super late and had to fly out again super early.
Once we landed in Harrisburg, we hopped straight into a taxi and drove to Hershey (a short 25 min drive).
There is a big debate in America about whether it should be Ok to use Ubers instead of Taxis. Speaking from my own experience, the taxis we took were not well maintained or clean, and the drivers were not so friendly. Ubers are generally well maintained as they are the drivers own vehicle and tend to work out cheaper, so I know which I would recommend given the choice.
Since dad got the chance to have time in his version of heaven, I of course had to have mine. You may be familiar with the chocolate brand Hershey, if not well… Hershey is an awesome American chocolate brand! And this place was home to a place called Hershey’s Chocolate World.
Hershey’s World is a massive place that has lots of different types of accommodation, all the way from glamping to a quality hotel, we stayed in Hershey Lodge. Aside from the large chocolate factory, there is also a big chocolate store with MASSIVE chocolate bars in, a super fun theme park and a waterpark.
Hershey park has 5 different awesome waterparks and an amazing big amusement park which is, of course, chocolate themed throughout. I absolutely adore this place.
There are also tours within each of these places such as a tour around the chocolate factory or chocolate tasting. My dad and I did the chocolate tasting and it was super good fun, really educational as they give a presentation about the ingredients, how they make it and they actually make you guess the ingredients in an interactive experience before they tell you, which is exciting!
A quick funny story; my dad and I personally aren’t huge fans of the normal milk chocolate version of the Hershey bar as we think it tastes a funny. One of the options of ingredients that we could vote for for this particular chocolate was cheese. There was a huge screen in the front of the room that made the words become bigger the more the ingredient got voted for…
So of course my dad and I being jokers, secretly voted for cheese many, many more times than we were supposed to (1 vote only) and we watched as the word “cheese” got bigger and bigger on the screen, until it then became the biggest word visible. We found this hilarious. Once all the votes were in, the woman presenting asked everyone who voted for cheese to put their hand up so we looked around the room and not one person put theirs up.
I shot my hand up, realising as I did that my dad had kept quiet about his choice (he didn’t want to get caught out being the only two who voted)! The woman applauded me for being the ‘only one brave enough to say that they voted for it’, little did she know that I was almost the only one that voted for it! She then showed a video of a scientist explaining that there was a hint of cheese – which is probably why we thought it tasted a bit funny!
Anyway, back to Hershey itself. The food all around the resorts was amazing. A lot of it was actually chocolate themed such as steak with some sort of chocolate sauce and chocolate martinis.
All of the staff were incredible, super friendly and helpful. They were shocked to hear British people as they surprisingly rarely get British people there.They were quite intrigued!
Our last stop
Once all our fun ended in Hershey, we then drove back to New York and oh my what a hectic drive that was! If anyone has ever told you that people from New York can’t drive, they weren’t wrong at all. Honestly the last thing I would recommend to anyone is hiring your own car and driving around there… my dad’s and my stress levels were through the roof! People cutting across you, suddenly stopping, not indicating, confusing junctions and roads in general, lots of road rage, it was a madness!
We stayed in central park this time instead of staying in times square and it was a lot less busy there. It’s much more suited for people who may get overwhelmed with a lot of people and fast moving environments.
We didn’t do an awful lot here as it was the end of our trip and we were quite exhausted! It was probably the perfect place to finish it though as although Central Park is massive, it’s gorgeous and super peaceful.
One thing that I loved about Central Park was the fact that we saw about 4 different weddings going on and brides with their grooms having photoshoots! I thought it was lovely to see and share a glimpse of these special moments, what can you expect from such an iconic place I guess!
There were many different things to see and many places to go within just the park itself. I recommend you have a look at a plan of the park to choose what you want to do and how to get to each place to avoid absolute confusion and to not miss anything out!
So what does central park have to offer? A lot is the answer! Here’s some of the stuff:
- A castle!
- Lots of fountains,
- Strawberry farm,
- A massive lake that you can hire a little row boat to go on,
- Ponds,
- History museum,
- Baseball and softball pitch,
- Iceskating rink,
- Information and gift centre,
- Lots of statues,
- Incredible photo locations,
- A pool,
- A performing arts building
- A musical arena,
- Art museum,
- A recreation centre,
- A restaurant,
- Tennis courts,
- Nature observatory,
- A zoo,
- And the list goes on… for what seems like forever!
Besides visiting Central Park, we also walked up and down and in and out of the shops along 5th avenue. This is known as the most famous street in New York (now this place was busy!) and for having New Yorks most expensive shops. I loved it! It’s very pretty and the shops are incredible. I especially loved Tiffanys and Lois Vuitton. Top tip, the jewellery gets cheaper as you go up to the top floor, you see lots of tourists buying the famous Tiffany hearts on the counter on the top level, which make a lovely souvenir.
One of the last things we did was try to get onto the little island where the Statue of Liberty is. We couldn’t do this as the island has limited capacity and was full, so there weren’t many options left. We ended up getting on a boat and having a tour around the Statue of Liberty. It didn’t last too long and we were quite far away from it, however it’s still a great way to see it. I would still like to visit the island, and I will definitely give it a go next time I visit, being sure to book in advance!
If you are considering going to other places in America, check out my Miami blog!
