The Ultimate Jet Setter

Today myself and my 5 friends went to Niagra to do a wine tour. Niagra Falls is a pretty tacky and run down place, the only good thing about the area is the Falls. There are a lot of chain restaurants, bars, hotels, motels, breakfast places and a casino.  Wine tours are a very popular thing to do in Niagra. There are several wine tours in the area, we went with Grape Escape Wine Tour. It's $75/£47/€55 and you get picked up from wherever you are in Niagra so Grape Escape picked us up from our hotel. The tour is about 5 hours long and you visit 4 vineyards and taste 4 different wines at each vineyard. We had a 45 minute tour of one vineyard and a wine tasting, then just wine tasting at the other vineyards. There is also several opportunities to buy wine at each of the vineyards.  If you ever go on a wine tour in Canada and you are a fan of sweet wine like me then you have to try a Canadian dessert wine called Ice Wine. It's incredibly sweet and expensive at $20/€14/£12 for 200ml...

Today I went to Santa Monica with my aunt, cousin and little cousins. There were 6 of us altogether. I'd been to Santa Monica before but it was a long time ago. First we went to the pier which has a combination of restaurants, Starline tours of famous Malibu homes, souvenir stalls, rides and other eateries. The pier is pretty big and if you've got kids its great for them and even if you haven't its still pretty fun. All the rides are pretty tame, a mixture of bumper cars, mini roller coasters,  ferris wheel and other rides. Certain rides are $3/£2/€2.30 each and others are $5/£3.20/€3.80 and for unlimited use of rides its $15/£10/€11 per person. My cousins went on the rides, I just sat and watched the joy and happiness in their faces whilst on the rides.  After that we went to the beach, it was a relatively hot day but because of the sea I guess it was a bit more windy and chilly than other parts of the city. The water wasn't anything like Thailand and I'm sure it w...

Today I went to Madame Tussaud's on Hollywood Boulevard with my free ticket. If you were going to pay it would be $27/£17/€20 for an adult. I went about 30 minutes after it opened so it wasn't busy and there was no queue.  There are 3 floors with waxworks of famous and influential figures present and past, old and new. There are also sometimes props next to the waxworks to try on and pose with. Some of the figures include Beyonce, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis. In my opinion some of the waxworks are better than others, some are really good, others average. I've never been to Madam Tussaud's in London so I don't know if this one was the same calibre or not but I would imagine so.  Photos and touching is allowed but just no touching on the face.  After Madam Tussaud's myself and a couple of friends went to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. This is another shopping area but close to the sea so a bit cooler than the rest of town. There are ...

Today was a pretty busy day for me and I walked a lot. If you're someone that doesn't mind a bit of walking then you should follow my lead. If not then you should take a bus or taxi some of the places I went today.  Melrose Avenue is one block from my hostel and is a major shopping street in LA. It's also quite a trendy area, some of the stores on Melrose include Helmut Lang, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, DVF, Marc Jacobs and Diesel.  If you walk far enough down Melrose you will hit Robertson Boulevard, another shopping street. Robertson is quite cute with stores a little less high end including Lulu Lemon, Splendid, Ted Baker and American Apparel. After Robertson I walked to Rodeo Drive which is probably a 30-40 minute walk.  Even though I can't afford anything on Rodeo Drive I always like to wander down there when I come to LA. It's really pretty and something about the elegance, palm trees and wealth that I'm drawn to. As you can imagine Rodeo Drive is full ...

I've probably been to LA about half a dozen times and always stay with family that's about an hour outside of LA. So this time I decided to stay in a hostel in LA for a few days to be close to everything. I stayed at the Banana Bungalow West Hollywood. It's pretty close to Melrose Avenue and The Grove, which is an outside mall. It's a really good location but the rooms are a bit dated and mine was next to the outside patio so always pretty noisy. It's a good location but that's about it.  On my first day I did the unthinkable and walked to Hollywood Boulevard as no one walks in LA. You can get a bus to Hollywood Boulevard from across the street but I wanted to walk. It's about a 40-45 minute walk to Hollywood. You instantly see the stars on the ground with several famous people's names. Hollywood Boulevard is full of hotels, hostels, restaurants, bars, the Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars are filmed) and an outdoor shopping centre. Yo...

So it's my final day in San Diego and I'm so sad about it. I absolutely love San Diego, it's beautiful, good stores and nightlife, so much to see, beach and hardly any traffic compared to LA and lovely weather. Can I move here now please?  Firstly, Sarah and I went to Torrey Pines Gliderport which is where lots of people glide off a cliff and and there is also a beach but its a bit of a hike. The Gliderport is a good beach for surfing too, there is a little food place at the Gliderport selling burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, soup and snacks. There are tables and benches to chill and watch the gliders, in addition to is a view of the beach and coast. Or to relax on the beach or surf.  Oh I forgot to mention earlier San Diego is pretty close to Tijuana, about a 30 minute car journey if you wanted to go for the day.  Next we headed to Balboa Park which is so much more than grass. It's absolutely huge and I'm sure I didn't see all of it. There are museums, exhibition...

Today we headed to Little Italy as there is a farmers market there along with lots of Italian eateries. The farmers market spans across about 4/5 blocks and sells products such as dips for tortilla chips, organic cheeses, smoothies, fresh fruit and vegetables, crepes, croissants to artwork and clothes. It's a cool farmers market and I would definitely recommend going if you are in San Diego on a Saturday.  We then had a quick lunch of pizza at a pizzeria nearby then headed to the Seaport Village. Seaport Village is pretty cool, there are a few large boats on the port, a mega yacht and submarine. There are also a lot of bicitaxis and street performers. Further up the port there are a few cute stores, more street performers and restaurants.  After the Seaport we went to the Old Town which is exactly that. I feel as if I went back in time. The streets are cobbled or sandy and the buildings are old. There are a few things to see such as an old barn, old houses that were built back...

San Diego is about 2 hours south of Los Angeles. You can get there by train, plane or bus. I decided to get the bus as I didn't want to faff around with check in and waiting at baggage claim for a 45 minute flight and the bus was the cheapest option at $30/£20/€23 round trip. That being said bus stations in the United States are usually in pretty sketchy areas with even sketchier people but if you keep to yourself and get from A to B you'll be fine. As I said this was the cheapest option hence why I chose it but if you have more money to spend I would suggest flying or training it. The bus was a bit dated and pretty average but for a 2 hour journey who cares.  I purchased my ticket online which I would recommend as there are cheaper online web prices and some routes are popular than others so if you try and purchase your ticket the day of it will be more expensive and maybe sold out. So I left LA at 1pm and got to San Diego at 4pm. My friends Sarah and Taylor picked me up from ...