Quick travel guides for nomads
A nice urban sprawl city in Canada, somewhat like New York’s little brother.
This is Canada’s #1 most expensive city on the east coast, #2 in the nation behind Vancouver. Toronto is urban, dense, vibrant, hip, full of places to go, things to do, and also conveniently located near other major destinations in America and Canada.
In terms of tourism, I think it’s ok. I prefer it more as a nice place to live. You could certainly get a solid feel within 3-5 days.
American big city in nature. Proud of its art, culture, and beautiful pacific northwest nature landscapes across the water.
Seattle is among the best “big nature cities” in the USA. It won’t compare to Honolulu (most people’s favorite), but it’s up there. Most of the all, the community is quite used to nature and doing outdoor activities. And I love that it’s REAL NATURE. Not like the casual nature, where it’s just beaches and sun. The pacific northwest has a whole range of weather and landscapes and not just one boring shade for the whole year. I love the mix.
You can see the important inner city things and perhaps even some surrounding areas within 3 days. But having an extra day or so would really give you time to relax and enjoy.
Beautiful foggy hilly American city surrounded by water, combining West coast sunny California hippie-artsy vibes with East coast charmy old Victorian architecture and vibrant street life.
You could easily call San Francisco “the New York of California”, or “west coast version of New York”. Because it really feels like a balanced mix of both. I also highly recommend San Francisco for European tourists because I know they’ll love it. Tighter, more compact, denser, good public transportation, and lots of action on the streets. Buildings are built right next to each other which feels more familiar to Europe. Everything is much more walkable, similar to New York. It’s definitely the most European-vibe big city on the West Coast.
You can see the main highlights in 3 days, and feel like you really immersed yourself in the vibe. 5-7 days would give you time to check out more areas, and yes they’re worth seeing!
Popular tourist destination for out of town Americans and foreigners to come gamble, party, get wild, and enjoy a weekend of “omg, can’t believe I did that” style of debauchery. But Vegas is more than just that.
The world-famous “sin city” Las Vegas is well known for inspiring famous phrases like “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” A pseudo-luxurious lifestyle of opulence, dressing up, eating out, and living an (affordable) fancy life for the weekend.
For grown-ups…Vegas offers many hotels, gambling, fine-dining, nightlife, shows, shopping, beautiful European-inspired architecture, water fountains and light shows, and decorative installations to fill your camera. It’s beautiful and caters well to adult entertainment.
For families and non-party animals…there are family-friendly activities, shows, mini-amusement parks, games, and also nearby national parks featuring beautiful desert landscapes.
You could certainly catch the general vibe of Las Vegas within a day, but spending the whole weekend would be nice to give you time to enjoy the hotels, walk the strip, gamble, drink, see a show, and eat at nice places. 3 days is good to do city and tourist things. With another day for hangover-recovery or enjoying nearby desert landscapes.
One of America’s favorite small towns…cute, charmy, artsy, nature, peaceful.
Ashland is a common midway stop between San Francisco and Portland. If you’re not staying Mount Shasta, Ashland makes a great pitstop if even for only a couple hours. That’s the limit of how I’ve ever known it.
Couple hours is enough. Couple days if you absolutely love it.
Huge country somewhat similar to America (with English-speaking and lots of nature)…but friendlier people, cheaper costs, many things to do, French culture on the east coast, and its own unique vibe!
Canada may not seem high on your tourism list, and many see it as America’s less cool little brother…it does have several places worth visiting and offers its own cool vibe. A highly desirable country to live and visit. I did both…visiting there as a tourist but also living there for 3 months.
What stands out to me about Canada is that it seems very similar to America. But with friendlier people, slight differences on their English (on the east coast), much colder winters, and the French province of Quebec. The French part alone is super cool. If you’re in America, Montreal will feel like a super fast trip to Europe. Also Canada’s main sport is hockey, unlike America with football and basketball. Sports is a big thing in North America and seems like the only culture those countries have (hahaha)…since they aren’t old enough to have their own culture, and also since those countries were taken from the original native Americans (indigenous people) who actually came from there.
You can do a short tour on the east coast covering 2 nearby powerhouses, Montreal and Toronto within 1 week. Can add 1-2 extra days for Quebec City (which is more than just “tiny Montreal”). And another 3-4 days for Vancouver if you want to venture into the west coast. Then add more days to that if you want to visit national parks and nature stuff.
The world’s greatest pop culture powerhouse. The land of the infamous “American dream”. Everything you’ve seen in TV and movies.
This is a country of many big cities, big space, big cars, big companies, big celebrities. Many things you’ve always heard of, and heard about this place, they’re all here.
Why come to America?
The Niagara Falls is the biggest tourist trap ever. Don’t ever go here.
The only thing you’ll be amazed by is how incredible their marketing was to make this place such a recognizable name in pop culture, movies, and travel references.
It’s just a tiny border town with casinos, and a man-made waterfall to entice Americans into crossing the border to spend their money. That’s it.
And how’s the waterfall, you ask? It is literally one of the least impressive waterfalls you’ve ever seen. While it may have size, it looks fake (and manufactured) as heck. You’re standing on the sidewalk behind a metal railing looking at a big flat waterfall with lights. Not much picturesque rocks or greenery. It’s like taking a picture of a waterfall at Disneyland theme park or some resort hotel. It’s not the same as a huge natural one you saw on an epic hike.
Biggest tourist trap ever! It is not a worthy stop in east coast Canada whatsoever!
Portland was and still is one America’s most (authentically) hipster, hip, trendy, coolest towns to live in.
It has the authentic Portland quirky weird vibe, beautiful pacific northwest landscapes and trees (which actually looks like real nature vs California’s desert landscape and beaches), beautiful craftsman homes in giant forest ambiance, and a vibe that feels very authentically white-American rather than the typical hispanic immigrant culture you’ll find in America’s other big cities.
For many years since 2010, it was one of the fastest growing cities and taking in the millennial exodus from burned-out overpriced cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. The original Portlanders were all “F**K YOU, CALIFORNIANS! GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM AND DON’T CALIFORNICATE OUR BELOVED PORTLAND!”
And rightly so…because all the outsiders were bringing in their money, buying up property, raising property values and rent beyond what local Portlanders could pay, clogging up streets with traffic, and just ruining the organic hippie ambiance.
Let’s find out why I (and everyone) think Portland is so cool.
Get real LA travel tips from a true (and proud) Los Angeles native.
I’m from here, I lived here for most of my life and in many different neighborhoods. Will happily give you the most biased (and unbiased) breakdown as best as I can. The kind of info you can only get from a true LA native.
This info is absolutely necessary because I consider Los Angeles to be the absolute most difficult tourist city in the world. You may think it’s fun, you might even come here and find fun things. But most of you won’t, as most people complain it’s not pretty, not fun, and too much driving, or impossible to get in there. It’s all true.
But indeed, many people do live here happily and for a reason…because they KNOW how to visit and get around LA. So let me teach you how to explore it properly (and not like a fucken tourist).