laklak wrote:You'll be fine. Americans are stupidly friendly people, as a rule, and will help out pretty much anyone. It's honestly no different then going to Blackpool, except you'll have trouble finding pickled winkles. Go for a corn dog instead.

I agree, I am foreigner living here in the US of A and really find it pretty easy stuff, hell even people in NYC will give you directions and help out, although not necessarily the right directions or help, but people generally want to be be helpful.
Regarding leaving money etc in hotel safes, best advice is cash is OK, you know if you cash is gone... Cards you should carry as you can't tell if a card was borrowed and maxed until you try to use it again. Carry money and cards in different places so you lessen your overall risk, dummy wallet a reasonable idea, although situational awareness always the key. Always carry some ID, you are a foreigner and even if you obviously over 21 some bars etc required to ID everyone, once I was caught short and gave my sailboat skippers card as ID in a bar, bouncer confused as had no date of birth but looked legit, passed me due to crowd building up behind me...
I understand the worry about carrying passport but really an emergency travel document to get you home pretty easy to get as long as it just to buy a ticket home. Suggest you scan tickets and travel documents and email to yourself so if anything lost you can find the details easily.

I keep photocopies of our passports and other ID documents in a separate place. They're not legal, but they serve to at least show your embassy (or U.S. authorities) who you are if you lose the originals.

so do I

Same. One photocopy in each suitcase, and photos of all documents on phone.

Also, on phones: before leaving, I add contacts to my address book for:

* reporting cards lost to each provider
* contacting my travel insurer
* contacting the Australian embassy or consulate in each country I'm visiting
(all using the dialling prefixes needed in my destination country)

I've never needed to do any of that, but I figure if I ever did, the last thing I'd want to be doing is looking those things up. It's a bit of a holdover from the days where looking it up was harder than it is today, but it does no harm.

The_Piper wrote:There are northern rednecks too. Maybe they're too distantly related to say they are from the same species, Rednuckus Americanus though. Everything north of Bangor. Northern Maine and most of Vermont, which is at least as red necked as northern maine. Given it's proximity, I'd expect northern NY to have Northernus individuals.

Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk

Fixed. Then there are the upper midwestern rednecks, they're more numerous than the northeastern type. Pennsylvania is where they hybridize with both "true" southern rednecks, northeastern rednecks, and upper midwest rednecks. PA is definitely worth doing a major study on.

Then there's Michigan Yoopers, who appear to be examples of convergent evolution.

willhud9 wrote:

jamest wrote:Regarding my previous enquiry about the existence of free ATMs over there, today I stumbled upon this:

https://firstquarterfinance.com/does-wawa-do-cash-back/

"All Wawa ATMs are surcharge-free"

Nice.

Wawas are the best. Try their hoagies when you are here. I go all the freakin’ time!

I was hitting Wawa's around NJ for coffee last time I went. I ordered a sub one day, but I can't remember how that was. Sandwiches from gas stations are usually forgettable.

The_Piper wrote:

willhud9 wrote:

jamest wrote:Regarding my previous enquiry about the existence of free ATMs over there, today I stumbled upon this:

https://firstquarterfinance.com/does-wawa-do-cash-back/

"All Wawa ATMs are surcharge-free"

Nice.

Wawas are the best. Try their hoagies when you are here. I go all the freakin’ time!

I was hitting Wawa's around NJ for coffee last time I went. I ordered a sub one day, but I can't remember how that was. Sandwiches from gas stations are usually forgettable.

So Wawa Ontario has a huge goose sculpture and the Wawa logo has a goose on it as well. So I had to look it up. Wawa is Ojibwe for Canada Goose. Never knew that.

felltoearth wrote:

The_Piper wrote:

willhud9 wrote:

jamest wrote:Regarding my previous enquiry about the existence of free ATMs over there, today I stumbled upon this:

https://firstquarterfinance.com/does-wawa-do-cash-back/

"All Wawa ATMs are surcharge-free"

Nice.

Wawas are the best. Try their hoagies when you are here. I go all the freakin’ time!

I was hitting Wawa's around NJ for coffee last time I went. I ordered a sub one day, but I can't remember how that was. Sandwiches from gas stations are usually forgettable.

So Wawa Ontario has a huge goose sculpture and the Wawa logo has a goose on it as well. So I had to look it up. Wawa is Ojibwe for Canada Goose. Never knew that.

Me neither, that's cool. I just thought geese liked swimming in wawa.

The_Piper wrote:

felltoearth wrote:

The_Piper wrote:

willhud9 wrote:

Wawas are the best. Try their hoagies when you are here. I go all the freakin’ time!

I was hitting Wawa's around NJ for coffee last time I went. I ordered a sub one day, but I can't remember how that was. Sandwiches from gas stations are usually forgettable.

So Wawa Ontario has a huge goose sculpture and the Wawa logo has a goose on it as well. So I had to look it up. Wawa is Ojibwe for Canada Goose. Never knew that.

Me neither, that's cool. I just thought geese liked swimming in wawa.

I hope Rachel sees this.

I've been reading about the tipping culture and variable State sales taxes and resort fees over there, not least toll roads, which concerns me greatly.
Are there any tips you guys might have on keeping these costs to a minimum?

Eta: Oh, and wtf is going on with the parking fees over there?! $50 a day in some places.

Toll roads are not expensive.

You are safe with 10% tipping...15% is better and yes it is expected on served meals.
Meals are huge so split stuff.

In all cases TripAdvisor is your go to for reviews, things to do, places to eat etc ...ignore Yelp ...crooked.

Parking in places like New York is prohibitive....just don't. Outside the cities ....not to worry.

Sales tax is sales tax ...all over the place...just figure your cost of fuel is so low that you can ignore sales tax

Jamest the one thing I worry about for you is your family medical insurance for travelling in the US ...are you covered big time?

jamest wrote:I've been reading about the tipping culture and variable State sales taxes and resort fees over there, not least toll roads, which concerns me greatly.
Are there any tips you guys might have on keeping these costs to a minimum?

Eta: Oh, and wtf is going on with the parking fees over there?! $50 a day in some places.

Tipping, is a horrible thing to deal with at first but how things are, many people rely on this for wages, you see bills (checks) from restaurants etc with tip options eg 18, 20, 25% indicated, 15% is OK only more if something special happened.
Don't just tick the % box for tips write the final price including the tip on the bill when paying by card.
Listed prices are not required to be actual price, this even more confusing, fees/charges/taxes etc are added to the listed price at purchase, taxes vary state to state and sometimes depend on the item or cost as to whether they apply. Just like the weather there is no use arguing with this, this is just considered normal.

Macdoc wrote:Toll roads are not expensive.

You are safe with 10% tipping...15% is better and yes it is expected on served meals.
Meals are huge so split stuff.

In all cases TripAdvisor is your go to for reviews, things to do, places to eat etc ...ignore Yelp ...crooked.

Parking in places like New York is prohibitive....just don't. Outside the cities ....not to worry.

Sales tax is sales tax ...all over the place...just figure your cost of fuel is so low that you can ignore sales tax

Jamest the one thing I worry about for you is your family medical insurance for travelling in the US ...are you covered big time?

Yes, I've looked into that. We have free medical/travel insurance with our Lloyds premier account, which is underwritten by Axa. If you've still got concerns let me know, as I'm naive on the matter.

Find out what the limits if any are and the procedures involved.

BTW I'm always online so if you get stuck you can email me anytime and dire emergency call...number is on the macdoc.com website.

Thank you Macdoc, not just for that but for all of your help generally. I genuinely value and appreciate it.

np - my motorcycle community got me out of a nasty jam last year - stuck a few hundred miles from home and an unobtanium part needed ( not available as a recall was in full swing ) nother rider let me take his recall replacement.
i'm sure there are others here you can reach out to esecially lak in florida.

For NYC, I park in Darien CT for something like $12-14 per day and take the metro north train for $21. Beats trying to find a spot there, there are essentially none outside of garages which aren't usually $0 a day afaik. Kiore could tell you. I know I could get a little closer, but I've had great luck at that lot. It's a fairly upscale neighborhood and well patrolled. Nobody's ever messed with me or my vehicles.
That said, you'll be coming from the west, so Darien is out of your way. Sorry. But see, if you were going to Boston you'd be passing right by it afterwards, coming from the north.

The_Piper wrote:For NYC, I park in Darien CT for something like $12-14 per day and take the metro north train for $21. Beats trying to find a spot there, there are essentially none outside of garages which aren't usually $0 a day afaik. Kiore could tell you. I know I could get a little closer, but I've had great luck at that lot. It's a fairly upscale neighborhood and well patrolled. Nobody's ever messed with me or my vehicles.
That said, you'll be coming from the west, so Darien is out of your way. Sorry. But see, if you were going to Boston you'd be passing right by it afterwards, coming from the north.

Indeed a parking garage in Manhattan could cost more than a hotel, so park in New Jersey, Connecticut or somewhere outside the city and take a train into town as suggested, or just drop off the rental car for your NYC time and grab another to leave.