After weeks and what seems like months of planning and talking about it all systems are go!! This week (Friday 31st) we depart for America on a 3 month adventure and I shall be blogging these events on this page (and you can now subscribe via the form at the bottom of this post) while hopefully still blogging general photography related articles on the other (link at the side!).
The first month is all planned, booked and paid. We land in Chicago to hopefully temperatures that are warmer than the recent -25, spend 8 days there and then catch the Californian Zephyr (52 hours!) across country to San Francisco where we will be located for 18 days.
It has been an interesting experience trying to book all this, we have decided to stay in apartments rather than hotels through Airbnb, in the long term for a trip like this it actually works out better as often you have your own kitchen so can cook in rather than constantly having to eat out and has the extra advantage of meeting people who live and work in the city and picking their brains for those real hidden secrets.
In regards to booking on Airbnb, if you have never done so but are thinking about it my tips are as followed:
1/ Set your budget and location
2/ Shortlist your faves if there is somewhere that is a little more expensive shortlist that too: be advised some include cleaning/Airbnb fees some don't!
3/ Write to all the shortlisted hosts, introduce yourself with a little bio and ask if there is any chance on reducing the rate or offer them (a reasonable) price. An occupied room is better than one not earning them money so don't be afraid to ask, it is perfectly acceptable.
4/ When you are ready to book and have (or not) your reduced rate, go on the internet and search for coupon codes, insert and save more money!
It is as easy as that. It is a bit hit and miss some people just won't reduce the rate which is fair enough but we found one who gave us at least £200 off the total price, the coupons so far have saved us about £100 on top of that!
And that is it for now, the last post from the UK. If you would like to continue to read and see images from the road please sign up below.
"I was surprised, as always, how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility" - Jack Kerouac