Travel Photographer- Las Vegas to San Francisco

After exploring the amazing sights at the Grand Canyon we continued on our roadtrip to our next stop- Las Vegas! What can I say? This city is on crack, it never sleeps, there is a lot to see. The bright lights are incredible but there is also a sense of superficialness in this city fuelled by money, alcohol and showiness. Seeing people that sit in the casino smoking and gambling all day is pretty sad. I’m not one who loves having big nights out drinking or gambling so maybe it’s not completely my cup of tea. Also I was there with my parents and sisters so we weren’t exactly going wild.

In saying that, I did love parts of Vegas- it is like a whole other world! We stayed in the Golden Nugget Hotel which is back off the strip in Fremont Street Experience area. It’s more of the classic, old-school Vegas vibe (which I like). It was a bit more affordable but still close enough the everything and a great place to stay. We found some great places to eat nearby including cafe ‘Eat‘ and ‘Vegenation Juices‘. It was great to just chill by the pool and they had a hydro-slide that went through the middle of a shark tank (so Vegas!) which was cool.

 We spotted a freshly married couple straight away! I loved driving down the road past all the wedding chapels, a whole different way to get married than what I’m used to witnessing but kind of awesome people just go for it and do it for love!

We went to a nightmarket called First Friday’s (a street art and food festival on the first Friday of every month) that wasn’t too far from our hotel. I loved checking this out, they had a stage with some hilarious performers, lots of free food to try and I had some amazing Greek for dinner!

We went to a Cirque du Soleil show one night called LOVE which was all about the Beatles and it was amazing! You just have to go to a show if you’re in Vegas and I’m so glad we did. I’d love to see Celine Dion or another Cirque one next time.

We explored the Strip one night, just walking up and down it and through all the casinos. Many of them have different themes and are fun to explore.

I loved New York-New York (makes me want to go back to the real New York so badly!), as well as checking out the Bellagio Fountains and of course Caesars Palace (made more famous by ‘The Hangover‘ movie).

Vegas is seriously a wild place and would actually be fun to go back to with a group of girlfriends. I realised I never really took any photos during the day time. This is because Vegas is best seen by night and also most of the time during the day we were shopping! Vegas has some amazing outlet malls and I definitely went a bit crazy stocking up on clothes, shoes and makeup.

It was a whirlwind visit and at the airport I spotted the only “celeb” I saw in America- Amanda from the Bachelor (anyone else addicted to the American Bachelor?), so weird to see TV stars in real life but I was too embarrassed to say hi. It’s funny how many people ask if you see celebrities when visiting USA like they’re everywhere (especially when visiting LA) so there ya go, famous yo!!

We made it to San Fran and farewelled our parents as they headed back to NZ. So it was just two of my sisters and I left, and ready for the west coast adventures to begin!

I loved the architecture in San Francisco, very much reminds you of Full House! We had a couple of the sunniest days San Fran ever sees so that was awesome.

I loved exploring the Mission District, a pretty “hipster” area with lots of cool cafes, shops and boutiques.

We got out coffee fix at Ritual Coffee. Overall, America fails in comparison to our quality of coffee-making here in NZ but San Fran is pretty up there, we were impressed!

Treats from Dandelion Chocolate! We also joined the line and got some pastries from the popular Tartine Bakery, it is definitely worth the wait… so yummy!

Some of the many colourful and beautiful walls covered in street art in SF!

The Clarion Alley Mural Project was especially cool.

Speaking of Full House… We did go do the typical nineties-kids tourist thing and visited the ‘Painted Ladies‘ which is the row of houses featured on Full House. To be honest they were pretty underwhelming and not that different from all the other houses around SF, not a major must-see!

 

Blue Bottle Coffee have lots of cafes around SF (and all over the world) and are another goodie to look out for.

There are parts of San Fran I did not enjoy… to be honest the inner city is pretty disgusting, maybe it was because it was hot when we were there but it smelled really bad! There are a lot of homeless people in San Francisco and we saw some pretty horrible things going on, which I will not mention here…

It was nice being by the water, we stayed in the Fisherman’s Wharf area. One thing that sucked though, we were quite close to the water and sometimes the foghorns would start going off at 2 o’clock in the morning (SF gets a lot of sea fog) and keep going for hours… super loud and hard to sleep through so just be aware of that when you’re booking accommodation!

We had to do the Alcatraz thing so we chose to go on a night tour which was awesome! I’m a bit wary about doing audio tours sometimes but this one actually interesting and well done. It’s crazy to learn all the history and what went on there, I have a weird fascination with prison-life! After Alcatraz we got some clam chowder in a bread bowl from Pier 39, a very SF dinner you just have to get at least once!

We hired bikes one day and explored the city some more including Lombard St, the famous steep, flower-covered street.

Another cool place to explore is the Soma (South of Market) area, it has more awesome cafes and cute shops. After checking that out we headed for the Golden Gate Bridge!

(What happens when you get a random tourist to take your photo on your camera… blurry haha.)

It was lots of fun to bike over the bridge and explore the cute little seaside town of Sausalito on the other side. We caught the ferry with our bikes back to the other side, a nice little sunset ride and another great view of the bridge and city.

Overall San Fran was lots of fun to explore and because of it’s harbour, arty vibes, cafes and hipster ways very much reminded me of a Melbourne or Wellington type city, and I guess a touch of Auckland in the sailing sense… if I had to compare to somewhere closer to home. I’d love to explore more of the surrounding wine country next time. I won’t be rushing back to the inner city, although their are some great nooks to explore if you know where to look. I am probably more of a beachy girl so I would favour L.A. as a city more as I love that lifestyle. There are different great and not-so-great things about both though so it was cool to visit!

I saved all my Snapchat stories from each day in America so I was looking back through them as I was writing this post and reliving all the memories… I’m getting that itch to plan another trip soon!!

Have you been to Las Vegas or San Francisco? What did you love/hate? What would you recommend I see next time? I’d love to hear about your adventures and I hope your are enjoying this series from my latest America trip!

After San Fran we headed on our roadtrip down the Pacific Coast Highway which was all kinds of beautiful. Until next time…