Triangle Trip

If you’re in the greater Los Angeles area for more than three days, I highly recommend you make a two hour drive north to visit California’s Central Coast for some great food and wine (the alternative is two hours south to see San Diego). Following the footsteps of Miles and Jack (characters from the film Sideways), you should visit Santa Barbara, Solvang and the wineries in Santa Ynez Valley, which are famous for their Pinot Noirs.

To get there, just hop on the US 101 North from downtown LA. You can also take US 1 (Pacific Coast Highway or PCH) if you’re in a mood for a scenic drive – although you can still see a lot of the beautiful Pacific coast line and ocean from the 101. It takes approximately two and a half hours to get to Solvang, taking into account traffic getting out of LA and around Thousand  Oaks and Ventura.

You should stop by Santa Barbara to split up the long journey; it has a large, beautiful downtown area with plenty of restaurants and shops. The beaches at Santa Barbara are also amazing.

Where to stay in Solvang?

Solvang is not a big city at all – it does, however, attract a lot of tourists. Most of the hotels are owned and operated by locals, which means you won’t get hotel points or airline miles. Here are a few I would consider:

For the points focused travelers like Statusmonger and the Coach, there is a very nice Marriott in Buellton which is right off US 101, and a Holiday Inn Express within walking distance of downtown Solvang. I recommend the Marriott; during my stay at the Holiday Inn Express, noise was a small issue because of its location on the main street of downtown Solvang, and the building felt old.

Where to eat in Solvang?

I highly recommend the Hitching Post II, where Maya from Sideways worked. The Hitching Post II was the best meal I had in 2009 (read my Yelp! Review here). They serve great wine, too – definitely try their Highliner Pinot Noir!

Another good place for evening dining is AJ Spurs, a little chain in the Central Valley of California. AJ Spurs serves large portions so order to share unless you haven’t eaten for days. But stay with the meat entrees; the fish dishes aren’t as fresh.

While you’re in Solvang, you must try the Aebleskiver, which is a Danish pancake. There are several bakeries in the downtown area that will make it fresh for you – I think the Solvang Restaurant at 1672 Copenhagen Drive offers the most authentic Aebleskiver.

Where to drink in Solvang and the Santa Ynes Valley?

I suggest visiting these wineries: Dierberg, Rideau, Fiddlehead, Foley and Melville. If you don’t want to drive all the way to Foxen Canyon Road, where most of the wineries are located, you can stay in downtown Solvang, which has tons of tasting rooms that offer wines from many regional wineries.

If you don’t have a designated driver for a wine tour, the local hotels should have bus tours throughout the day.

If you’re based in the US and traveling to Canada for more than a few days, I strongly recommend you contact your mobile provider and sign up for their Canada plan. Sprint offers a $2.99 and T-Mobile offers $5.00 Canadian roaming plan (link to Sprint Canada Roaming option) where you pay $0.09 to $0.20 per minute on calls made and received in Canada. Both Sprint and T-Mobile allow you to add and remove the Canada plan whenever you want and won’t renew your contract. I am sure the other carriers (Verizon and AT&T) have the same deals.

I carry a BlackBerry on the Sprint network and do not have to pay for international data since I’m traveling on the BlackBerry network when I’m in Canada. On my most recent trip, I also found out that I didn’t have to pay for SMS sent from Canada to USA mobile numbers. I’m not sure if it was a system glitch, but I’ll take it – and I’d welcome anyone who can provide additional info on this.

And if you’re visiting Vancouver, you may want to check out these fine Vancouver eateries.

If you have landed in La Guardia Airport (LGA) and want to take public transportation to NYC, you either need exact change for the MTA bus (US$2.50 as of 2011), or a MetroCard with enough money for a one way fare.

Don’t have enough change for the bus? No need to scramble or buy unnecessary stuff at the airport…there is an MTA vending machine at the arrival level of LGA’s Terminal B. The MTA vending machine accepts credit cards and is located in between the United and Continental’s arrivals baggage claim area. See map below for more details:

If your flight doesn’t land at Terminal B, no need to worry as LGA has a free shuttle bus that circles around the terminals. Another option is look for a newsstand called Hudson News as they may resell MetroCards. You should also consider the unlimited ride Metrocard if you are staying in NYC for longer than a week. Here’s a previous post regarding on how to take advantage of NYC MTA’s unlimited Metrocard.

From LGA, visitors can ride the M60 bus to Upper West Side Manhattan. Buses and subways are both run by the MTA, so transferring from a bus, to another bus, or to the subway is free – as long as that transfer occurs within two hours after the initial fare was paid. If you paid the bus fare with exact change, you’ll need a transfer pass; you can request one from the bus operator before you exit. If you paid the bus fare by purchasing and using a MetroCard, it’ll automatically act as a transfer pass if used within the two hour window. Here’s a link to Captain G’s previous post for more details.

And if you’re arriving from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), you won’t run into issues finding a MetroCard vendor or transferring. There are tons of MTA vending machines at the JFK AirTrain, which takes riders from JFK to the Jamaica subway and train station, making it very convenient to go anywhere in New York City. For your convenience, here are links on how to get from JFK to Manhattan (How to take NYC public transportation to/from JFK).