Viator Provides Affordable, Enjoyable Sightseeing Tours

When traveling to a new location I love to take tours. It's the easiest way to see the maximum amount with limited time and/or no car. From hop on and offs, to ghost and bus tours, they all provide a great way to explore the region you are visiting. Plus, with solo travel like I did, it occupies your time so you're not just wandering aimlessly.

Last week I went on a trip to Boston and decided to plan bus tours so I could also get outside of the city to see fall foliage. When doing research, Viator seemed to provide the most options at the best prices so I found and booked two tours with the company: New England Coastal Tour from Boston and Fall Foliage Sightseeing Tour from Boston. Both were priced at around $70 which included hotel pick up and drop off, plus seven to eight hour-long tours. Very reasonable. Renting a car probably would've been the same price once you factor in gas, but it was so much easier to let someone else do the driving who knows the spots to go and provides narration along the way.

I stayed outside the city so I selected a hotel to travel to where I could get on the bus (if you stay within a city the bus usually picks you up right out front your hotel). Once on, I was able to enjoy a comfy seat, big windows to gaze out, and a tour guide illustrating points of interest. On both tours we made multiple stops for snacks, lunch, photo opps, and when time permitted, exploration.

Here are some photos from the two tours to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine!

So many beautiful sights! Head on over to my reviews of the New England Coastal Tour and New England Fall Foliage Tour for detailed information.

In exchange for a review, I was provided with a comped Viator tour. All thoughts are truthful and my own.

Roadtrip! Seattle to Portland

Picking up where I left off on PNW trip, after Seattle was a roadtrip to Portland. I was especially excited because I'd never been to Oregon before.

First up on the adventure was a stop in Astoria to relive some of my childhood with The Goonies! We saw Mikey's house and walked along the beach where the pirate ship and the families were pictured at the end of the movie. The town in small and quaint and the beach was so beautiful. If you plan a visit, know that the beach (Cannon Beach) is located about 45 minutes south of Astoria and definitely worth the drive. Check out Haystack Rock!

After our coastal exploration we headed into Oregon and dropped off our stuff at the hotel. I highly recommend DoubleTree by Hilton Portland. It was priced well and the staff was great. It is on the other side of the river, but if you have a car it's no big deal at all. Cabbing would be easy as well.

First order of sightseeing was the Portland Aerial Tram which was so scary! I'm a sucker for a view and always go to observation decks but I am terrified of heights. Like I get dizzy, nauseous, and can't stand without feeling my knees buckling a bit. But I manage to pull myself together. Anything for a picture, right? This tram was something else though. The whole dangling over the city, and swaying and bouncing on track was not OK with me. BUT if you aren't bothered by height, or can muster up the courage, you should do it. It's only $4.50 for a hop-on-hop-off as roundtrip ride. The view really are worth it.

That night we did a Portland Underground Tour. I am obsessed with ghost tours. I do one in every city I visit. Not only is it fun to be spooked, but it's a great way to learn about the city's history and get a feel for the layout and neighborhoods. This tour was not very good, though. We were in a sketchy area so I was scared of actual people, not the ghosts, the whole time. Our tour guide even got into an argument with a random drunk dude on the street.

The next morning we drove out to Multnomah Falls and it totally made up the the night before. Just look at this beautiful waterfall. These pictures don't even do it justice. While it's a bit of a drive and parking is a mess, you have to make the trip if you visit Portland. It was my highlight of the city!

Seattle Sights

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of heading up to Seattle to see One Direction (don't forget to read that post ;) and made a vacation out of it. My flight in was delayed several hours so in addition to missing part of the opening act at the concert, I also missed out on some sightseeing. Luckily I'd been to Seattle before, but it was definitely a bummer.

Despite the setback, my amazing host, Christina, indulged my touristy need to experience the city so we did some exploration via foot, car, boat, and an elevator to the 73rd floor of Sky View Observatory. This place is incredible! If you visit Seattle, put this on your must-do list. It's less than $15 and boasts breathtaking 360 degree views. As the tallest public viewing area west of the Mississippi it makes the Space Needle looks so tiny! Check out the picture below from 902 feet above.

Stop by Thursday for my Portland roadtrip recap!

A Fall Football Weekend in NOLA

I'm finalllly getting to my NOLA recap, two weeks later. Since I've already been and blogged about New Orleans about four times, I'll keep the content short and mostly provide a photodump of my recent trip to the Crescent City.

This time around I didn't plan so it was a very go-with-the-flow vacay. The reason for the trip was a Saints game (becuase if you didn't know, I'm kinda a superfan) and while they lost unfortunately, it was still great being in the Superdome surrounded by other fans. Plus it didn't hurt that our seats were 9th row - which, somehow, are the SAME EXACT SEATS as I sat in last year. What are the chances of that?!

In addition to the game, there was a lot of cajun food, beer, and sightseeing. Here's what I got up to...

Best photo of the trip? My unintentional pose-off with a security guard. I think his form gives him the edge. Damn!