When I think back on our trip over there, my favourite part was driving, both -
a. Driving around LA (much better than driving in Melbourne) and
b. Driving LA to San Diego to Grand Canyon to Las Vegas to San Francisco and back to LA.
It is just such a pleasure to drive over there, and a Nissan Altima from Hertz was costing me A$38 a day using my Amex-Hertz 10% discount.I took my own TomTom. Though, having decided to drive, picking places to stay became fairly easy - the ones that charged nothing or US$12 a day to park overnight, instead of the typical US$40 to US$50 a day. And having a car means you don't have to stay at ridiculously expensive places in the centre of town. Drivers are far more courteous there than Melbourne, and you just have to remember that when you hit an instersection where everyone is facing a STOP sign, treat it like a roundabout, first car there crosses first and so on. And when turning right at a traffic light, you can turn right even when the light is Red, unless a sign says not to (everyone toots you if you don't).
As for New York, you will fall into one of two categories - those who think that 7 days isn't enough, or like us, that we'd had it after four days and wished we had gone somewhere else (too darn crowded). We wished we had booked a few days in Brooklyn instead, which is extremely nice. We did enjoy Washington more than New York. but if New York is the last leg of your stay, you don't want to waste a day getting to Washington, then a day getting back to New York to fly home.
Regards,
Renato