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Our member v1nce007 is criss-crossing North America as they take an adventure-packed holiday that’s also full of premium cabin flying. As well as visits to several US cities, our member joined a nine-day tour of Costa Rica! The trip began with a very nice Qantas flight across the Pacific.
Had a really nice flight from SYD to LAX. A few J passengers were upset by the last minute equipment change to a 747 with its 2-3-2 layout. All the seat allocations were lost at about T24 and replacements were unable to be selected online. The meal service was really good and not too rushed or slow. The FA looking after me was very attentive without being over the top. Proactive on wine top ups too.
Our member will be returning to Australia in Business with American Airlines. They’re keen to compare the service with Qantas. Speaking of American Airlines, there were many First class flights on American Airlines within the US as our member travelled to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. They decided on First class for the extra Qantas status credits, and it seems our member lucked out with a series of enjoyable, hassle-free flights. As a side-trip from Boston, v1nce007 took the Acela Express train right into the heart of New York. Again, they decided to go First class and the service seemed surprisingly good. First class on these trains is set up in a 1-2 configuration and complimentary meals are served.
The Acela Express journey takes around 3.5 hours. I believe the normal train takes another hour or so longer. The real benefit of taking the train is that it departs and arrives in the middle of each city. This train has business and first class only. In addition to the power cars there are 3 business class cars, a cafe car, and the first class car. There is no need for first class passengers to visit the cafe car as meals and drinks are inclusive in F.
A much longer “side trip” was to Costa Rica. After flying into San Jose, our correspondent met with 8 other travellers that would be joining an Intrepid tour. Tour activities included white water rafting, hiking, kayaking and snorkelling!
While I love big cities, checking out restaurants and people watching, I also love adventure travelling and didn’t want to spend all my time in the US, so I looked into some tour options in Central America. I settled on a Costa Rica trip with Intrepid (I have done several trips with Intrepid before and have enjoyed them). This tour looks really great with lots of included activities, starting and finishing in San Jose.
The tour began with a 2-day rafting expedition.
Our rafting guide was really fun and he had us trying a number of different activities on some of the smaller rapids. There were a few intense moments too such as getting stuck in a hole and doing 360 turns, 2 members of the group went overboard at that point.
There are plenty of adventures in store and lots of great photos as v1nce007 traverses the USA & Costa Rica. Follow the trip report HERE.
