Finding yourself surrounded by Black bears in the middle of the wilderness is probably a nightmare for most. Especially considering our car was parked 3 miles away and we were on foot! But instead of running scared, we crouched down in the grass, pulled out our camera’s, and began shooting.

Rolling down our windows as we drove through Transylvania County towards the Blue Ridge Parkway, all we could hear was the sound of rushing water. Deciding on a whim to spend our afternoon at the waterfalls of Brevard was one thing, however deciding exactly which waterfalls to visit, we soon realized, was another.

With more than 250 waterfalls in Transylvania County, “Land of the Waterfalls” is a pretty accurate description for the area. I don’t know of any other place on earth which can lay claim to so many falls – and each is just as unique and spectacular as the next. In fact, Pisgah National Forest has so many waterfalls that many of them are not even on the map!

The Blue Ridge Parkway is no ordinary road. A scenic highway connecting Shenandoah National Park and the Skyline Drive in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, “America’s favorite Drive” winds its way through 469 miles of Grand Mountains and seemingly endless vistas and valleys.

DoubleTree hotels have been on my radar for a while now. After having won the DTour of a Lifetime competition I’ve been itching to stay at a DoubleTree property. Not only to bite into one of those amazing warm chocolate chip cookies handed to every guest on check-in, but to find out what to expect from the brand in South and Central America next year.

Savannah was our first stop on our recent road trip from Florida, and what a way to start the trip! It’s beauty and charm is something straight from the pages of a fairytale. It’s more romantic than Paris, it’s more friendly than Australia, and with more character than London.

There are only a few times in a girls life where it’s appropriate to wake voluntarily at 6am while on vacation! One of those appropriate moments is to watch the sunrise over Myrtle Beach!

Daytona Beach is lined with high-rise resorts and hotels which boast hundreds of rooms each to cater to the mass tourism each year for both Spring Break and the Daytona 500.

We chose to stay at the Oceanside Inn which is “a comfortable beachfront hotel on the quieter side of Daytona.” “Quieter” translates into the more rundown side of Daytona, however we had no problem whatsoever with security in the area, nor did we have any problems with the “human element” of the area.

We made it to Daytona Beach around 6pm with still 2 hours of daylight left to explore; courtesy of Florida’s amazing summers. It claims to be the most famous beach in the world, and probably comes close – nearly 200,000 students descend on the area each year for Spring Break despite the city of Daytona trying to discourage them. The 23 miles of Daytona Beach are some of the only in the world where cars are allowed on the sands – a tradition carried over from the days when motor enthusiasts would race on the beaches.

Sanibel Island (Florida) has some of the most beautiful beaches in the US! Additionally, shelling is a popular pastime for locals and tourists alike, as the island offers some of the best shelling in the US, if not the world!

That’s what we get for waking up in Vegas!!

I think we managed to find possibly one of the most disappointing “resorts” in the Metropolitan Resort, Orlando, as we made our way home from our East Coast Road trip.

The whole day had not really gone in our favor, and the “resort” didn’t make it any better.  I use the word resort in quotation marks, as having a nice pool does not make a 2 star motel a resort.

Admittedly, they have a nice pool. But simply having a nice pool does NOT make you a resort!

I’ll start by admitting that we had failed to realize school had broken for the summer, and of course attempting to stay in Orlando meant we had driven straight into the tourist capital of the world…and driven in excruciatingly slowly as the traffic was appalling.

The resort was incredibly difficult to find, even with our GPS.  After having pulled into Austrian Circuit and not been able to locate the hotel, not even the concierge at the large resort we ended up at had a clue where it was.  We did eventually find it after realizing Austrian Circuit had two completely separate entrances.

It took 15 minutes to check in despite us being the only guests at the front desk.

The staff were very casual and incredibly slow – taking their sweet time to do god knows what behind the desk.  Having worked in hotel reception I still cant figure out what she was possibly doing to have taken so long to check us in.  Sadly wifi was only free in the lobby, and had to be purchased in the rooms, but that’s better than the majority of hotels around the world.  Not being bothered to walk to the lobby, can you believe I went a whole evening without logging on – pretty much a first for me!

The “resort” was a 2 star motel, not dissimilar to a college building of dorms, with dark cement alleyways cutting through the middle of the building to provide access to the pool and tennis court.  Considering the state of the motel itself the pool was surprisingly amazing – and the best thing the motel had going for it.  I almost thought the pool was part of the Raddison which was next door.

Metropolitan Resort

The room was comfortable and semi clean – perfect for a backpacker. The room itself was nice enough, but there were suspicious looking stains on the walls and furniture, there was no toilet paper holder on the wall so it sat on the bathroom sink behind you, and there were bugs in the shower when I turned the faucet on.  Shower water pressure is a big “make or break” for me, and unfortunately this wasn’t great either.  The bathroom fan sounded like a cat was dying and carried on like that until I switched it off and let the bathroom fog up instead for the sake of my ear drums.

That being said, the rooms were large, beds were incredibly comfortable and I loved that we could walk straight out the door to our car (the flip side of the being that people would walk right by your window all night).  It was also very centrally located – we managed to walk down International Drive and find dinner quite easily, passing multiple restaurants, bars and clubs on our way to Panda Express!

Breakfast was included and was pretty decent for a free breakfast, however the small room was overcrowded and I threw out my apple after the first bite.  The muffins and danishes were really good.

I wouldn’t go back to the Metropolitan Resort, but it was cheap – we paid $45 for the night + a $5 “resort fee”, however the majority of hotels in the area were similarly priced and we’ve stayed before in much nicer hotels for the same price.  If you’re just looking for a place to crash overnight and don’t really care about the room definitely consider the Metropolitan, but you can definitely find better value elsewhere.

Standard Room

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Not your typical tourist attraction, La Perouse Bay in the Ahihi-Kinau Marine Preserve on Maui is my favourite place in Hawaii. With stunning black sand beaches, crystal water lapping against a rustic coastline and remnants of lava from the last volcanic eruption in Maui, La Perouse Bay is an experience which is truly out of this world!

La Jolla Cove, San Diego’s most desirable spot for kayaking, snorkeling and diving, has become home to California’s largest seal and sea lion population. La Jolla Cove is free and completely open to public access – no trip to California will be complete without visiting, and I guarantee you will never see a seal and sea lion colony anywhere like this in the world!

Visually, the cove is breathtakingly. Somewhat hidden with alluring curves and caves, it is often cited as the most photographed beach in San Diego.

Sand bash 2013 ran from April 5-14 on Fort Myers Beach in Florida!

This years competition saw sand sculptors and beach lovers from all of the globe congregate on Fort Myers beach to compete in, and bear witness to, the first ever all women’s sand sculpting event.

Competitors represented The United States, Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Australia, while supporting breast cancer awareness.

Join us as we explore everything the Florida Everglades have to offer!!

While we love travelling, and writing home to brag about our adventures overseas, seeing cool places, meeting great new people, and experiencing amazing cultures, there are going to be places that just don’t do it for you.  Malibu, California, really didn’t do anything for me; disappointing since I had been itching to get there!!

The drive from Los Angeles to Malibu was surprisingly breathtaking – we drove the US 101 N for an hour which took us through Rocky Oaks Park and the Zuma/Trancas Canyons.  Stunning mountain scenery.  This was, however, the highlight of the Malibu experience.

I obviously had over inflated expectations about glitz and glamour; Hollywood stars, hot mums, surfer dudes and Pamela Anderson (apparently she lives right by Zuma beach)!

I had researched the previous night addresses of multi-million dollar properties in order to get my celebrity fix and was pretty excited about hitting the beach.  While Malibu is home to many Hollywood movie stars and others associated with the entertainment industry I seriously don’t know why!!

Malibu. Photo CC by Łukasz Lech

The city is located on a very narrow strip of the Pacific Coast Highway, while the houses are indeed spectacular they are located so far into the canyons and so far up narrow cliff faces that access to the beach would be a venture (and also locked inside gated communities like “The Colony” which thwarted my celebrity house drive by idea).

Unfortunately public access to the beaches were very rare and mostly hidden, however we did manage to hike down 3 flights of stairs to take a walk up one of the narrow stretches of beach.

I’ve now realized growing up in Australia has spoiled me in terms of my expectations of what constitutes a beach!  Malibu had sand, calm water and a lot of seaweed, which was sad as I was looking forward to some kind of atmosphere!

Laguna Beach was what I was expecting from Malibu in terms of glitz, glamour and atmosphere, and in fact there is a video blog about my love affair with Laguna.

Laguna Beach. Photo by Patrick Nouhailler

We had a much more enjoyable experience later that day at Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier.

Manhattan beach was everything I expected from California and met my apparently over hyped Australian expectations of a beach!!  It has atmosphere, million dollar houses right on the beach, waves, hot mums and surfer dudes!!…although no Pamela Anderson.

Recreational facilities line the beach – play equipment for kids, beach volleyball courts, separate sidewalks for joggers and cyclists and even gym equipment in some segments of the jogging tracks!  I would live on Manhattan Beach if I could!  Go here instead of Malibu!!

Manhattan Beach. Photo Mike Jerrard

Santa Monica Pier just oozed fun and satisfied my craving for beach atmosphere!  It’s a large double jointed pier (a 100 year old landmark) which includes a family amusement park, beach restaurants and cafes, buskers and street artists as well as arcades and your general amusement stalls.

When we arrived we stood around for a while to watch the filming of a pilot for a new cheer leading TV series called “Bounce”.  It was everything I expected from LA and should not be missed from your itinerary!!

We based ourselves in Los Angeles at the Shelter Hotel which was great value for money and extremely central to the majority of LA locations.  We enjoyed the hotel for it’s incredible value for money – cheap nightly rates, free parking, free wifi, large spacious rooms and friendly laid back staff; customer service was amazing.

The hotel is very edgy and hip with a lot of personality – room didn’t include a fridge – but did include modern amenities like an IPod docking station and flat screen.  I would recommend it as luxury backpacking or if you’re just looking for somewhere nice to crash at the end of the evening.  We were planning on going back at the end of our round road trip but stayed at LA airport instead to catch our early flight.

Check out Flickr or Facebook for all of our photos from California!

Santa Monica Pier. Photo Mike Jerrard

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Hola!! We drove from Arizona to San Diego on a route which saw us snake along the Mexican Border. Our poor little rent a car nearlly over heated from the intense desert conditions!!!

We couldn’t visit Arizona without making a stop in White Tank National Park and hiking off the beaten path through the desert. Hiking amongst road runners, hundreds of saguaros, mountain lions (which we didn’t see thank God!) and Coyote’s had a very looney tunes feel to it!!!

We all enjoy a good roadtrip. If you’re planning on travelling to Vegas and will already be in LA you should drive. This is why!

The question posed on facebook was “you mean they’re real??!!”. While the roadrunner may be the star of the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon they are also very real!! Their very swift movement as featured in the cartoon series is also very real!! (They can run up to 17 miles per hour – which for those of you who think in kilometres is roughly 27 km per hour).

Now to dispel the myth of the “glitz and glamour” of Hollywood. I had heard that Hollywood itself is very dirty – it is. Hollywood Boulevard however was fantastic fun. It was great walking the walk of fame; walking with our heads down scouring the street for famous names we recognised out of the almost 2,500 pink terrazzo stars inlaid with the names of famous celebrities.

The Road to Hana – Maui. Hawaii’s version of Australia’s Great Ocean Road; an absolute must. Make sure you have car insurance though; it’s a road which is wide enough for one and a half cars, with cars (and semi trucks and petrol tankers!!) coming from both ways – editing the video blog together this week!

While in Maui we spent a day driving the Road to Hana. Along the way we stumbled across the Ka’eleku Cave – better known as the Maui Lava Tube.

Apologies for the shaky camera…don’t think I’ll be vlogging from an i-pod again!!