Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Well, I ended up not going to Temecula that weekend, but I will go on the next weeks, so wait a little bit that I promise that will have a post of my impressions of this place...
So as I didn't go to Temecula I decided to post about a place that I went few times: VEGAS
I will split this post in two, daytime and dining; and nightlife. Why? Because I do think that if I post all in just once it would be an enormous text, and even I wouldn't read all..hahaha
Let's start with the Daytime and Dinning
Vegas is an amazing city where you can see all the world in just one street, when you go for the first time it's absolutely amazing, you cannot believe on what you are seeing.
Some tips for hotels:
I stayed both on Venetian, Paris and Wynn, Venetian is such a luxurious and beautiful hotel and I definitely recommend for everybody that will stay in Vegas to book a room there, but I have to be completely honest, Paris caught my heart, the atmosphere is amazing, when we were doing the check in there was a wine tasting so we could taste some good french wines, talk with experienced people of the field, take some pictures, something that just aggregated on the whole stay.
And last but not least, Wynn, the hotel is amazing, I guarantee an amazing stay if you book this hotel.
The room is gorgeous and the view is absolutely amazing!!



But for me the main reason of why I liked so much Paris was the restaurant right on the entrance of the hotel, that is called Mon ami Gabi, the food is great, the staff is friendly and from the balcony you can see the water dance of Bellagio.
Another good place to eat, next to Paris, is Sweet Factory, if you go there you should definitely ask for the chocolate fondue, it's amazing!!!

Thursday, January 26, 2012


Now, let's move to the first stop: BIG BEAR LAKE!!!
Big Bear is a city in South California, about 3 hours from San Diego, be aware the highway is a little dangerous in the last one hour. You will go up on the mountain and there are a lot of curves. If you are planning to go there, it's mandatory to have tire's chains, even if the weather is good, if you are stopped by the cops  without this on your car you will get a ticket and you never know when you will need one.
The city is really cute, but remember it's a small city, there are few options of places to eat and most of them are Italian, not a problem for me as I love italian food, but something that I missed there was a fondue place, the weather was really cold, and for me this type of weather asks for cheese fondue.
If you are arriving at night one tip that I have is go for the rental places as soon as you arrive, they are open until 10 pm and you can rent everything together.
Big Bear Boulevard is one of the main streets in the city and the rental stores are there, just walk around and choose one, they are all pretty good.
To eat I highly recommend the Peppercorn Grille (http://www.peppercorngrille.com), the ambience is great, the food is delicious and the staff is friendly and kind. If you are able to make a reservation in advance it's a good idea, the restaurant is usually full, but if you can't no problem the waiting time is not that big.
The Northwoods Resort Hotel, great hotel with a good price, I had a problem in the check in that was solved quickly and the room is very pretty, for sure I recommend and I will stay with them again.
Now the snowboarding part,  if you are a beginner like me, try to arrive early in the mountain, and early is 8 am, it worths I promise, after 10 the line for the lift becomes bigger and there are a lot of people going down, so it's not that easy to learn...
Be aware if you are doing snowboard for the first time you will fall, there's no way, it will happen more than once... Something that I learnt from all my falls is that when you stop worrying with falling you start to snowboard better, I'm far from being a professional but I had a lot of fun, there is nothing like the feeling of disconnection that you have when you are snowboarding, highly recommend!!! You will discover on the next days that you have some muscles that you never knew that were there and they will hurt, but once again it worths.
This week I'm planning to go to Temecula, a wine city next to San Diego, If I really go I will post some tips and photos....
As I mentioned on the last post this blog will be about my experiences traveling around california and other places along the way, I would like to reinforce that I will give some reviews of the places I visited, the things that I did, the restaurants that I ate, this doesn't mean that they are the best possible in the places that I went but are the ones that I can spoke truly because I experienced.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Well, I decided to start this blog as a requirement of one of the classes that I'm having this quarter and after a long thinking process, I figure out that as an international student what else would be better and more pleasant for me than talk about trips, that is something that I love to do and share a little bit of the amazing places that I'm seeing... Later I will post about the last trip that I did for my first snowboard experience!