Continuing along Day 1 of our 3-Day San Francisco, Hearst Castle, Yosemite Tour!After the Travelers4Fun team wrapped up lunch in Solvang, CA, we were off to our next stop: Hearst Castle. Nestled atop a hill North of San Luis Obispo – about a two hour drive from Solvang – we arrived mid-afternoon. The Hearst Castle Tour is optional, and at $25 I would highly recommend it for anyone who loves art, history, architecture, or old Hollywood glamour. Many of the tapestries, paintings, sculptures, and mosaics are one-of-a-kind, and some pieces date all the way back to the 3rd century! A little history: Hearst Castle took just under three decades (28 years, to be exact) to complete. William Randolph Hearst worked closely with architect Julia Morgan to design a Spanish Revival-inspired estate. As a child, Hearst traveled through Europe with his mother, and inspiration from his tra   » Read More

A bright and early start on Day 2 of our San Francisco Tour gets us to San Francisco from our nearby Fremont Crowne Plaza Hotel by 7:30. We are dropped off near China Town for breakfast. It’s typical San Francisco Spring weather: gray, drizzly skies and temps in the mid-60s. My first mission is to find some caffeine, which isn’t too hard since there are several cute cafes nestled below the tall sky rises. We have 90 minutes for breakfast, so I spend my last hour wandering around the financial district, people watching and snapping photos of the amazing architecture and cool statues and art. Our first official sightseeing excursion of the day is Lombard Street – famous for its steepness and pinpoint curves. Those of us who are up for it are encouraged to hike to the top and take in the breathtaking views. Anna and I accept the challenge and are greeted at the top of the   » Read More

Day 1 of our 3-Day San Francisco, Hearst Castle, Yosemite Tour!<br/>The bus picked us up from LA, and then the Travelers4Fun Team was off! First stop: Solvang, a Danish village nestled about an hour north of Santa Barbara. A sunny spring day was a perfect backdrop for the colorful red, green, and yellow buildings and charming, wood-thatched wind mills. Once off the bus our tour group quickly dispersed, each of us following our noses toward a medley of delicious scents coming from all directions. From freshly-baked, authentic Danish pastries, to chocolates made on the premises, to home-made ice cream shops on every corner, Solvang was a sugar-lover’s dream. <br/><br/>I personally couldn’t resist Ingeborg’s Handmade Danish Chocolates, their display of giant chocolate Easter bunnies was too enticing to pass up. Two friendly chocolate-makers were kind enou   » Read More

Bryce Canyon: home of the hoodoos.  If you don’t know what hoodoos are, then you are in exactly the same boat as me a couple months ago.  Actually, before this trip I had never even heard of Bryce Canyon (let the gasps of silence ensue). It’s funny actually, because it became one of my favorite places during our West Coast trip.  It was truly spectacular: one of those sights of nature that you just have to sit down for a moment to take it all in. Hoodoos are giant rock formations eroded from time.  The native americans believed that the hoodoos were actually spirits trapped in rock form, and that’s why many are given names that personify their rock shapes. It always amazes me that the forces of nature can create landscapes that look more like works of art.  In Bryce Canyon, for example, the giant hoodoo rock formations seem like something   » Read More

Everyone dreams about the big city, the Big Apple, Manhattan, the “city that never sleeps”—New York City.  I’ve been to NYC many times, I went to school in New York and my mom lives in Manhattan, but with a city so bustling and full of things to do, it was definitely a different experience to see it on a Tours4Fun tour.  I saw so many things that I didn’t have the time to see before—or didn’t even know existed! The intrepid Air and Space Museum was one of these.  I would have never thought to go to this museum before, but I was so glad I got a chance to explore on my T4F trip.  It’s a pretty huge museum full of vintage planes and artifacts.  It almost felt like you were stepping back in time, in an old air hangar filled with war planes, fighter jets, and army helicopters.  It was a mix between Top Gu   » Read More