Travelling to the US? Check if you need an ESTA

My friend was headed to the US on a business trip via Vancouver.  Having been planning my own US road trip I mentioned the word ESTA to him....  His response, Esther?  Who?

Well here's the thing... if you are travelling to the US under the Visa Waiver Programme (VWP) YOU REQUIRE AN ESTA!

Luckily most applications get a response immediately so you don't have to panic.

Check here to see if your country requires you to have one:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#countries

Here is the form for your ESTA:
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

To complete the online form, have all your family's passports (children require ESTA), wallet and travel details e.g. Flight Number, Address on Arrival

An ESTA will cost approx USD $14 and you can pay by Credit Card.

For further questions, check out this useful site:

http://www.essentialtravel.co.uk/magazine/q-and-a/esta.asp

US Road Trip Review: Vancouver to San Francisco

Last summer we embarked on an amazing 2 week road trip from Vancouver to Silicon Valley, California.  We were visiting friends in Silicon Valley (just outside San Francisco) and knew that would be our last stop.  Having done southern California the year before and much of Northern California in a previous life sans kids, I decided to find a map and conjure up a route

VANCOUVER - SEATTLE - PORTLAND - CANNON BEACH - NEWPORT - BANDON - SAN FRANCISCO - MOUNTAINVIEW

We were traveling with our daughter, who was just over 2 and I was about 5 months pregnant:

ADVANCE PLANNING - MAKE YOUR TRIP EASIER

• I booked 90% of the hotels in advance, direct on their website to obtain cancellable bookings
• Put together my geeky travel spreadsheet detailing accommodation, driving distance, hotel, activities, restaurants (a big driver for our US food trips is my husband's obsession with Man Vs Food and the need to eat at all his restaurants)
• Cathay to Vancouver (hubby flew back to HK from San Fran and I flew on with daughter with BA to London)
• Booked hire car and confirmed child car seat *make sure you have valid drivers licence for US
• Obtained the US ESTA (visa waiver) for the family https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

It was an incredible trip and I will write my reviews of the cities in a separate post