Question: visit Solvang or Blade??

If you happen to be a smoker, then you should probably bag your Waverly reservation and grab a room across the steet in the Sheraton. Once you get into the area around the convention hall, everything can be accessed on foot. There is a pedestrian bridge going over to the mall and the Sheraton and even more shopping up the road from the Galleria. Not only will you get to see more knives that you thought existed, but you can also spend some of your hard earned Euros on stuff that is even cheaper in our regular department or big box stores that it is at the outlet malls or hypemarts in Europe. And don't listen to all of these guys trying to convince you that Altanta is some podunk truck stop of a town. Yeah, it may not be as big as New York or LA, but it is a rather affluent burg of 5 million people and still the fastest growing city of its size in the USA, so they must be doing something right.:D The only bad news is that Smyrna is not on the MARTA line comng from the airport.
 
Thanks guys that's really useful information. I'm a non smoker so I can stay in the Waverly (aren't all hotels in the US non smoking:D;)). Yes I will spend my hard earned Euro's (isn't life great with these exchange rates;):cool:) but mostly on knives knives knives.:thumbup::D

Marcel
 
Oh, I should add that if you don't want to go the airport shuttle route and rather choose between taxi or rent a car, I say rent a car. 4 years ago when I went for the first time and didn't know my way around, I took a taxi and the fare came to more than $50 (not including tip) from the airport to the hotel because of the distance, and that was through smooth non-congested traffic. It took about 20-30 minutes. Round trip in a taxi these days likely would be more than $120, not including tip. I think that would be more expensive than a car rental for 4 days.
 
US hotels are smoking or non smoking in the guest rooms on a chain by chain and state by state basis.....and sometimes on an individual location basis depending on the owner of the franchise. Marriot, which runs the Waverly, is non-smoking chain wide, as it the company that owns Holiday Inn. Starwood (Sheraton, etc.) and Hilton are not, but some individual hotels are. As for a rental car, you can get a compact like a Ford Focus for $28 (19 euros more or less) per day plus the normal fees from Hertz that weekend and gas is going to be less than half of what you are used to paying in France.....maybe closer to 40%. $3 per gallon rounds out to about half a euro per liter. Last itme I was in France, I was paying a minimum of 1.15 euros per liter (roughty $7 per gallon) for cheap diesel, which is less than unleaded gas over there, and was happy to find it for that cheap...lol. Decent restaraunt food will probably be about the same or maybe a bit less because, unlike Paris, our cheap places don't have to be that good in order to survive...lol. My advice......buy a bunch of electronics like IPods because you will pay about 65% of what you are used to paying. When folks come to central Flrodia form the EU, some of them go to the outlet malls in Orlando before they ever set foot in any of the theme parks.:D If you want to buy any American liquor like single barrel bourbon, buy it in a big liquor store and pack it in your checked luggage. The duty free stores over here don't give you a huge break and their selcetion is, IMHO, not even as good as the Galleries Lafayette when it comes to high end American booze. You will pay about half of what you would in France.
 
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