This ought to keep you busy in San Francisco:

http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/san-francisco---stu-dudleys-recommendations.cfm

Where to eat in Manhattan is discussed religiously and with a lot of knowledge on the website Chowhound (it has its own message board), and the people who post there most often respect all budgets. You can get some great tips there for eating and drinking.

For shopping, ask your partner to spend some time on the web looking at New York Magazine's shopping guides. They are not the bible, but it will help her focus on which neighborhoods are the right strike zone for the size of her budget as well as her clothes size.

sf7307,

I just clicked on your link. I was tempted to ask if you posted it as a joke. It's unreadable.

San Francisco is an enjoyable town, not a mind-numbing slog. Get a guidebook, and again, check Chowhound for eating recs.

Can you give us some idea of how much time you have for the entire trip. The cities you mentioned have lots to do and see - you can spend a week or two in each city and not see/do everything in those cities let along do/see anything in the "surrounding areas".

So if you are just planning to do 3 or 4 days in each city I doubt you'll have time to do anything outside the cities. Also, they are quite far apart (for example it's 3,000 from NYC to San Francisco ) so have you given any thought to how you will travel between each - plane, train, car? Obviously, flying between NYC and any of the west coast cities will save you lots of time but will entail pretty much a full day of travel. You can fly or drive between SF, LA, LV and the Grand Canyon but you are talking about 300 to 400 miles (5 to 7 hours drive time) between each of those locations or, of course, you can fly.

Either way, knowing how much time you have available will make it easier to help suggest possible itineraries.

As far as each city is concerned my best suggestion is do a google search for "Things to do in NAME OF CITY" (do a search for each city) - that will bring up the main points of interest for each city on your list. Review the lists and choose those that most interest you be they museums, historical points, activities, etc. Pick no more than two possibly three "things" for each day you are there that way you can fully appreciate each attraction. Don't try to cram too much into each day otherwise you risk having everything seem like a blur.

When we go on trips like this we normally plan our day so that we have between 4 and 6 hours of "sightseeing with the rest of the time set aside for leisurely meals and some relaxation and down time.

good luck and enjoy planning your trip.

It would really help to know several things:

What time of year - weather and prices will be completely different

What hotel budget are you looking at? - again prices differ by time - in NYC Jan/feb are the cheapest and Oct to Nov are probably double the cost - in LV the presence of a large congress will make a huge difference in prices (and although it's a desert, winter is cold - no swimming and probable snow at the Grand Canyon)

Sorry - there are months worth of things to do in and around NYC. If you want to go outside the city will depend a ot on time of year and what yuo want to do IN the city.

To do the SoL you have to go to the Park Service web site and reserve tickets for the ferry and the statue months in advance. Don't reco ESB - but do Top of the Rock intsead to avoid hours of waiting

If you tell us interests we can name a plethora of other must-dos

1st, consult your guidebooks.

Pizzo, that list is considered the "bible" among Fodorites visiting San Francisco. Don't knock it til you've tried it.

Stu Dudley is a great poster for San Francisco. His advice made our trips to San Francisco fresh and new, even though we'd been there multiple times before. Use it with a guidebook and map and you're golden.

hello guys

I'd like to say thank you for your replies so far

we will be staying in the US for 3 weeks,time of year will be October,as for how long we stay in each city all depends on what each city has to offer, we also understand that we are not going to see everything in each city over a short time,

we have looked on the internet and we have searched through the guide books,but as i said, we'd like to take on some of the not-so-touristy places of which we have no idea, hence my past

Again thanks guys