Hampton: Guida di viaggio, prezzi e alloggi gratuiti · 2026

EVEkaterina Vvedenskaiakatirina97 · 12 dic 2018Leggi

Three months without a paycheck, a cozy evening with Jimmy Fallon, a 40-minute walk to and from work every day, a wedding—yes, this is all part of Work and Travel USA. My introduction to the culture began with a wonderful week in a cozy house near Boston, where the parents of my then-future husband live. By the way, he studied at my university in Yaroslavl as an exchange student last year. Back then we hosted him, now he hosts me! In the best sense of the word, a typical American family warmly welcomed me and showed me ordinary "American" life. We had evenings on the porch with barbecue, kilogram-sized tubs of ice cream, grilled burgers, and iced coffee. A big house, two dogs—everything you could dream of. We walked around Boston and heard firsthand about the terrorist attack during the Boston Marathon a few years ago. Very soon, I left for work in New York State, on the most expensive land in America—the Hamptons. That’s where our adventures began. People there were so rich that for an hour and a half of help at one beach party for 15 people, we were paid $150 each. Kristina (the other girl in the program) and I arrived at our restaurant (the "Kitchen Nightmares" kind), although it seemed quite cute. They put us up on the second floor of the restaurant, which was a bit illegal, but they promised to move us to a staff house soon, where we ended up living with 5 Mexicans and a drug dealer, haha. But the most interesting part started later, when we didn't receive our SS Cards after two weeks of applying. We kept writing and writing, but they were constantly getting lost, either in transit or at the post office. Without them, we weren't paid our salary (. But then, as it turned out, there was another reason. The restaurant owner just didn't give anyone their money. I received my card at the end of July, Kristina on August 31st, a few hours before our departure. And you can imagine on which day we received our first and last paycheck! Around that same day—August 28th! We fought for that check as hard as we could, and in the end, we had to sue the owner! Only after that did we see the long-awaited check. To survive, we took another job at a super posh and huge hotel-restaurant, where you even had to breathe carefully. We walked about an hour to get there and the same amount back. We left at 6 AM, worked from 7 to 2, ran home, and then worked from 4 to 11 at our own restaurant. We also walked an hour to the store for food on weekends, and an hour back. It was something else! But we had to live on something. And at that same time, my boyfriend proposed, and we decided to get married while I was in the USA. He is from Boston, and we decided to hold the wedding at home with his relatives. Thanks to the fact that I had another job, I didn't worry about the wedding. August 21st, a priest, bridesmaids, his crying parents at the table—mine via Skype—everything went incredibly well, just as I had dreamed my whole life. At the end of the day, we left for our honeymoon in Maine, and the relatives surprised us by decorating our car—Just Married, flowers, tulle, and cans—it was all like in the movies, and we loved it. Oh yes, while working at our main restaurant, we sometimes closed on Mondays in June, and Jimmy Fallon would come by—a good friend of the restaurant manager. So, Kristina and I prepared a delicious dinner for the four of us, and we sat and chatted all evening. No one else around, just me, Kristina, the manager, and Jimmy Fallon. And he happened to be my idol, by the way! So the trip was definitely memorable! America turned out to be a country that is closer to my soul. As I say, "everything is for the people" there; everything is so convenient, comfortable, and safe. Very polite people, turning right on red—which I always dreamed of in Russia—all cars stop when an ambulance passes, and hospitals look like our airports. Of course, the myths that all Americans are stupid were debunked, haha—of course, I never thought that, but I con

LNLira Nikitinalirchik · 13 ott 2009Leggi

On one of those beautiful June days, our day off coincided (oh, happiness!) with the day off of our hotel manager, a lovely woman named Michelle, who immediately suggested we spend the day together and HAVE A LOT OF FUN! Naturally, we didn't think twice and agreed, and that's how we ended up at Canoble Lake Park, which is literally an hour's drive from Hampton Beach. You pay 25 bucks for an entrance ticket and ride as much as your heart desires! Students and schoolchildren also get additional discounts. The park is quite large, with about 80 diverse attractions for every taste; in addition, a separate complex of water rides has been built, which breaks all attendance records in terms of popularity, especially in hot weather. There are brand new rides, and there are very old, more frightening ones; for example, we rode on a mini-roller coaster that was built back in 1932! I admit it was scary, especially on sharp turns at high speed, when you can clearly hear the creaking of this whole SYSTEM... Brrr, but the ADRENALINE!!!! Woohoo!!! It'll blow your mind!))))))) Right there in the park, you can buy all sorts of souvenirs, just like in any other tourist-attractive place in the USA (Americans never miss an opportunity to earn extra money, I RESPECT THIS QUALITY in this truly commercially savvy nation; if there's one place where they know HOW TO MAKE MONEY, it's the USA!). Our whole group of girls, for example, "besieged" a hat shop and got ourselves some wonderful headwear! :) All in all, THE DAY WAS A SUCCESS!.. It's a pity, of course, that we didn't remember about sunscreen in the morning, because everyone without exception GOT SUNBURNED!:))) So be more cautious than we were when heading out to relax in sunny weather, especially for the whole day;).

LNLira Nikitinalirchik · 12 ott 2009Leggi

New Hampshire is a small state in the northeastern United States. Its unofficial nickname is the "Granite State," because the White Mountains are located in the north of the state, but I will talk about them in my next blog. For now, here is a stream of useful information: 1) If you delve into history, New Hampshire was the first state in the US to declare independence from Great Britain; 2) The official state motto is "Live free or die," so personal freedoms are highly valued here and the laws are as liberal as possible, just so people feel comfortable. For example, you can drive here from the age of 15 and wearing a seatbelt is not mandatory at all (don't think I consider this right, but as you know, Americans have their own point of view on everything, including freedom; unfortunately, I cannot provide statistics on traffic accidents). Freedom is also expressed in tax rates; New Hampshire is considered the state with the lowest taxes, and importantly, there is no sales tax here like in other states. That is, in a neighboring state, when you go to the checkout to pay and give the pre-calculated amount of money, you still have to pay a certain percentage of sales tax on that amount, but HERE IT IS LIKE AT HOME: if there are taxes, they are included in the price, so you don't have to worry about it. 3) The climate here is also almost like at home: it is moderately hot, so it is easy to get used to, and acclimatization happens quickly (if you are from the middle latitudes, of course). There are no natural disasters like tornadoes or anything else, only storms sometimes, and even then they are not strong, just for variety, so there is time to watch the AMAZING FURY OF THE OCEAN. By the way, the water in the ocean is unfortunately cold (it is a northern state after all), but people still swim, although it warms up more or less only by August... I have already been to the resort town of Hampton Beach in New Hampshire twice, located right on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. To be honest, my first impression was that the whole city, with its only two central streets, Ashworth Street and Ocean Blvd, just consists of hotels, motels, and private houses, which are also often rented out for the summer, so there are TONS of vacancies for housekeepers here! Moreover, salaries are from 7.25 to 10 dollars per hour, sometimes with free or paid housing, but also very good. Tips in HOTELS are decent; for example, in our hotel, it came out to 100-120 bucks a week per housekeeper, and we basically lived only on them without withdrawing money from our bank cards. Naturally, the industry of recreation, entertainment, and all kinds of fast and not-so-fast food is very developed, so everyone mainly works their second jobs there. As for me, I first worked my second job at a family entertainment center where moms and dads brought their cute kids to play and win toys, and the work gave me great pleasure, but they didn't pay very generously, so I went to work in the kitchen. It was harder there, of course, but the pay was appropriate. But now I know how to cook a lot of different American super-caloric junk. Basically, everyone gets a job here because in the height of the season, tourists come here to relax not only from all over the state but also from all the neighboring ones, from Boston, which is an hour's drive away; Canadian French people come, who for the most part speak English worse than us, by the way, and much more. Labor is needed everywhere: for owners of beachwear shops, souvenir shops, laundries, etc. ...But the point of the trip, of course, is not only in money or improving English, but also in excellent rest and travel! We started planning each of our days off a week in advance: we looked at tourist brochures in hotels, asked acquaintances, developed shopping routes, bought beach mats and tanning products, arranged for cars and a friendly company, charged our cameras, and waited, waited for IT - DAY OFF!!! You can find out how COOL we sp

LNLira Nikitinalirchik · 21 ott 2009Leggi

We had been planning this weekend for a long time—well, not just a weekend, but another one of our "weekend events"—but for several weeks in a row, our plans were ruined by the weather... There are various cruise tours available at Hampton Beach: 1. Pirate tour: a kind of costumed, mini-theatrical show on the water, if you can call it that ;D, with a route supposedly following old pirate haunts; 2. Fishing tour: tourists are given rods and taken to the best fishing spots, where the fish are, naturally, already specially fed; 3. Whale watch: you can head out into the open ocean and see REAL WHALES!!!!! We were interested in the last option. I don't know what you think of our idea, but just the thought of the upcoming sea trip and meeting W-H-A-L-E-S made me wild with excitement! :) And then the day arrived! Our weeks of waiting were rewarded with amazing weather. This put us in an even better mood. We bought tickets (they cost the same for all tours, about 30-40$) and boarded the ship. We were warned that the "trip" would last at least 4 hours, as we would need to sail to the whales' supposed feeding grounds, observe them, take plenty of photos, and still make it back before dark. It took about forty minutes to reach the "designated" spot. During that time, we enjoyed the fresh sea air, the beautiful view, and, of course, TOOK PHOTOS, and I dare say that every square centimeter of the boat ended up in a shot :))) ...When we were suddenly told we had arrived, all the passengers on the ship went into "readiness level 1" mode—meaning they jumped up and grabbed their cameras. But for the next half hour, only one whale appeared, and it turned out to be very shy and hurried to hide from us... Time passed, and the ship's captain, along with the guide, tried to spot whales in the area with binoculars to know "WHERE TO HEAD NEXT" :D. We were all starting to get bored when, suddenly and completely unexpectedly, just a meter from the side of the boat, 3(!) whales surfaced at once, swimming parallel to our ship as if on purpose and demonstratively (like they were working off a contract, someone joked :DDDD). All our expectations were met! These majestic animals are simply beautiful! They are striking in their size and fascinating in their grace! Soon the whales disappeared back into the sea depths, waving their huge tail fins in farewell, but another surprise awaited us... While we were watching the "wonder-fish" swim away, someone noticed that the whales were swimming "a bit too close to each other, as if pressed together." Our guide explained that two young males were courting a female. And then, right before our amazed eyes, one of them, trying to win her favor, began to demonstrate his strength: about 50 meters away from us, he breached halfway out of the water and began to zealously slap the surface with his massive tail! That was a SIGHT! IT TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY! We took a bunch of priceless shots, filmed videos, "killed" two digital cameras, and returned home happy and satisfied that we had lived another day in our lives exactly as we wanted! We WISH THE SAME FOR YOU! ...and as a P.S., I'd like to add: whales are not just 35-45 tons of living weight, but also just very beautiful animals!..