Is it hard to find parking in USA?

Question

I'm going to travel there with my family of total 4 people. There'll be San Francisco, LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, St.Louis.
1. Is it hard to find parking space in these cities?
2. In some cities the hotels with free parking spaces are about 20-40$ more expensive per room per night. Should I choose the expensive one with free parking space or should I choose the cheap one and find some place to park and pay?
3.I heard it's hard to drive in Chicago than many other cities because there're less direction signs. Is it true?

Answer 1

Don't know enough about Chicago and St. Louis but am famililar with the other cities.

For San Francisco, parking downtown in hotels is outrageously expensive and finding parking on the street, while not impossible, is quite a task. Parking is complicated by the difficulty of locating a space, and then by the fact that so many streets are steep, so you have to deal with car rolling forward and backward while trying to back into a space. Unless you have your heart set on staying in a downtown San Francisco hotel you might want to consider getting a hotel near a BART (public transit) station, and then riding BART and public transit (streetcars, buses, BART, cabs) to make your way around town. I'm flying in San Francisco in a few months and will be staying in Union Square area and won't bother renting a car...will just use public transit and save the hassle and expense.

Don't know if you ever saw an old TV show called Streets of San FRancisco with Karl Malden and a very young Michael Douglas. We'd always get a laugh that in every scene where they drive their detective car to do some crime-solving, a parking spot is always available on the street right next to the front door. I M P O S S I B L E!!!

Los Angeles is a city geared very much to the car. I drive there often and parking is rarely difficult. Often you'll have to pay a small reasonable fee to park in a lot downtown but you will probably not be spending much time downtown. Certain areas are harder than others (Venice and Santa Monica come to mind) but if you don't mind parking and walking a few blocks to your destination you'll be fine.

In Las Vegas strip area most casinos have huge parking lots and you can park in them indefinitely and walk to where you want to go. Outside the strip area, it's pretty car friendly.

Answer 2

There are far worse countries to live in, maybe you should do a little research and see how some other cultures have it, then you may appreciate home a little more. And really the issue is that life in general is hard, its not about where you live. Anywhere there is going to be bills and people who stress you out and no matter where you are you will have to support yourself and therefore have a job, you will need a roof over your head...etc no matter where you are geographically there will still be some of the basic problems (or shall I say RESPONSIBILITIES) that you face here. Just be lucky you live in America where solutions and resources are a little easier to come by then in some places.

Answer 3

I can only answer for Chicago
1. It depends upon where! This is a large country and you are talking about our largest cities.
2. pay for parking
3. wrong. Get some maps. Profesional maps, not Mapquest.

Answer 4

yes ,you make it ............