I had an 2 day academic meeting at Santa Fe, New Mexico, but I planned my travel in such a way so that I explored 4 states of USA in 5 days and had a round of the globe.
Day 1 : New York
Traveling from New Delhi I reached JFK airport New York at around 8 am in the morning. I took a cab to my hostel which was in Long Island City. Long Island city is better to book your accommodation because of several reasons, first, its cheaper than Manhattan and just one subway station away from it. Second, it is closer to the domestic airport of New York which is LaGuardia from where I had to take another flight in the next early morning. My hostel was very close to subway station which is a very important thing to consider if you want to explore New York, otherwise taxis are very costly.
As, most of the hotel/hostel check-in time is 3 pm, I kept my luggage in the hostel reception and took subway ride (costs $3 for one ride) towards World Trade Center at around 11 am. I dropped down at World Trade, explored World Trade Center Museum, walked down to Wall Street and Brooklyn Bridge. If you have more than one day, one can go to Statue of liberty by taking a Ferry.
While returning, I got down at 5th Avenue. It was evening time, so good to explore Times Square, Empire State building and 5th Avenue shopping. These all locations must be done by walking.
At around 11 pm, i cam back to my hostel and left in early morning for the LGA airport which is just 15 mins away from Long Island City.
Day 2: Oklahoma City
I met a friend.
Day 3: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Beautiful city but it closes early in the evening. I got to see snow over there.
Day 4: Los Angeles
I took a long layover (12 hour) to explore Los Angeles without staying there. I kept my bag with laxluggagestore. They can pick your luggage from the airport and drop it when you come back that made my travel very convenient. From LAX airport, I took the Flyaway bus towards Union station (around $10) . You will get LAX red line metro at the union station which goes till North Hollywood. One ride costs just $1.75. I explored Hollywood village, Universal Studio. Then I took return metro till Highland station. From there, one can walk on the "walk of fame", eat something and go to the metro station Vine street. By this time, it was almost 4 pm. From Vine street, I took red line metro and got down at 34th street where I changed to blue line metro which goes till Santa Monica. You also need a transfer ticket for this.
The blue line metro mostly goes on the road and though the journey is long enough (1 to 1.5 hour), you can see the city at least. By evening, I reached Santa Monica Pier and watched sunset at the pacific ocean. This was something worth watching. One can also explore other beaches nearby like Venice beach by walking.
I returned to LAX airport by 9 pm as my flight was at 11.30 pm to New Delhi.