★★★★★ Rated 4.5 out of 5
Big cities, island ferries, desert canyons and some of the best road trips anywhere.
Here is where to go, region by region, from a family who keep going back.
The USA is so big that a trip to America can mean almost anything, from a city break in Boston to three weeks in a hire car up the Pacific coast. The trick is to pick one region and give it time.
Over the years, every one of our trips to the USA has been completely different. We have driven the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco with our teenagers over the Easter holidays, and spent two days in sea kayaks around the San Juan Islands looking for orcas (we did not see a single one). We renewed our vows Elvis style in Las Vegas with friends, then landed by helicopter in the Grand Canyon at dusk. In New England, we have chased the fall colours from Boston to Vermont and caught the ferry from Long Island to Connecticut in summer, and we have even turned a stopover in Houston and a layover in Dallas into mini holidays. The more we see, the more we think the USA is best done one region at a time.
In short: The USA is best explored one region at a time. For a first trip, the best places to visit in the US are New England, California and the Pacific Northwest, each of which makes a brilliant road trip, with Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Las Vegas for a city break. Give one region at least a week, because the distances are far bigger than the map suggests.
The USA is around 40 times the size of the UK, so the first decision is which region, not which city. Most of the places to visit in the USA are a flight apart, so pick one region and one route, then add a city at either end. This is how we would choose.
The eight regions of the USA below run from east to west, starting in New England and finishing in the Pacific Northwest. The regions we have not written about yet still get a short guide to what they are for, so you can decide whether they belong on your trip, and every region ends with the tours and experiences worth booking there. The Rocky Mountains, Alaska and Hawaii will join them once we have been.
New England is the north-eastern corner of the USA, made up of six states, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. It is one of the oldest parts of the country, so it is a region of colonial towns, revolutionary battlefields and white clapboard churches, with a rocky coast of lighthouses and lobster shacks and the forested hills of Vermont and New Hampshire inland. It is also compact by American standards, which makes it the easiest first road trip in the USA from the UK, with direct flights into Boston.
Summer is for the coast, beaches and ferries, and the fall colours usually peak from late September to mid October, when the whole region gets busy. We have done both, a five day leaf peeping loop in the fall and a week from Long Island to the Berkshires in summer.
Our New England fall road trip was a 5 day loop from Boston through Southern Maine, North Conway and the Mount Washington Auto Road in New Hampshire, and Stowe in Vermont, finishing with American Revolution history at Lexington and Concord. Peak foliage usually runs from late September to mid October.
A week is enough for a New England road trip from Long Island. Spend three nights on Long Island (the Hamptons and the North Fork), take the Orient Point ferry to New London, Connecticut, stop in Mystic, then spend two nights each in Newport, Rhode Island and the Berkshires, Massachusetts. Fly into JFK and home from Newark.
Massachusetts is where most New England trips start, because Boston has the flights. The city is the obvious base for the Freedom Trail, Salem and the battlefields of Lexington and Concord, all close enough for a day trip, while the Berkshires, in the green hills at the far western end of the state, are a world away from the coast.
Brownstones, the Freedom Trail and cannoli in the North End, with history on every corner.
Also in this guide: Salem in October · Lexington and Concord
Norman Rockwell, Edith Wharton and Tanglewood in the hills of western Massachusetts.
The most northerly of the New England states, and the one most visitors mean when they talk about lighthouses and lobster rolls. The southern coast, from the Yorks to Portland, is an easy drive north of Boston, with beach towns, clifftop walks and Portland Head Light along the way.
Nubble Light, the clifftop walk to Perkins Cove and Portland Head Light in a two day drive.
The two smallest New England states sit side by side on the coast between New York and Boston. Connecticut has harbour towns and maritime history, and Rhode Island has Newport, where the richest families of the Gilded Age built their summer mansions above the sea. Both are an easy stop on a road trip between the two cities.
A drawbridge, historic ships at the Mystic Seaport Museum and the pizzeria from the film.
Gilded Age mansions, the Cliff Walk and a sunset cruise around the harbour.
We booked our History and Hauntings walking tour of Salem through GetYourGuide, a good way into the city’s darker past before the crowds of October. In Newport, a Newport mansions ticket for one or two houses can be booked ahead too.
The Mid-Atlantic runs south from New York State through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland to Washington, DC. It holds the USA’s biggest city and its capital, plus Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and a long Atlantic coast of beach towns. Upstate New York is a different trip again, with the Hudson Valley, the Adirondack mountains and Niagara Falls on the Canadian border. The cities are well connected by train, so a city break here does not need a car, but the coast and the countryside do. We have only explored Long Island so far, on the first leg of our summer New England road trip.
Long Island stretches more than a hundred miles east of New York City, splitting into two forks at the far end. The South Fork is the Hamptons, with wide Atlantic beaches and pretty beach towns, and the North Fork is farm stands and wineries, with ferries linking the two and on across the Sound to Connecticut.
Hamptons beaches, beach towns, island ferries and North Fork wineries.
Also in this guide: Our Long Island to New England road trip
The South covers the states from Virginia and the Carolinas down to Florida and across to Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. It is the home of American music, from the jazz of New Orleans to country in Nashville and the blues and Elvis in Memphis, and of slow cooked barbecue and Southern hospitality. Charleston and Savannah are the classic historic cities, the Great Smoky Mountains are the most visited national park in the country, and Florida is a holiday of its own, with theme parks, beaches and the Everglades. Summers are hot and humid, and the hurricane season affects the coasts from June to November. We have not published a base guide for this region yet.
We have not booked anything in the South ourselves, so these are locally run experiences we have researched rather than tried, in two of the music cities most visitors come for.
The Midwest is the USA’s heartland, running from Ohio and Michigan across the Great Lakes to the wide open plains of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Chicago is the big draw, a city of skyscrapers and lakeside beaches where Route 66 begins, and Detroit, Minneapolis and Milwaukee are city breaks of their own. Further west, the Badlands and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota make a road trip of long, empty roads. It sees far fewer overseas visitors than the coasts, which is a big part of its appeal, and the winters are properly cold. We have not published a base guide for this region yet.
We have not booked anything in the Midwest ourselves, so these are locally run experiences we have researched rather than tried. In Chicago, a river cruise is the easiest way to see the architecture.
Texas is big enough to be a region of its own, the second largest state after Alaska and bigger than many European countries. It has cowboy culture, barbecue and Tex-Mex, the space programme in Houston and the history of Dallas, with the live music capital of Austin and the Alamo in San Antonio in between. It is also a major hub for flights, which is how we have got to know it, with a two night stopover in Houston on our way from the UK to Costa Rica and a seven hour layover in Dallas on the way home from a road trip. Both proved that a stopover can be a holiday in itself.
Space Center Houston, the Water Wall and the Rothko Chapel on a two night stopover.
Dealey Plaza, the Sixth Floor Museum and lunch downtown on a seven hour layover.
At Space Center Houston, we spent about three hours and joined a Mission Control tour. Space Center Houston admission tickets can be booked on GetYourGuide. In Dallas, the JFK assassination highlights walking tour around Dealey Plaza is on our list for next time.
The Southwest is desert country, covering Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. It is a region of big landscapes, from the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley to the national parks of southern Utah, with Las Vegas glittering in the middle of the Nevada desert and the adobe towns of Santa Fe and Taos further east. Distances are long and the summer heat is extreme, so spring and autumn are the most comfortable times for a road trip, and most visitors fly into Las Vegas or Phoenix. Our trip was a celebration, three days in Las Vegas with friends for a vow renewal, with a sunset helicopter flight into the Grand Canyon.
Nevada is mostly desert, and most visitors only see Las Vegas. The Strip is the show, but it also makes a good base for the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon, which is just across the state line in Arizona and an hour or so away by helicopter.
An Elvis vow renewal, the Bellagio fountains and the Neon Museum on three days with friends.
Over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead at sunset, with a champagne landing on the canyon floor.
We booked our sunset Wind Dancer flight directly with Maverick, but the same Grand Canyon helicopter landing tour with champagne is also on GetYourGuide. Our review of the flight covers what it is really like for a nervous flyer.
California is one of the USA’s most visited states, and it could easily fill a holiday on its own. Los Angeles and San Francisco are the two big cities, roughly 400 miles apart by road, with the Pacific Coast Highway running between them past Santa Barbara, Big Sur and Monterey. Inland are Yosemite and Sequoia, the Napa and Sonoma wine valleys and the deserts of Joshua Tree and Death Valley. Distances are big, so pick either the coast or the parks for a first trip. We spent ten days on the coast over the Easter holidays with our teenagers, driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco with stops in Pismo Beach, Big Sur, Monterey and Healdsburg.
Our ten day road trip up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Studio tours, Star Wars and bikes along the beach from Venice to Santa Monica.
Bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars and Alcatraz in three days.
In Los Angeles, we booked the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood and a celebrity homes open-air bus tour through GetYourGuide. In San Francisco, we cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito on the Golden Gate to Sausalito bike tour and caught the ferry from Pier 33 with an Alcatraz ticket and ferry.
The Pacific Northwest is the green, wet top left-hand corner of the USA, covering Washington and Oregon and running on into British Columbia in Canada. It is a region of mountains, rainforest and islands, with Mount Rainier and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, the dramatic coast and the city of Portland in Oregon, and orcas in the waters around the San Juan Islands. Seattle is the gateway, and the border with Canada is close enough to add Vancouver to the same trip. July and August usually have the best weather. We spent about three weeks here with our children, on a circular road trip from Seattle that crossed into Canada and back.
Washington State has Seattle on Puget Sound, with ferries out to the San Juan Islands in the north and the mountains of the Cascades and the Olympic Peninsula all within reach. It is the easy start to a Pacific Northwest road trip, and the San Juan Islands are the place for whale watching and kayaking.
Our circular route from Seattle to the San Juan Islands, Vancouver Island, Whistler and Vancouver.
Pike Place Market, MoPOP and a Mariners game with kids and teenagers.
Friday Harbor, the Whale Museum and alpacas, with kayaks on the beach.
Also in this guide: Two days kayaking for orcas
Our two day sea kayak trip was booked directly with the operator. If you would rather a shorter paddle, the Lime Kiln kayak tour from Friday Harbor is on our list for next time, and in Seattle, the guided underground walking tour is the one we would add.
It depends on the region, but for most of the country, spring (April and May) and autumn (September and October) bring the most comfortable weather and fewer crowds. New England is at its best in summer and for the fall colours, which usually peak from late September to mid October. The Pacific Northwest is best in July and August, and the Southwest is easiest in spring and autumn, as the summer desert heat is extreme. The hurricane season affects Florida, the Gulf Coast and the South Atlantic coast from June to November. We drove the Pacific Coast Highway over the Easter holidays, which is a good time for the coast.
Most UK passport holders visiting the USA for a holiday of up to 90 days travel under the Visa Waiver Program, which means applying for an ESTA before you fly. Apply only through the official US government ESTA website or the official app, as third party sites charge extra to fill in the same form. Entry rules can change, so check the GOV.UK travel advice for the USA before you book.
There is no single official list, but the USA is usually divided into the Northeast, the South, the Midwest and the West, and travellers often break those down further. We use eight regions on this page, New England, New York and the Mid-Atlantic, the South, the Midwest, Texas, the Southwest, California and the Pacific Northwest, with the Rocky Mountains, Alaska and Hawaii still to come.
At least a week for one region, and ten days to two weeks for a road trip such as the Pacific Coast Highway or a loop around New England. Our circular Pacific Northwest road trip took about three weeks, including the Canadian leg. Flying between regions eats into the time, so it is better to see one region properly than to try to cover the whole country.
For a first USA road trip, we would choose New England or the Pacific Coast Highway. New England is compact and easy to drive from Boston, and our five day fall loop fits a lot into a short trip. The Pacific Coast Highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco has some of the most spectacular coastal driving in the world, with two great cities at either end.
Easier than you might expect. Traffic drives on the right, roads are wide and well signed, and most hire cars are automatic. Turning right on a red light is allowed in most states after stopping, unless a sign says otherwise, and at four way stop junctions the first to arrive goes first. Never pass a school bus with its red lights flashing. Rules and speed limits vary from state to state, so check them for the states you are driving in, and carry your UK driving licence.
Tipping is expected, and it makes up a large part of many workers’ pay. Around 15 to 20 per cent is usual in restaurants and bars, a small tip per bag for hotel porters and a little for housekeeping, and around 15 to 20 per cent for taxis and tour guides. Check the bill first, as some restaurants add a service charge for larger groups.
The USA uses type A and B plugs, with two flat pins, at 120 volts. UK visitors need an adaptor. Most phone, tablet and laptop chargers work at that voltage, but check hairdryers and straighteners, which may be 230 volt only.
The USA has several time zones. For most of the year, the UK is five hours ahead of New York and Boston, six hours ahead of Texas, and eight hours ahead of Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle. The UK and the USA change their clocks on different weekends, so for a couple of weeks in spring and autumn the gap shifts by an hour. Check the exact difference for your dates.
British Columbia, the Alberta Badlands and the wide open prairies of Saskatchewan.
A road trip of volcanoes, cloud forest and wildlife, from the Pacific coast to the Caribbean.
