About The USA Guides

Between us, our contributors have made more than 60 trips across the United States — driving the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles, camping inside the Grand Canyon's North Rim, chasing fall foliage through Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, eating through New Orleans' Tremé neighbourhood, and crossing the country on Route 66. The USA Guides covers a country so large and varied that most travel guides default to a checklist; we go deeper on specifics instead.

Who writes this site

Our team covers the United States across three distinct areas of expertise:

• National Parks and western landscapes writer — has visited 47 of the 63 designated US national parks, with particular depth on the Grand Canyon (North Rim versus South Rim, inner canyon permits), Zion (Angel's Landing and The Narrows slot canyon logistics), and Yellowstone (geyser basin timing, wildlife corridors in Lamar Valley). Covers the Recreation.gov timed-entry reservation system, America the Beautiful annual passes, and bear canister requirements for backcountry camping.
• East Coast cities and culture researcher — has spent extended time across New York City's five boroughs, covering Brooklyn's Williamsburg and DUMBO neighbourhoods, the Lower East Side's food and music history, and Manhattan's museum mile from the Met to the Guggenheim. Also covers Boston's Freedom Trail, Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, and Washington D.C.'s free Smithsonian museums — first-hand experience navigating each city by subway, bus, and on foot.
• Southern food and road trip editor — has driven the Gulf Coast from Pensacola to Galveston, covered New Orleans' food scene from Central Grocery's muffulettas to the oyster bars on Magazine Street, and traced the Natchez Trace Parkway through Mississippi and Tennessee. Covers New England fall foliage timing by week and latitude, cross-country drive logistics on I-40 and I-80, and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

National Parks: what the permit system actually involves

The United States National Park Service manages 63 designated national parks plus hundreds of national monuments, recreation areas, and historic sites. Entry fees range from free (Great Smoky Mountains, which charges no fee) to $35 per vehicle (Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone). The America the Beautiful annual pass at $80 covers all fee-charging NPS sites for 12 months. Since 2020, several high-demand parks — including Arches, Glacier, and Rocky Mountain — have introduced timed-entry reservation systems through Recreation.gov; tickets sell out weeks in advance in peak summer months. Our national park guides document exactly which parks require advance reservations, which don't, and what the fallback options are when they sell out.

New Orleans: food, music, and neighbourhood reality

New Orleans' food culture is one of the most distinctive in the United States — a product of French, Spanish, West African, and Creole influences layered over three centuries. The French Quarter is the most visited neighbourhood but not the best place to eat: our coverage focuses on Tremé (the oldest African American neighbourhood in the country), the Marigny, and Mid-City's Bayou St. John area. For live music, Frenchmen Street in the Marigny offers more consistent quality than Bourbon Street's tourist bars. Our New Orleans guide covers crawfish season (roughly January through June), second line parade schedules, and the practical logistics of Jazz Fest, including which stages to prioritise and where to stay within walking distance.

Our editorial standards

Every article on The USA Guides is produced through a three-stage process:

• We visit in person. Our writers have driven cross-country on I-40 from Los Angeles to Wilmington, flown into regional airports including Asheville, Bozeman, and Montrose (the gateway to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison), and taken Amtrak's California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco.
• We verify against official sources: Brand USA (visittheusa.com) for destination promotion data and international visitor information; the National Park Service for entry fees, reservation windows, permit requirements, and seasonal closures across all 63 national parks; and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for climate data, severe weather seasonality, and hurricane season timing for Gulf and East Coast destinations.
• We update when conditions change. National Park reservation systems, entrance fees, and timed-entry policies have changed significantly since 2020. New England fall foliage peak dates vary by up to two weeks year to year. High-traffic practical articles are reviewed every six months and we note the year of any price reference.

How we keep the lights on

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you book a tour, hotel, or activity through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This keeps The USA Guides free, independent, and ad-free. We only link to services we would recommend regardless of any commission.

Read our full affiliate disclosure →

Get in touch

Found an error, or have a question we haven't answered? Contact us here — we read every message.