The USA Guides

The Complete Overview

USA Travel Guide

Everything you need to plan a trip to the United States — cities, national parks, road trips, itineraries, food, where to stay, things to do, and practical advice in one place.

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Welcome

Planning a trip to the USA

The United States is not a country you plan a single trip to — it is a destination you return to for decades and still feel you're scratching the surface. At 9.8 million square kilometres, it is the world's fourth-largest country by area, and its geographic variety is staggering: tropical beaches in Hawaii and Florida, Arctic wilderness in Alaska, high desert in the Southwest, temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains stretching 800 miles east from the Rockies, and 50+ major cities each with a distinct cultural identity. New York and New Orleans are both American but share almost nothing. The Grand Canyon and Acadia National Park are both in the national park system but look like different planets.

What makes the US particularly accessible for international visitors is the infrastructure: domestic flights are cheap and frequent, the interstate highway system makes road tripping genuinely practical, English removes the language barrier in a way that distinguishes the US from almost every other large travel destination, and the country's accommodation industry spans every price point from free camping in national forests to some of the finest luxury hotels on earth. The challenge is not logistics but decision-making — the US demands focus. A trip that tries to cover New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and Los Angeles in two weeks will be exhausting and unsatisfying; one that spends the same time in two or three regions delivers something real.

This guide covers the full USA from cities to wilderness. We have detailed city guides for every major destination, national park guides covering all 63 parks, road trip itineraries for both coasts and the interior, activity guides for everything from surfing in California to skiing in Colorado, food guides organised by city and regional cuisine tradition, and all the practical information you need to plan with confidence. If you're planning a first trip, start with the itineraries section for our recommended routes.

Where to go

Top US Cities

New York City is the only American city that truly requires no introduction — and still exceeds expectations on arrival. Manhattan's density, energy, and sheer concentration of world-class museums, restaurants, neighbourhoods, and street life is unmatched in the western hemisphere. Budget a minimum of four nights; a week is a better frame for a first visit. Beyond Manhattan, Brooklyn (especially Williamsburg, DUMBO, and Prospect Park), Queens (the most ethnically diverse urban area on earth, with Flushing's Chinese food rivalling Hong Kong and Jackson Heights for Indian cooking), and the Bronx (the birthplace of hip-hop, with the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden) each reward a half-day or more.

The second tier of American cities each offers a completely distinct version of the country. Chicago is the most architecturally significant city in the US — the inventor of the skyscraper, with a downtown where every other building is a landmark — and has a food scene that punches well above its tourist profile (deep-dish pizza is just the entry point; the restaurant scene in Logan Square and Fulton Market is world-class). New Orleans is sui generis — a Caribbean-inflected city of French Quarter balconies, second-line brass band parades, Creole and Cajun cooking, and an approach to public life (jazz in the streets, drinking on the sidewalk) that no other American city replicates. Los Angeles is a genuine world city once you understand it is a city of neighbourhoods rather than a downtown, and the Pacific Coast, Hollywood Hills, and extraordinary food scene across every cuisine justify a full week.

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America's best idea

National Parks

The United States National Park System — 63 national parks plus hundreds of monuments, recreation areas, and historic sites — was called "America's best idea" by writer Wallace Stegner, and the description holds up. The parks collectively protect 84 million acres of the most spectacular landscapes on the continent, and the annual America the Beautiful pass ($80, valid for 12 months, covers all entry fees for the pass holder plus passengers in the same vehicle) is one of the best values in all of travel. The five Utah parks — Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands — form the most concentrated collection of geological spectacle on earth and can be done in a 7–10 day road trip circuit from Las Vegas or Salt Lake City.

Planning for popular parks has changed dramatically. Yosemite, Glacier, Arches, Rocky Mountain, and the Grand Canyon now require advance reservations for parking and some hiking permits from May through September — failure to plan ahead can mean turning back at the entrance. The timed entry system exists because visitor numbers have roughly doubled since 2010, and genuinely damages the parks' fragile ecosystems when unmanaged. The payoff is that with a reservation you get landscape access that feels like wilderness even when thousands of others are visiting the same day. For crowd avoidance: weekdays over weekends, September–October over June–August, shoulder hours (first light or two hours before sunset) over midday. Our national park guides cover permit systems, trailhead logistics, and the specific hikes worth your limited time at each park.

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Open road

US Road Trips

Road tripping is the quintessential American travel form — the country's scale, driving culture, roadside infrastructure, and landscape variety were all built around it. The Pacific Coast Highway from the Oregon border to Malibu (or the full California route from Crescent City to San Diego) is the most scenic drive in the country: 2 lanes hugging cliffs above the Pacific, with Big Sur's Bixby Creek Bridge, McWay Falls, and Pfeiffer Beach as highlights. Allow at minimum 5 days for San Francisco to Los Angeles; 7–10 days for the full experience with overnight stops in Carmel, Big Sur, Cambria, and Santa Barbara.

Route 66 — 3,940 km from Chicago to Santa Monica — remains the most mythologised American road trip, and the most rewarding sections are in New Mexico and Arizona: Albuquerque's Old Town, the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Winslow, and the preserved 1950s motels in Tucumcari and Seligman. The Blue Ridge Parkway (469 miles, Virginia to North Carolina) is the most beautiful slow road in the eastern US — no trucks, no billboards, top speed 45 mph, and peak fall colour mid-October through early November is genuinely stunning. The Utah national parks circuit (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bryce Canyon, Zion) is best driven in 7–10 days from Salt Lake City or Las Vegas and represents the finest concentration of geological spectacle in North America.

Ready-made plans

USA Itineraries

Building a US itinerary requires honest geography. The country's most common planning mistake is underestimating distances — Los Angeles to New York is 4,500 km, roughly the same as London to Kabul. Flying saves time but loses the landscape. The most practical approach for most international visitors is to focus on one coast or region per trip: the East Coast (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and possibly New Orleans or the Smokies) or the West Coast (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Yosemite, Los Angeles, and possibly the Southwest). Trying to do both coasts in a single two-week trip means spending most of that time in airports or exhausted.

Our most requested itineraries: a classic 14-day East Coast circuit from Boston to Washington DC by Amtrak, with New York at the centre (4–5 nights); a 12-day California road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles via the Pacific Coast Highway; a 10-day Southwest circuit from Las Vegas covering the five Utah national parks and the Grand Canyon; a 7-day New York City deep-dive by neighbourhood; and a 12-day Deep South road trip through Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, Savannah, and Charleston. We also have themed itineraries: national parks only, music cities (Nashville, Memphis, Austin, New Orleans), ski resorts (Colorado, Utah, Vermont), and coastal New England in summer.

Activities

Things to Do in the USA

The US is exceptional for outdoor adventure at a scale unavailable in most of the world. Hiking in the national parks is the starting point — Angel's Landing in Zion (permits required, chains along exposed ridgeline), Half Dome in Yosemite (permit lottery, cables route open late May–October), the Enchantments in Washington's Cascades (overnight lottery), and Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon (near-impossible reservation lottery) represent the peaks of American hiking. For less competitive access: Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, Olympic National Park in Washington, and Great Sand Dunes in Colorado are world-class and far easier to visit. Rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (2–18 days, multiple operators) is one of the most extraordinary adventure travel experiences available anywhere.

Beyond wilderness: American music tourism rewards serious investment. New Orleans' Preservation Hall for traditional jazz (Monday–Thursday for the best shows), the Mississippi Blues Trail from Memphis to the Delta (Highway 61 through Clarksdale), Nashville's honky-tonks on Lower Broadway (free entry, live music all day every day), Austin's 6th Street during SXSW (March) or anytime. The US film and TV location tourism industry is vast — studio tours at Universal, Warner Bros., and Sony in Los Angeles; filming location tours in New York, Atlanta, and Albuquerque. Attending major American sporting events — an NFL game at a college-town stadium, a MLB game at Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, NBA at Madison Square Garden — is a cultural experience as much as a sporting one.

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Eat & Drink

Food & Drink in the USA

American food culture is almost universally underestimated outside the country. The US has world-class restaurant scenes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Charleston, and deeply interesting regional traditions that deserve the same serious treatment given to French or Japanese cuisine. The key to understanding American food is regionality — the US is not one food culture but dozens, shaped by geography, immigration patterns, and agricultural history.

The regional traditions worth knowing: Southern barbecue (Texas brisket smoked over oak for 14+ hours; Carolina pulled pork with vinegar slaw; Memphis dry-rubbed ribs), New Orleans Creole and Cajun cooking (gumbo with filé or okra thickener, crawfish étouffée, bread pudding with whiskey sauce, beignets at Café Du Monde), New England seafood (lobster rolls with drawn butter in Maine, clam chowder at the raw bar, fried clam strips in Ipswich), Pacific Northwest (salmon, Dungeness crab, Walla Walla onions, exceptional Willamette Valley Pinot Noir), and the taco and Mexican-American borderlands food of California and Texas (which represents arguably the most innovative food tradition in the country right now).

America's craft beer revolution — pioneered in the 1980s, now producing over 9,000 independent breweries — has transformed the country into one of the world's great beer destinations. Portland (Oregon) and San Diego are the capitals; Vermont, Colorado, and Michigan have exceptional regional scenes. The natural wine and cider movement in New York's Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley, California's Sonoma Coast, and Oregon's Willamette Valley is producing wines that compete seriously with Europe. American whiskey — Kentucky bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, rye from Maryland and Pennsylvania — deserves serious attention, with Louisville and Bardstown in Kentucky as the spiritual centre.

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Accommodation

Where to Stay in the USA

Accommodation in the US spans an extreme range by both price and type. At the basic end: roadside motels (particularly strong value in the Southwest and rural South, often $50–80 per night for a clean room with a pool), national park campgrounds (from free dispersed camping in national forests to $30–50 reservable sites in the parks themselves), and Airbnb (particularly competitive in secondary cities and rural areas). Mid-range: the US has the world's most developed branded hotel ecosystem — Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG — where loyalty points deliver significant value for frequent travellers and where consistent quality at $120–200 per night is predictable across the country.

The standout accommodation experiences: sleeping in a covered wagon or ranch cabin in Wyoming; a lodge inside a national park (the El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, the Ahwahnee at Yosemite, the Lake McDonald Lodge at Glacier — all historic and booking 6–13 months ahead for peak season); a historic inn in New England (the White Barn Inn in Kennebunk, Maine; the Woodstock Inn in Vermont); a boutique hotel in a converted warehouse in Brooklyn or the Pearl District in Portland. Hawaii and Alaska offer their own entirely different accommodation experiences — from Maui's Four Seasons to remote Alaska fly-in lodge packages. Our where-to-stay guides cover specific neighbourhood recommendations, boutique hotel picks, and the national park lodging systems in detail.

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Logistics

Practical Information

Travel insurance with medical coverage is the single most important practical consideration for visiting the US. American healthcare is the world's most expensive — a brief emergency room visit without insurance can cost $5,000–20,000+, and a hospitalisation can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most European travel insurance policies include adequate US medical coverage; check specifically that your policy covers the US and has a high enough cap (at least $500,000). Non-European travellers should purchase comprehensive travel insurance before entering the US regardless of the cost — a few dozen dollars of insurance against a potentially ruinous medical bill is a straightforward calculation.

Tipping is not optional in the US — it is the primary income for most service workers in restaurants, bars, hotels, and taxis, and withholding it without specific cause is considered rude. Standard rates: 18–20% at sit-down restaurants (now often suggested at card terminals, which makes it easy), $1–2 per drink at bars, $2–5 per bag for hotel bellhops, 15–20% for taxi and rideshare drivers. Uber and Lyft have in-app tipping; 10–15% is standard. Rideshare (Uber, Lyft) is universally available in cities and most suburban areas and is far more practical than street taxis in most cases.

Phone plans: most international visitors find that getting a US SIM card or eSIM is the most practical option. T-Mobile and Verizon have the best national coverage, including rural areas and national parks. Tourist SIMs with 15–50 GB of data run $20–50 for 2–4 weeks. Alternatively, major carriers sell international roaming packages that cover the US specifically. Wi-Fi is ubiquitous in hotels, cafes, and most public spaces, making minimal data packages workable for those staying urban. Our practical guides cover ESTA, driving licences, car hire insurance, and everything else needed for confident trip planning.

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Context

The USA: History and Culture in Brief

The United States as a political entity is 250 years old — younger than many European cathedrals — but the human history of the continent it occupies stretches back 15,000 years. The indigenous civilisations of North America — the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest, the Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley, the Iroquois Confederacy of the Northeast, the Plains nations — had developed complex societies, trade networks, and governance structures long before European contact. The Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, at their peak around 1100 CE, housed a city of 20,000 people larger than contemporary London. This pre-Columbian history is present throughout the country but too often invisible to visitors who focus exclusively on the post-1776 narrative.

European colonisation began seriously in the early 17th century — the English at Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620), the Dutch in New Amsterdam (now New York), the Spanish in Florida and the Southwest. The thirteen colonies' Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the subsequent Revolutionary War established the United States as the world's first modern democratic republic, built on Enlightenment principles that explicitly recognised rights while simultaneously enshrining the institution of slavery. This contradiction — a nation founded on the ideals of freedom that enslaved 4 million people — shaped everything that followed.

The Civil War (1861–1865), fought between the Union (North) and the Confederacy (eleven Southern states that seceded to preserve slavery), was the most costly war in American history with 620,000 military deaths. The war ended slavery but not racial inequality — the failure of Reconstruction (1865–1877) allowed the reimposition of systematic racial subjugation through Jim Crow laws, lynching, and disenfranchisement that would persist for another century. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s–1960s, led by figures including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Bayard Rustin, forced through the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965) through nonviolent direct action at enormous personal cost.

The 20th century saw the US emerge as the dominant global power — the decisive contributor to Allied victory in both World Wars, the architect of the post-war international order (the UN, IMF, World Bank, NATO), the Cold War adversary of the Soviet Union, and from the 1990s the world's unipolar superpower. American culture — its music (jazz, blues, rock and roll, hip-hop), its cinema (Hollywood), its literature, its technology (Silicon Valley), and its popular culture in forms from Coca-Cola to sneaker culture — has shaped global life in ways that make the US uniquely legible to visitors from anywhere in the world before they arrive.

Contemporary America is a country of productive contradictions on a scale that rewards genuine curiosity. The world's most powerful military democracy with a chronic democratic participation problem. The world's largest economy with the developed world's highest income inequality and child poverty rates. A culture that simultaneously invented mass entertainment and produced some of the world's greatest literary and musical traditions. Understanding even a little of this complexity — visiting the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC — transforms a trip from sightseeing into something more meaningful.

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From New York walking tours and Grand Canyon hikes to New Orleans jazz experiences and Yellowstone wildlife safaris — book ahead for the best availability.

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USA Travel FAQ

Do international visitors need a visa for the USA?
Citizens of 42 countries participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) — including the UK, EU countries, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea — and can visit for up to 90 days without a visa, but must obtain ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) approval online before boarding. ESTA costs $21 and is typically approved within minutes; apply at esta.cbp.dhs.gov (not third-party sites that charge more). Visitors from countries not in the VWP — including many in Latin America, Asia, and Africa — must apply for a B-2 tourist visa at a US Embassy, which can take weeks or months to process.
What is the best time to visit the USA?
The US is so large that there is no single "best time" — it depends entirely on where you're going. The Pacific Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) is year-round but drier and warmer May–October. New York and the Northeast are best in September–October (fall foliage) and April–June; winters are cold but Christmas through New Year has its own appeal. The American South is best October–April; summer is brutally hot and humid. National Parks: most are best in shoulder season (May–June and September–October) when crowds thin. Hawaii and Florida are year-round with a rainy season (June–September for Florida, Hawaii's windward coasts are wetter in winter).
How much does a trip to the USA cost?
The US offers a huge price range. Budget travel — hostels, diners, Greyhound buses — is possible at $60–80 per day in most cities, more in San Francisco, New York, and Hawaii. A comfortable mid-range trip — mid-range hotels, restaurant meals, occasional activities — runs $150–250 per day per person in most regions, $200–350 in New York and San Francisco. Driving is the most economical way to cover large distances; car hire plus petrol is almost always cheaper than flying when you factor in baggage fees. The biggest variables are accommodation (hugely location-dependent) and restaurants (New York fine dining vs. a taco truck in Austin are different worlds).
What are the USA's unmissable cities?
New York City is in a class of its own — allow at minimum four nights, ideally a week, to begin understanding its depth. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx each warrant exploration. San Francisco rewards three to four days for the neighbourhoods, the Bay, and day trips to the Wine Country and Point Reyes. New Orleans is unlike any other American city — a Caribbean-inflected culture of jazz, brass bands, Creole cuisine, and a French Quarter that is simultaneously tourist-friendly and genuinely local. Chicago is the most architecturally significant city in the country. New Orleans is unmissable for culture; Nashville for music; Charleston for historic beauty; Austin for food and live music. The Southwest — Sedona, Santa Fe, Tucson — offers a completely different America.
What are the best US national parks?
The Grand Canyon is obligatory — scale and colour that photographs cannot capture; the South Rim is accessible year-round, the North Rim is open May–October only. Yellowstone (Wyoming/Montana) is the world's most geothermally active national park — geysers, hot springs, bison herds, wolves. Yosemite's granite valley walls, El Capitan, and Bridalveil Fall are among the most spectacular landscapes in North America. Zion (Utah) offers slot canyons and angel's landing hikes. The Great Smoky Mountains are the most visited park in the system (no entry fee, easy access from the East Coast). Acadia in Maine rewards those who want rugged coast over desert. All popular parks require advance reservations for camping and some trailheads from May–September.
What are the best road trips in the USA?
The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, Highway 1) from San Francisco to Los Angeles — or ideally the full California coast from Crescent City to San Diego — is the definitive American road trip: cliffside ocean views, Big Sur, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Malibu. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles covers 3,940 km and is best done east-to-west in sections; the New Mexico and Arizona stretches (Albuquerque, Gallup, Flagstaff, Williams) are the most atmospheric. The Blue Ridge Parkway from Virginia to North Carolina (469 miles) is one of the most beautiful drives in the eastern US, particularly October for fall foliage. The Utah National Parks circuit (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion) covers 5 UNESCO-quality landscapes in 5–7 days.
What food defines the USA?
American food is intensely regional. Barbecue alone divides into at least four completely different traditions: Texas brisket (oak-smoked, beef-dominant, sauce optional), Kansas City ribs (wet-sauced pork), Carolina pulled pork (vinegar or mustard sauce, never tomato), and Memphis dry-rubbed ribs. New Orleans produced one of the world's great cuisine traditions: gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, beignets from Café Du Monde. New York's food scene competes with any city on earth. The Pacific Northwest specialises in salmon, Dungeness crab, and one of America's best wine and craft beer cultures. Street food: tacos in Los Angeles and Texas, lobster rolls in Maine and Boston, Chicago deep-dish pizza (a specific and divisive form), Philly cheesesteak, New York bagels and pizza.
How do I get around the USA?
For distances under 500 miles, driving is usually the most practical option — the interstate highway system is excellent, petrol is cheap by international standards, and car hire is well-priced. For distances over 500 miles, flying is faster and often cheaper than driving when you factor in accommodation. Amtrak operates long-distance trains, but they are slower and often less reliable than flying — the best Amtrak experiences are specific scenic routes (the California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco, the Coast Starlight from Seattle to LA) rather than point-to-point travel. Greyhound and FlixBus cover intercity bus routes at budget prices. Within cities, public transport ranges from excellent (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC) to nearly non-existent (Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston).
What are the USA's most underrated destinations?
Asheville in the North Carolina mountains is one of the most liveable and interesting small cities in America — craft beer, farm-to-table food, the Biltmore Estate, and the Blue Ridge Parkway on the doorstep. Savannah, Georgia, has the most beautiful city squares in America and a food scene that rivals Charleston at lower prices. Marfa, Texas — a tiny art town in the Big Bend desert where Donald Judd's minimalist sculpture installations live in permanent outdoor exhibition alongside a UFO diner and some of the best stargazing in North America — is genuinely unlike anywhere else. The Olympic Peninsula in Washington State has rainforest, Pacific beaches, and glacier-capped mountains within 100 miles of each other. Taos, New Mexico, has the finest adobe architecture in the country and a living Pueblo community that has been continuously inhabited for over 1,000 years.
Is the USA safe for tourists?
The US is safe for the vast majority of tourist experiences. The most visible safety concern — gun violence — affects specific urban areas and contexts that most tourists never encounter. Practical street safety in tourist-focused neighbourhoods of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and San Francisco is comparable to major European cities. Areas to avoid are well-documented and generally far from tourist attractions. The practical concerns most tourists encounter: healthcare costs (travel insurance with medical coverage is essential — a US hospital visit without insurance can cost tens of thousands of dollars); driving in unfamiliar urban traffic; and the social custom of tipping (15–20% at restaurants, bars, and taxis is standard and affects service workers' income significantly).