A question for all the Americans:?

Question

I have been saving up for some time now with the intention of visiting the USA. I am planning to stay for several months and want to travel as widely as possible. Of course, I will attempt to see all the tourist attractions, but outside of the main cities and states, what would you recommend? I am looking for places that one would not expect to find in a guidebook, but are nevertheless interesting, tolerent of foreigners, and offer something unique, memorable and positive.

Answer 1

One thing I would definitely recommend is a drive up the west coast of California on highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). It's a beautiful drive that takes you through the big coastal cities and lots of smaller towns and open areas. The drive through Big Sur is really beautiful. Yosemite National Park is also a must see, an amazing place. The old gold rush area is fun to drive through as well, along highway 49. Placerville was nice, as was Angel's Camp, and several of the other little towns along the highway. If you're in Los Angeles, make sure you check out the Griffith Park Observatory, the Getty Center, and Pink's hot dogs, an iconic LA landmark with great food. Outside of California, Crater Lake in Oregon was awesome, a giant lake in the caldera of a volcano. And one of my favorite national parks, the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in Arizona, east of the Grand Canyon. Sort of in the middle of nowhere, but so beautiful. There is a road that goes all the way through the park which you can drive in a couple of hours, even stopping at every view point on the map, but I wish we had had more time when I was there. The Hoover Damn on the Arizona/Nevada border is pretty amazing as well. There is a tour of the inside that was pretty nice, though not as long and detailed as I would have liked. Driving along the remaining parts of old Route 66 is lots of fun as well. You get to see a lot more of the natural landscape than on the newer highways, and even though it makes the trip longer, it's definitely worth it. A really good map is a necessity, and one that is up to date. Have an awesome time!

Answer 2

Wiscosin and Minnesota are two great suggestions already made. Minnesota is the land of ten thousand lakes and a billion mosquitos. Fishing and boating activities (water skiing) are a big activities there. Northern Minnesota has a ton of cabin rentals on lakes. Great places to rest and enjoy nature.
Way up North in Minnesota along the Canadian border there is an area called the Boundary Waters. Its a popular place to do long canoe trips. For a nice one day short canoe trip try the Upper Iowa River near Bluffton and Decorah, Iowa. The scerenry on the river by Bluffton is gorgeous.

The Ozark Mountians is Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas are beautiful too. Branson, Missouri has a lot of Music shows that are regular events during tourist season. They also have a Passion play production.

I would suggest driving across the country. The landscape varies so greatly. Pennsylvania has beautiful mountains and rolling hills, so does Up-State New York.

I would hit the Bad lands of South Dakota.. beautiful. Then South Dakota's Black Hills. There is and old train from the 1880's that takes runs out of Keystone, South Dakota into the Black Hills. In the same area are Mt, Rushmore, Custer National Park (herds of Buffalo), a number of crystal caves, a gold mine tour (at Deadwood), a large fossil dig (Hot Springs), an Airforce Museum (Box Elder), and horse back riding . The winding road going South from Mt. Rushmore to me is more fun than Mt. Rushmore. If you go the first or second week of August the place is crowded because of a motorcylce rally in Sturgis. But if you want to see a uniquely American phenomona ,go during the rally. There are thousands and thousands of motorcyles and riders at the week long event.


Drive through Wyoming, it has a beautiful desolation, awesome views, and miles of nothing... that's hard to find these days. Yellowstone is in th NW corner of the state. Then I'd visit Montana, again lots of beautiful scenery. These states are cowboy and oil territory. Many places are more populated with Antelope and Deer than people. There are some 'dude' ranches scathered through out this area. They host people to come spend a week at the ranch, not a luxury destination, but aimed at providing a real taste of ranch life.

Also, there is camping allowed on the Public lands and national forests. Inquire locally for places and rules. Tons of great hiking. My favorite hike places there were the Bear Lodge Mountains by Sundance, WY and the Big Horns by Buffalo and Sheridan, WY. Neither are foriegn hot spots, epecially the Sundance Area. Near Sundandce is Beulah, WY with a neat little camp ground and a cold water steam that is great for tubing down. Near Sundance also is the Vore Buffalo Jump, a mostly undeveloped archeological site were Indians would run buffalo over a cliff.

There is a very little visited part of Custer National Forest near Ekalaka, Montana. The local museum in the population 300 town has a locally found whole dinosaur skeleton. There is or at least was a small motel in town. It's huge ranch country. It is very sparely populated.

The mountains of Colorado are a must see. Take highway 141 South of Grand Junction to US highway 491. It winds through a gorgeous canyon. Not much traffic. Take food and start with a full tank of gas. Places to stop are sparse. On the South end is Mesa Verdi National Park, a site of old Indian cliff dwellings. Beautiful panoramic views too.

Note, when travelling out in the Western states never assume a dot on the map will have either gas or food. Check the population on the map index. Make sure it has enough people to support a business. Many named spots are not anything more than a crossroads where there once was a store or something, which is now long gone.

I would also visit the Big Island of Hawaii. It has an active volcano that has been errupting, spewing out lava, for about twenty years. While there go to a Luau. There is great snorkling on coral reefs and parasailing, in the winter whale watching. Visit the old lava tubes, fascinating. Add in a mix of Islander culture and cuisine and you've got a mix.

Answer 3

OK, great question

first: New York is not the whole USA, just as all UK is not like London, etc

Chicago is a nice microcosm of the whole US with its different neighborhoods, etc. It is a beautiful city especially the lakefront, museums, etc

If I had only one place to visit i wold recommend Californai though because there are wonderful cities, but also glorious nature areas, mountains, and coastline

I hate to be negative, but i would skip Florida unless you have a special reason to visit there. I was born in Florida and I like it, but it gets a lot of foreign visits especially Orlando, and that area is really not like anywhere in the real USA

if you want the "real America" that most foreign tourists totally skip I might recommend Wisconsin and/or Michigan, both are beautiful states with many scenic things and nothing that is really "super famous" around the world to draw tourists; both are popular tourist destinations for Americans from around the Midwest though

if you are travelling in summer, watch the weather as much of the south is brutally hot in the summer

Answer 4

If you decide to see Niagara Falls, also look into going through the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY [roughly south of and between the Rochester and Syracuse areas]. The less-developed lakes, particularly Keuka and Seneca, are especially beautiful. There are lots of wineries, beautiful gorges, and friendly small towns. If you do a search on "Finger Lakes", I'm sure you'll find lots of information.

California, especially the coast between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, is beautiful and SF is a wonderful city. The Oregon coast is also pretty.

Hate to say it, having grown up in the Midwest, but there isn't a lot to interest a "tourist" between Chicago and the Rocky Mountains, in my opinion. But you should try to go a couple of National Parks, e.g. Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon.

The Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia are also beautiful.

Don't know where you're coming from, but the U.S. is much larger than some people expect, so take that into account. We once ran into some people from Germany, while we were on vacation in California, who said they were going to visit New York City and wanted to take a couple of hours to drive to Niagara Falls. They were quite surprised when we told them how far that actually is!

Hope you have a great trip.

Answer 5

I live in Wisconsin and the scenery is beautiful. It's really cold around December, January and February, though. You could go to THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK. It is near Wisconsin Dells. Visit www.thehouseontherock.com. It is unlike anything else! Also, if you're into aviation, there is a huge airshow in July called EAA. It's in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. People from all over the world fly there and that's also pretty cool. You get to see all sorts of different airplanes and stuff. Check out: www.eaa.org

Have fun on your visit. There really is SO much to see in this country!

Answer 6

maximum White human beings are organic eu descent, yet i'd say as a lot as a million/3 have some small lines of close by American or maybe African ancestry. Even in those cases the close by American ancestry is variety of one million/16 or a lot less and extremely distant. the common American White is a mixture of multiple eu nationalities jointly with English, German, Irish and Italian. the reason American Whites seem diverse from eu Whites is because American Whites are in a lot of cases a mixture of diverse eu nationalities.

Answer 7

Sundance Travel Decorah Iowa

Answer 8

Black water falls in West Virginia, USA