Non-USA residents: Where would you go in the USA?

In My Humble Opinion
21

The deserts are all different, too. There’s the “painted desert” in the southwest with astonishingly beautiful rock formations, and the achingly lovely desolation of places like Death Valley. The scrublands of Texas are awesome to behold because of their flatness. (The sky has never seemed so big or blue until you’ve seen the awe-inspiring sight of nothing in all four directions all the way up to the distant horizon.) In Arizona, you’ll see some Sahara-like dunes. (IIRC, one of these places is around Yuma.)
Some general advice about US travel:

If you want to see Hollywood-style “Old West” go to Bracketsville, Texas during tourist season. The set of John Wayne’s The Alamo still stands there, along with an “old west town” where a lot of movies and TV shows were filmed. They have shoot-outs in the streets, guys roaming around doing lasso tricks, an “old west saloon” with girls in garish costumes serving soda and various shows on the stage. As a kid, I thought it was a hell of a fun place to visit.

Avoid Orlando, Florida like the plague during summer. It’s fucking hot, incredibly humid and they have mosquitos the size of hummingbirds. In the winter, it can be a lovely climate, but I’ve been down there about half a dozen times in high summer and every time it was hell. (I’d imagine for a European, it would be even more miserable 'cause you guys ain’t used to it.)

If you want to see mountains, the Rockies are obviously the first choice, but don’t neglect the Smokies. Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a tourist-trap nightmare (though a European might get a kick out of seeing American kitsch at its zenith). Pigeon Forge is nearby, and a little less touristy, but still pretty bad. I always prefer to rent a cabin when I visit there to hide away from all of the noise and bustle and just enjoy the majesty of the mountains. (If you’re renting a cabin, be sure to search for one that’s isolated. Nothing’s worse than some of those cabins they cram together. It’s like you have the shrieking kids next door in your own cabin.) The best time to go, in my opinion, is spring (before May) and after September. Both of those times have better climate and it’s after the kids go back to school, so you won’t have lots of families clogging up the place. Spring is nice because you might get a late snowstorm, and fall is nice because of the changing leaves.

Spring is the best time to visit Washington , D.C., especially when the cherry blossoms are out. If you hit it right, you’re before the main tourist season, it’s beautiful, and the weather is nice. (Not too hot; a bit chilly in evening.)

I know it sounds dumb, but I didn’t expect **Hawaii **to be as hot as it was. For some reason, I always pictured it as a lovely 72 degrees. Instead, I discovered that Lahaina is aptly named. (“Merciless Sun”). Conversely, I froze my ass off in the mountain areas and had to buy a jacket.

Priceguy, Alaska is hot in the summer, unless you go up into the high mountains, of course. It gets hot enough to qualify as “miserable” in high summer, and the bugs are atrocious. If you go in late spring or fall, you’ll probably be there in a nice, temperate climate.

If you want to see Small Town America, go to Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. (Especially southern Ohio.) For the Southern version of Small Town America, visit rural Georgia or South Carolina. (But not in the summer! Too hot! Too hot!)

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Also New England, especially Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

23

The National Park Service says four.

This site lists the four in the link above, and goes on to list nearly two dozen other desert names and subdivisions.

And the obligatory Wikipedia link.

I spent my teen years and early adultery – erm, adulthood – in the Antelope Valley, which is on the western edge of the Mojave desert.

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Don’t forget the Desert of Maine.

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Georgia and Oregon will be at the top of my list because I know people there. Then there’s the Grand Canyon. New York. Washington. Etc. Far too many places to visit in a mere two weeks.

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Native Texan here, and I loves me some big blue Texas sky, but for a much more interesting Texas desert experience one should go to the Big Bend area, where the Chihuahuan Desert extends over a large area including Big Bend National Park. It’s a rugged place, but there are some beautiful sites, especially if you do a little hiking. Yes, there are mountains in Texas!

Here’s someone’s Big Bend photoblog that I googled up.

I’ve traveled much of the western half of the U.S., mostly with the family when I was young. My favorite place, hands down, is Yellowstone National Park. I’ve been there three times and the last time I went was amazing. The buffalo were all over, including the sidewalks around the Old Faithful area. The Old Faithful Lodge itself is a sight to behold. Deer and elk were plentiful throughout the park. We saw several moose, including a cow and her calf that ambled along the road in front of our car for several minutes before leaving the road to cross a stream. We even saw a river crowded with trout that were swimming upstream and leaping up small waterfalls. A very cool thing to watch from only a few feet away. And those cute little marmots were everywhere. (What can I say? I’m a sucker for wildlife viewing.) The night before our last day in the park, it snowed about a foot. In late June. Caught us a bit off-guard, but the place looked beautiful under a white blanket.

Oh yeah, and all the geysers and multicolored hot springs are pretty cool, too. :slight_smile:

Anyway, those are my recommendations for any visitors to the U.S. that like the great outdoors.

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I must be too predicatable - of the three possibilities listed in the second-last sentence of the OP, I’d love to sample two of them.

Believe it or not, I’ve only been to New York once, and at that only for a couple of days. In fact, it was for a conference so I had almost no chance to explore and enjoy. And, boy, I know there’s lots to find there - museums, galleries, shopping, shows, . . .

I’ve also been to the American Southwest before, but, again, only once and for far too short a time. Given another chance, I would head immediately for Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, etc. You get the idea.

So, let’s say I’d “rough it” for the first week in the desert southwest, and then book a room at the Waldorf Astoria (terrific location for a tourist like me) and have a blast in NY[sup]2[/sup]

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New York has a very special attraction to her, almost like a mythical place as I’m sure Paris, Vienna, Venice or whatever might have to an american. Also, everyone I know who has been there says they want to go back.

And another not-to-original thing I’d like to do is travel from coast to coast, to see as much as possible; it’s a huge country and one would like to experience the different landscapes and the wastness. Most Europeans have grown up with American movies, so one would expect a somewhat romantic, cineastic kind of experience.

I’ve studied the cultures of the native americans, and would probably try to visit historical places and museums too.

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Nope, no desert outside of New York. From what I remember of the movie, I believe they were supposed to have driven for several days until they reached the southwest.

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The city of New Orleans is one of my favorites (though I haven’t been since the hurricane, so I don’t know how it is now). The thing is you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy New Orleans. The sultry and humid air, the sense of decay, is part of the atmosphere. If you get there and grouse about the smell and mosquitos, and wander around Bourbon Street wondering why all these topless women are around, it’s probably not for you. And really, if you’re not going to party harder than is probably healthy, what’s the point of going?

31

SF Bay Area…
Is where I’m heading in 5 weeks time for a 2-week holiday so I guess I’d go there. I’ve already done the coast-to-coast drive from NY to LA so I’d like to spend the time relaxing in the same district. Redwoods, Anchor Steam, Napa Vally, Yosemite, Whale watching…