Some Europeans don’t realize how big the US is. England is about the size of my home state, NC and we are not a big state.
The whole point about seeing the “real” wherever is that most people don’t do it. Now, that might be because they don’t know any better, but it’s much more likely that it’s because it sucks, whatever it is.
Any country or region which makes money on tourism will be quick to promote whatever it is that it has to offer that people don’t know about. If it’s not in the guidebook, it’s because it’s boring.
Spent much time in much of the rest of the world, have you? I’m going with no. The national park may be a uniquely American idea*, but the concept that nature ought to be protected is not.
*although it really isn’t; it just more or less happened here first.
My girlfriend is Indian, and although she has been in the US for over a decade, she hadn’t been anywhere other than the west coast (4hrs or so north or south of the bay area) and a brief weekend trip to Chicago.
We recently drove a little over two thousand miles from SF to LA, then across 40 (the old Route 66) up my mom’s farm in the country in the Ozark hills.
Then from there up to Des Moines, then back to Kansas City to catch a plane back to the bay area.
The best part were the exits on small towns, the old abandoned gas stations and auto malls, the decaying bits of old Route 66 that began to disintegrate when the freeway moved about 100 yards north or south.
I would have liked to show her Highway 61 from Lousiana up to Illinois- I like that drive better, but we weren’t going that way.
Road trips are the best thing about America, IMHO.
This is vastly overstating the case. There is nothing ‘uniquely’ American about this concept, although Yellowstone does appear to have been the first statutory national park (swiftly followed by one in Australia, by the way). However, the idea that ‘practically all of Europe subdued their natural areas long ago’ is nonsense, and why confine yourself to the US and Europe? There are half a dozen national parks and a heap of other protected areas in Australia, for a kick off - and we can pretty much guarantee they are virgin land.
As for the OP - I’ve got very little interest in the big US cities. I wouldn’t turn down a trip, obviously, and I’ve always been delighted by any opportunity I’ve had to visit, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to plan a visit to a big city. I want mountains and plains and miles of open space. I’m not sure that’s about seeing the real America though - I don’t think that’s any more or less real than somewhere like New York. It’s just my personal preference for space rather than people. I spent a week in Palo Alto - does that count as real America?
Maybe it’s the familiarity we get from films and tv again. If I want to get an idea of how ‘real’ Spanish people live, I’d pretty much have to go and spend some time there. However, if I want to get an idea of how ‘real’ American people live, there’s a sense that all I have to do is switch on the tv! I know this isn’t truly real any more than watching an episode of Coronation Street is going to tell you how I grew up (although if you watch The Royle Family you could probably get it 
). But, we see so much US tv it’s easy to assume a familiarity with US life that I probably don’t have in actuality.
I met a girl who came here from India. She said she was surprised there were so many poor people in the US, mostly because they don’t show up much on American TV or movies.
My brother worked in Sweden for a while and he said over there everyone he met seemed to think everybody in the US lived at or near the beach like in all the TV shows based in CA.
Well, it depends. Personally, I like discovering whatever the local “thing” is. Many small towns have just one or two things that they “do” which distinguish them–but if you’re open to those things, you can experience them at a small-town level in a way that you can’t anywhere else. For example, in my own small town (like a few other towns in southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee, northwest North Carolina), music is big. We have bluegrass and old-time string band dance concerts and jam sessions, and various other events. If you’re really not open to our kind of music, you might feel there’s nothing to do here. If you are, well, you can get something here that you can’t get in Chicago or Paris. (I’m speaking of the totality of the experience, not just the sonic element. Such music may occasionally be heard in great world cities, but it’s not the same thing.)
There are countless worthwhile destinations in America that don’t approach that size. Besides, even if a place is accessible by Interstate highway, if you don’t know to get off at this or that exit, you’ll burn on by and miss the whole thing. In Virginia and east Tennessee, for example, I-81 roughly parallels the Lee Highway, but they are vastly different travel experiences.
I read a lot of blogs written by non-Americans who take long family road-trip vacations in the US, and want to know where to go that’s off the beaten path.
I’ve driven an Englishman around Indiana and enjoyed his oohing and aahing and “it looks so… AMERICAN!” as we drove past barns and silos.
I’ve been to Bordeaux and the surrounding region. All I remember are big stretches of farmland, modern cities, office parks and malls, and the scrupulously preserved and therefore Disneyfied medieval city center. Just like America, only without the friendly customer service.
Oopsie daisy… that’ll teach me to be grumpy. I was in Dijon, which is in Burgundy… not in Bordeaux. Still, the same point carries. A cute medieval town center didn’t cancel out being refused service in hotel restaurants and constantly locked out of my hotel room. And being burst in on by the hotel manager while in a state of undress.
Disneyfied seems a bit harsh for anywhere in France (apart from the obvious). It’s all places where people live and work, and have for a long time, and places grow. How dare they have modern cities! Offices!
I think her point is that it isn’t modern, not that there are modern bits. I don’t really understand this point, though.
Disneyfied, to me, implies that the medieval city center was built in about 1975 to attract tourists. In fact, it was built in about 1675, for people to live and work in.
Americans don’t look at old things the same way as Europeans. If a building gets preserved here, it’s almost invariably so that somebody can charge for admission. If a building gets preserved in Europe, it’s generally just because it’s a nice old building and the locals like it.
Butthurt European detected.
I have no idea if there are European equivalencies of the following (or even European origins), but if I were to direct someone to the “real America” for a week vacation, here’s what I’d (generally) recommend:
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Pick any major non-west coast city to fly into and spend 2-3 days in seeing the sites, maybe more. (Let’s say either New York or Chicago.)
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Take a day trip on the weekend out to a small town that’s having their annual parade (Apple Fest, Garlic Fest, Zucchini Fest, etc.) - nothing is more “small town” than a small town parade, complete with 1940s fire truck, local pageant winner, maybe some shriners, a marching band, the mayor and a bunch of real estate/insurance agents in their neighbor’s convertible.
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Take another day and go out to Amish country (Lancaster, PA for NYC, Shipshewana, IN for Chicago), have a chicken pot pie or dumplings, have a slice of pie, tour a barn.
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Go to a sporting event. Football or baseball, preferably. Arrive early, go tailgating.
I’ve had some terrific road trips throughout the USA by avoiding interstates, and keeping to dirt roads when possible.
The USA is a wonderful place with a lot of wonderful people. The nice thing about travelling off the beaten path is that often you have more opportunity to speak with them.
American who’s never been abroad and has never heard of Tesco and Carrefour detected.
I gotta ask - have you ever been out of a city? Because if this is all you think exists outside the major metropolitan areas, you really need to get out more.
I’ve seen parts of Wisconsin and Iowa that are so green, cutesy, and picturesque that they rival any French village. Different, yes, but just as pretty in their own ways. The American Southwest is amazing - both the landscapes and the historical towns and cities. I’ve talked to more than one European who absolutely loved New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, because nothing like those areas exist in Europe.
The Rockies - both the US and Canadian side - are homes to many, many very pretty towns with tons to do. Do we have thousand-year-old churches and Roman ruins? No. But we do have museums, gardens, various recreational areas & activities that are interesting and fun to visit.
And, let’s face it, the whole concept of the “Real” America or “Real” France or whatever is stupid. Is New York City less America than Des Moines, IA? Heck no, just as the city of Beaune is as French as Paris. No country is homogeneous, even the US - ask anyone who’s lived in a variety of places, there are definitely unique features and cultures between US regions.
The next time I go to the US (I’ve only ever been to pretty obvious places, and none all that recently) I’d like to pick somewhere that’s a bit “small town” ie not gigantic city. I seem to prefer nowadays plonking myself down somewhere, going to the local shops, checking out the local bars, reading the local newspapers. I’m less interested in the tourist traps. People are much more interesting than places, generally. This kind of holiday is easy for me in the UK, or France, because I know them decently well. The US is so big that I’m not sure where to go. It would have to be not too hot, as I wilt. Portland, Oregon?
Butthurt? Who has hurt the butt?
Canada?
That makes no sense in terms of buttheart European?
Hahaha buttheart ^^^^ I suppose I could edit that.