What is your favourite US state and why please?

[NatureOverNightclubs]

Looking for inspiration. Done New York, planning Chicago next then Boston. I absolutely love America and would honestly love to do every state except Florida...

Thank you!

@CulturalNomad
I'd go either before or after the usual school summer vacation season. Late May, late August and on through September. If you like autumn colours, October would be lovely Avoid the Fudge Festival (August 23-35) unless you're a diehard fan of fudge and enjoy crowds.

Oregon all the way. But I wouldn’t travel to the US right now, as PP have said, white privilege won’t protect you from ICE.

California is my favourite. It just has everything, almost like it is its own country, and a pretty diverse one well blessed with both nice (albeit very modern) cities and fantastic wilderness. If money were no object, I would ideally go in September/October, working my way from south to north.

Others I love most are Hawaii, Maine (go in summer), Massachusetts (go in October/early November), and New York (go anytime, but right before Christmas is my favourite time). I also think that Washington DC is well worth a visit, but to keep it cheap and not too crowded I would time it for when Congress is not in session and political/business visitors to the city are at a relatively low ebb. New York Christmas/DC New Year is a great USA trip, in my experience.

It’s like anywhere else. There are some no-go areas but I’ve travelled all over the state and never felt unsafe. That said, I don’t visit the cities. Small towns and state/National parks are the reason I go there, and the alligators aren’t much of a threat if you give them space.

I wouldn’t be surprised that there was an element of this, but there are still a lot of Trump supporters in Oregon. We were there last September and there were many, many, Trump/Vance yard signs, and many farms had the same series of little signs along the highway each with a line of a pro-Trump poem. We stopped at a roadside store to get coffee and behind the counter was a massive sign that read “Yes, I’m voting for the felon, what of it?”

That said, pretty much everyone we spoke to was lovely and kind, and it’s a beautiful state.

Is there any evidence that ordinary tourists with ESTAs who have not lied on their application are being pulled over more than usual?

Nope, all scaremongering media omitting facts and actual valid reasons on why people were detained or returned.
Other than the UK girl using a tourist visa for unauthorised/illegal work the only other UK Esta issue of note was a drugs related one in Dec.... I wonder why that didn't make the mainstream media 🤔