People who have been all around America

[Fgowfms]

Where was your favourite place? I've only ever done the east coast. I liked Washington DC. NYC was too crowded. I went this summer but I probably won't go to the US again for a few years.

If you've been all around. Tell me about it however. If you lived and worked there what was it like?

Haven’t traveled all over but really loved Santa Barbara, Monterey, Yosemite, Sequoia national park, Mount Rainier, the PCH, the areas in and around Bend, Port Angeles and Mount Hood.
Liked Malibu and Hollywood Hills, found the walk fame underwhelming.
Didn’t like San Francisco much, loved Seattle.

Oh and Hawaii, LOVE Hawaii.

We live just north of the border. Prior to Trump’s threats about the 51st state, we would go to Burlington in Vermont each week for lunch . Vermont’s my favourite state. Hopefully we’ll go again when Trump is out of office.

Are you Canadian citizens?

DH is, I’m not - although may apply for dual now.

I read that Canadian citizens don't even need an esta for tourism

I haven’t been ‘all around’, but I have been to The West three times (Montana, Arizona/Colorado/New Mexico/Utah road trip, and Nevada/Death Valley). They were really cool – as well as being beautiful, it’s awesome to just experience being in a vast expanse of wilderness like that, which isn’t obviously inhospitable. You don’t get that here – Spain can be similar but the scale in the US is unreal. And the people are so friendly the further west you go.

Also, every National Park is fantastic.

Gah didn't mean to quote sorry. Can't remove it.

Yosemite, Montana, Oregon.

Citizens don’t - at the moment - but who knows whether that will change!

I lived in Connecticut which was amazing. I particularly loved holidays when people would do their homes like you see on TV and movies. I also loved “drives”. Many forms “coat drives” when people would bring in kids coats and just swap them for different sizes. Also “pie drives” when everyone would bring in a pie and put them in a big table to share.

My favourite state is Tennessee, particularly the eastern part, the Great Smoky Mountains.
I would have said that San Francisco was my favourite city but it's been a while since I was there and I believe it's changed a lot, for the worse.
I lived in New Mexico and liked Santa Fe very much. We drove to and from Denver several times and there are some spectacular views.
I can't think of anywhere I really didn't like. I'm not too keen on frantically busy cities so New York is probably my least favourite place.

Seattle is really nice, so is Boston.

Wyoming and Oregon were both beautiful.

But I think my top recommendation for the US is to do a road trip. It’s the travel that’s fascinating. Huge expanses of open sky, tiny one horse towns straight out of a western. The culture changes hugely from place to place.

There’s some amazing natural landscapes - the Maine coast and Acadia national park. Or Yellowstone and Grand Teton are both quite breathtaking.
I won’t go while Trump is in power but would love to see the giant redwoods in Sequoia NP or Yosemite one day.

Tennessee. Country music fan!

I’ve been to San Francisco, LA, Vegas, NYC and Florida. I enjoyed them all in different ways but wouldn’t return at the moment, because Trump.

Friends went to NYC for the first time in a decade this year and reported that the change is shocking in terms of open drug use on the streets. It certainly opened the eyes of her pre-teen Sons who live in quite a sheltered area. A shame as that was probably my favourite place.

Denver actually has more homeless people than San Francisco (based on 2024 data). I love both cities but they both have a massive homeless problem. I found the Denver one more shocking (I used to work there) as it was less ‘contained’ than SF.

I suspect I have too many places I like in the US to list them all but these are some of my favourite places/memories:

I love the Hudson Valley (so east coast upstate NY) for the river views, the peacefulness, the vibe and the artisan food and wine (and the far nicer than UK commuter trains out of Grand Central to get there and back).

I love Denver for the friendliness of the people. On my very first ever morning there and my walk from my hotel to the office, people on the street actually said good morning to me. Bizarre (I’m too used to London) but rather lovely. The food is also incredible. I would be HUGE if I lived there. The people I worked with in Houston were without fail completely lovely and I felt very much at home there. I also loved the fact that if you bunked off work early, you could drive to Vail for dinner and admire the heated pavements.

I love Houston for the best breakfast burritos and fajitas ever (do you notice there’s a theme here?) It was also the first place where I’ve ever had to step over a homeless person to get into a restaurant. 🙄And the weirdest rush hour where the gridlocked cars are all silent. No-one honks their horn because the majority of people carry guns so you never know who your honk might piss off (this was how a local colleague explained the silent traffic to me).

I love New Orleans because it’s completely batshit. To describe the locals as ‘characters’ is doing them a disservice and underplaying how utterly bonkers so many of them are (in a mainly charming but occasionally scary way).

I love California beaches at sunset and sunrise. So beautiful. And the redwoods further up the coast. Incredibly tranquil. And can I mention the, er, food? 😜I used to live in Paris but the best pain au chocolat that I’ve ever eaten was from a bakery in San Francisco (that a former French chef introduced me to from the sidecar of his motorbike). Which reminds me….being driven across the Golden Gate Bridge in the aforementioned sidecar of the motorbike was pretty damn incredible. As was doing a private guided tour of Alcatraz which was utterly memorising yet chilling.

I’ll stop now before I become too tedious. And start writing about food again. 😂

When we lived n Louisiana, we spent a week at Orange Beach, Alabama. Some days we were the only ones on the beach and it was perfect.

@Fgowfms I can highly recommend Chicago as a great city to visit. I loved their amazing art museum and the architecture there is fantastic. Early skyscrapers, Frank Lloyd Wright homes, and first class modern buildings. The river trip after dark is a great experience and we found live music venues and great food. Highly recommend.

Second choice - Boston. Walkable and great whale viewing in summer. Go up the coast and also go to Cape Cod. Philadelphia is also a surprising gem. Superb museums and art galleries plus we loved the War of Independence historical quarter. Plus it was settled with a degree of religious tolerance so quite an array of churches.

On the west coast, there’s San Fran and Seattle further north. SF is more iconic but go north from SF and it’s beautiful.

We have been to Colorado and it’s great. We liked the Durango to Silverton railway and the Million Dollar highway. I agree about Wyoming and Montana too. Yellowstone gets busy but the geothermal areas are amazing. Alaska has whales! We like Whales. And orcas. And bears! The wild huge vistas are stunning.

We also drove down the Blue Ridge parkway in the autumn. We started in Virginia. Further south you reach the Great Smoky Mountains and Atlanta. I’d also recommend Utah, the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.

The USA also has around 35 All American roads. Check them out on Scenic America. The National parks all have merit but in high season they get crowded - so go early or later.

Have fun planning.

I was lucky enough to visit New Orleans just – literally days – before Katrina hit in 2005 and loved it. Also Seattle, both very French at either end of the country.

I’m a New Yorker, and am pleased you liked it Here.

I would add Block Island, Rhode Island to Nantucket. San Francisco is lovely but has descended into a misery of crime and wildly aggressive panhandlers and grifters.

Arizona

We got married in SF in 1993 - it was quite edgy then with lots of homeless people on the streets, and especially around City Hall. I always remember walking up the road with DH from the (respectable) hotel to a local bar hearing ‘hush my mouth there’s a white woman coming through’ (from a 6’4” bloke in heels and a frock). Fab night though.

Oregon and Washington State - the natural beauty is out of this world, amazing rugged beaches

Northern California, felt very at home. (Basically everywhere from San Francisco upwards). Lived in Southern Caifornia for a while and have no desire to go back.
The national parks in Utah are mind-blowing.

I think it’s hard to explain. I always had this weird fear when I lived in the US that I would be accused of a crime and then thrown in prison forever. The police here obviously still have problems, but good Lord, they’re SO much nicer in general. Police in the US are so militarized now that it’s scary. Oddly, I never feared getting shot, though I probably should have. But yes, I very much feel safer here. I know we have knife crime, but there was a school shooting every single week for a while in the US. Maybe there still is; I don’t know for sure as haven’t looked at US-based news lately. I mean, Australia just had that attack and their PM was instantly talking about stricter gun control; in the US, children are wearing bulletproof backpacks and they’re STILL not talking about gun control.

I lived in the US on and off for quite a while - California, Oregon, South Carolina, NYC, then out to Switzerland, and then home to Scotland. In South Carolina, an alligator lived in the pond behind our house and we were right on the marsh. In Oregon, I had a full view window out onto a forest; was just so beautiful and lovely, and special seeing snowdrops blooming in the snow in March. I hated NYC. Only person in the world with no desire to ever go there, and I ended up living there. Just loathed it. Was so glad when we left (I was with exDH at that point). In California, we were right on the water. I love Northern California and the Pacific Northwest; there’s something absolutely awe-inspiring driving through these primeval redwood forests. I really recommend a road trip up the 101.

My favorite place to visit that I never lived was Sedona, Arizona - such a nice area with breathtaking red rock formations and a super chill vibe. I think it’s supposed to be one of those places like Salisbury, where magical woo woo people think ley lines meet or some shite. I can’t deny the uniquely chill vibe it had (10 years ago; might be suburban hell now for all I know). I think it’s the place with the tan and turquiose McDonald’s (because traditional McDonald’s colors would ‘clash with local architecture’)… but maybe that’s Taos, New Mexico. Taos, Austin (Texas), and Sedona always kind of strike me the same way.