Ideas for USA holidays in August

[Cittadineve]

To cut a long story short we are going to the USA next year and I don’t really want to go (or more accurately I’d rather go somewhere else) so has anyone got any ideas for an amazing and slightly unusual USA holiday?
We can fly into New York (my last choice) Las Vegas, San Francisco, Atlanta or Orlando. I thought maybe about going to Atlanta and driving down to the coast, maybe Alabama but it’s not the best time of year.
Any ideas aside from the obvious? It will be our son's first long haul holiday so I want it to be great. He will be 6. Or should I admit defeat and just go to Disneyland?

So many options.
SAN Francisco and do Pacific coast high way from there, lots of lovely stops and you could do disney LA as part of it, which would be much less full on than doing Orlando.
Do you have to fly in and out of same airport?

Atlanta, go to Savannah, Charleston, Hilton head island, tubes beach

Las Vegas, drive down to maybe Palm Springs and a national park or 2

We did a mega road trip around Colorado last August (for the total eclipse of the sun) with DD, who was 6. Went up to Nebraska and through Wyoming and a bit of Utah.

Boulder and Denver are awesome for kids. But there wasn’t anywhere on our itinerary that wasn’t in truth.

THanks for all the ideas 😃

THe Georgia trip would be the exactly the kind of thing I was wanting but I’ve done that exact trip so would like something new. Like that but maybe further west as I’ve got family in Michigan and Florida so have spend a lot of time on the East coast. And ideally away from the typically tourist routes.

We don’t have to fly in and out of the same airport but will have 2 weeks max so don’t want to drive too far.

Colorado sounds interesting. WHat was good for kids in Denver and Boulder?

Boulder and Denver are awesome for kids. But there wasn’t anywhere on our itinerary that wasn’t in truth

I’ve found the opposite of that in that America seems quite segregated for families vs adult places. Little kids often aren’t very welcome in nice restaurants, or out in the evening etc. Most of my time in USA has been spent in Florida and college campuses so maybe my perception is skewed.

The civil rights stuff is interesting but Alabama will be super-hot / humid - not ideal for a 6 year old. It's also still terrifyingly segregated. You'd be better to head north from Atlanta, or over to the east coast from there.

Boulder has a very laid back vibe. There’s a fantastic okay area on the Main Street with boulders for the kids to climb on, there’s a splash park in the middle of the pedestrianised area, great brew pubs that are very child friendly. We walked around the flat irons etc.

DD fed the chipmunks at the entrance to the RMNP, which was a gorgeous scenic drive with lots of places to stop. She climbed to 14,000 feet at the visitors centre.

We drove the Colorado National Monument and went to the very informal but brilliant dinosaur museum.

We had nitro ice cream in Moab.

We rode the Durango to Silverton steam train and even saw a bear on the way back. We did the Canyons of the Ancient and went into the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde.

We drove to the top of Pikes Peak. Took us a little bit longer than Seb Loeb, but still a fabulous trip.

In Denver we spent a day at the museum and went in the planetarium - amazing place. We rode the train and checked out central station. DD went in the splash park outside the station. We browsed in bookshops and strolled the streets looking at all of the pretty street lights at night. We checked out the famous blue bear.

We went to a county show in the sticks where you couldn’t buy a beer but toddlers were shooting live ammunition ().

Absolutely fabulous trip. I would go back in a heartbeat.

I echo Colorado being a great option.

What about New England/New York state? Really beautiful area and lots of outdoor activities to do.

That Colorado trip does sound fabulous, confident our kid would love that. I will get researching. Thank you! 😃
Any recommendations for good family-friendly accommodation in Colorado?

We went to a county show in the sticks where you couldn’t buy a beer but toddlers were shooting live ammunition

Might avoid this bit! 😧 😂

There’s loads. We were a 3 generation group and only needed to have 2 separate hotel rooms a couple of times. Some places have 2 separate bedrooms and kitchens, others are more like motels with free breakfast. We stayed in a couple of expensive hotels and some very cheap ones. All worked really well.

I booked everything through Expedia (with cashback from Topcashback).

We’ve done South West trips several times, with no children, small children and teens, always fantastic. Durango is one of my favourite places. The Sulverton train is great, I would recommend inside seats. We took the train up then a minibus down with white water rafting, which was great fun. Mesa Verde is definitely worth seeing. Moab in Utah is a great town with lots of cafes etc it’s a big mountain biking centre and right next to Arches NP. In August it is very hot. You can take a boat trip on the river at sunset which is beautiful. Thelma and Louise drove off their cliff just outside Moab. There are good 4x4 trips here, including a Humvee trip on the slick rock which is very exciting, highly recommended.
Slightly cooler in August would be to go to Estes Park and into the Rockies. Lots to do if you are outdoors people.

We usually camp and stay in motels. Book ahead especially for Popular places like Moab. Motel rooms nearly always have two beds.

I’m American and I wouldn’t book a trip anywhere in the south or southwest in August, including Vegas or Florida. I’ve lived in those parts of the country and the heat is absolutely oppressive. The “heat wave” we had here recently would be a welcome respite. Of course more things have AC but who wants to spend their holiday inside?

I agree that Colorado would be lovely. Also the New England coast — Cape Cod, Maine, etc. You would find lots of Americans on holiday but very few foreign tourists, if any. Anywhere in California, especially northern, is lovely, but may be more tourist also. If you want to go somewhere nice in August you won’t avoid crowds entirely.

If you go to San Francisco you could go north towards Oregon, probably quieter than going south. New England is lovely also, Maine especially. You could get the train from New York to Boston if you can’t fly there, you could get even take the train up to Portland Maine. The New York to Boston line is very scenic.

Durango is one of my favourite places. The Sulverton train is great, I would recommend inside seats.

We did open seats there and back. Magical. It’s not a train trip unless you’re smelling of soot and smoke.

wouldn’t book a trip anywhere in the south or southwest in August, including Vegas or Florida. I’ve lived in those parts of the country and the heat is absolutely oppressive. The “heat wave” we had here recently would be a welcome respite

The hotter the better for me. I grew up in Asia so heat and humidity are no problem but the boys may struggle above around 40C. Due to our airport choices we’d have to fly to Vegas if going to Colorado. It’s a bit further than I was planning to drive.

Will have a look at SAn Fran and Northern California too. Thanks.any other suggestions welcome 😃

We flew in via Iceland.......

Would you not take an internal flight? They're very cheap and easy, more like getting a train here! I loved Colorado too, but for a cooler experience try some of the northern states around Yellowstone or Glacier NPs.

Best USA trip in August however is Alaska. Just stunning!

Colorado is amazing. We've flown in with Iceland air and Norwegian recently. Iceland Air were fine but long. Highly recommend Norwegian.

We did Breck, Vail, Golden, Boulder last summer as well as downtown Denver. We have family there so do trips out from the Denver suburbs.

I am biased against the outside of the Durango train after doing it in the rain in September. Much nicer inside.

You could also fly into Boston, then drive Noth along the coast and do MA, NH, ME then Canada.

We have to fly Virgin so that limits us a bit. I hate flying, any additional flights are definitely out. I know, I’m not making this easy! Durango looks beautiful. I wonder if we could extend trip to 3 weeks...

Fly to San Francisco and drive down the coast. Santa Cruz is very family friendly, with a big fairground on the beach. Big Sur is beautiful with tiny beaches to discover and play on. There are loads of nice, chilled out places to stop at along the way- just don't bother with LA! San Diego is a much nicer city and has a fab zoo! If you could fly home from LA and just did the coast it definitely wouldn't be too much driving. If not drive up to vegas via the national parks. Grand Canyon is amazing, but a much bigger detour than it looks on the map!

Las Vegas and Washington DC are cheaper to fly to in August.

Last August, we did a fly drive starting in DC. We drove from there to the mountains nearby, then NYC (except we stayed in NJ, 15 mins by bus from Manhattan), then we drove south and stayed on a beach, then Williamsburg and Jamestown (Jamestown is where the British first created a colony). Williamsburg is a totally amazing museum town, complete with actors pretending they are living in the 1770s.

Then we drove back to DC, which has fantastic museums and they are all free, including the zoo which is the best one I have ever been to.

If you go to Las Vegas, you can visit The Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite and San Francisco or LA. All of this is amazing.