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?

And there is Bush Gardens (a water park, I think) at Williamsburg. We would have gone if we'd had time.

If you can only fly virgin then you are quite restricted, why is that? Are you staff?
You could do the LA, SFO, LAS triangle *Other VAA options, NYC, IAD (washington) ATL, BOS, MIA, MCO (orlando)... Can't remember the other ones

Also, dropping car at a different airport.will be VERY costly

We flew into Vegas last year, a few days there and then drove to Monument Valley (breathtaking but maybe boring for kids).

We drove a large chunk of Route 66 and sidetrip down into Dallas, finishing in Chicago.

We were there 3 weeks and loved every minute.

Found everyone friendly and accommodating, hotels were easily booked when we decided where we wanted to stop that night.

You can fly into NY and stay there for a bit and then do NY state. You could also get the train to Boston and rent a car then go up the coast or go to Cape Cod or both.

You could go to SF and go North. LA is worth a visit! Anyone who cannot get pleasure out of the Getty Centre has to be a bit ??? There are great seaside towns and missions to visit along Highway 1. San Diego is touristy. Other great areas are available from Washington if you go into Maryland and Virginia. Plenty of historic sights to see and the USA does living museums very well. There are civil war trails. The museums in Washington are amazing and the flight one is brilliant.

I love Colorado (and agree about Durango) and Wyoming would be a top choice. Mesa Verde, Million $ highway in Colorado, The Rockies are certainly worth visiting. Zion NP, Bryce Csnyon and the Grand Canyon are great, if very hot, but Las Vegas in August is just horrible! Don’t do Disney. There is real life USA out there!

Thanks for all the ideas. There’s some things I’ve never heard of (like the Getty Centre) that look great but I’m still struggling to put anything together into a sensible holiday.
The East Coast is out I think because we have family all around that area and any trip would be overtaken by family visits. I like the look of California but I think we’d end up trying to cram too much in and spend the whole time driving/sightseeing and no time relaxing. I’m thinking the dessert areas might be too hot even for me in August.
I liked the idea of Alabama, in a sleepy little beach town without loads of other foreign tourists, eating seafood, drinking beer and hanging out at the beach doing nothing for a couple of weeks. But in August we’d probably get eat aluve by mosquitoes and may even get hit by a storm.
Booking a lovely holiday really shouldn’t be this hard?! Any and all suggestions are very welcome. At least I’m having fun googling all these cool places.

We went to Oregon last year and it was fantastic. There is a treehouse place in the south, lots of water sports on lakes, great information on the volcanic activity (which we knew nothing about but was fascinating) white water rafting, sailing on the river, We stayed in log cabins swam in lakes with snow topped mountains behind us, did some fantastic walks, visited first nations museums and homesteads, lots of wineries, the painted hills to the East which are semi desert. brilliant time had by all and no british tourists anywhere and hardly any American ones either.

Totally agree with Oregon. I like historical and natural areas where you can relax. I really rate Alaska too!

You can do SF to La in two weeks by doing seaside towns for relaxation. You can do SF and then do beaches and then LA. Try the museums around Pasadena too. Carmel is lovely on Highway 1. Great beach. Ditto the beaches around Santa Monica and Santa Barbara has plenty to do.

Why don’t you invest in a few Lonely Planet guides on west coast USA and see what you like. The national parks are brilliant north of SF and offer plenty of relaxation opportunities in my view. Don’t worry about doing one way with a car. Lots of people do this.