USA not Disney

[lifetimetrip]

Hello

After a rough year so far, we want to take our two DC (7 and 11) to USA in the summer.

We're not interested in Disney but would love a holiday that appeals to children with activities, culture, fun and history.

We've never been abroad before with our DC and are really keen to have a lovely time together.

However, the USA is vast and we're overwhelmed by choice!

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. We're happy to drive between a few places but don't know where to start!

Thanks in advance.

OP "We want to go to the USA"
Responses: "Well you really should go to Canada/Mexico/Europe"

MN at its finest.

It's a fair point 🤣. I just thought if I was focused on culture and history for dc I maybe wouldn't go to the USA as a first choice.
I live here and enjoy my holidays here but I honestly think it is much stronger on scenery, open spaces and road trips (with some good cities)

@lifetimetrip It will be hot but Washington is obviously a great place for museums. You could then drive the Skyline drive into Virginia. Call in at Williamsburg and visit the War of Independence battle sites. Finish up in Philadelphia and fly home.

I would probably avoid NY and go to Boston. Whale watching is good in the summer and you have museums and historic trails. Then maybe go to Plimoth Plantation and head up the coast. Lots to see and do. You can stay in Cape Cod on the way. Great beaches there and lovely little towns.

I would avoid west coast, anywhere too far south and anywhere ludicrously hot.

If you or your dc are Little House fans, I would love to fly/drive from Minnespolis to De Smet https://desmetsd.com/visit and then onto the Badlands https://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm. Deadwood is over that way, too, but don’t let your kids watch the series. https://www.deadwood.com/

Washington DC or New York. Both amazing.

DC is better value for money though as many attractions are free entry.

I hate Disney, but we wanted to visit Florida. As an alternative to Orlando we flew to Tampa and then took a taxi to a hotel at Clearwater. White sandy beaches palm trees and dolphins. For theme parks we booked a trip to Busch Gardens and a local 'wet & wild' park. The family loved it!

PS book a direct flight LGW with BA if you can, US internal flight transfers are a nightmare.

California road trip? San Francisco to LA is great, and we did that when I was around that age. It was so much fun.

The US is full of history and culture. Seriously, some of these comments are ridiculous.

@lifetimetrip One option I would recommend is New England. You could combine visits to cities such as Boston or Burlington, Vermont or Portland, Maine with days at the beach or the mountains. Newport, Rhode Island is a fun place to visit. If you want to venture beyond New England, you could easily add New York to your itinerary.

If you prefer the west coast, California is amazing. Depending on how far you’d like to travel, you could also go to Oregon and Washington. Both Portland and Seattle are wonderful cities, and the natural beauty of the beaches and mountains is stunning. We have driven up the coast from Monterey to Seattle. It’s a long drive (we took several days with stops along the way) but gorgeous.

I live in Asheville and it's a good choice for children with (honestly!) plenty of culture and art and music and smaller museums. 2 hours west gets you to Dollywood, and if you were to fly to the middle of the state, the NC beaches are completely wonderful.

we Did Washington DC in February last year and spent 5 days visiting all the museums/Capitol/Lincoln monument and Udvar-Hazy air and space museum. We used public transport from airport and hired bikes for cycling up and down the Mall. 20 & 16 yr old boys loved it.
in August we went to Chicago which again was amazing but for your kids ages DC has more.
We’ve also done various National/Provincial parks in both Ontario and Alberta, teen son loved doing the guided fossil hikes in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta and then parks in the Rockies.

The USA is amazing for a holiday, so please ignore all the bonkers posters telling you to go to Canada or Mexico. Canada, IMO, isn't a patch on the US!

For inspiration, you could do worse than to browse some of the popular itineraries online with BA Holidays, Virgin Holidays and Trailfinders. They have fly/drive packages that show you what you could do in a couple of weeks if you want to really explore one particular region, so California or New England, or one of the cities + a scenic area nearby. This is Trailfinders' New England page, as an example: https://www.trailfinders.com/holidays/usa/eastern-usa/new-england

@@LipstickLil Canada has its attractions. However the USA has more! My DC loved Alaska. We don’t like extreme heat and like wildlife. Canada has similar attributes.

@VeryQuaintIrene I am keen on visiting Asheville. Cannot say I want Dollywood but what is a good trip from Asheville? Quite keen on the Great Smoky mountains. Is spring a good time to visit?

I second this.

The Badlands are astonishing. Black Hills National Forest is gorgeous, and Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake, Cathedral Spires well worth a visit. YY to the historic town of Deadwood.

Depending on how much time you have, you could drive all the way west to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, hike inTeton National Park and Yellowstone, then south(ish) to Denver, east to Kansas City for some great BBQ, then north to Chicago for a change of scenery and pace, and home. The experience of driving through the plains gives you an idea of the vastness of America.

It's a very long day's drive from the Badlands to Jackson Hole, but you could stretch it out and explore along the way. It's an area that tends to be off the beaten path - the northern plains and northern mountain states don't get the hordes of tourists you find elsewhere.

and I have just learnt about https://gemmountainmt.com/ while you are over that wsy.

Boston and Cape Cod. Trolley bus or Duck Boat tour in Boston, science museum, Children’s Museum (although 11 year old may be a bit old for it), aquarium, whale watch. Then Cape Cod - we like to stay in Falmouth - nice beaches, hire bikes and cycle bike path to Woods Hole. Or take the trolley bus from Falmouth to Woods Hole and do the Discovery Cruise which is an educational boat trip aimed at kids - mine loved it at these ages. Then the Island Queen ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Visit the carousel in Oaks Bluffs then take the bus or hire bikes and visit Edgartown for a wander round.

If you're going in the summer, I'd recommend the west coast - the east coast from Florida to North of Boston is so hot and humid during the summer, whereas the West Coast is more like a European dry summer.

When my DS was 11 we did a week in San Diego (beaches, zoo, aircraft carrier, water parks, lovely cafes and restaurants) followed by 4 days drive up the coast to San Francisco - Big Sur, Monterey etc. and then 3 days in SF - Alcatraz, Sausalito, Goldengate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf etc etc.

Brilliant holiday

@TizerorFizz Spring is completely gorgeous here - looking out of my window right now we have the spring flowers and the redbuds and the temperature is lovely. Autumn is also stunning.

If you like nature, the Blue Ridge parkway runs through town and there are lots of things to see along it, and there are also lots of pretty small towns within easy drives. Let me know if you have specific questions and I will try to help.

We have driven down the Blue Ridge Parkway as far as Boone (Lazy Bear Lodge) but want to explore further south. So Charlotte and Asheville are on our radar but where else? Recommendations welcome @VeryQuaintIrene and thanks!

Try Hendersonville, Black Mountain, Blowing Rock - all very cute towns. Asheville has seriously good food and beer - for my tastes, downtown Asheville is a bit too touristy now (apologies for the irony here!) and parking is hard, but West Asheville is really walkable and worth seeing for shopping and some entertainment. Of course, there's the Grove Park Inn and Biltmore House for something a bit posher.

@VeryQuaintIrene Thank you. We need to get planning. Not sure too many Brits visit these areas. We certainly found a certain amount of surprise that we had English accents.

@TizerorFizz They will love you! I have been teaching at the university here for 30 years and I swear that my accent (which I have deliberately not lost) has got me further than I deserve...