America help - summer 2025

[middleagedswiftie]

My two teen boys are very keen to visit America - none of us are interested in theme parks. Ideally we would do a few nights in a city of interest then stay in one or two spots with beautiful nature. I was thinking possibly Boston then renting a nice country airbnb/rental somewhere quiet. I think we’re all interested in just exploring small town America, going to Target etc 🤣 as much as the big sights. If money was no object I would look at California but the cost of accommodation seems extortionate. But maybe Boston and around there is just as expensive? Am I missing somewhere? It would be in summer so I’m thinking places like Utah would be too hot although it does interest me! I know this is a big ‘how long is a piece of string?’! Anyone an America expert and can suggest some random places I might not have thought of?

I'm an American that lives in the UK. We go to the states every summer for two weeks to visit my family and friends and while we are there we visit a new state too. My DC are still young (6 and 3) but on my list when they are older: a few days in Boston, and then a few days in Cape Cod with day trips to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

If you are looking to visit "small town America," Boston is far from that. However, there is always a Target somewhere!

Thank you @whiteorchids44 Boston has always been a place I was interested in but I imagine it’s more expensive than somewhere a bit more remote/less touristy. I need to look at prices. I also imagine the coastal area like Cape Cod will be so busy during the summer. Perhaps a house somewhere random with a pool would make more sense!

I would definitely check out Airb&b and Vrbo. I'm sure you can find someplace nice that will fit your needs.

We spent a couple of weeks travelling around New England a few years ago - flew into Hartford (as a Gilmore Girls fan that was v exciting for me!) and then camped/stayed in motels all over - did whale watching on the coast, saw a moose in our motel car park, stayed on a deserted island in a lake - it was one of our best holidays ever. It felt like all small towns had an independent diner and it was really easy to get around.

Boston is a lovely city with American history and attractive buildings, shopping, etc. Plus, it's a relatively short flight and the minimum time difference (-5 hrs), which is helpful for a first trip. I think your initial idea sounds great and you'd get what you're looking for. My top tip would be to go in Aug if you want to avoid the worst of the crowds and high prices as lots of US schools go back in mid-Aug and everywhere then gets much quieter. We're in the US now and it's got a lot quieter this week.

@cheezncrackers that’s a great tip! We always tend to zoom off at the start of the summer hols but could easily do the end of August instead.

@redblonde Never heard of Hartford - off to look at flights!

Boston is nice but you can hit the key bits in a couple of days.

My favourite thing to do in the States is travel around, so mix up cities with more rural stuff - and it’s easy to find rural as the states are just so big.

Boston is a good place to start and you could then go north & do more New England / pilgrim fathers type stuff. Cape cod is beautiful and yes busy in summer but not unbearable. Beautiful beaches though expect to pay $25 or so a day for parking at them unless you find a place right on the beach.

Washington then into Virginia could work. More to the city than Boston (& all the smithsonian museums are free which helps the budget) and proper rural stuff a couple of hours drive away.

If you’re only coming once it’s worth doing a bit of travelling. You could start in New York (full on but has to be experienced) then train to Washington and on from there.

The US is expensive though. Not like when it was $2 to £1. We’re here now and you do have to tune out the cost a bit.

Boston/New England = lovely. Although I had a work trip to Boston in 2022 and it was quite pricey (albeit my client was staying in an expensive area)

You could try looking at Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts. It's relatively near to Boston so you can easily do the smaller town vibe and 'spin the beach as they say' for sunbathing and also do a few trips in to Boston by train to see the sights.
The amphibious boat is a great trip out and whale watching is a possibility too. There was a museum in Boston too which had piano steps so if you walked, ran or danced up and down the stairs it played musical notes. You can also imagine George Clooney and The Perfect storm at the Harbour!! Great fun!
We also did a few days camping courtesy of a friend out in the sticks who had a holiday home / ranch - so did camping under the stars too with local scouts!

We've just done NY, Boston and Cape Cod. It was great but all in it was expensive - it was £14k for four of us for two weeks but that was good, flights, taxis, car rental, sightseeing and three different hotels.

2nd half of August in Boston can be expensive as Colleges and Universities return and families drop first years off and stay a few nights. Also avoid labor day in vacationy places like the Cape.

To be honest the prices in California are not that different to elsewhere, everywhere is expensive in the USA!

Whatever you think you'll spend double or triple it.

I do like the NE but nothing beats the west for nature. I would suggest looking at where you can get cheaper flights and a rental car from then base the trip from that eg Las Vegas can be a good option as there sometimes good flights etc

Imo Boston is very 'home from home' for a brit, I loved it and definitely worth visiting but doesn't necessarily sound like the experience you're looking for.
America is very expensive now, eating out used to be really reasonable but not anymore. Supermarkets are expensive too.
We did Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Highway 1 etc which was fantastic. DH went to Texas earlier this year and really enjoyed it there.

We go often to New England as we have family there. Boston is lovely, plenty of history and culture there. Not representative of small town America but you just have to go to a provincial town and you'll find that!

If you want beautiful nature close to Boston then I'd go for the White Mountains in New Hampshire which is 2.5-3 hours drive. Acadia National Park in Maine is also beautiful but further (5h). If you prefer beaches then Cape Cod or the North Shore of Massachusetts (Rockport, Gloucester etc) would work.

Agree with PP that it is very expensive. We paid $50 for 4 "small" (not small) ice creams this summer, albeit in a touristy place.

It is extremely expensive! We've been to NY, NJ, FL, NV & CA in the past 18 months and they're all as expensive as each other. BA and Virgin have seat sales in Jan, which can save you a bit of money. Look at the US carriers too, like United, which can sometimes be cheaper. Nothing is cheap though in the summer to the US, unfortunately.

Teens here and been to the US a lot as I have family.

One of the best trips the kids liked was starting in a cool California beach town (think La Jolla or San Clemente) you can hit San Diego too and also surfing lessons. Then drive to Flagstaff for a few days, Sedona for a couple (off roading a big thing there) then back out of Phoenix and did New York for a long weekend.

In retrospect we would have done NY first. But we did hit a lot of small towns in that whole journey.

I’d recommend Washington DC - loads of amazing free museums, great hop on/off bus to get you round, see the White House etc (centre very walkable) then go down to Outer Banks North Carolina, fabulous wild beaches, countryside, small town feel

I have no idea about costs, but an instagram account I follow https://www.instagram.com/katie_ellison has just been to America with her 3 kids - they did parts of California, Utah and Nevada. Looks amazing, you could take a look at her route and price it out?

Thank you! I’m looking up all your suggestions! I’d never heard of Outer Bank - looks great! And I’ll check out the insta account. Xx

Ex Boston resident here.

I can highly recommend it for teens, lots to do. Then for something more relaxing try an Airbnb in Salem (make sure you specify MA as there are Salems in many States), there are beaches close by, lots of fun historical stuff and whale watching and schooner trips. Feel free to PM me if you want more guidance.

We've just done California with teens and have not been anywhere near a theme park! Baseball, beaches, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Whale Watching, Alcatraz, and a whole load of other amazing sights; along with the smaller stuff like trips to Target and Dicks. We did a mix of hotels and Vrbo's which worked well - occasional washing machine access meant we could travel light and we didn't have to share rooms all the time, plus we could cook occasionally rather than always eating out. It was expensive though, particularly in the cities (I am never adding up how much we've actually spent) but we really did enjoy every second and might never get chance to have a 'big' holiday with the kids again.

@SaffyWall do you mine sharing your route? Where did you fly in and out?

This actually doesn’t sound too bad

Of course - we flew Heathrow to LA and our itineary was roughly

LA - 3 nights - baseball, beaches (and getting over jet lag!)
Las Vegas - 3 nights - Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, The Sphere
Visalia - 2 nights - we stopped here as it was relatively easy to get to Sequoia/Kings Canyon and cheap! If you're looking for small town America this is a good example.
Yosemite - 2 nights - mind-blowing scenery
San Francisco - 3 nights - lots of sightseeing, cycling and a lovely sea breeze which was very welcome
Santa Cruz - 2 night - Whale Watching and surfing
Santa Barbara - 2 night - beaches, paddle boarding and some great museums.

There was a lot of driving but also lots of interesting places to stop on the way and some amazing scenery.