USA trip - would you change anything???

[TomAllenWife]

Big birthday next year, always wanted to go to Nashville.

So we're planning a bit of a trip of the following

Austin - because someone I sat next to on a plane said it was the home of live music!!!
I also would like to have 2 nites on a ranch, maybe ride

New Orleans - French quarter, jazz steamboat & swamp boat tour

Nashville - bars, party, music

Boston & cape Cod - bit of city then some relaxation after crazy days

Toronto for niagra falls then home

I'd love opinions from people who have been to any of these, whether it's worth it? Any changes or suggestions?

Thank you

Wondering how you are planning to travel - Toronto is about 1700 miles from Austin.

How long are you going for! That’s thousands of miles

stick with Tennessee and do Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and then a lovely week in the smokies in gatlinburg/pigeon forge, the home of Dollywood.

That would be too much travelling around for me. I'd stick to a smaller area like PP has suggested.

We're flying everywhere
All flights are 1.5-2.5 hours so not that bad

Over 3.5 weeks

All of those places? You are looking at 5 flights or days of driving.

I would do Nashville and New Orleans. Save the northern bits for another trip.

Forget Niagra Falls on that trip. Go to Grand Canyon or other amazing nature nearer to the other locations. The rest sounds good although I have no idea of distances.

A 1.5hr flight eats up 3x the time with airports, transfers etc. I would trim the list a bit.

You couldn’t pay me to spend time in US airports (and I’m an airline pilot by trade! I actively avoid the States.) If you are set on taking all of those destinations in, you’ll be spending a lot of time in airports. So take a few good books. You’ll also be driving a lot - it’s about a 4hr drive from Toronto to Niagara.

My colleagues who’ve been to Nashville and New Orleans enjoy them, but I’ve never been. DH enjoyed Austin for the live music when he was there. I’m guessing from the places that you’ve picked, music is rather important to you, in which case you’ll probably enjoy them much more than me, I’m not so much a music fan. Boston is ok, as is Toronto, but they are fairly ‘meh’ compared to plenty of other places I’ve been to.

Have you thought about which bit of the continent you would like to be on a ranch in? There’s a lot of America and Canada in between the places you’ve chosen, and ranches everywhere. They are all quite different places.

Over 3.5 weeks that is doable albeit busy. Sounds great fun to me. I assume you'll fly between stops?

I've never been to Austin so can't comment on that.

New Orleans is probably 3 days worth at most. The French Quarter is pretty small.

I found Toronto quite dull but went years ago, and Niagara falls is a day.

Boston is nice. You can catch a ball game if the Red Socks are at home. There are good restaurants and a lot of history to see. Lots of little New England towns in Cape Cod to visit. If I were doing that trip I might want to go over to Martha's Vineyard, which is like the Hamptons but old money.

Putting it another way, OP, it’s a bit like you saying you fancied a trip to Europe, and want to see the Eiffel Tower, Stonehenge, the Acropolis then a bit of time on a Greek beach to relax, then a quick dash to Oslo and a few Norwegian Fjords. If an American asked about that as a possible itinerary, we would all laugh our heads off.

Absolutely recommend all those places, it's not how I would do it though, I'd probably do New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville driving (and you'd have time to go up the blue ridge parkway and end up in Washington DC). I'd probably do Boston/Canada in a separate trip though if you got the train to Boston, or flew, you could probably fit it all in, but I'd stay in the south and agree with the others I'd do Chattanooga and Dollywood etc.

But that's just how I'd do it, we love driving in the US and whilst flying is super easy it does feel like you're missing the essence of America.

Oh and Austin is awesome, but honestly it's worth doing a Texas trip all its own, San Antonio is brilliant and close by.

The best bit of visiting America is small towns. One of the worst bits is airports. Honestly I would change this entirely and road trip a reasonable portion - driving is so easy.

And yes completely agree it's the small towns. And Buc'ees.

After nearly 15 years in the USA I now have rules for when I will fly that would seem absurd to a European. I have to be going as far as Boston (from DC) before I will consider it over driving or the train (the train is really only doable in the Northeast). We've driven 10hrs each way on holiday rather than deal with taking kids on flights.

Save toronto boston and cape cod for another trip. Theres so much in that area alone.

If you love music i really enjoyed nashville. Memphis is a bit of a dump. But i loved sun studios. New orleans is good. Not done Austin.

I'd either focus on the south or go north and do it properly. Juat doing boston cape cod and a random way out of the way toronto makes no sense at all.

If you want to add a landmark city i'd consider Washington dc. We drove DC to new orleans via the blue ride mountians. Did nashville memphis, new orleans. You could extend thst to Austin at the end via houston. We did it over 2 weeks. But with 3 you could add in texas.

This itinerary is absolutely bonkers.

I have done a lot of that, but in separate road trips. That itinerary is mad! Another saying split it in to sections and see the areas more thoroughly.

Neither of us want to drive as we both like drinking too much 😂

Ok so maybe Austin, Nashville & New Orleans then????
Seems like not much in 3 weeks tho

Makes more sense to do the Boston /Niagara bit in a separate trip - a “short” flight means the best part of a whole day by the time you’ve driven to the airport, checked in, gone through security, waited, at the other end got to your transport, driven into the destination, found your hotel etc etc. there’s more than enough to see and do in the South for 3 weeks

You don't have to drink and drive! DH and I love a drink! We've done the whole bar scene. America is built for cars, when we are in cities we just keep the car at the hotel and use Ubers at night, loads of parking lots in cities and towns and easy to get around. We even used a car in Vegas. Honestly it seems a little mental to me to do a 3.5 week trip to America and not drive, some of the places you're going to are very much built for cars and you're going to be limited to very small touristy areas without a car, especially the southern areas.

That makes more sense. You might consider adding Charleston, South Carolina and/or Savannah, Georgia to round out the 3.5 weeks. Both lovely, historical places.

That itinerary also works better in terms of weather - when it's nice in Toronto (late April-early May) it might be 30 degrees in Austin.

You will more than fill up 3.5 weeks with those places. Austin is a fantastic city (family live there, have visited a few times) you could easily spend a few days there plus Lake Travis, The Alamo, Marfa (but if a drive but worth it) and more. That’s at least a week used up then you’ve got a week in and around Nashville and a week in and around New Orleans. I get that you may want to see as much as possible but jamming so much in means you’re not actually seeing and experiencing each place. I say slow dawn, take your time to enjoy it all.

Oh and avoid Austin in June, July and August unless you enjoy being baked! It’s insanely hot. They just had 30 degrees on Halloween!

Someone mentioned The Grand Canyon. Well worth it.