3k for trip to US

[UndertheCedartree]

I want to take my DC to the US for a special trip as they turn 13/18 this year.

I'm looking at travelling in September. On a tight budget of 3-3.5k for flights and accomodation.

I'm clueless as to where to take them. Not New York but aside to that I am open to anywhere but would need to be able to get about without a car.

There is one I'm looking at that has breakfast included. It would be pretty standard for us to then just have dinner with a snack in between when on holiday so that could work well for us.

This was my experience in Florida last week too.
supermarket lunch for 3 (and toddler) was easily $60.

There’s really no need to tip counter service unless they go above and beyond, and definitely not in the parks.

I live in a major city in the US and those prices are not real.

$2.50 gets you a muffin in Dunkin Donuts.
Coffee is also $2.50 for easily enough to wake you up. Dunkin isn't the only cheap option by a long shot.

Where did you eat?

DS is just back from a trip in NYC and New Haven (Connecticut). He was at the arcades there, had Japanese food at a restaurant called Mecha and went to Yale Peabody Museum (Natural history museum). He was with a native to show around, sightsee with and travel on the subway, trains and buses.

Agree. If I recall last time we were actually inside Universal Studios we got two good, large coffees and a massive muffin to share for $12 (inc. tax, no tip).

Food isn’t cheap in the way it seemed 20 years ago, but it’s not twice the price of the UK. You can definitely eat inexpensively if you self cater anyway.

DS bought street food in NYC on Christmas Day - shish kebab and he said it wasn't expensive 🤷‍♀️

Then a Papa John's pizza for dinner which you can get in most countries. Again, not overpriced.

I hope your son's "tour guide" took him out for pizza in New Haven😀. The Yale campus and surrounding area also have many unique small restaurants and coffee shops.

I'll bet he had a great time in NYC!

Side note: shouldn't the 13 year old be at school in September? New term for them after 6 weeks off.

DS was convinced that Connecticut would be incredibly boring as a state to visit but he enjoyed everything about the place, especially Yale Peabody Museum. There's lots aimed at young people there. The arcades were a big hit.

He didn't enjoy buying my souvenir tat from NYC though (fridge magnet and canvas bag), said everything was extortionate but that's the same whichever city in the world you go to! He got charged $5 for a plastic carrier bag to put the canvas bag into🤣

He ate at a Japanese restaurant there, and he said he ate at a place called Olive Garden, ate loads of burgers at typical American diner places.. He loved the fact portion sizes were huge. So only ate two meals a day the eight days he was over there in the US.

He liked visiting but was glad to get home again. He found NYC to be very noisy and doesn't plan to visit again.

He found NYC to be very noisy and doesn't plan to visit again

I find NYC a bit overwhelming myself. My son lived in Manhattan when he first graduated university but the cost of living (particularly rent!) is just too prohibitive. But it was an exciting adventure for a year or two!

Who wants dunkin donuts every day for breakfast 🤮

I just spent 2 weeks in the US, two major cities and small towns and never seen a coffee under $4.

sorry prices are high and OP needs a realistic budget, eating fast food and cheap shit for 2 weeks sounds miserable

Another vote for Washington. We loved it there.

She said she's used to budget travel, and the prices quoted were not budget.

Budget priced food is available. If she spends very little in her first week and sees how she's doing she could then splurge on breakfast for $15 each for the last few days.

Tui (and probably other places) do really cheap holidays to florida in September, but quite last minute.. think booking during the summer holidays. But every year I've seen deals much cheaper than your budget

Washington was really good trip my dc really enjoyed it ... You can do government buildings as well as amazing museums...its got decent public transport... We went to a good concert at the Kennedy centre as well...free/cheap
And they love seeing it in tv and film footage since! We stayed in the uni area so could walk to the white house and lots of interesting things to see and do we could walk to as well
Book stuff like monument building in advance...

We got Amtrak to NYC which is cheap if you book in advance...only takes 3 hours..and into centre of town as well.... NY also some free/cheap stuff apart from just wandering around but less...

Not sure re cheap accommodation as didn't find any really but 1 probably only need 1 room ..

She's home educated.

Yes. That's exactly how he worded it. Overwhelming. Sirens constantly going off as you walk down Broadway, or 34th St or wherever he was at the time. Noisy traffic, just a stream of continuous noise!! Lots of people....he is glad to have seen it, but not planning on returning.

I haven't been personally so can't comment.

@CulturalNomad
I am not surprised your DS couldn't manage long term living there, it is an expensive place by the sounds of it. Glad he enjoyed his time after graduation in NYC though😊

DH has been to Las Vegas years ago and San Diego and a few other places in that area when he went with a sibling. Probably very different from NYC!

Anyone else feeling a bit gutted for LA with all the fires today?

Spent so long looking at things to do and watching YouTube videos. I hadn’t planned on going to Hollywood but these fires are really scary

(I had to evacuate from one in the Mediterranean a few years ago and it was horrific!)

Yes! We're flying in 40 days.

I travel to the US frequently for work. Boston is beautiful and loads to do. Its not as expensive as Miami, vegas or NYC because the taxes are lower and imo its far less sleazy and sketchy than lots of other places in the US including the ones i named above. You can go to Salem, Cape Cod etc from there and there is plenty to do in Boston itself. The food is great and i find it much better quality than most of the US, especially the seafood.

In 2023 we took our teen sons to Washington DC in February and then Chicago in late August/september. They absolutely loved both cities.
DC was amazing, all the museums, galleries etc being free made a huge difference and we really need to go back to see the ones we didn’t last time. We stayed in Embassy Suites by Hilton, DC conference centre with free breakfast and they had a free drinks reception every evening with snacks. It was 8 minutes walk to the metro and around 10 to the Natural history museum and National Mall. We ate in restaurants that had a happy hour with reduced priced food, often between 4-6 or 5-7pm. We did the Capitol building tour and took the metro and then a bus to the Air & Space Museum in Chantilly (there’s a smithsonian air and space museum on the mall too). We bought snacks, drinks etc in CVS, walgreens etc and had early nights as we were so busy in the day. You can hire bikes too to get around, very handy. We also felt very very safe in DC.
Chicago was also fabulous, public transport excellent too. You have to do the architectural river cruise, science museum, art gallery, natural history museum and Sears (now Willis) Tower. We stayed at Hyatt Place Chicago downtown/The Loop, again free breakfast and a few minutes walk to public transport and a famous Deep pan pizza restaurant. Again we tried to do happy hour at restaurants if it suited our day. We found the people in Chicago very friendly and food was probably more bang for our buck than DC. We also went to the zoos in both places, DC zoo has Pandas at the moment I think.
Sorry for the essay, my sister is cabin crew and she recommended both these cities ahead of NY and she even thought the hotels I picked were at great locations. Have fun deciding.

@APMom6

Your post was amazing! The type I think the op was looking for! So detailed