Summer holiday to US ?

[Lochalvie]

Just wondering what people’s thoughts are on going to USA this summer? Would current political situation put you off ?

California from san Francisco down to san diego. Visited friends in Baltimore, DC and Boston

@Nutmuncher- I've had some time to think about the polarisation question we've been discussing.

I guess my view on the UK being more polarised than the US is based on the following:

-I read more national newspapers at home than I do in the US
-I listen to Radio 4 and The Times radio heavily
-Most of the social media people I follow or podcasts I listen to are UK based

However, I very rarely discuss politics with my family/friends and never with colleagues.

Meanwhile, when I go to the US, (Austin, Texas and the SF Bay Area - both strong democratic areas) I'm not exposed to the same level of media, formal or social. The TV news channels and radio stations tend to be locally focused and the newspapers we get in the office are local, metropolitan ones too.

My colleagues, who are predominantly (legal) immigrant Indians, don't discuss politics (not woth me anyway) and I've no idea of their affiliations (I can hazard a good guess)

I guess what I'm saying is my view that the UK is as strongly polarised, politically, or possibly more so than the USA; is based on the increased exposure I have to political viewpoints,via various media formats, in the UK compared to the USA.

I guess what this ramble should conclude with is that I have a bias based on being more (not necessarily better) informed about the UK political scene.

P.S. I actually live in Northern Ireland - dont get me started on the political situation here 😀

@Emilyinspacethanks for the reply. Disappointing that you didn't enjoy those places.

I last visited DC and Boston in 2019 and agree that both were starting to appear run-down even then. North of Boston into New Hampshire is fantastic though.

Did you not like San Diego ? It's possibly our favourite US city, albeit we tend to stay on Pacific Beach (one of the northern suburbs) when we go there and rarely venture downtown

BIL lives in New England and as much as I love where he lives, I have no intention of visiting anytime soon. MIL has a big birthday this summer and DD1 gets married the previous weekend so he is coming here.

We're going in April to see PILs. I'm not worried about safety while we're there, but I'm worried about having to give info about SM and having my phone checked. I don't expect the holiday will be any different to our previous ones, a mix of touristy spots and beaches and theme parks.

I have family in the US (and am a citizen myself), and we'll be going in March for a family wedding. We'll be going to 2 states, both Republican, so I'm not worried, but I do feel uncomfortable in general about visiting at the moment. We've previously gone annually, but we may rethink the next few years. Difficult when you have family there though.

We thought San Diego was grubby. Do not get the love of it. So many better places and many states are Democrat. We don’t engage much in tv in the USA but found in two hotels that it was easy to find balanced tv channels if we wanted to catch up on USA news. Americans don’t engage much in world news and no one remotely cares about the uk!

@OhDear111- yes, ive seen you say that about SD before. Tbh, I don't think you've been to the right areas. Downtown (Gaslamp Quarter) isnt the greatest nowadays (it was thriving in the mid 90s when we first visited): but Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Coronado are lovely.

I dont really consider La Jolla, where you stayed, as part of San Diego, and don't regularly visit there - its more for retirees and I always associate it with the smell of seal lions (similar to Monterey)

We got our flight out on Wednesday
there were 469 seats on our flight & every one was booked so it doesn’t seem to be an issue

Different story if you’re in Canada. We’ve stopped crossing the border and numbers are down a quarter. Don’t see it changing until Trump goes or he stops the Canada becoming the 51st state rants.

@NorthernStar96 What’s so lovely about those areas? We went to Coronado and just decided to stay at La Jolla because we liked the property and we could drive up the coast. I accept we might not have seen the best of SD (although so many people recommended places to us!) but we did drive around. Just don’t think it’s us but overall we’ve found California a good state for a holiday. We like museums, culture, art and wildlife. We aren’t beach people. As a result, we like Chicago! I guess we like different things

The timescale for the public to comment about the proposed changes to the ESTA program ends next week. Will be interesting to see if the US go ahead with it and the impact on travellers.

Proposed information requirements under the new ESTA.

• Requiring each applicant to submit a photo of his or her face in addition to mandating the existing requirement of submitting the applicant’s passport biographic page. This proposed change aims to align the website application process with the mobile application process and ensure that the ESTA applicant is the same person as the one on the passport biographic page.
• Requiring applicants to provide a five-year history of their social media activity. This measure is intended to enhance the security and vetting process.

• Requiring applicants to complete additional “high value” data fields, including:
• “Telephone numbers used in the last five years”;
• “Email addresses used in the last ten years”;
• “IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos”;
• Family member details (e.g., names, telephone numbers, dates of birth, places of birth, and residencies);
• “Biometrics—face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris”;
• “Business telephone numbers used in the last five years”; and
• “Business email addresses used in the last ten years.”

DH wanted to get a new ESTA last week and the question about Social Media is not optional anymore.

@reluctantbrit No it’s not but I’m assuming he’s not raging about anti American causes. Most people who don’t like the USA don’t want an Esta. We got our Esta virtually immediately. They only look for extremes.

Well, his work religion to consider travelling. He did cancel some trips but won’t be able to avoid it fully.

Privately we won’t go.

He had ESTAs several times and was always able to not fill in the social media part but according to him not last week.

@reluctantbrit - that's a really recent change then. I applied for a new ESTA on 11th January and those questions were still optional

@OhDear111- as you say, different people like different things. We enjoy cycling, kayaking, hiking etc so those SD beach suburbs are perfect places for us to explore on 2 wheels.

Not so keen on staying in the big cities nowadays - e.g. when we've been to NY recently we've stayed on Long Island near Cold Harbor/Huntington and got the train in to Manhattan when we wanted to / driven out to the Hamptons for other day trips etc.

Like you, we're huge fans of the national parks and consider the annual pass an absolute bargain

@NorthernStar96 We like a bit of everything. National parks are short on art, architecture and museums. All of which float my boat. It was this aspect we found disappointing about SD. Beach areas are another matter and we don’t do amusement parks either.

DH had to fill in the social media page. It's only a problem because he is mostly an infrequent SM user but likes to keep work very separate from home. And if they are racking back 5 years goodness knows what he might have liked to support old uni friends, work colleagues fund raising for random events or just ridiculous memes.

@Artid I’m not sure they really look that deeply! I suspect there are key words. Plus nationality will matter and culture. There’s not been reports of large numbers of Brits not getting in.

But why would they look at all? A country so thin skinned that it cares about the spoutings of Joe or Jill Public on Facebook really does show itself to a little pathetic. The real threats aren't from people saying "Oh the Orange One is a bit of a w@anker"; they're from people plotting in secret. Surely.
It's daft.

But what if those key words are connected to work - anything could trigger it.i went through a stage of loving Korean camping set ups (trust me, it's ace). I could go to Canada and they don't care that during COVID I read 'Cider house Rules' and researches around the topic - illegal abortion in the USA 1930s.

I also would be researching where not to go in the USA, including cities with a heavy ICE presence. How would that look?

Suggest you read some classics @OhDear111 1984, etc and definitely watch Brazil, for when admin goes wrong.

I think you mean "not yet"

Just got back from an extended work trip in the U.S. visited a lot of Arizona (Canyon south rim, Sedona, Scottsdale, Flagstaf). Also spent time in utah and california. All business as usual, friendly and no sign of any trouble.

Going again in 2 weeks to St Augustine with work. Don't fret, social media does not show the true America.