European here who would like to visit a majority of the states in the US at some point. I would probably take trips lasting around 2 weeks each. I wouldn’t want to be rushing my way through states though, as I would like to see all the best sights, and have time to enjoy them. Some ideas I had where the west coast (Washington, Oregon and California) and the south east (both Carolina’s and Florida). Any advice is appreciated 🙂
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New England is pretty great imo, sucks living here but it’s a beautiful place to visit. You can also hit the New York area and DC if you have enough time.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, DC and Virginia
New England would be great for a trip like this, what’re you trying to do and see?
Starting in California and doing the Pacific Coast Highway and then spending some time in the Cascades bouncing between Washington and Oregon would be fun.
The southeastern states (the carolinas & Georgia) are a very different culture from Florida. I love Florida, but it’s very much its own thing.
New England, hit up the mountains, coast, cities, historical sites, quaint towns.
Most states are big enough by themselves (in either size or tourist potential) for at least a week each. The only states I’d group together are in New England.
Regionally by important cities I’d go with Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC, which fits both my experience and personal bias.
New England, perhaps. They’re fairly small and you probably could hit several major sights in two weeks. Most of the major stuff will be towards the coast.
Anyone have any advice on which Midwest states to group together? I know they get a rep or being flyover states but would probably want to visit most, even including the great plain states like Nebraska, Kansas etc.
Philly and DC, add in a little time in Baltimore.
I’ve long thought there are two ways to do a once in a lifetime trip to the US, and you’ve given me an excuse to describe both.
For urban sites, with plenty of history, museums, landmarks, etc., there the northeast corridor from Boston to DC, including NYC and Philadelphia, maybe Baltimore. You can do as few or as many in this section as you like. I’m not sure if the Amtrak 30 day rail pass applies, but you can do all of this without a car, and the train is convenient and comfortable. With a car, there’s even more, though I wouldn’t plan on using a car within any of these cities. With more time and a car, you can go down to Charleston.
For our nature, there’s a possible grand loop around Four Corners (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona), though not necessarily hitting the actual Four Corners monument. Utah alone has five National Parks, and Colorado has four, though you might want to limit yourselves to just 2 or 3 of these. Then hit the Taos Pueblo in NM, one of the better known Native American communities that’s welcoming to tourists (but check their schedule since they close to tourists for their own holidays). Then Meteor Crater in Arizona. And finally there’s the Grand Canyon, either the north or south rims.
In any event, I strongly encourage seeing something related to Native Americans, whether it’s the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian with sites in DC and NYC, or elsewhere. It’s one aspect of the US (and North America in general) that tourists don’t often think about but is not something they’ll find in Europe, Asia, or Australia.
You could fly into Boston, rent a car, putz around New England for a week and see Acadia National Park, the White Mountains, scenic New England etc. then you can return the car rental and take Acela (train) to NY or DC (or both) and spend a few days (in each?) seeing museums or whatever. There is tons to do in both places.
I would do:
* New England
* New York
* PA, NJ, Delaware, MD
* DC, Virginia, West Virginia
* NC, SC, GA
* Florida
* Ohio, MI, Indiana
* Illinois, Wisconsin
* Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana
* Texas
* Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri
* Iowa, Minnesota, ND, SD
* Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma
* Montana, Wyoming, Idaho
* New Mexico, Arizona
* Utah, Nevada
* Washington, Oregon
* Northern California
* Southern California
* Alaska (consider 2 or 3 visits depending what you want to do, it’s a big state)
* Hawaii
* Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
* Guam, Marianas Islands
* American Samoa (good luck)
So 22 trips to get a good visit to all 50 states. This would allow you to visit the major cities for a few days, visit the popular tourist sites and visit a few national parks.
You could pack in more states per trip, but you won’t be able to see all the top attractions and you’ll be spending most of your trip driving.
You could also easily spend 2 weeks in most states.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but visiting western South Dakota and then going up and visiting western North Dakota would be nice. Very underrated but beautiful parts of the country.
It will take a lot of trips! Here is how I would go about grouping regions:
* New England States + NYC
* DC + PA and Appalachia (history, civil war, mountains)
* Florida and the south, make sure you hit at least one of the historic coastal cities – Savannah and Charleston are WAY better than New Orleans IMO.
* Chicago + Upper Midwest/Great Lakes
* Texas, Ozarks, KS Flint Hills, St Louis
* Santa FE/NM, Arizona (Grand Canyon Etc), Las Vegas
* Colorado, Utah, Wyoming Yellowstone NP
* PNW States + Glacier NP
* California (in my opinion you want 2 weeks just for CA – there is as much in that state than the rest of the west combined)
* Hawaii
* Alaska
With that you could hit just about every state and for sure get a good dive into each region. Here is a funny but actually pretty accurate map of the regions [https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/vsxxjg/regional_map_of_the_usa_updated/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/vsxxjg/regional_map_of_the_usa_updated/)
As a Californian, I’m just chiming in to say that Washington, Oregon, and California would not be great for a two week trip. It is over 2,000 km from San Diego, CA to Seattle, WA. Even if you flew from city to city, a lot of the best national parks are pretty far from the nearest major cities/airports. Yosemite, for example, is over 300 km from San Francisco, CA. Maybe part of New England would work though?
Portland, the wineries and the coast, Crater lake, the Oregon Caves and Ashland is a nice trip just in Oregon, maybe add the Coast redwoods and the Lavabeds from far North California.
You can do that with almost any region. Don’t miss Yellowstone if safari like experiences sound interesting to you.
I’m gonna give you three different ideas (all of which assumes you are willing and able to rent a car).
Idea One (East Coast)
1. Fly to Boston;
2. Rent car and go to Acadia NP. You could also go to Portland, ME (super hip and off the main tourism road) or Burlington, VT (incredible in Autumn. Tons of hippies.)
3. Go back to Boston. Take MegaBus to NYC;
4. Take MegaBus to DC;
5. Rent a car and head to Shenandoah NP. You could also go to Mt. Vernon, Monticello and Charlottesville (really underrated town).
That’s really a three week trip but you would see a lot of sites and see, IMO, the best major cities for tourists. The problem with the East is that landscape won’t be dramatically different than what you’re used to especially compared to the West which feels otherworldly.
Idea Two
1. Fly to Vegas. Rent car;
2. Drive to Zion;
3. Drive Arches;
4. Drive to Moab;
5. Drive to Grand Canyon and Flagstaff;
6. Drive back to Vegas and go home.
All of these parks are incredible and there’s nothing like it anywhere in Europe. The problem with this would be that you’d only go to Vegas as a big city – which I absolutely despise as a city – but the juxtaposition between those parks and a ridiculous plastic showy place like Vegas is pretty incredible. This could be done in two weeks.
Idea Three (California)
1. Fly to San Francisco
2. Rent car and go to Redwoods;
3. Go to Yosemite;
4. Take highway 1 across the Pacific Coast towards LA
5. Go to LA or San Diego and head home.
Hope all of that is helpful!
100% New England
Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona
Or
Colorado, Wyoming and Montana
Both are great in different ways. The Arizona circuit would take you through mountains, desert, ruins, and the second oldest city in the US. The Montana circuit would take you through more mountains, prairies, and geothermal activity.
Either place, you could engage with some gold mining history and see a variety of little towns.
Breaking up by states might not be the best idea. For example, Tennessee by itself would mean a lot of driving between Bristol/Knoxville/Chattanooga and Memphis. It’d be better to do East and Middle Tennessee with western North Carolina, northern Alabama, north Georgia, far west Virginia and upland South Carolina (or split Middle TN off with northern Alabama and part of Kentucky). Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC would best be another trip. As would a St. Louis, Paducah, Memphis, Mississippi Delta region and Little Rock trip.
Another example, if you do a New Orleans trip, you can throw in Jackson and Biloxi, MS along with Mobile, AL, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to try to rope in Tupelo, MS or pretty much any other part of Alabama.
Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona are the first one that come to mind. There’s about 9000 state and national parks in all of them. And just endless once in a lifetime award winning vacation photo opportunities.
If you want cities Philadelphia. Boston, New York, Washington DC, are a few hours by train or car apart.
I would focus more on the cities and parks you’re interested in than trying to hit as many states as possible. You can waste full days travelling, even in the northeast where things are closer.
A few years ago I spent a full week in Burlington, VT and didn’t get to do half of what I wanted to do.
The Carolinas are really good for this. You’ve got prominent mountains in NC, beaches in both states, outerbanks in NC, myrtle and the beaches around Charleston in SC, Raleigh and Charleston are really historic cities
Do DC/Arlington/New York City, I did that in two weeks and it worked out great!
I think the perfect trip would be NYC and New England. NYC is only a few hours from Boston.
The great thing to about New England is there are so many points of interest and great towns very, very close to one another.
Florida definitely needs a couple weeks by itself. Miami, Key West, Tampa, Tallahassee, plus Everglades Nat’l Park.
ENP is a treasure that takes time – gotta go fishing and hiking to at least see the most beautiful orchids & birds as well.
Desert southwest. Arizona, Utah, New Mexico
Maine has Acadia National Park, you could travel south and hit up Boston, Plymouth, Salem, philly, or go straight to NYC. It kind of depends on what “experience” you want. If you want history, the east coast is the oldest, but the haitory of America happened in stages due to its size. So east coast, then Mississippi River, “wild west”, you’ll get different experiences in those regions, which also have different cultures within them.
I think you’re underestimating just how big the US is.
Im an Aussie and have visited a few times.
I once did a California road trip and went:
Sam Fran -> Sacramento (to see some mates, otherwise that would be a skip) -> Yosemite -> Death Valley -> LA -> Pacific Coast Highway back to San Fran via Monterey
And that trip took the better part of 8 days with a good 6+ hours of driving each day.
Beautiful country 🙂 Im actually headed over to Seattle tomorrow!
Spend a week at Rocky Mountain NP and other sites in Colorado, then a week in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone NP. DO NOT miss those two parks. You’ll need a vehicle for your adventure.
How long will you be here? US is huge and the most popular places to visit are often far from each other and will cost time to travel!
New England, and only New England
You really can’t do the west coast in two weeks. Hell, I could write up a road trip just for Oregon that would take two weeks, blow your mind, and still not hit all the high points. Hell, I’ve lived here my entire life (40 years next March) and have explored a ton, and I know I’m still missing stuff.
I think your best bet is to find one city, and explore there. Back in September I took a two week vacation in Seattle. Had the time of my life, visiting museums, Pike Street Market, Bainbridge Island, waterfront restaurants, and wasn’t bored once. And that was in the 18th largest city in the US.
Can you imagine what you could experience in the 17 larger?