Must see destination in US?

16 comments

1. LA/socal. Cali haters out I see

2. Hurricanes make landfall very rarely and with significant advance warning. It’s absolutely not a reason to avoid the area, that’s silly.

   I’d just be concerned about how much driving you’ll be doing. That’s A LOT of time in the car for a vacation in my opinion.

3. You absolutely do not need to drive from NYC to Philly or DC. Take ACELA. Fast and super convenient. Yes, ACELA is more expensive than the slower train that runs roughly the same route, but you’re a tourist and it saves you a bit of time.

   I would pick 3-4 cities. Less transit and longer times in each location may mean you’ll be able to do day trips. More locations means you’ll be doing more stuff in the tourism centers and little else. Neither of these is the right or wrong way to travel, it just is a matter of what you want to do and how quick paced you want to be.

   You want nature, I’d say upstate New York and the non urban areas of PA are worth exploring rather than going south into Philly and DC.

   Knoebels Amusement Resort
   https://maps.app.goo.gl/16cp9q8JqASXJqAp7 is a large, free admission amusement park (you pay for rides and conessions, though there are picnic areas outside of the park where you can eat your own food) and September is an awesome time to be in rural PA.

   I think adding Florida and the south into this trip might make it a bit too rushed. ITs possible to do but I think you’ll just add a lot more time in transit if you do.

4. Everywhere you mentioned is great OP.

   Next visit will be west coast. California different from Charleston SC and is different from New York City.

   You’re fine with Hurricane season. Pay for the travel insurance if your credit card doesn’t have already but that’s good advice for any trip

5. If you could swing it – Glacier National Park, or the North Cascades of you fond yourself close ish to Seattle.

   Las Vegas too. It’s honestly a great city if you’re innto nature because you’re close to lots of things there. The city itself can be alot of fun too for a night out, or walk along yhe strip. But the really cool shit is the surrounding geography – especially if you are in to hiking and climbing.

6. Fall is a great time for arts and harvest festivals around NY and PA. Like the York County Pawpaw festival (September 23-24 2023) and the like. That’s pretty authentic small town America

7. Food places

   New York

   Vegas

   Grand Canyon

   National parks

   California

   Disney parks

8. Your itinerary looks great without Miami for 3 weeks. But you could also cut a few cities out of that and still be fine or not go quite so far south, like keep it to North Carolina.

9. I would do the train between NYC, Philly, and DC. All three are awful and awful expensive for cars (DC and NYC more so than Philly.

   DC to Shenandoah, Charleston, and Miami are great.

   For food anything highly rated in the cities you mentioned is perfect. If you go to Charleston, Tybee Island is a great stop for the beach and September will be outside peak tourist season but likely still plenty warm for a beach day.

   In SC you absolutely must get a low country boil. It’s a huge batch of seafood, corn, potatoes, and other things, meant to be shared by at least two people. [Here’s a pic](https://i0.wp.com/southerncastiron.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/cast_image005_RGB_1080x1080_1968540.jpg?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1). Some have sausage and good ones have crab too.

   Soft shell crabs in Maryland is another local awesomeness. Cuban food in Miami is also a must.

   If you want to be fancy, NYC and DC are the places for high end culinary stuff. It will cost you a shit ton but you can eat at a Michelin starred restaurant. I prefer the less expensive more rustic farm to table type places “American bistro” or “farm to table” would be the buzzwords for searches.

   I also highly suggest the local city subs for more information once you mail down an itinerary.

   AskNYC even has a tourist guide https://www.reddit.com/r/AskNYC/comments/bj3tnn/ultimate_visitors_guide_to_nyc/

   And a lot of great info in their wiki
   https://www.reddit.com/r/AskNYC/wiki/index

   Try out a rooftop bar and I also suggest going to one of the Biergartens in Brooklyn just to compare, might be funny.

   Charleston has a lot of great food. I haven’t been in years so my recommendations are likely out of date. Savannah isn’t far and has great food. Savannah and Charleston are known for local festivals too so check that out.

   DC is amazing and I recommend any of the Smithsonian museums but don’t forget there is a second Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy which is an extension of the one on the Mall (the Space Shuttle and the SR 71 Blackbird are there). You could honestly spend all three weeks just doing DC museums and monuments and government buildings. The only museum I have actually paid for (the Smithsonian ones are free) is the Spy Museum and I wasn’t disappointed.

   But definitely look up local city calendars anywhere you plan to stop for festivals, music, etc. don’t know what kind of live music you might like but seeing a live show in NYC is cool.

10. Make sure you hit the Mutter Museum in Philly. Definitely weird and quirky.

    You also can’t get much more “America” than Old City/Independence Mall either. It’s the birthplace of American Independence. You can tour Independence Hall for free, but you do need a timed ticket. The Liberty Bell is just ehh, but would be could be worth it if your interested.

    If you want a real cheesesteak, you need to get it in Philly because everyone else just has poor imitations.

11. Stick with your East Coast plan. That’s plenty for one trip. That *is* a fair amount of driving but not overly much for three full weeks. It would be too much for a week and probably for two.

    Google Maps says it’s roughly 24 hours of driving time from New York to Miami via those places. So that’s 4 seven-hour days (with stops) (plus some buffer you should add just in case) and 17 days where you don’t have to drive anywhere. (Or three longer but doable days.) To me that’s not too much. I just drove that same distance by myself in the last week from Atlanta, Georgia to a bit north of West Palm Beach, Florida to St. Augustine, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina and back to Atlanta. It was a good trip.

    Of course, you could save some of that driving by taking the train as mentioned, and there are definite advantages to that, but I think you’ll miss more than you’ll gain. September is an excellent time of year to drive through the northeast and see all the leaves changing, and I don’t know about you, but to me there’s nothing better than driving down winding roads through the hills with brilliant colored leaves everywhere and having the freedom to go wherever you want and stop wherever you want to sample the local culture. You can’t get that on the train.

    You also might miss things like the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Parkway at the perfect time of year. The drive will be worth it, I’d say. It will be a tourist attraction in itself, not just transportation. There are also caves along the way you can tour. Cave tours are a classic American adventure. I don’t know if you have those there. The Blue Ridge Parkway will bring you to Smoky Mountains National Park, one of the limited number of national parks in the Eastern U.S. It’s not so big so you can do that in one day or even half a day with a quick drive up the mountain to the lookout where you can see several states. It’s the third highest point in the Eastern U.S. (6,643 feet) but it’s an easy drive up the paved road and it’s pleasantly winding and beautiful. The Appalachian Trail crosses the road at the top so you can even hike a few yards of the trail (or more) and say you’ve done that. It’s 2190 miles long through the wilderness so you can’t do all of it. You also pass through the Cherokee Indian reservation to get up the mountain and you can stop there, too. They have some tourist stuff to keep you busy, including a casino.

    From there you can head to Charleston and move on to the southern half of the trip.

    It sounds like a good plan to me. It will show you a lot of Americana at a perfect time of year. If you’re driving to Miami, then St. Augustine, Florida is worth a half-day stop. It’s right on the way. It’s the oldest occupied city in the US, founded by Spain in the early 1500s, and has an old fort and some fun, low-key tourist things to do. Just be warned that most of the city is fairly modern so don’t expect some old, medieval European-type city, but it’s still very pleasant. Most of it is sort of a 1920s Florida look. There’s an entertaining pedestrian street with lots of restaurants and shops of all kinds.

    Keep in mind also that the farther south you go, the more you’ll leave fall/autumn weather behind. It takes another month or two for that weather to reach the Southern U.S. and most of Florida doesn’t really have it at all. They are in a more subtropical climate zone. Miami is tropical.

12. Skip NY, start in Boston. Also visit the Smithsonian museums in Washington, and the US Capital. I’m seconding the recommendation for York, or Lancaster, for some taste of “more rural” USA. If you do make it as far south as Savannah, visit Fort Pulaski and the mickve israel synagogue.

13. Within the itinerary you’ve mentioned, I think the Smithsonian museums deserve at least a full day of your time (maybe more). The National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of the American Indian are my personal favorites, but they’ve all got some amazing things to see. They’re entirely free and open to the public.

    I also like your idea of balancing urban experiences with some time in nature 🙂 Shenandoah seems like a good option, but the [Cape May bird observatory](https://njaudubon.org/centers/cape-may-bird-observatory/) might have some events going on in September, relating to the fall migration.

14. That should be a good time of year for county fairs and maybe Renaissance fairs if you can get to one.

15. Blue Ridge Parkway with a stop in Asheville.

16. What to you mean by “authentic America” and “things that scream America”? If you’re in the US it’s all American.