My eldery parents are visiting me in the US. I live in the Midwest for work. They will have a 90-day ESTA visa, and I am encouraging them to explore while they are here. They have never been to the US before but are competent travellers. Physically, hiking is no longer on the cards, but they can still do walking tours in cities etc.
In your opinion, what is on your “not to be missed” list?
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Chicago is a gorgeous city for tourism, in terms of things to do and sights to see.
If they like the heat a little pop down to Charleston could be fun.
New York, Washington, DC, Chicago… I’d love to say San Francisco, but those hills can be rough on even younger people.
A couple of favorite places for me that aren’t cities are Door County Wisconsin and Michigan Upper Peninsula.
The Florida Keys are unique but Florida right now is a nightmare…
Also Boston/New England are easy drives and a lot to see.
Yellowstone
New Orleans
There’s the urban/historic approach and the natural wonders approach. It sounds like they may have time to do both.
The urban/historic approach is Boston-New York City-Philadelphia-Washington, DC, which can be done entirely by public transit. I recommend traveling between cities bY Amtrak, booking at least two weeks in advance. You could throw in Baltimore if interested. And you could continue down to Charleston and/or Atlanta, though a car would be desirable at that point.
The natural wonders approach would be a road trip somewhere between the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, though not the entire region. We once did a three day, three National Park trip, basing ourselves in Kanab, Utah, and seeing Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. But there are three more National Parks just in Utah, two in Colorado, and two in western Wyoming. Distances are far there, so depending on time, you could pick the northern areas, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and the parks near Moab, or the southern parks. Without being able to hike, you wouldn’t need to spend much time at any of these parks, say a day or two, maybe three at Yellowstone.
Savannah, true jewel of the south, easy to walk around and caters to older people.
What do they like? New England is a really easy (but a bit pricey place to travel. (The hotels are pricey) A really great trip is into NYC for a few days, then it’s just like 4 hours to Boston.
They could ferry from Boston to Provincetown or drive an hour or a and go to places like Newport RI (highly recommend), Newburyport, Portland Maine, Portsmouth, NH.
New England is a great place for those that like history, museums, good food and close by nature. Also within an couple-few hours, White Mountains in NH and Green mountains in Vermont and all the little quaint college and lake towns in between.
Very mediocre for music scene and night life.
Low crime and safe driving — but metro Boston has some serious challenging driving.
DRIVE skyline drive/Blue Ridge parkway. Book a room at Skyland or Great Meadows, park and look at the overlooks and then hit the museums in DC, then train to NYC.
If you’re in the Midwest, Chicago is beautiful. For history and walking I’d go to the East Coast: Boston, Philadelphia, DC. California is gorgeous as well and Charleston is one of my favorite cities in the country. If they like nature, go out west.
Do your parents like Things? Then they should do Things, because people probably do Things differently here, and they’ll carry the difference with them when they are home again and do Things. The new view of Things will outlast any sight they could see.
Also, because a 90-day trip means just seeing the sights can wear on you; especially at that age.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a beautiful city and I highly recommend it.
Consider an amtrak vacation.. The USA is huge by most standards and 90 days is a very good window to utilize.
NOLA is a fun little town with great food and interesting history. There are nearby swamps as well and people are friendly.
It depends on their interests and comfort level.
We had an older couple visit once and they were comfortable renting a car and driving around by themselves to visit smaller communities, smaller museums, historic sites, quirky roadside attractions outside of a major city across the state. They seemed to be interested in local culture and off the beaten path sort of travel rather than visiting casinos, seeing performances, going to major tourist attractions. They were not here for 90 days so they pretty much concentrated on exploring one state and visiting family.
Lubbock, Texas
They could do an organized tour of national parks. Most of them have very good access for seniors or people that can’t endure physical challenges. A bus will take them everywhere, guides will lead them on walks, they’ll stay in hotels and lodges. It’s a very common and popular way for older people to visit our incredible parks.
In the Midwest they could visit St. Louis, see the Arch, catch a Cardinals game and take a river cruise.
Be careful of the elevation if you come to Colorado/Rockies. Just driving in the mountains can affect some people, especially in their 70s. It will be a beautiful year here though, as we’ve been getting A LOT of rain. Wildflowers will be out everywhere.
Las Vegas. There is no more American city than Las Vegas. You can also take them to see the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.
Southern California is also a half day drive away.
I’ve consistently recommended to elderly US family members and overseas visitors to take the trains. I’ve heard particularly positive feedback from an aunt who did the Pacific Surfliner solo after my uncle passed and the local stops on the Acela from European backpackers (and later their parents).
Don’t do it everywhere, but use specific lines to see places at a slower place with lower friction and no car, especially if they’re able to travel lighter.
I’m giving specific lines below so you can Google for more specific resources, which are abundant for the west coast lines in particular:
– The Acela between Boston and DC. There are fantastic museums and things to see in downtown Philly, Baltimore, and even Wilmington, DE for a few hours/half day along the line.
– The Pacific Surfliner in California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.
– The Coast Starlight between LA and Seattle, which IIRC also stops at San Luis Obispo.
– Between Denver and Salt Lake City there is a private train of some kind that goes through the Rockies. I’ve seen the train from I70 somewhere around Glenwood Springs, CO and immediately put it on my bucket list.
You are already in the Midwest, definitely get them to the Great Lakes. Chicago would be a good couple of days, then swing around to the Indiana side and see the Indiana Dunes National Park, then up the coast into Michigan for some of the quaint coastal towns (New Buffalo, eat at Redamak’s). You could easily make a week or three of Lake Michigan alone. Hell, I have lived in this area for 20+ years, and I still find cool stuff along Lake Michigan.
Aside from that, Nashville is a cool city and there is some great hiking and outdoor stuff in the surrounding areas. San Diego is probably my favorite city in the country, even though I have only been a couple of times. The vibe there is just awesome. Lots of people like to see Vegas and NYC, if that is their kind of thing, definitely help them see one of them. I would just try to find out what kinds of experiences they want, then pick cities that correspond to that. You can pick any given major city and find a national park nearby, or you can pick nearly any national park and find a cool city within a couple hour drive.
New Orleans, Plantation Tour, Riverboat up Mississippi, Swamp Tour with the gators. Museums of Jazz, Museum of Voodoo, there are many. Can’t miss the Graveyard Tour. French Quarters. …… don’t know if any statues are left.
Different places in the Midwest have interesting places to visit, many have interesting history that Europe or where ever you are from and vise versa. In order to visit places not many people have visited you have to learn your local history. You will find that there’s plenty of cool places to visit right in your back yard.
I mainly know Ohios interesting places like the largest aviation museum in the [National Museum of the United States, Air Force](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/). That place is amazing and will take you 2 days to see everything. You can see the wright brothers glider all the way up to a space shuttle and full size rockets, all indoors. Free to visit, free to park. They have planes from every war and from all over the world. Some of the rarest planes too.
There’s lots of parks to visit, I would suggest not visiting a park inside a city, the tend to be a little bland, find a park further away from cities.
Here’s another fun place to visit near the air force museum. [Carillon Historical Park.](https://www.daytonhistory.org/visit/dayton-history-sites/carillon-historical-park/). What’s fun about that place is they have trains adults can ride on and a elaborate rail system for the trains. They are small steam trains, like 2ft tall trains with little mini rails. It’s really near. [they have a Rail festival soon to ride the trains](https://www.daytonhistory.org/event/event-registration/).
Tons and tons of things to do. Local welcome centers are helpful on finding places to visit.
Here’s a nice place to spend a afternoon. [Wagnalls Memorial Library](https://youtu.be/dQAagPTNW7s), a great story and a very relaxing place to visit. You can read books, they have public computers to use just like a public library but the architecture is very specific to that place. Mabel really build a fantastic place. Her and her family has a mausoleum made from concrete down the road from the library where they rest.
That’s just a few gems Ohio has to offer, there’s so many places to visit.