USA road trip, where would you visit?

Alicia

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So if we are doing both coasts, what would you suggest, flying at some point to cut out the middle or?

What cities would you miss out and why? :]
Depends, if you're deciding to visit NASA, I'd say fly out of Texas, or just...avoid Texas all together. It's a long ass drive and it's nothing to see or do for two days, almost. Also, Roswell New Mexico is the only thing of interest in that state so...I'd fly from Houston to Vegas, or something similar. Vegas to the grand canyon is an easy drive and then west from there driving.

Edit: Roswell New Mexico is the site of Area 51. I drove through the city at night and it was entirely underwhelming lol there might be actual site tours that might be of more interest but overall it's a pretty lackluster city and state.
 
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complexmath

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The southwest is largely interesting if you want to do outdoorsey stuff, which tends to be kind of limited midsummer. But there are Hopi and Navajo ruins to check out, the painted desert, whatever route 66 stuff floats your boat, ghost towns, etc. But just being outdoors is punishing. We drove cross country in July a few years back and would start at like 2am, then drive til midafternoon and stop somewhere. So most of the drive was at night when it's cool and no one's on the road, and we would plan our stops to happen at a cool location. We also did the drive with 3 tiny kids, so that was a factor as well. But it really worked out well from a day planning standpoint.

Also, if you know your schedule really precisely and enough in advance you can do things like arrange to hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and spend the night there. But those spots fill up really really fast so getting one can be a bit like trying to buy a new iPhone on launch day. If there's something like that that you want to do, plan it early.
 

Alchymia

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Avoid the center of the country... Really. There is really nothing there worth seeing that much. Driving across Texas is a pain in the ass, but bypassing that for Oklahoma City? No. Just no. I'd try to fly from one side of the coast to the other and try to fly out from airline hubs (cheaper flights. Eg. Denver is a hub for several airlines and I can get comparatively cheap flights to nearly anywhere, especially one-way fares). In your posted map, I'd fly out from Denver to New Orleans (there's really no advantage to driving that stretch).

Edit: Colorado is not in the center of the country, so do not ignore it... it is absolutely great here!
 

Rawrr

Active Member
JFF Member
So the guy I might be travelling with, this is a rough plan so far of things he wants to do/see,

Boston (2-3 Days)
MIT + Harvard

Washington DC + Baltimore
White house
Lincoln Memorial
Pentagon
Capitol Hill
Smithsonian
Georgetown

New York
Empire state building
Ground Zero
Central park
Rucker park
Times square
Pizza places
Night out


San Francisco
Alcatraz
Palo Alto (Silicon Valley)
GGB


Los Angeles
Beverly Hills
Hollywood sign
Santa Monica
Sightseeing tour
Comedy clubs
Music scene
Night out
Universal Studios
Rodeo
Walk Of Fame
UCLA games
Compton
Sony Picture Studio
Venice beach

National Parks
Zion, UT
Yosemite, CA
Joshua Tree, CA
Yellowstone
 

vincymull

New Member
A road trip is more about the journey than the destination. The junk food and roadside diners are part of the experience. Plus, in North America the scenery is so varied, with almost every type of terrain and vegetation, from rain forest in Washington State or British Columbia to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, the flat and treeless Prairies (Great Plains) that stretch from Saskatchewan to Texas, the great Boreal Forest of northern Canada, the bayous of Louisianna, the rolling farmland of Pennsylvania or the majestic Rockies.
Europe has a lot more culture and history, but for natural wonders, it doesn't compare to North America.
 
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