The dollar may be weak, but with these 23 expert money-saving secrets, a holiday to the US needn’t be off the table, writes Tyler Wetherall
Road trip using an RV share app
Car rental prices experienced a massive spike during the pandemic and are generally still high, but a spate of new companies now offer RV shares; think of it like Airbnb for motorhomes, allowing you to safely hire a suitable camper direct from its owner. Outdoorsy lists vehicles from just US$50 ($81) per night (the average is US$229 per night, which is still well below, say, the cost of putting a family up in a hotel), including 24/7 roadside assistance and insurance. Book at outdoorsy.com.
Find free museum days
There are some excellent free museums in the US, such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles or, notably, the glut of federally funded institutions in Washington DC, home to most of the Smithsonian’s 19 museums. Those that aren’t typically free can charge upward of US$35 for entry — but some also offer free or pay-what-you-wish on certain days. New York City’s Guggenheim, for example, is pay-what-you-wish every Saturday between 4pm and 6pm, and the De Young in San Francisco is free the first Tuesday of every month. Check local museum listings.
Camp for free on public land
Camping is always a cheap and adventurous option, with a reserved campsite usually costing up to US$60 a night. If you’re looking to save even more, however, federal government land is largely free for you to pitch a tent on, especially spaces managed by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The downside? You’re less likely to have amenities, but that just puts you closer to the nature you’ve come to enjoy. Ogle views from the campsite on top of the 300m cliffs above the San Juan River Canyon, Utah, or get a glimpse of the Northern Lights from your tent while pitched in Chena Hot Springs in Alaska. Park Rangers are your most reliable resource once on the ground, but you can also research ahead of time on apps like AllTrails and Campnado.
Game nationwide Restaurant Weeks
At New York City’s most recent Restaurant Week (actually four weeks long), more than 600 restaurants offered meals for US$30, $45, and $60 for two and three-course lunch and dinner menus across the city, making dinner at some of the city’s usually alarmingly priced restaurants suddenly feasible. While the inaugural Restaurant Week was in 1992, similar events now take place across the nation, some twice a year and many weeks long, and if you time it right — and book early — you can fine-dine for a fraction of the price. Try Dine Out Boston, Chicago Restaurant Week, Portland (Oregon) Dining Month, the month-long Flavor Palm Beach, or California Restaurant Month. A database of restaurant weeks is listed at findrestaurantweeks.com.
See the sights with CityPASS
If you tend to go big on sightseeing, costs can add up fast. CityPASS sells discounted ticket packages to top tourist attractions in New York City, Chicago, Orlando and various others. Costs and inclusions vary, so it’s worth making sure the attractions offered are on your must-visit list — and you have the stamina to make the most of it — but you can accrue savings of around 40 per cent on admission. Other destinations offer an equivalent, such as New Mexico’s CulturePass, which allows one visit to each state museum and historic site statewide for US$30. Visit citypass.com for more information.
Line up those dive-bar boilermakers
What the diner is to eating, so the dive bar is to drinking; an all-American institution. The best dive bars are dark unglamorous dens, oozing character and packed with relics from another era — both the clientele and the decor. Much like the pub — and just as divergent in quality — dive bars have been closing down around the US in place of upscale, uniform (read: dull) drinking establishments: but a good dive bar is worth its salt (eg. Mac’s Club Deuce in Miami, where happy hour begins at 8am). They all offer the ubiquitous beer-and-shot combo, otherwise known as a boilermaker, and typically taken as a shot, followed by a beer chaser.
Eat at a diner
There is perhaps no greater emblem of Americana than the diner. It’s where working-class communities come for a good, cheap meal at any time of day and bottomless coffee. New Jersey is the diner capital of the US — home to more than 600 — but every state has their gems, from Mississippi’s Ajax Diner, famed for its buttermilk cornbread, to Charlie Parker’s Diner in Illinois, where your pancakes are on the house if you can finish the 16-inch stack. Consider it a budget-friendly front-row seat of unfiltered American culture.
Cross the country with the USA Rail Pass
Train travel is not cheap in general in the US, but there’s one hack that lets you avoid the dreaded Greyhound to cross the country overland — and it’s cheaper than car hire. Amtrak’s USA Rail Pass costs US$499 and offers up to 10 segments of travel within a 30-day period. Hop on and off the train at more than 500 destinations, including along some epic stretches of rail. The Sunset Limited route travels from New Orleans to Los Angeles passing breathtaking bayous and crossing the Rio Grande, while the California Zephyr climbs through the heart of the Rockies and into the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. Book at amtrak.com.
Visit Oklahoma — or other less obvious destinations
According to a recent survey by Priceline, two of the top three cheapest destinations to travel in the US are in Oklahoma. One is Oklahoma City, which offers a glimpse of Western cowboy culture and a cute arts scene — including the quirky collaborative Factory Obscura — with hotels averaging just US$89 per night. Tulsa is the other, with its average daily hotel rate of $94 a night, Art Deco architecture, award-winning food (try the many stalls at Mother Road Market), and an important history — the recently opened Greenwood Rising is dedicated to educating on the Tulsa Race Massacre, a vital stop for any visitors who want to better understand America. Visit travelok.com for more information.
Tour Land Art destinations
The US is known for its endless expanses of wildly varied terrain, which for the great land artists of the 20th century offered one massive canvas. This movement — a response to the commodification of art by creating unsellable pieces — was part of the fledgling environmental awareness, depositing epic site-specific pieces around the country. Most are free to visit, such as Robert Smithson’s 450m-long Spiral Jetty in Utah, made of mud, salt, crystal and rock, and often submerged by the tide; or Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, also in Utah, which aligns with the sunrise and sunset. Dia Art Foundation maintains a number of land art sites, so it’s well worth consulting diaart.org.
Pull up to the drive-in
Once on the verge of extinction, with just 318 drive-in theatres left in the US, the iconic 1950s experience has experienced something of a renaissance. It began before the pandemic, but social distancing accelerated it, and the holdouts and newcomers now offer updated twists on the classic experience, like the Harvest Moon Drive-In in Illinois, which is powered by wind turbines, or Four Brothers in Amenia, New York, which opened in 2014 and offers a sleepover cinema experience in a vintage Airstream. They’re also affordable, charging around US$20 per car.
Dine on the dollar slice in New York City
The dollar slice deserves its own entry, because it’s fueled the city’s population since 1905 when an employee at Lombardi’s in Little Italy (still open today) had the ingenious idea of selling a slice for 5¢. A regular slice now costs around $3 on average, much to New Yorkers’ chagrin, but a few 99¢ slice spots still exist. Either way, it’s a steal for a piece of pie (as the Americans call it) as big as your head and dripping with cheese. Fold it in half to eat it like a true New Yorker.
Walk the great trails
The US is home to a true wish-list of great trails. The Pacific Crest Trail, made famous in Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild, runs from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada, and takes in every terrain between, from the starched Mojave Desert to the volcano-capped Cascade Mountains in Washington. Walking the entire thing takes up to six months, so for a more manageable experience, it’s best to pick a section which interests you. The long-distance permit is free (although in limited supply). Another epic (also free) long-distance hike is the Appalachian Trail, a 3380km-long footpath along the Appalachian Mountain ridgelines between Maine and Georgia, perfect if you’re after your own Wild-esque adventure. Visit nps.gov to plan your trip.
Plan ahead
From flights and hotels to cars and buses, almost everything is cheaper if you book ahead (for example, according to Expedia, booking international flights six months in advance saves an average of 10 per cent). This also gives you time to take advantage of setting price alerts for when the cost drops on your desired route, and to secure accommodation in some of the best budget hotels, motels, inns and glamping situations, which book up fast. Other flight hacks? It’s cheapest to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Party in New Orleans
The Big Easy offers a lot of bang for your buck, and beautiful architecture to boot. It’s impossible to avoid music in the French Quarter, where it blasts out of bars (often without cover charges) and follows you down the street, as you dance with a notoriously lethal Hurricane cocktail in hand (this is arguably the birthplace of the mixed drink, after all). There’s also world-class affordable dining, from the shrimp po’boys at longstanding Domilise’s to the celebrated Haitian food from newcomer Fritai. There are plenty of free activities on offer, from pay-what-you-like ghost tours to First Saturday Gallery Openings in the Arts District every month. Visit neworleans.com to plan your trip.
Travel off-season
There’s a knack to travelling off-season, a sweet spot when the prices are low but the weather is still bearable, and the crowds disperse. Wyoming’s Jackson Hole is a notoriously ritzy ski destination, but between May and October the ski slopes become hiking destinations and Grand Teton National Park is on the doorstep. Chicago’s bleak weather might make it unthinkable as a winter break until you look at the price of flights, and then suddenly its museums and restaurant scene make it worth the journey.
Maximise the America the Beautiful Pass
America’s 58 national parks total some 34 million hectares of dramatic landscapes, truly wild wildlife (grizzlies, wolves) and the opportunity to experience true isolation — and that’s before you’ve even considered the 352 national monuments, battlefields and preserves under the American Park Service’s protection. If you’re planning a cross-country family road trip, a Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass (otherwise called America The Beautiful pass), costs US$80 and covers entrance fees for the entire vehicle to more than 2000 sites, from Joshua Tree National Park in California to the home of Franklin D Roosevelt in New York. Most federal sites where passes are accepted will also sell them.
Drink your way through the craft brewery scene
With more than 8000 craft breweries nationwide, many locations have tapped into the boom by offering free tours and discounted flights or tastings to lure visitors. Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware, has an incredible facility — with a steampunk treehouse — and offers free tours including samples; or just about anywhere in Colorado, which has more breweries than any other state. Many craft beer destinations are now competing for tourists by offering brewery trail maps with discounts and incentives, like the Oregon Beer Trail or the app-based New York State Brewery Passport.
Explore the melting pot of American cuisine
While native American cuisine is receiving newfound attention, thanks to the hard work of some innovative indigenous chefs, the majority of the food consumed in North America stems from centuries of immigration. In the ethnically diverse cities of the US, find pockets of culinary delight from every culture on the planet, often priced for the community in which they’re found. Head to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York, for everything from Nepalese dumplings to Colombian empanadas; or Little Haiti in Miami, home to some of the best Caribbean fare in town.
Game resale ticket sites
Find bargain tickets to games, shows and concerts on third-party ticket resale sites. While Ticketmaster sells tickets to just about everything, the fees are higher — SeatGeek, meanwhile, has the advantage of comparing the price of tickets at several different resale sites; and StubHub is particularly good for sports. If you buy tickets within a week of the event, sellers are often more desperate to shift them. But to really score a bargain, avoid the big hits like Hamilton and The Super Bowl; there are plenty of excellent less-sought-after alternatives.
Stargaze as a dark skies tourist
The US boasts a growing list of Dark Sky Preserves, public parks, reserves and even towns certified by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) for their efforts to reduce human light pollution, many of which also offer lodging or camping options. Spend the night stargazing and appreciating the unfiltered Milky Way — or the wildlife that only comes out at night. In some sites, there are free night sky interpretive programs and rangers will help you use park-owned telescopes, such as the Capulin Volcano in New Mexico which hosts “star parties” every Saturday in summer. Check darksky.org for a list of Dark Sky Places.
Order for two, not four
Food portion sizes in America’s restaurants have doubled (and in some cases tripled) over the past 20 years. This is the land of plenty after all. It’s customary to get a to-go box for your leftovers, but if you don’t want to cart around yesterday’s dinner, then order accordingly — two adult meals will easily feed a family of four. Just don’t scrimp on the tip — that’s your server’s wage!
Find free things to do
A destination’s free activities are sometimes the quirkiest or even the most cultured. In Austin, people gather nightly at the South Congress Bridge to watch its resident 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats fly off into the sunset. In New York City, Little Island, the adorable public park on New York’s Hudson River, is free and often hosts family events. Boston’s Freedom Trail is a free 4km walk past 16 of the city’s most historic sites. Come summer, many cities host free concerts or movie screenings in the park — or, as is the case in DC, free Shakespeare. Missouri’s St Louis Zoo is free and genuinely excellent. The list goes on. And then, of course, there’s the great American outdoors: plentiful, (mostly) free, and begging to be explored.
For more things to see and do in America, go to visittheusa.com