It’s that time of year when we look back and reminisce about our top travel experiences in 2023: the highlights and special moments that just might inspire your next adventure in 2024. This article was one of the stories that our readers enjoyed the most in 2023.
If you’re thinking of heading to America, you may well be dreaming of the A-list locations. Of Manhattan and Miami. Of California sun. The greatest hits in a country full of them. But for every classic, there is an alternative: the shores of the Great Lakes, the forests of Washington, the wilds of New Mexico. Pick the America that inspires you the most – and celebrate a welcome return.
The Classic: New York The Big Apple is not just the greatest American city break. It may be the greatest of all city breaks. There it sits at the Atlantic’s edge, a cornucopia of skyscrapers and style, where you can gaze across the metropolis from the roof of the Rockefeller Centre (topoftherocknyc.com), eat late in the Meatpacking District and gaze at works by artists from Da Vinci to Pollock at the Met (metmuseum.org). And it shines in all seasons, whether for summer in Central Park or at Christmas in the store displays on Fifth Avenue.
The Alternative: Philadelphia Smaller than New York (though the sixth biggest US city by population nonetheless), Philadelphia justifies a longer stay. Wrapped in revolutionary history (the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall – where the Declaration of Independence was adopted – are both part of Independence National Historical Park; nps.gov/inde), it also gleams outside this crucial context. Its Museum of Art (philamuseum.org) - home to pieces by Picasso and Van Gogh - is one of America’s finest; the bars and eateries of South Philly are huge fun.
The Classic: New England
While Route 66′s 3900km tattoo across the American torso will always attract travel romantics, the northeast corner of the country is the drama and beauty of the US road trip in one glorious package. Especially in autumn. If fiery foliage in one of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island or New Hampshire is a cliche, then so be it. It is a trope that comes with rustic villages, bowls of clam chowder, rocky shores, and the chance for a dash along the arc of Cape Cod. Obvious? Yes. Wonderful? That too.
The Alternative: The Great Lakes The oft-written adulation for New England’s “fall” finery usually fails to mention that the same arboreal fire show is available 1600km to the west, in the trees of Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. Of course, the Great Lakes region is an ideal place for a road trip, even when leaves aren’t “ablaze”. Lakes Michigan and Huron shape Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. An unhurried journey around the former will inevitably drop you into Chicago.
The Classic: California
Discounting Alaska, the US west coast amounts to 2080km on the rolling Pacific. A full 1350 of them belong to California; three big cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego) sit directly on them - making the “Golden State” a core element of the American travel experience. Any lengthy holiday might also take in the rugged majesty of Yosemite National Park (nps.gov/yose), the scorched terrain of Death Valley (nps.gov/deva), and the wineries of Napa and Sonoma – but the curves of Highway 1 remain utterly essential.
The Alternative: Washington Not the city, but the state which occupies the northwest corner of the US (again, ignoring Alaska). Washington owns 252 of those 2080 west-coast kilometres and many of them lie where the Pacific strikes the Olympic Peninsula, with its grey-sand beaches, rainforest trails and eponymous national park (nps.gov/olym). But the waterline also has one of America’s most exciting cities, Seattle, with its coffee shops and cool - and, if you go inland, there are wine areas (Columbia Valley) and peaks (Mount St Helens) as mighty as California’s.
The Classic: Arizona and Utah
When it comes to America at its most craggily spectacular, the itinerary dictates itself. It requires Arizona, the desert state where the Grand Canyon scars the soil for 445km. It also needs a hop into adjacent Utah, where five national parks - Zion (nps.gov/zion), Arches (nps.gov/arch), Canyonlands (nps.gov/cany), Bryce Canyon (nps.gov/brca) and Capitol Reef (nps.gov/care) – make a virtue of the arid terrain, even before you stop at Monument Valley (navajonationparks.org). The US of tyre tracks on sun-baked tarmac.
The Alternative: New Mexico For all its proximity to Arizona and Utah, New Mexico is the mystery box of travel in the American West, known only to the intrepid (and fans of Breaking Bad). But it rewards those who peer behind the dusty veil, at the relative normality of largest city Albuquerque and state capital Santa Fe (home to the floral art of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; okeeffemuseum.org). Then at the nostalgia of Route 66 railroad town Tucumcari, into the depths of Carlsbad Caverns (nps.gov/cave), and at the oddness of alien-obsessed Roswell.
The Classic: Florida
With the eternal exception of Alaska, no US state has more shoreline than Florida. Those wanting fun in the sun can be forgiven for spurning the oft-frozen beast of the far north for the Sunshine State and its 2170km of seafront on both the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Here are endless options for tans and indolence - ocean-facing hotspots Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach; Gulf-side resorts like Naples, Sarasota and Clearwater.
The Alternative: Hawaii That Florida has almost twice the coastline of Hawaii does nothing to diminish the appeal of the US’s fabled mid-Pacific archipelago. Oahu has city thrills in Honolulu and Waikiki Beach; the “Big Island” has volcanic titans Mauna Loa and Kilauea; forested Kauai is Jurassic Park without dinosaurs; Maui has resorts aplenty.
The Classic: Memphis & Nashville
Music has long poured from America, but rarely with more panache than in Tennessee’s two most feted cities. Nashville is country music’s hub – proving so at its Hall of Fame (countrymusichalloffame.org; though visitors should also seek its new National Museum of African-American Music, nmaam.org). Memphis, meanwhile, has (the) blues and soul, in the venues of Beale St and the former Stax Studios (staxmuseum.com) - even as the ghost of Elvis lingers at Graceland (graceland.com) and Sun Studio (sunstudio.com).
The Alternative: Minneapolis To take a different look at American musical heritage, you might venture to Detroit and its Motown (motownmuseum.org) echoes (in which case, see “Great Lakes”, above). But for a sideways glance at US culture, head to the Minnesota city with a detailed cultural story. It is not just that Minneapolis has a thriving music scene, in venues as diverse as Fine Line (first-avenue.com/venue/fine-line) and Dakota Jazz Club (dakotacooks.com); it is that it was Prince’s home, and guards his legacy at his former studio (paisleypark.com).
The Classic: Washington DC
Some cities reverberate to famous songs. Others to the hum of power and politics. The US capital falls firmly into the latter category. It is impossible to wander Washington DC and forget that it is the heartbeat of a global heavyweight – the White House resplendent, the Lincoln Memorial a marvel in marble. But there is much to enjoy beyond the statement architecture – the museums, Apollo artefacts and artworks of the Smithsonian (si.edu), the bars of onetime “Black Broadway” U Street; the cool restaurant scene on 14th Street NW.
The Alternative: Texas Washington DC is America’s epicentre. Texas likes to think it is. Indeed, the Lone Star State was an independent nation from 1836 to 1846. It retains some of this sovereign swagger in its old capital San Antonio (home to sacred site the Alamo (thealamo.org) – and its “new” capital Austin, where the capitol is one of the country’s grandest. There are enough bars and restaurants to fill a week in this vibrant city, but a tour of Texas should probably also take in Dallas and Houston – serious oil towns with steak-houses to match.
The Classic: The Mississippi
For all the length and variety – 20,000km, two oceans, one colossal gulf – of the US coastline, the foremost option for an American journey by water stays inland. The Mississippi River is the country’s central artery; a 3765km line of liquid which touches 10 states – from the cold shoulders of Minnesota and Wisconsin in the north to the woozy heat of Louisiana in the south. Should you choose, you can cruise almost all of it.
The Alternative: The Inside Passage The most intriguing possibility for an American ocean voyage eschews the sun and sand of the Caribbean for something more forested, more remote – and, for some of the way, something non-American. The Inside Passage is a 1600km corridor of sheltered sea, protected from the open Pacific by outcrops and islets. The meat to the sandwich is Canadian, along the hard edge of British Columbia. The bread is starred-and-striped – the bays and coves of Washington state in the south, Alaska’s peaks and glaciers in the north.
The Classic: Aspen
There is a fair argument that, the pistes of the Alps aside, the US boasts the planet’s most celebrated ski zones. Not least those which, burrowed into North America’s great snowy spine, decorate a state whose capital is known as the “Mile-High City”. In some senses, Colorado defines the Rockies as much as the Rockies define Colorado, offering superb winter-sports resorts such as Telluride, Breckenridge and Vail. The kingpin, though, is Aspen-Snowmass (aspensnowmass.com), with four interlinked areas for chic descent.
The Alternative: Stowe To slightly appropriate an advertising slogan of yesteryear, New England isn’t just for autumn; it’s for winter too. Neither the White Mountains of New Hampshire nor the Green Mountains of Vermont have the height or frozen fame of the Rockies, but both deliver the thrill of downhill with gusto once the flakes tumble. Indeed, Vermont, for all its “fall” prettiness, is perhaps more alluring in December and January. Stowe Mountain Resort (stowe.com) – which fans out around two peaks – offers 65km of skiable terrain.
The Classic: Las Vegas
For all its broad history and epic geography, for many of us, the most alluring American adventure is the one which involves grandiose themed casinos, the seductive purr of the roulette wheel and, if the mood takes, an elaborate stage show after a huge dinner. And the most obvious destination for this sort of giddy bacchanalia is the largest, loudest city in Nevada. Fashions change, hotel complexes rise and fall, but Las Vegas is always there in the desert, offering a 1000-watt smile and the promise that tonight is the night you win.
The Alternative: Atlantic City There is, of course, another fabled American enclave of slot machines and stay-up-late silliness. In truth, New Jersey’s best-known resort has an air of faded relevance, clinging to a decadent past – the clandestine booze of the Prohibition era; the nightclub boom of the 1950s and 60s – in casinos with names like “Showboat”, “Tropicana” and “Golden Nugget”. But it has an unabashed sense of fun as well, especially when east-coast tourists descend on it in high summer. And unlike its Nevada “rival”, Atlantic City has a beach.
For more ideas and inspiration, go to visittheusa.com.au
© Chris Leadbeater / Telegraph Group Ltd
This story was originally published on January 4, 2023
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