From Broadway to deep-dish pizza, Chicago rewards every visitor who shows up. Photo / Unsplash
From Broadway to deep-dish pizza, Chicago rewards every visitor who shows up. Photo / Unsplash
THE FACTS
Travel writer Ash Jurberg has visited 110 countries and runs a tourism business.
The Mobile Passport Control app is designed to speed up entry for visitors to the United States.
Governments sometimes make decisions that tank a destination’s reputation.
In this week’s Travel Hot Take, travel writer Ash Jurberg shares why the US is still on his list of favourite travel destinations.
“I love all my guests,” Nino tells me, topping up my glass with homemade limoncello. “But I love the ones from far away even more.”He pulls up a chair beside me at his bed and breakfast in Savannah, Georgia, his dog settling at his feet. Most of his guests are Americans. The occasional European. Getting someone from the other side of the world has made his evening, and he wants to hear everything about our lives.
Across Australia and New Zealand, there’s growing hesitancy around US travel. People are choosing Japan or Europe instead. Waiting for a different political climate. Back home, people don’t understand why I’d choose to visit America when there are so many other options.
Nino's homemade limoncello and warm welcome in Savannah made the trip unforgettable. Photo / Supplied
I’ve travelled to 110 countries and spent years running a tourism business. I’ve seen this pattern before. Governments make decisions that tank a destination’s reputation. Meanwhile, people relying on tourists still show up for work, hoping someone books. The people who lose out aren’t the politicians. It’s the tour guide who depends on the summer season. The Broadway dancer whose show sells fewer seats when tourists stay away. The B&B owner who still has to pay their mortgage.
I’ll admit I’m a little biased. My wife is American. But I’ve been to the US plenty of times without her, and the welcome is the same.
For anyone hesitant about the border, I understand. In 2022, jet-lagged and travelling with my family, I made a sarcastic remark to a border agent. He escorted my teenagers and me to a processing room where we waited over an hour. It was stressful and humbling. My wife sailed through on her US passport while we sat there, unable to contact her.
Lady Liberty still stands as a powerful symbol for travellers from around the world. Photo / Unsplash
Every entry since has been smooth. When I visited LA in June last year, solo, I tried the new Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app. It’s available for Australian and New Zealand passport holders travelling on an electronic system for travel authorisation (ESTA). I downloaded it before flying, connected to airport Wi-Fi after landing, and entered the MPC queue. There was only one person ahead of me. The agent smiled, checked my phone, and welcomed me in. Under two minutes from queue to clearance.
My advice? Get your ESTA early, have your accommodation and return flight details ready, download the MPC app, and don’t be a smartarse. Something my wife reminds me of regularly.
Getting in is the part people worry about. What happens after is the part they’re missing.
That same trip, my cousin and I took a road trip through Alaska. Everywhere we went, we were welcomed like locals by seasonal workers who make Alaska home each summer. Katia, a kayaking guide we’d just met, invited us to a midnight beach bonfire on the summer solstice. The midnight sun hung low on the horizon while we sat around the fire swapping stories. We talked about favourite trails, wildlife encounters, the best fishing spots.
Paddling among glaciers in Alaska — the kind of moment that makes travel worthwhile. Photo / Supplied
Everything except politics.
In the small town of Cody, Wyoming, I spent a July 4 celebration drinking with locals wearing T-shirts supporting candidates I don’t agree with. We talked about Yellowstone National Park, where I’d just spent three days. Which trails had the best wildlife. Whether I’d seen wolves. Later at the Cody Rodeo, a bloke in a red cap sitting beside me explained rodeo rules for two hours. The difference between bareback and saddle bronc, how scoring works, and which riders to watch. Politics never came up.
Back in Savannah, Nino prepares a feast each morning and tells us how to make the most of our time in his town. He wants us to love his city the way he does. We spend an hour hearing his stories about the neighbourhood, the restaurants locals actually eat at, which historic homes to visit. His enthusiasm is genuine. It’s his livelihood, but it’s also his home, and he wants us to see it properly.
I travel to countries with governments I disagree with. Everyone does. I was in China four months ago on a walking tour with a guide who used to work for TikTok. She shared her views about the company and the Government. She didn’t agree with either, but she was still proud of her city and glad we’d come.
You don’t take responsibility for everything your Government does. Neither do I. We still travel to countries with policies we find troubling. We separate the people from the politics when it suits us. Why not do the same with America?
I’ll be back in the US later this year. Not because of the politics. Because of Nino, Katia, my rodeo friend, and the countless others like them who just want to share their country.
