USA Travel Tips: Plan a Trip to the United States

Plan a US trip around one region, not around the country: New York to Los Angeles is about 4,500 km (2,796.2 mi) by road and roughly 6 hours by air, so a 2-week holiday that tries to take in both coasts and a national park spends most of itself in transit. Pick the West Coast, the Southwest parks, the Northeast, the South, the Rockies or the Midwest, give it 10 to 14 days, and add a second region only if you are willing to fly between them. Most European, Australian and Japanese visitors travel on the Visa Waiver Program, which means an ESTA approved before you board, and the fee is now $40.27 per person.

This page is a routing guide rather than a country guide. The United States covers 9,833,517 km² (3,796,742 sq mi) across 6 time zones in the 50 states, holds 341.8 million people and contains 63 national parks, and no single article can cover it. What follows is the practical layer: the regions, the real distances, the entry rules, what drives the cost of an American trip, and links to the Wonderful Wanderings guides that go deep on Los Angeles, Yosemite, Yellowstone, San Diego and Utah.

United States quick facts

The US quick facts below cover what a trip needs, from currency and plugs to time zones, driving and the emergency number.

US guides on Wonderful Wanderings

The US guides on Wonderful Wanderings go deep on California, the national parks and Utah, which is where our first-hand reporting is. The 9 guides are listed below, most useful first.

1. One week in Los Angeles: a full day-by-day itinerary for the city.
2. Driving and parking in Los Angeles: the practical guide to the freeways, the parking and the traffic.
3. The best day hikes in Yosemite National Park: the trails ranked by an expert, with distances and difficulty.
4. How to get from Los Angeles to Yosemite: the driving and bus options and how long each takes.
5. Where to stay in Yellowstone National Park: lodges inside the park compared with the gateway towns.
6. Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands: the two parks you reach from Moab, Utah.
7. The Getty Center in Los Angeles: why the free museum on the hill is worth the tram ride.
8. A San Diego hop-on hop-off trolley tour: how much of the city one ticket actually covers.
9. 19 sports to watch live in the USA: the leagues, the seasons and how to buy tickets.

Where to go in the United States and how far apart things are

Pick one region and treat the others as separate trips, because American distances are continental. The 6 mainland regions are listed below, each with the drives that decide whether an itinerary works.

1. The West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington): Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Yosemite and the Pacific Coast Highway. Los Angeles to San Francisco is about 615 km (382.1 mi), roughly 6 hours on the fast inland route or two days on the coast road, and Los Angeles to Yosemite about 500 km (310.7 mi). Our week in Los Angeles and Yosemite hikes guides cover the anchors.
2. The Southwest (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico): the densest concentration of national parks in the country, and the region that suits a road trip better than any other. Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim is about 450 km (279.6 mi), Las Vegas to Zion about 260 km (161.6 mi), and Moab sits within reach of Arches and Canyonlands. Summer temperatures here regularly pass 40°C (104°F).
3. The Rockies and the northern parks (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana): Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Yellowstone and Grand Teton, which are about 900 km (559.2 mi) from Denver and closer to Jackson or Bozeman. The ski season runs December to April, and the park roads close in winter, so our where to stay in Yellowstone guide matters more than usual.
4. The Northeast (New York, Boston, Washington D.C., New England): the one region where you can travel without a car. New York to Washington is about 365 km (226.8 mi) and roughly 3 hours on the Acela train, New York to Boston about 350 km (217.5 mi), and New England’s autumn colour peaks between late September and mid-October.
5. The South (Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas, Texas): Miami and the Everglades, the Florida Keys, which run about 260 km (161.6 mi) from Miami to Key West on a single road, New Orleans, Nashville and Memphis for music, and Charleston and Savannah for the old cities. Hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November and peaks in September.
6. The Midwest and Great Lakes (Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio): Chicago’s architecture and lakefront, the Michigan and Wisconsin lake shores, Minneapolis, and long empty drives between them. Chicago to New York is about 1,270 km (789.1 mi).

Alaska and Hawaii are separate trips again. Anchorage is about 3,400 km (2,112.7 mi) from Seattle, and Honolulu is about 5 hours in the air from Los Angeles, so neither belongs in a mainland itinerary.

How many days do you need in the United States

Plan 10 to 14 days for one American region, and accept internal flights if you want two. The 3 routes below are the ones that work.

1. Days 1 to 10, California: 4 days in Los Angeles, the coast road or the inland route to San Francisco for 3 days, and 3 days in Yosemite, flying in and out of different airports.
2. Days 1 to 12, the Southwest loop: Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Page and Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Moab for Arches and Canyonlands, and the Grand Canyon on the way back, all by hire car.
3. Days 1 to 10, the Northeast by train: 4 days in New York, 2 in Washington, 3 in Boston, with the Acela or the regional train between them and no car at all.

Two habits save an American itinerary. Fly between regions rather than driving, because a 6-hour flight replaces 4 days of interstate, and book national-park accommodation as soon as reservations open, usually 6 to 13 months ahead for the lodges inside Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Check hotel availability in the USA on Booking.com once your region is fixed.

Best time to visit the United States

May, June, September and October are the months that work almost everywhere in the United States, avoiding both the summer crowds and the extremes at either end of the year. The country is too large for a single answer, so the 4 regional patterns are listed below.

• The Southwest and Southern California: spring and autumn. Death Valley, Phoenix and Las Vegas are dangerously hot from June to September, and the desert parks are at their most comfortable from March to May and October to November.
• The Northeast and the Midwest: late spring to early autumn. New York and Chicago are humid in July and August and cold from December to March, and New England’s autumn colour is the reason to come in early October.
• The mountain West: July to September for hiking, when the park roads and high passes are finally open, and December to April for skiing.
• The South and Florida: winter and spring. Florida is at its most pleasant from December to April, and the hurricane season from June to November peaks in September.

American holiday weekends move prices and crowds more than the weather does. Memorial Day at the end of May, Independence Day on 4 July, Labor Day at the start of September and Thanksgiving in late November fill flights, roads and parks.

Entry requirements: the ESTA and the Visa Waiver Program

Check the current entry rules for your passport before you book, because they change. Citizens of the 40-odd Visa Waiver Program countries, which include the UK, Ireland, most of the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, travel to the United States without a visa for stays of 90 days or less but must hold an approved ESTA before they board. The 5 things to know come from the Department of Homeland Security’s official site, esta.cbp.dhs.gov, which is the only place to apply:

1. The fee is $40.27 per person, paid by card or PayPal. It rose from $21 on 30 September 2025, so older guides quoting $14 or $21 are out of date.
2. Apply well before you fly, not at the airport. Most approvals come back quickly, but the official advice is to apply as soon as you begin planning, and an airline will not board you without one.
3. An approved ESTA is tied to your passport and covers multiple trips until it expires or the passport does, so check whether yours is still valid rather than paying again.
4. Copycat sites charge several times the official fee for the same application. Apply only at esta.cbp.dhs.gov.
5. An ESTA is not a visa. If you plan to stay longer than 90 days, to work or to study, you need the appropriate visa, and travel to certain countries can make you ineligible for the Visa Waiver Program entirely.

Canadians generally do not need an ESTA or a visa but do need a passport. Everyone else applies for a B-1/B-2 visitor visa through a US embassy or consulate, which takes an interview and a wait that varies by country.

Getting around the United States

You get around the United States by domestic flight between the regions and by hire car within them, and public transport only really works in a handful of cities. The 5 options are listed below.

1. Domestic flights: the only sensible way to cross the country, with American, Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue and Alaska covering the network and hundreds of airports. Check Trip.com for the long hops.
2. Hire car: the way to do the Southwest, the Rockies, the Pacific Coast Highway and any national park, and the wrong choice in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington. Petrol is cheap by European standards, distances are long, and one-way drop-off fees can be substantial. Check DiscoverCars and read our driving and parking in LA guide, which applies to most American cities.
3. Trains: Amtrak runs a useful, frequent service in the Northeast Corridor between Washington, New York and Boston, and long, slow, scenic routes everywhere else that are experiences rather than transport. Check Omio for schedules and fares.
4. Long-distance coaches: Greyhound, FlixBus and Megabus link the cities cheaply and slowly. Check Omio for these too.
5. City transit: New York, Chicago, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and Philadelphia have proper systems, and a New York subway or bus ride costs $3.00 since 4 January 2026. Everywhere else, expect to use a car or a ride-hailing app.

Distances are the thing to plan around. Compare domestic flight prices in the USA before you commit to a driving route, because a $90 internal flight often beats two days behind the wheel.

What a trip to the United States costs

Costs vary too much between regions for a single national figure to mean anything: a week in rural Utah and a week in Manhattan are different holidays with different budgets. Instead, the 6 things that decide an American budget are listed below.

1. Sales tax is added at the till, not shown on the shelf. It varies by state and city, from none in Oregon, Delaware, Montana and New Hampshire to over 10% in parts of California, Illinois and Washington, so the price you see is not the price you pay.
2. Tipping is not optional. Restaurant staff are paid on the assumption of tips, card terminals prompt for 18%, 20% or 25%, and bars, taxis, tour guides and hotel housekeeping all expect something. Our guidelines on who to tip what in the States set out the rates.
3. Hotel resort fees and parking are charged on top of the room rate in Las Vegas, Florida, Hawaii and many city hotels, and never appear in the headline booking price.
4. National park entry costs more for non-residents than it used to. The National Park Service now sells an America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass for $250, and at 11 parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Glacier, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Acadia and the Everglades, non-residents aged 16 and over pay an extra $100 surcharge on top of the normal entrance fee unless they hold an annual pass. Work this out before a multi-park road trip, because for two adults visiting several of those parks the $250 pass is the cheaper route.
5. Health cover is the biggest hidden cost. There is no reciprocal healthcare arrangement with any country, and an emergency-room visit or an ambulance ride runs into thousands of dollars without insurance.
6. Internal flights and car hire are the backbone of a multi-region trip, and both are cheapest booked early and midweek.

The ESTA at $40.27 and the $250 non-resident park pass are the two fixed costs an international visitor should budget for before anything else.

Where to stay in the United States

American accommodation runs from motels on the interstate to boutique city hotels, national park lodges and rental homes, and the useful distinction is between city and park. City hotels charge for parking and often a facility fee; park lodges are limited, cheap by comparison and booked out a year ahead; motels along the highways are the fallback everywhere in between.

Booking sites do the filtering. Sofie books hotels, guest houses and B&Bs through Booking.com, because its filters turn hundreds of listings into a short list that meets her criteria, so check there first; she uses Vrbo when a whole apartment or house suits the trip better. If you book on Airbnb as well, our how to use Airbnb guide covers its filters and fees.

What to eat in the United States

American food is regional, and the point of eating here is to eat what the place you are standing in is known for. The 9 regional dishes to look for are listed below, with the place they come from.

1. Hamburger: order it at a local burger joint or a diner rather than a chain.
2. Hot dog: eaten at a baseball game, and made differently in New York, Chicago and Detroit.
3. Philly cheesesteak: fried beef, onions and melted cheese in a long roll, from Philadelphia.
4. Deep-dish pizza: Chicago’s version, closer to a pie than to anything Italian.
5. Barbecue: pork ribs in Memphis and the Carolinas, brisket in Texas, and a different sauce in every state that claims it.
6. Gumbo and jambalaya: the Creole and Cajun rice dishes of Louisiana, eaten in New Orleans.
7. Buffalo wings: chicken wings in hot sauce with blue cheese, from Buffalo, New York.
8. Lobster roll and clam chowder: Maine lobster in a split bun, and the thick New England chowder that locals argue about with the tomato-based Manhattan version.
9. Chocolate chip cookies and diner pie: the standard American sweet, and every diner’s rotating pie case.

Portions are large, free tap water arrives without asking, and coffee refills are often included.

Festivals and public holidays in the United States

The American calendar is built around a handful of national holidays and a long list of city festivals. Dates shift each year, so check the programme before you book around an event.

The table shows the events visitors plan around, and our 19 sports to watch live in the USA guide covers the season calendars for baseball, American football, basketball and hockey. The United States has 11 federal holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday in January, Washington’s Birthday on the third Monday in February, Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, Juneteenth on 19 June, which became a federal holiday in 2021, Independence Day on 4 July, Labor Day on the first Monday in September, Columbus Day on the second Monday in October, Veterans Day on 11 November, Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November and Christmas Day. Federal holidays close government offices and banks; shops and restaurants mostly stay open, and Thanksgiving is the exception that closes almost everything.

Is the United States safe?

The United States is safe for ordinary tourism in the places tourists go, and its poor showing on global indices reflects the country’s militarisation, incarceration rate and gun deaths rather than the risk to a visitor on a city break. The United States ranked 134th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a rank driven by those national measures rather than by crime against travellers. Check your own government’s travel advice before you go, and treat the 4 practical points below as the ones that matter.

1. Judge neighbourhoods rather than cities. Crime in American cities is concentrated in specific areas, often a few streets, and blanket warnings about whole cities are unhelpful and usually wrong; ask your hotel which blocks to avoid after dark.
2. Do not leave anything visible in a parked car, especially at trailheads, beach car parks and city parking garages, which is where the overwhelming majority of theft from visitors happens.
3. Respect the heat and the distances in the desert parks. Every year visitors die in Death Valley, the Grand Canyon and Zion from heat and dehydration; carry far more water than feels necessary and start hikes at dawn.
4. Learn what 911 is for, know that ambulances are billed to you, and carry insurance that covers medical evacuation, because American healthcare is the single biggest financial risk of the trip.

Staying connected in the United States

American mobile data is expensive and most European and British plans charge roaming here, so sort connectivity before you land. The 3 options are listed below.

1. A local prepaid SIM from T-Mobile, AT&T or Verizon, or one of their budget brands: available at airports and phone shops, and worth it on a long trip.
2. An eSIM bought before you fly: data from the moment you land, with no shop visit; our eSIM for travel guide explains how they work.
3. A portable hotspot: Sofie carries a portable hotspot and buys day passes for the length of a trip, which covers a phone and a laptop on one connection. If you would rather not carry a second device, an Airalo eSIM installs on the phone you already have and does the same job. compare Airalo eSIM data plans; the code HARRY5578 takes €3 off a first order.

Travel insurance for the United States

Travel insurance is not optional for a US trip. There is no reciprocal healthcare arrangement with any country, hospitals bill visitors at full commercial rates, and a broken leg on a hiking trail can produce a five-figure bill before the flight home is even discussed. Take a policy with high medical limits and repatriation cover, check the wording on hiking, skiing and any adventure activity you have planned, and compare the options in our best medical travel insurance guide. The insurer Wonderful Wanderings uses is SafetyWing, whose plans can be bought before you leave or while you are already travelling, so check out SafetyWing if you want a quote to compare.

American customs and etiquette

Americans are more openly friendly to strangers than most Europeans expect, and a conversation with the person next to you on a bus or in a queue is normal rather than an approach. The 4 things to know are listed below.

1. Tip, and tip on the pre-tax total: about 18% to 20% in restaurants, $1 to $2 a drink at a bar, 15% to 20% for taxis and ride-hailing, and a few dollars a night for hotel housekeeping.
2. Expect service to be attentive to the point of intrusive, because servers work for tips.
3. Know that the legal drinking age is 21 nationwide and that ID is asked for regardless of how old you look.
4. Understand that laws vary by state, sometimes sharply, on alcohol, cannabis, firearms and driving rules; what is legal in Colorado may be a criminal offence in Texas.

A short history of the United States

The United States runs from Indigenous nations through European colonisation, independence in 1776, a civil war over slavery and a century of expansion into a global power. The 6 periods that explain what you see are listed below.

1. Before contact: hundreds of Indigenous nations across the continent, from the Ancestral Puebloan settlements you can still visit in the Southwest to the mound cities of the Mississippi.
2. Colonisation (1492 to 1763): Columbus reaches the Caribbean in 1492 without ever landing on the North American mainland, Spain settles St Augustine in Florida in 1565, England founds Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, and the Mayflower lands at Plymouth in 1620.
3. Revolution and founding (1775 to 1789): the Revolutionary War runs from 1775, the Declaration of Independence is adopted on 4 July 1776, and the Constitution takes effect in 1789.
4. Expansion (1803 to 1890): the Louisiana Purchase, the forced removal of Indigenous nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the transcontinental railroad push the country to the Pacific.
5. Civil War and after (1861 to 1929): the war between the Union and the Confederacy over slavery ends in 1865 with abolition, mass immigration follows, and the boom of the 1920s ends with the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
6. The modern era (1941 onwards): the Second World War, the civil rights movement and the Apollo landings.

United States travel FAQ

How many days do you need in the USA?

Plan 10 to 14 days for one American region, such as California, the Southwest parks or the Northeast; the country is too large for a single trip, and covering two regions means adding an internal flight.

Do you need an ESTA for the USA?

Yes, if you are travelling visa-free under the Visa Waiver Program: an approved ESTA is required before you board, costs $40.27 per person and is applied for only at esta.cbp.dhs.gov. It covers stays of 90 days or less.

What is the best time to visit the United States?

May, June, September and October work almost everywhere, but the answer is regional: spring and autumn for the Southwest, summer for the mountain West, winter for Florida and skiing.

Do you need a car in the USA?

Yes for the national parks and the road-trip regions, and no for the Northeast, where the train links Washington, New York and Boston and every one of those cities has a working transit system.

How much does it cost to visit US national parks?

Non-residents can buy an America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass for $250, and at 11 popular parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion, non-residents aged 16 and over otherwise pay a $100 surcharge on top of the standard entrance fee.

How much should you tip in the USA?

About 18% to 20% in restaurants, $1 to $2 a drink at a bar, 15% to 20% for taxis and ride-hailing, and a few dollars a night for hotel housekeeping; staff are paid on the assumption that you will.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 3 tips below come from checking the entry rules and park fees a non-American actually pays in 2026, and all three have changed recently enough that most guides still have the old numbers.

1. Do the park-pass arithmetic before you book a multi-park road trip. Non-residents aged 16 and over pay a $100 surcharge on top of the normal entrance fee at 11 parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Glacier, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Acadia and the Everglades. The America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass costs $250 and lifts the surcharge, so two adults visiting two of those parks are already better off buying it.
2. Apply for the ESTA yourself at esta.cbp.dhs.gov. The fee is $40.27 per person and rose from $21 on 30 September 2025, so a guide quoting $14 or $21 is out of date and a site charging you considerably more is a middleman. Approval usually comes back quickly, but it is not guaranteed, so apply as soon as the flights are booked rather than the night before.
3. Watch Arizona and Hawaii in the summer. Neither observes daylight saving time, so the time difference between them and the rest of the country moves twice a year. That is the gap that catches out a connecting flight or a tour booked from another state.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her time in California and Utah, from a week in Los Angeles and the Getty Center to the trails at Yosemite and the canyons around Moab. The team covers the United States for independent travellers, including the hire cars and internal flights, the hotels and park lodges worth booking, the regional food, the sports tickets and the travel insurance you should not travel here without, and updates this page when prices, dates and rules change.