What are the main sites to see in the USA?

Travel plan to the USA- help please!!?

• Hi I am an 18 year old Australian and am planning on travelling to the USA next year. Am planning on arriving at the very beginning of March and travelling for 2 months before I leave to work in Canada. I am planning on doing it as cheap as possible whilst still enjoying myself. I am quite aware it will still be quite expensive. I do not know all that much about where to go in America. This is why I am writing this, my question to you is where should I go? What route should I take? What should I do? What are the must sees? How should I travel and where should I stay? I am aware I am being extremely vague in what I want to do/see and not giving you much to go on and I apologise for that! I honestly just dont know where to go or what to see! I do want to see a baseball game and an ice hockey game ( if they are in season at the time i am there) I also have a great interest in History, so any major historical sites would be great. I also owuld love to see the Grand Canyon. I want to get a true sense of America as I have never been there before. I understand it wil be impossible to see it all in 2 months, I will return at a later date to travel more but for now what should I see for my first time there? I am hoping to end my trip in New York and flying to Canada from there. I will be 19 years old, travelling alone, trying to do it on the cheaper side and travelling in March and April, please give me as many suggestions as possible! I need help in planning this trip as I have never travelled before and need help! Any help will be appreciated! Thankyou in advance! :)

• Answer:

  I'd suggest starting out in California. From Australia you should be able to get direct flights into Los Angeles and/or San Francisco. You could also potentially fly to Hawaii (America's own tropical paradise) before heading to the mainland. California tends to have good weather year round (in March and April there's a chance of rain, but that's about the worst of it) and a lot of interesting stuff to see. You might make a big circle around the state--say fly into LA, take a few days to explore LA and San Diego, then drive north along the coast to San Francisco (the CA coast is quite scenic and has a lot to do and see.) Spend a few days in San Francisco, then head to Yosemite National Park (absolutely a must see). From there head south to Sequoia National Park, then Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon which is also absolutely a must see. From there you can head back to LA. San Diego is also right next to the Mexican border and you can easily head over to Tijuana--however Mexico has had a major spike in drug related crime, and I'm not sure how safe the city is these days. Other major National Parks in the western US include Yellowstone in Wyoming, Glacier in Montana, the Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado, and a number of parks in Utah. Check out www.nps.gov for the US National Park Service's website, which may give you more ideas for interesting places to visit. Unfortunately though many National Parks tend to be in out of the way places and may be hard to reach without a car (see below.) You could head north towards Portland, Oregon, Seattle and even Vancouver BC; all three are very pleasant cities with lots of young people and nice scenery in the immediate vicinity (especially Vancouver) making them great places to kick back and relax, but I'd probably suggest heading East. Probably the most interesting things to do in the Eastern US is to hang out in major cities--Chicago, Washington DC and New York are all especially interesting, cosmopolitan places with fantastic museums and each can probably easily fill up a week of your time with no difficulty. Boston is also very pleasant--in good weather--and may be of particular interest to history buffs. Niagra Falls and Acadia National Park are noted scenic destinations in this part of the country. Probably visiting those spots should take roughly 2 months or so, and would be a great general introduction to the US. Some other notes: To get a sense of what else to see, by all means buy a guidebook or check one out of a library. I'm personally fond of Lonely Planets. Unfortunately youth hostels are somewhat rarer in the US than in most parts of the world. Still, check out hostelworld.com and/or hostelbookers.com--you should be able to find hostels in most major cities. The HI hostel in Chicago is especially good. If you find yourself visiting an area without any hostels, priceline.com is a good source for hotels--motel 6 is probably the least expensive decent hotel chain. Priceline or yahoo travel are also worth checking for plane tickets. However the nation's main discount airline Southwest (southwestairlines.com) apparently doesn't advertise its rates on these sites, so check them out separately. Southwest also doesn't charge bag fees, unlike most major airlines, which is a very good thing if you're carrying around a big 'ol backpack. For trains and long distance coaches check out amtrak.com (trains) and greyhound.com (buses.) Both tend to be cheaper than air travel--however the US is a BIG country, and it's probably a more comfortable and efficient use of your time to fly long distances. Unfortunately the most convenient way to get around many parts of the US is by car, and many car rental firms may not rent cars to people under 25 (or may charge hefty extra fees). For this reason you may want to look into package tours to get to destinations that are outside of urban areas. www.statravel.com (I don't know if they have an Australian site) is geared towards youth/student travelers and tends to have good deals both for packages and also for things like airfare. On a related note: I'd suggest against trying a cross country road trip. It seems like a cool thing to do (and on one level it is) but as is the case with Australia the US is very big, and there's not a heck of a lot in the middle. Also regarding sports, March is in season for both hockey and basketball--in fact there's a major university level basketball tournament called March Madness which much of the country is obsessed with. The baseball season starts in April. The only major sport that will be out of season during your stay is American football. Also make sure that you get travel insurance; the US does not have a national healthcare system, and paying out of pocket for medical care can be quite ruinously expensive. Anyway, I hope some of that helps! Cheers and enjoy your trip!