North America · Destination guide
Cities, road trips, theme parks and music routes, often in one well-connected trip.
Where to go
Choose it if you want your first taste of America on foot, with theatre, museums and a skyline, and can live with a small hotel room..
A city that works alone or as the opening chapter of a longer American trip.
Explore New York
Choose it if you want shows, spectacle and pool days, or a launch pad for the Grand Canyon and the national parks of the south west..
A big, theatrical base that combines well with national parks and California.
Explore Las Vegas
Choose it if you are travelling with children or grandchildren and want the theme parks, a pool villa and a Gulf beach to recover on..
Theme parks, villas, resorts and beach combinations, with planning saving both time and money.
Explore Orlando & Florida
Choose it if you want a cool, hilly city with serious food, followed by a drive down the Pacific coast..
A characterful city and natural starting point for California routes.
Explore San Francisco
Choose it if you like wide open roads, live music most nights, barbecue and space history, and are happy to drive long distances..
Austin, Houston and Dallas, big cities with room to breathe and a strong road-trip case between them.
Explore Texas
Choose it if you want a few nights of brass bands, Creole cooking and late evenings in a city unlike anywhere else in America..
Music, food and personality, ideal alone or as part of a Deep South route.
Explore New Orleans
Choose it if you want to follow American music from country to blues to soul by car, with history told at every stop..
A music-led route where the order, number of nights and internal travel deserve thought.
Explore Nashville, Memphis & the Deep SouthIs it right for you?
A strong fit for
Families, couples, groups and multi-centre travel.
We would think twice for
Travellers who dislike logistics, because America is a country of internal flights, hire cars, resort fees and tipping culture, and a great US trip is above all a well-administered one.
What we would want you to know
Internal flights, baggage, resort fees and driving need one plan.
We’ve been here
Between us we have travelled in California, Nevada, Florida, Texas, Tennessee and New York, most recently a 2025 road trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nashville and Austin, and the trips we plan for clients join those places up: San Francisco with New Orleans, Deep South music routes, Florida for families. Knowing how differently each state feels is what stops an American itinerary turning into a run of airports.
Weather and seasons
No single season suits the whole country, so we date an American trip by its route. New York swings from highs of about 6°C in January to 31°C in July, with humid summers and crisp, bright autumns. Florida stays warm all winter but brings daily thunderstorms and hurricane risk from June to November. The desert south west is fierce in summer and at its best in spring and autumn, and the Deep South is sticky from June to August. Spring break, the summer holidays and Thanksgiving week are when Americans travel most, so prices peak then.
Worth timing a trip around
Fireworks, parades and barbecues in every town. Big city displays draw huge crowds, and it is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
The maples of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine turn red and gold, usually starting in the north in late September and moving south through October. Country inns book up many months ahead for the best weeks.
Saturday games at university stadiums, some holding more than a hundred thousand people, turn small towns into parties, with tailgate picnics from the morning. Worth catching if your route passes a big college town.
America's biggest family holiday, with turkey dinners, parades and football on television. The days either side are among the busiest of the year for flights and roads.
| Month | High | Low | Sea | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6°C | -2°C | 6°C | 118 mm |
| February | 8°C | -2°C | 4°C | 75 mm |
| March | 12°C | 2°C | 5°C | 100 mm |
| April | 18°C | 7°C | 8°C | 122 mm |
| May | 24°C | 12°C | 13°C | 109 mm |
| June | 28°C | 17°C | 18°C | 72 mm |
| July | 31°C | 21°C | 22°C | 140 mm |
| August | 30°C | 20°C | 23°C | 125 mm |
| September | 26°C | 17°C | 21°C | 91 mm |
| October | 20°C | 11°C | 17°C | 117 mm |
| November | 14°C | 5°C | 13°C | 74 mm |
| December | 9°C | 1°C | 9°C | 125 mm |
Temperatures are 2015 to 2024 averages from NOAA records for Central Park, 0 km away at 43 m. Rainfall is from the same station and shows the typical (median) month, so one freak storm does not skew it. Sea temperatures: NOAA OISST, 1991 to 2020.
| Month | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 22°C | 11°C | 48 mm |
| February | 25°C | 14°C | 41 mm |
| March | 28°C | 16°C | 36 mm |
| April | 29°C | 18°C | 71 mm |
| May | 32°C | 21°C | 105 mm |
| June | 33°C | 24°C | 169 mm |
| July | 34°C | 25°C | 203 mm |
| August | 34°C | 25°C | 222 mm |
| September | 33°C | 24°C | 213 mm |
| October | 30°C | 21°C | 84 mm |
| November | 26°C | 17°C | 48 mm |
| December | 24°C | 14°C | 37 mm |
Temperatures are 2015 to 2024 averages from NOAA records for Orlando Executive Ap, 4 km away at 32 m. Rainfall is from Orlando 4.9 N, 4 km away and shows the typical (median) month, so one freak storm does not skew it.
| Month | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15°C | 5°C | 18 mm |
| February | 18°C | 6°C | 9 mm |
| March | 22°C | 10°C | 9 mm |
| April | 27°C | 14°C | 3 mm |
| May | 31°C | 18°C | 0 mm |
| June | 39°C | 25°C | 0 mm |
| July | 41°C | 28°C | 0 mm |
| August | 40°C | 27°C | 0 mm |
| September | 36°C | 22°C | 0 mm |
| October | 28°C | 15°C | 0 mm |
| November | 20°C | 8°C | 1 mm |
| December | 15°C | 4°C | 3 mm |
Temperatures are 2015 to 2024 averages from NOAA records for Las Vegas Air Terminal, 7 km away at 667 m. Rainfall is from the same station and shows the typical (median) month, so one freak storm does not skew it.
Things to do
The museums along the National Mall, from air and space to natural history and African American history, are free to enter. Some of the most popular use timed passes at busy times, so check before you go.
Geysers, hot springs and herds of bison in the world's first national park, mostly in Wyoming. Rooms inside the park sell out many months ahead, and most of its roads close to cars in winter.
A boat trip along the Chicago River through a canyon of towers is an easy introduction to the city that pioneered the skyscraper. Tours run from spring to autumn; sit on the open deck and bring a layer for the wind off the lake.
A red line in the pavement links sixteen sites of the American Revolution, from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument. It is easy to walk on your own in a day, with guided sections for the stories behind the buildings.
The falls straddle the border with Canada, and boats nose into the spray below them from late spring to autumn. The Canadian side has the fuller view, but crossing the bridge means a border check, so allow time.
The old road from Chicago to Santa Monica survives in long stretches of diners, motels and neon, and 2026 marks its hundredth anniversary. Driving all of it takes a couple of weeks, so most people choose a stretch in Oklahoma, New Mexico or Arizona.
The red sandstone buttes of countless westerns stand on Navajo Nation land on the Arizona and Utah border. A rough dirt loop runs among them; check your hire car terms before driving it, or join a Navajo-guided tour that reaches areas closed to private cars.
Utah's red-rock country: Arches for its natural stone spans, Bryce for an amphitheatre of orange rock spires. Arches has used timed-entry tickets in its busy season, so check the current system before you fix the day.
Baseball is the easiest American sport for a visitor to enjoy: long, sociable afternoons with hot dogs and a sing-along in the seventh inning. The season runs from spring to early autumn, and ordinary games rarely sell out.
Food and drink
Pancakes, eggs any style, crisp bacon and hash browns, with the filter coffee topped up until you leave. Portions are huge, and nobody minds if you share.
New England's summer treat: chunks of lobster in a toasted, buttered bun, either cold with mayonnaise or warm with melted butter. Best eaten from a shack on the Maine coast.
A tall, pie-like pizza with the cheese under the tomato sauce, baked in a deep pan. It takes a while to cook, so order before you are starving.
Chicken wings in a hot, buttery sauce, first made in Buffalo in upstate New York and served with blue cheese dip and celery. Sports bars everywhere serve them.
Small breweries have transformed American beer, and most towns now have a taproom pouring pale ales and seasonal brews. Ask for a flight of small tasters.
Money
The headline price of an American trip is never the full story. Sales tax is added at the till, many hotels charge a nightly resort or destination fee, and tips add a fifth to most meals, so we quote with all three included rather than let them ambush you. Car hire needs the right insurance arranged at booking, which usually costs less than adding it at the desk. Internal flights between chapters are generally a better use of money than long drives that eat holiday days.
Flights and transfers
Direct flights serve the major gateways from Manchester and London, with New York, Orlando, Las Vegas and Florida the best-connected for northern England. Open-jaw tickets, into one city and home from another, are the routing trick that makes American trips work, and we use them constantly.
Flights from UK airports
Route check September 2026. Some routes are seasonal and schedules change, so we confirm the live options when we quote.
Practical details
5 hours behind the UK
US dollar ($)
English
Type A and B, 120V
On the right
Safe to drink
Expected; around 18 to 20 percent at table service, $1 to $2 a drink at a bar, and something for hotel housekeeping
Entry for British passport holders
Visa. You need an ESTA (or a visa) before you fly, including if you are only changing planes in the USA. Apply through the official ESTA website.
Passport. Valid for your whole stay.
Summarised from the FCDO travel advice on gov.uk, checked 29 September 2026. Rules change: read the current entry requirements and the full travel advice before you go.
Questions we get asked
Choose two or three chapters rather than six, and link them with internal flights or one long drive. Open-jaw flights, into one city and home from another, save a day of backtracking: New York then New Orleans, say, or San Francisco and the coast road down to Los Angeles.
Around 18 to 20 percent of the bill before tax for table service, a dollar or two per drink at a bar, a few dollars a night for housekeeping, and something for taxi drivers and guides. Tips are how service staff earn much of their pay, so they are not really optional.
Less than people fear. Roads are wide, signs are clear and nearly every hire car is an automatic. The rules to learn are turning right on a red light where it is allowed, four-way stops where the first to arrive goes first, and never passing a yellow school bus with its lights flashing.
New York, for most people: it works as a short break, needs no car and shows you the America of the films in a few days. Families usually start with Orlando, and anyone who loves the outdoors should look at Las Vegas as a gateway to the national parks of the south west.
Yes, and they are often the part people remember most. Give each at least a full day and stay inside or near the park, because early mornings and evenings bring the best light, the most wildlife and the fewest people. On a multi-park trip, an annual pass can cost less than paying at each gate.
Spring and autumn suit most routes: the cities are comfortable, the desert parks are walkable and the South has not started to steam. Summer is right for Yellowstone and New England, December for New York at Christmas, and the hurricane season from June to November mainly matters in Florida and along the Gulf coast.
Photographs
Also worth a look
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