I know that several people who use this forum have been travelling, but my misspent youth was very un-misspent, if you know what I mean. Now I'm a twenty-something I'm getting itchy feet but unfortunately I also have a semi-responsible job (boo!) so I can't (yet) ditch it all to go off for months at a time. But I do get a relatively generous annual leave allowance, so I've decided to take three or four weeks off next year and go to the USA - but I don't know anything more specific than that! Any suggestions? :blink:

Plan a rough itinerary before you go, stay in youth hostels 'cause you save loads of money, I've found Lonely Planet guides invaluable. I haven't been to the US yet so can't say anything specific about the country.

Any reason why it has to be the USA? There are far more interesting places and it might cost you less.

My personal favourite city is Barcelona, but I'm a little under-travelled too and intend to rectify this as and when funds permit. Looks like that means 2005, sadly...

I'm alternately appalled and fascinated by the place! Plus I know quite a few people who live there so I can kip on floors if necessary.

I also have vague plans (it's a common theme!) to go to Asia in 2007/8, by which time I reckon I will be heartily sick of working and being responsible, and happy to spend my time somewhere else.

I go to Hawaii twice a year. It's amazing. :P B)

Talk to Alex!

i did indeed spend three and a half months travelling from left to right. LA - new york and most major cities in between. LA SanDiego SanFran Vegas Denver Chicago Montreal Ottawa Toronto Boston Washington New York and some small small towns visiting friends. i think the first time you go you have to see the cities. i loved exploring them and basically being a tourist, doing tourist stuff etc. but you've gotta explore and see the "Real" US. it is great place, i love it to bits. i'm off back next summer, either to idaho to trek in the wilderness, or maine, to trek in the countryside. it is a facsinating place, it gets far too much bad publicity. of all the places i visited, as much as i'd love to live in NY or LA, denver was the only place i felt i could call home. it was beautiful, and had everything. its the sunniest city in the US (including florida) it has over 300 days of sun a year.
youth hostels are a great way to stay, though they will get expensive in cities in summer, but nothing compared to a hotel i guess!

my advice is work out where you wanna go and what you wanna see and just do it. its a developed country, its not hard to get around at all. just have confidence and dont play the dumb tourist.

i could talk for hours about it. i love the place and the people, because they're not all what we see on TV or the movies. its the best place on earth. it has everything. im sure i'll end up living and working there, at least i sure hope so.

oh and i used rough guide to the USA. i found it more helpful than the lonely planet. LP is usually better for LEDC's.

alex

When I lived in America, we lived next door to really nice people... the fact that they didn't own a TV probably had something to do with it!

I lived in the US for more than four months in 1989, when I was but a wee nipper of 9 - we lived in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, and met loads of very nice people. I've also met loads of Americans in the UK over the years, and can count on one hand the number that I didn't like.

I lived in Phoenix itself from 1981-2. Life's too short to hate people - if I had to think about Americans I REALLY hated, I could count them on one finger. You can probably guess which person... and which finger.

Hehe...I think Americans are given a hard time, people just look at the nation as a whole and stereotype as usual. Of course the main figurehead of the country being such a morgon doesn't help matters, but when you see something like this it almost makes it worthwhile...



Those things are supposed to be impossible to fall off. But...well...he didn't switch it on...

Thank you for the photo. I'm sitting here chuckling to myself like a moron!

Replace the word 'like' above with 'at' and you have my reaction!

We were there from January to mid-May, and in that whole time it rained three times - once on Easter Sunday when we were supposed to be having a barbecue with about 50 guests, and another time was on the day we arrived! I remember getting off the plane into some very British drizzle and wondering whether we'd actually even left Gatwick airport.

i envy you both. i'd love to live in america. i just think its a great place. there arent many countries where you can ski in the morning and be on a beach sunbathing in the afternoon (though that IS california - almost a country in itself). it has nearly everything, desserts, mountains, beachs, metropolitan cities. if you want to do it you pretty much can. AND its a developed country (on the whole). shame its got a really rubbish leader who does nothing but give it bad press.

its an education in itself, you learn alot just from seeing the place. what is funy is learning to appreciate that in boston MA the oldest building is 200 years old or around there. and to americans this is OLD. in lincoln we have the cathedral which is hundreds of years old, and the castle which is even older! americans cant comprehend how established our country is! and it puts it into perspective i thought.

alex

I just didn't like the indoctrination. I was at school there and I got into trouble one morning for refusing to start the pledge of allegiance ... none of my classmates would talk to me for about a week. Every day they checked in class that you knew the difference between 'democracy' and 'dictatorships'. And in a poll of my Dad's workmates, he was one of only two (out of 50) who didn't own guns. So that was kind of depressing. I want to go back and visit New York, but I could never live there again.

I guess things had changed by the time I got there - everyone understood why I didn't want to say the pledge, and I didn't get any hassle for it at all. They were all just really interested in the differences between the US and the UK.