North AmericaUnited StatesUnited States
The United States is a road-trip country the size of a continent: 63 national parks, six time zones and cities that each carry a week alone. Pick one region, book the park lodges a year out, and budget the tip on top of every price.
United StatesUnited States in a nutshell
Where to go in the United States
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Plan your adventure in United States
Our travel routes through United States
United States is loved by culture seekers and backpackers alike. We recommend several routes through this country, here they are in full!
4 nights4 days, Grand Teton into Yellowstone
Grand Teton National Park · Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone's roads open mid-May; high-country hiking peaks Aug–Sep with fewer crowds.
6 nights1 week, the Oregon loop
Portland · Cannon Beach · Lincoln City
Coast and Cascade weather optimal; Mt Hood's high passes accessible late Jun onwards.
7 nights1 week: San Francisco to Seattle, coast and volcanoes
Point Reyes · Fort Bragg · Redwood National Park
Crater Lake rim opens late Jun; Mt Rainier hiking best Aug–Sep before autumn closures.
8 nights10 days, Yellowstone & Grand Teton loop from Salt Lake City
Idaho Falls · Yellowstone National Park · Grand Teton National Park
Yellowstone's prime window mid-May to mid-Sep; Grand Teton hiking best Jun–Sep.
9 nights10 days, Utah's Mighty 5 from Las Vegas
Zion National Park · Bryce Canyon National Park · Capitol Reef National Park
Zion, Bryce, and Moab ideal in shoulder seasons; avoid summer desert heat and winter snow.
10 nights10 days, Hawaii three-island hop
Maui · Oahu · Kauai
Maui, Oahu, and Kauai offer pleasant weather with cheaper flights Apr–May.
10 nights10 days, the California loop
Los Angeles · San Diego · Palm Springs
Lake Tahoe and Mammoth accessible; avoids summer desert heat and winter high-pass closures.
12 nights2 weeks, Alaska summer loop
Anchorage · Talkeetna · Denali National Park
Denali's buses and Seward–Homer routes run summer only; midnight sun and wildlife viewing peak.
12 nights2 weeks, Florida with kids
Miami · Orlando · Naples
Miami and Orlando perfect for families Dec–Apr; hurricane season and heat make May–Sep problematic.
12 nights2 weeks, Northern California grand loop
San Francisco · Napa Valley Sonoma · Redwood National Park
Crater Lake and Lassen highways open late Jun; Yosemite's Tioga Pass accessible Jul–Oct.
14 nights2 weeks, the Florida loop
Orlando · St. Augustine · Daytona Beach
Orlando, Miami, and Keys ideal in winter sun; avoids May–Sep hurricane season and spring-break crowds.
19 nights3 weeks, the Southwest camper grand circle
Las Vegas · Kingman · Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon, Page, Zion, and Moab ideal in shoulder seasons; desert heat dangerous Jun–Aug.
Updated September 2026 · 14 min read · Written by the Stippl editorsWe looked at how travellers actually plan the United States on Stippl, across 450,000+ planned stops in the United States.
The United States is planned as one region at a time, and most stops get a single night. New York carries a week on its own, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas anchor the west, Miami and Orlando the south, and between them sit the 63 national parks that international visitors come for: Yosemite's granite valley, Zion's Narrows, Bryce Canyon's hoodoos, Yellowstone's geysers and the slot canyons of the Navajo Nation. Most travellers give a US stop 1 night on Stippl, because the trip is the drive.
America is a country people do on its own, and in summer. 69.2% of the US trips planned on Stippl stay inside the country, the highest single-country share of any big destination we hold, and August is the month most people plan for. New York takes 6.59% of every US stop, which on a map this size is a large share.
So pick one region, hire the car or the camper, and book in the right order: in-park lodging a year out, then permits, then the car. The parks are unreachable without a vehicle and the famous campgrounds sell out in seconds. Skip the Southwest parks in July and August, when they are busiest and hottest at once, and skip the whole idea of seeing the country in one trip, because nobody does.
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Download the appWho the United States is for
Road-trippers and campervanners
The definitive road-trip country, with wide roads, motel infrastructure, a mature RV-rental market and park campgrounds built for vehicles.
National-park hikers
Sixty-three parks from slot canyons to glaciers, with the Mighty Five in Utah, Yellowstone and the Sierra parks as world-reference hiking.
Families
Junior Ranger programmes in nearly every park, campers that suit toddlers, Orlando as the theme-park capital and New York excellent with teenagers.
City-break travellers
New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Las Vegas each carry a full trip on their own, and 41.1% of US stops on Stippl are a single night.
Wildlife watchers
Bison and wolves in Yellowstone's valleys, bears and whales in Alaska, whale watching off California and Maui.
Music and food travellers
New Orleans jazz, Austin's live music, Chicago blues, and a regional food map from Texas barbecue to Maine lobster.
One-country planners
69.2% of US trips planned on Stippl stay inside the country, so this is the whole holiday rather than a leg of one.
Maybe not for you: backpackers without a car budget, since hostel infrastructure is thin outside the big cities and this is a car, motel and camping country; and anyone allergic to advance booking, because the best park lodging and permits sell out months out
The best time to visit the United States
Park summer
mid-May to September
The only window for the high country: Yosemite's Tioga Pass, Crater Lake's Rim Drive and Lassen's highway open in late June or July and close by late October, Yellowstone is best from mid-May, and it is also peak-crowd season.
The two shoulders
April to June and September to October
The Southwest's best weather, thinner crowds everywhere, New York at its best in May and September, and September the single most agreed month for the whole country.
Winter sun
December to April
The Florida Keys' high season, dry and warm, Hawaii's priciest months, and the desert parks quiet, cold and partly closed.
Aurora season
late August to early April
Fairbanks in Alaska is the best US base for the northern lights, on the long dark nights the rest of the country avoids.
- August is the month most travellers plan the United States for on Stippl, and June to September takes 46.9% of the plans. That is the school-holiday quarter, when the Southwest is busiest and hottest at once and airfares from Europe peak, so a shoulder trip saves twice.
- Hurricane season runs from about May to November. Florida and the Gulf coast get wetter and riskier from midsummer, and the Keys' high season is the dry winter for that reason.
- Las Vegas prices explode on the holiday weekends. Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day double the Strip's room rates and fill the parks, so a flexible trip avoids the long weekends.
- The high roads open in late June. Crater Lake takes up to fifteen metres of snow a winter and its Rim Drive typically opens mid-June to late October, Lassen's through-road can stay shut into July, and August to September is the safe hiking window.
- The Southwest inverts intuition. Summer is the busiest season and regularly passes 38 degrees, so spring and autumn are both cooler and quieter in Utah and Arizona.
- Only 20.0% of US plans on Stippl start between November and February. The cities, the Keys, Hawaii and the ski towns are all open, and New York in December is the one winter trip everyone makes.
Add your United States dates and we'll flag the weather per stop
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every place on your route.
Festivals, and when to avoid them
Thanksgiving
The fourth Thursday of November is the year's busiest travel week, with flights and roads full and the Macy's parade closing central Manhattan. Book any late-November leg months ahead, or avoid the week.
Mardi Gras
New Orleans' carnival peaks on Fat Tuesday, with parades for the fortnight before and the French Quarter rooms booked out a year ahead at several times the rate. Come for it with a booking, or wait for the quiet week after.
Spring break
American colleges take a week off in rotation through March, and some Florida beaches, Fort Lauderdale and Miami above all, get rowdy and dear. Check which beach before booking a March Florida week.
Memorial Day weekend
The unofficial start of summer: the parks fill, the national-park campgrounds are gone and hotel prices jump for the three days. The week after is the quiet start of the season.
Independence Day
Fireworks in every city, New York's over the East River, with hotels at the year's top rates for the long weekend and the parks at capacity. Book by spring or stay out of the cities that weekend.
Labor Day weekend
The last long weekend of summer, when the roads out of every city jam and the park lodges fill. The Tuesday after is the best day of the year to start a road trip.
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Hundreds of hot-air balloons at dawn over New Mexico for nine days, and the city's rooms go a year ahead. Book early, or see the Southwest the week after.
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Things to do in the United States
Photo by braincontour via PexelsOld Faithful and Grand Prismatic
The geyser that performs about every ninety minutes and the largest hot spring in the country, seen from the Overlook trail before the tour buses land at a quarter past eight.
Bryce Canyon's hoodoos
The Queen's Garden and Navajo loop through the orange spires, then stargazing after dark in one of the darkest skies in the country.
The Narrows and Angels Landing
Wading a river that narrows to six metres between 300-metre walls in Zion, and the permit-only chain-ridge climb, with Scout Lookout as the permit-free version.
Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend
The slot-canyon light shafts on Navajo land, guided only, and the 300-metre cliff over the Colorado's bend, ten minutes from Page.
Highway 1 through Big Sur
Bixby Bridge, McWay Falls and an elephant-seal rookery in one coastal morning between San Francisco and Los Angeles, when the road is open.
Alcatraz and the cable cars
Book the island weeks ahead from San Francisco, and take the audio tour, the rare free extra that is genuinely good.
What to eat in the United States
inches-deep cheese-first pizza pie
all-beef dog, poppy bun, seven toppings, never ketchup
Creole stew and overstuffed baguette sandwiches
fried dough under powdered sugar, with chicory coffee
tart lime cream on a crunchy base
smoked brisket culture and the Tex-Mex canon
chowder served in a hollowed sourdough loaf
SF's oversized foil-wrapped burrito style
Hawaiian raw-fish rice bowl
pressed pork sandwich and sweet Cuban espresso
the NYC street-food baseline
Caribbean sea-snail fritters
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American customs and what not to do
The car park is full by nine
Dawn is the golden hour of park travel: trailhead parking fills by eight or nine at Yellowstone, Bryce and the redwoods, and the tour buses land soon after.
Bear spray is not optional
Wildlife rules are enforced culture: keep distance, never feed, store food bear-aware and carry bear spray on Yellowstone trails.
No park pass on tribal land
Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley sit on the Navajo Nation with guided access and tribal permits, Havasu Falls needs a Havasupai permit, and Hawaii's sacred sites ask for restraint.
Tipping is the wage
Fifteen to twenty percent is the sit-down norm and staff are paid against the tip rather than on top of it, even the cocktail waitresses on free casino drinks.
Leave the big bag behind
Big-league games are a real travel experience, baseball at Wrigley or basketball at the Garden, and stadium security refuses large bags at the door.
Open containers: Strip only
Alcohol rules are local: open containers are legal walking the Las Vegas Strip and banned in cars everywhere, and casino floors and party pools are 21 and over.
Do
- Start hikes and city sights at dawn; it beats crowds, heat and parking everywhere
- Book in this order: in-park lodging a year out, then permits and timed entries, then the car, then the gateway-town restaurants
- Photograph the rental car or camper at pickup
- Download offline maps before every park
- Budget the tip and the sales tax on top of every sticker price
Don't
- Approach or feed wildlife, or leave food unsecured in bear country
- Leave anything visible in a parked car, especially in Hawaii and San Francisco
- Enter a slot canyon with storms in the forecast
- Hike Angels Landing without a permit; Scout Lookout is the legal lookalike
- Assume a European child seat is legal; the law wants LATCH-compatible seats
What a US trip costs
Budget
€60–105
A national-park campground or a hostel dorm, supermarket groceries, a share of a rental car, the park pass.
Mid-range
€155–240
A motel or chain-hotel double, casual restaurant meals with the tip, a rental car, park fees and one guided tour.
High-end
€300+
In-park lodges, city hotels with resort fees, guided tours and flightseeing.
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Visas, SIM cards and getting around
Entry & visa
An ESTA, applied for online
EU, UK, Australian and New Zealand passports need an ESTA, approved online before flying and valid for two years, for stays up to 90 days. Canadians need only the passport.
Money
Cards everywhere, cash for tips
Debit, credit and contactless work nearly everywhere and ATMs are plentiful from the airport onward, but carry some notes for tips, small towns and park campgrounds.
Connectivity
An eSIM, and offline maps
An eSIM is the low-friction data route for visitors, and the parks have no signal, so Google Maps is downloaded offline before every drive.
Getting around
A car, or a camper
Outside the New York and Chicago cores the trip needs a vehicle, with an RV the family answer for park loops, and internal flights for the long legs.
Health
Nothing required, insurance essential
No vaccinations are required, but medical care is billed at rates that make travel insurance the one non-negotiable purchase before the flight.
Water
Safe from the tap
Tap water is safe nationwide, and the parks have refill stations at visitor centres, so a refillable bottle does the heat.
Tipping
Fifteen to twenty percent, always
Sit-down restaurants and bars 15 to 20 percent, taxis the same, housekeeping a couple of dollars a night left daily, because tipped staff are paid against it.
Power & plugs
Type A and B, 120 volts
The flat two-pin plug at 120 volts, so an adapter is needed from Europe and hair dryers and kettles may not run at full power.
Language
English, with different words
English everywhere and Spanish strong in Miami and the Southwest; the real barrier is vocabulary, since the travel terms differ from British English.
American English worth knowing
Nobody expects you to speak the language, which is exactly why a handful of words goes so far.
check
The restaurant bill; ask for it, it rarely comes unprompted · the bill
gratuity
The tip; gratuity included means do not tip again · service charge
restroom
The toilet; toilet sounds blunt to American ears · the toilets
gas
Petrol, sold by the gallon at the gas station · petrol
entrée
The main course, not the starter · main course
to-go
Takeaway, at the counter or the end of a meal · takeaway
resort fee
A mandatory hotel surcharge not in the sticker price · hotel surcharge
trailhead
Where the hike starts, and where the parking fills by eight · the start of the walk
sales tax
Added at the till on top of every marked price · VAT
first floor
The ground floor; American floors count from one · ground floor
United States questions, answered
By picking one region, before anything else: nobody sees the country in one trip. Lay the stops out in Stippl with the drive times between them and see what two or three weeks allow, since most travellers give a US stop 1 night on Stippl and 41.1% of stops are a single night. Show the route to people who have driven it, in subreddits like r/roadtrip.
Almost always: 69.2% of the US trips planned on Stippl stay inside the country, the highest single-country share of any big destination we hold. The exceptions cross into Canada from the Northeast or the Pacific Northwest, or add Mexico from the Southwest and Texas.
Yes, outside the New York and Chicago cores; Los Angeles effectively requires one and the parks are unreachable without one. A camper wins for families and park-heavy loops, since you sleep inside the parks without repacking, and car plus motels is easier for city-heavy trips.
In-park lodges up to a year, the famous Recreation.gov campgrounds five to six months, when they sell out in seconds, permits such as Angels Landing by lottery, and flights from Europe six to seven months. August is the month most travellers plan the country for on Stippl, so the summer bookings start the previous autumn.
Effectively, yes: tipped staff are paid a cash wage below the minimum and the tip is the rest of their income. Leave 15 to 20 percent of the pre-tax bill in sit-down restaurants and on bar tabs, the same in taxis, and a couple of dollars a night for housekeeping, left daily rather than at checkout.
Yes, and the real risks are nature rather than people: heat, flash floods in the slot canyons, wildlife and exposure in the parks, and car break-ins in the cities, so nothing stays visible in a parked car. The parks' own rangers and the visitor-centre flash-flood boards are the safety briefing.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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