USA Travel

[clover]

Dear Americans,
When I leave JET this year I plan to travel, and I expect to be in your lovely country for a month next October, 2010.
I will arrive in LA and leave via New York.
What do you recommend I see in-between?

Between Chicago and NYC I already know what I want to do, but I need your wealth of experience and knowledge to let me know what you think are the best places to visit. I am open to all opinions!

I will most likely be travelling on an Amtrak Rail Pass, so 3 options are open to me:

The south route goes California (LA) - Arizona - New Mexico - Colorado - Kansas - Missouri - Illinois (Chigago)

The middle route goes California (Oakland) - Nevada - Utah - Colorado - Nebraska - Iowa - Illinois (Chicago)

The north route goes Vancouver/Washington - Idaho - Montana - North Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Chicago.
(This route will also require an internal flight from LA or San Francisco to Vancouver)

Before you suggest it, I cannot drive, and anyway the rail ticket is cheaper.
I intend to take 6-8 days for the journey between the east coast and Chicago.

Let me know what you recommend and why!


And the route map:

[escos]

The north route goes Vancouver/Washington - Idaho - Montana - North Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Chicago.
(This route will also require an internal flight from LA or San Francisco to Vancouver)

I vote this, but I'm biased.

It really depends on what you want to see/what kind of people you want to meet, etc. Those three routes take you through three very different parts of the country.

[taikoman]

The north route goes Vancouver/Washington - Idaho - Montana - North Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Chicago.
(This route will also require an internal flight from LA or San Francisco to Vancouver)

I vote this, but I'm biased.

It really depends on what you want to see/what kind of people you want to meet, etc. Those three routes take you through three very different parts of the country.

Come on Escos, represent! Why is the northern route best.

Also Clover, I've done Amtrak cross-country (non-stop) twice, and my advice would be to avoid buying meals on the train. Amtrak food is expensive and shit - I mean far, far worse than airline food. Really. I recommend trying the coffee though, simply to be amazed at what they try and pass off in the place of actual coffee made from coffee beans.

[clover]

I really don't mind what I see. I don't know much about the states.

[urthona]

Amtrak will take forever, the article in NY Time this week about high speed rail is about that.

Anyway,

There is the cities in California - (Oakland is connected to San Francisco by BART - a multi-city subway system.
In Nevada, there is Las Vegas (or Reno, its smaller, sleazier counterpart) - and then... well there isn't much in the middle of America. It is flyover country before Chicago.

There's obviously hiking in Colorado/Utah and New Orleans is interesting for cultural reasons but none of these are connected to each other once you commit to a route it seems. Best of luck of though.

Flights in the US can be really cheap - LA to San Francisco is about $50 one-way for instance.

[oofers]

I would opt for the northern or southern route.

The north route goes Vancouver/Washington - Idaho - Montana - North Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Chicago.

Along the northern, you would get greatness of the pacific northwest in Washington/Vancouver, beautiful wilderness and the Rockies and such in Idaho and Montana. Skip North Dakota. There's nothing there. And when you get into Minnesota and Wisconsin, you can eat lots of cheese, sample lots of breweries, perhaps take in some hippie fall festival going on.

The south route goes California (LA) - Arizona - New Mexico - Colorado - Kansas - Missouri - Illinois (Chigago)

As for the south, you'd get Sunny California, the grand canyon and purdy deserts in Arizona and New Mexico, and the Rockies (and light-headedness!) in Colorado. Skip Kansas as it's a terribly boring state. Missouri can be fun if you go to the right places (like St. Louis!) and then you'll end up in Chicago.

[mingpagoda]

Clover - check your email.

[nalhagen]

Wow. Amtrak is still operating? Heh. Gotta love government subsidies...

Anywho, this is really tough... The southern route looks pretty boring. Desert, then desert and then some more desert and BAM New Orleans. The northern route also seems somewhat boring, but then again, I've never been up that far. I'm torn between recommending the two middle routes. Northern Arizona and Southern Utah are absolutely amazing, but I'm not sure about how to get to the places that are interesting using public transportation from where the trains stops. Like any typical American, I've never even been on Amtrak and would be even more lost trying to get buses or something from the stations to, well, anywhere. XD

Thinking about it, I'd recommend going up towards San Francisco (a cool city) from LA (a not so cool city) and try to hit Yosemite before going further along the upper middle route. Once through northern Nevada (I can't think of anything to see up there), if you can get to Southern Utah, that would be awesome. Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Zion NP and then it's a "short" trip down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, something most people haven't had the opportunity to see since they almost always go to the south rim. But, how to get there = ?. From there, the trip through Colorado and the Rockies should be downright breathtaking. You'll basically be riding the valleys of mountain wilderness to Denver. From there, it's pretty much flatland to Chicago through lands I've never traveled.

The lower middle route is better for mainstream Grand Canyon viewing, but looks pretty boring and empty past that...

I'm pretty much a breathtaking nature sights kind of traveler, in case you hadn't noticed.

[escos]

I'm pretty much a breathtaking nature sights kind of traveler, in case you hadn't noticed.

Yet you say the northern route would be boring

there's tto much to list for Washington, but I'll put this up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_sound

And other states on the way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshone_Falls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawtooth_Range_(Idaho)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift_Prairie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coteau_du_Missouri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_National_Park_(U.S.)

etc.

[alexis]

Could also depend on if you could meet up with people along the way.... it is always more fun to get an insider's perspective to a place so I say go the route that might take you close to people that you will want to visit.

However, if it were me, I would probably do the middle one so that I could visit Denver or the upper one because I have heard that area of the country is gorgeous (not that the rest isn't but you know...) and I have always wanted to see Seattle.

[mingpagoda]

This might make getting connecting flights to and from Komatsu and Noto airports, not much but possibly, a little easier: http://www.japantoday.com/category/top- ... da-airport

4 direct flights to fly from U.S. cities to Haneda airport

Wednesday 07th July, 02:32 PM JST

WASHINGTON —

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday it has granted three U.S. air carriers to launch direct flights from four U.S. cities to Haneda airport, paving the way for the first regular international flights to the airport in 32 years since Narita airport opened in 1978.

Hawaiian Airlines will operate flights between Honolulu and Haneda, which is closer to central Tokyo than Narita airport, from Oct 31, its first service to Japan. American Airlines will have flights from New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport to Haneda from Jan 20, 2011, and Delta Air Lines will operate direct flights to Haneda from Los Angeles and Detroit.

The approval is based on the ‘‘open skies’’ agreement reached in December by the Japanese and U.S. governments. The agreement allows each country’s air carriers to be granted late night and early morning landing and departure slots for up to four round trips daily between U.S. cities and Haneda airport, which is scheduled to open a new runway in October.

From Japanese airlines, All Nippon Airways Co plans to operate direct flights from Haneda to Los Angeles and Honolulu on Oct 31, and Japan Airlines Corp will fly from Haneda to San Francisco and Honolulu.

[jaffspage]

here in the usa everybody just stays home watching tv or using the computer and never travel. don't give me bull shyt that they can't afford most can and time? Many americans are kinda lazy and try to work as short as they can Example. I come from europe and I like to travel around the world and here in the usa everyone looks at me like I'm some idoit?