Favorite Vacation Places in No America

[Ronstar]

Winter - Scottsdale, az
Summer - Grand Canyon, Colorado, Wyoming, Las Vegas, upper Midwest, San Francisco / wine country, Washington, D.C.

 

[martyp]

We really like Mammouth Lakes and doing day hikes on the Eastern High Sierra hiking trails. You can come into Yosemite from Tioga Pass at 10000 feet elevation.

I was just thinking it was time for a return trip to the Eastern Sierra's. I love the trail to Shadow Lake and the trails in the Bristlecone Pine forest.

 

[Moemg]

1- New England especially Boston or western Mass .
2- Washington,D.C. great museums
3-New York City
4- Grand Canyon
5- Sedona
6-San Francisco
7-Provincetown
8-St. Augustine ,Fl
9-Key West ,Fl
10-New Orleans

 

[Lsbcal]

I was just thinking it was time for a return trip to the Eastern Sierra's. I love the trail to Shadow Lake and the trails in the Bristlecone Pine forest.

Is the Shadow Lake Trail near Mammoth Lakes?

 

[pixelville]

Nobody mentioned Hawaii?

Kauai
Honolulu & Oahu
Big Island
Maui
Yellowstone
Downtown Chicago
NYC Manhattan
Banff, Lake Louise
Grand Canyon
Washington DC
Utah NPs & Moab
Toronto
Vancouver
Montreal
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Niagara Falls
Fall drives in New England
Santa Fe
Quaint coastal towns in California
Glacier National Park
Black Hills/Mt Rushmore area
Mammoth Lakes
San Antonio
Key West
Anchorage to Seward & Denali
Tulum, Chichenitza, Cancun

Yosemite is conspicuously missing - been there several times but don't understand the craze.
I could go on & on but this thread is giving me "itchy feet" so I need to start planning my next road-trip!
Thanks for starting the thread. It gave me a chance to relive my vacations.

 

[Nemo2]

Nobody mentioned Hawaii?

Perhaps because it's in Polynesia rather than North America?

 

[Lsbcal]

What I miss in some of these vacation threads is how people managed the logistics of the trip. By that I mean
1) start point
2) route through the area
3) high points
4) estimates of days in each place
5) maybe places to stay
6) best months to visit

For instance, we'd like to visit the New England area but know nothing about how to design a route from airport and looping back.

I could suggest routes one might take out of San Francisco and include some things within driving distance. I could even suggest a California "sampler". Now I know this might be highly individual (I'm not interested in night life for example). Still I have trouble figuring out this stuff so tend to stay in the western states -- not such a bad thing I guess.

Any thoughts on starting such a thread? It could be called something like "vacation routes". Or am I just missing many previous good postings?

 

[WIBuckeye]

1) Charleston, SC
2) New Orleans
3) Outer Banks, NC
4) Sarasota (Siesta Key)
5) Clearwater Fl
6) Door County, WI
7) Saugatuck, MI
8) New River Gorge, WV
9) Lafayette, La
10) Napa/Sonoma Ca

 

[rodi]

One of my favorite vacations of all times was a trip we did that encompassed a week on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, a week in Yellowstone, and a week in Grand Teton in cabins on Lake Jackson.

All of our accomodations were in the park, no tv's. no internet. The kids mastered the important life skill of skipping rocks. We learned to enjoy the quiet moments, while hiking, of birds and insects chirping, the occasional deer, some baby bears (from a distance) and a moose.

My husband and I agree that this beats our european jaunts, our asian jaunts, etc for quality family time and recharging.

We plan to repeat it 2 years from now.

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
My husband and I agree that this beats our european jaunts, our asian jaunts, etc for quality family time and recharging.

We plan to repeat it 2 years from now.

I agree that doing more time in domestic locals can be very rewarding, especially if there is a lot of time in one stop over. The costs come down somewhat, no language barriers, some familiarity. OK, there are no kings & queens or castles. It's just different but still a great experience.

This year we are doing 4 domestic trips:
Utah parks
Yosemite, San Diego, Monterey
Ashland, Oregon Gardens, Portland, Cannon Beach, etc.
Mammoth Lakes

 

[pixelville]

What I miss in some of these vacation threads is how people managed the logistics of the trip. By that I mean
1) start point
2) route through the area
3) high points
4) estimates of days in each place
5) maybe places to stay
6) best months to visit

For instance, we'd like to visit the New England area but know nothing about how to design a route from airport and looping back.

I could suggest routes one might take out of San Francisco and include some things within driving distance. I could even suggest a California "sampler". Now I know this might be highly individual (I'm not interested in night life for example). Still I have trouble figuring out this stuff so tend to stay in the western states -- not such a bad thing I guess.

Any thoughts on starting such a thread? It could be called something like "vacation routes". Or am I just missing many previous good postings?

My starting point for planning a trip to a new region is to look at tour itineraries that cover the region I am interested in. That gives me a quick idea of the highlights and a rough idea of the number of days.
I do this either with Guidebooks from the library (Frommer's, Lonely Planet, etc) or the Guided Tour itineraries from tour websites. Then I read more details about all the places in the region, research which ones we might be interested in and how long we would want to spend time there. And soon I have a good idea of a rough day-by-day itinerary. Personally, we like to stay flexible so we rarely book hotels ahead of time in case we want to spend more/less time in a place or stay in a location we like (exceptions are places like Yellowstone or a trip where the hotel/cabin is the destination). Never had to be stranded although on occasion we had to spend more time hotel-hunting than we would have liked.
Back in the pre-internet days when we did more domestic travel, AAA guidebooks would come in fairly handy.

 

[Koolau]

Nah..we know where it is!

When I lived in Connecticut, I (and some friends) made the annual pilgrimage to Watkins Glen the first week of October for several years to camp out and watch the Grand Prix of the U.S. there. I guess we were there with 200,000 other visitors that were camping out and being "held in check" by 10 mounted state troopers (that never worked well for them).

Besides the event, the area is beautiful.

Went to the track in late July ca. 1970 on a leisurely honey moon drive. Deserted, of course, except for a nice "care taker" who let us do a lap on the track (in my aging Cutlass - avg. speed was maybe 50.) Nice area and would still love to see a race there some day. Probably not in the cards. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

One great trip was from BC to BC (British Columbia to Baha, California.) Flew to Vancouver. Took the ferry to Vancouver Island (wish we had more time there). Took the ferry from the Island to Seattle. Rented a car and drove the length of 1/101 all the way to San Ysidro (took a bus into TJ). Flew home from San Diego.

Vancouver
Seattle
Portland
Red Woods
Wine Country
San Simeon (Hearst Castle)
Big Sur
All of LA
San Diego (Balboa Park) and TJ
Much more (no Disney Land, but did Universal Studios)

Took about 12 days IIRC. Could have spent twice that, easily.

Fun, fairly relaxing (except right in LA - yes we bought the "Map to the Stars Homes.")

Wouldn't mind doing it again, but life is short. YMMV

 

[Mango1956]

We're not retired yet, but DH is about to go to 3 days a week, and I am going to 2 days a week. We're day hikers, and we go back time and again to:

Mount Shasta area-Calif (great hiking and lightly visited country!)
High Sierra Nevada-Calif (varies from hwy 108, hwy 88 and hwy 4)
Central Coast of Calif.-Cayucos and Cambria
Utah canyon country-as others have said, amazing hikes!
New Mexico (my sister lives in ABQ)
Oregon-another sister near Portland, and we also love Ashland (lots of watercolor artists in galleries there) and are about to discover Corvallis (DH's band is playing nearby in August-"Guitars Under the Stars" outdoor music festival.)
Eastern Sierra-we are overdue for another hiking trip there.
I think that covers it!

 

[RockyMtn]

in no particular order....

Oregon coast in the summer.
Colorado mountains in summer and fall.
Scottsdale fall, winter and spring.
Carmel anytime.
Hawaii anytime.

 

[unclemick]

Well now that I'm married I've picked up the routine.

February - Port Aransas Texas Gulf with side trips to Mission TX or the other way to Cajun country , Breaux Bridge or into New Orleans since we have people we can visit.

July - Park Rapids MN on a lake.

August - usually a family reunion type event - last year Plam Springs CA this year Annapolis MD.

August/September ish somewhere near the Olympic National Park in Washington state.

Now as for my favs having been born/raised Pacific Northwest outside Portland and Mt Saint Helens - I of course am learning love for da city aka Kansas City and the Midwest Plains although my favorite of the last year is the Palouse area around Pulman WA.

Right now declining an invite from friends to take the lawn chairs to a park 10 minutes away and watch A Winter's Tale outdoor Shakespeare doo lolly.

heh heh heh - need to quit interneting and get outside.

 

[Lsbcal]

Unclemick, you are one of those spritely one's having all the fun.

 

[brett]

Oregon Coast

Hilton Head

Olympic Peninsula/San Juan Islands

 

[outdoorgirl02]

Colorado mountains summer/fall
Hawaii
Glacier National Park in Montana
Moab, Utah
CA & Oregon coast

 

[Schutzie]

The Grand Canyon is indeed a fine vacation destination, but to truly experience it, you gotta be looking up from the bottom, not down from the top.
A Grand Canyon river trip is a life time experience. Figure to do it right you want 2 weeks for the entire trip, and you want a small group. Whitewater boatman!

Puget Sound and the Islands? YES. Plenty of private charters at reasonable rates to explore them like it's supposed to be explored.

The Oregon coast is a really nice drive, say from Puget sound alllll the way to California. Glorious!

If you're into airplanes, Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona has planes no one else does; a true hidden gem for aficionados. Get up close and personal to the SR-71 See the ONLY B-36 remaining. how about the Russian B-29? Ever even heard of one? They have one at Pima. Or, how about the B-52 that dropped the X-1 when it broke the speed of sound the first time?

And there's a special cabin high in the Tetons that will always be my favorite getaway.

 

[Mr. Paul]

After experiencing the OR coast for the first time, it has moved to occupy the top of the list along with Canyonlands and Glacier National Parks. Yes, the OR coast is a great drive, but the real magic happens when you get out of the car. Cape Perpetua at high tide is a great example. Rialto Beach and the Olympic Peninsula was a blast as well. Visited Yellowstone again and had the same impression as the first time ... I prefer the National Parks where everywhere you turn is rewarding ... don't care for the Yellowstone "park here to see this" scene.

 

[Lucantes]

The southern parts of the Outer Banks NC (Hatteras and Ocracoke).

 

[Cassie]

**Martha's Vineyard
**New Orleans
**New Mexico
**Las Vegas, Nevada
**Black Hills, South Dakota
**Lake Tahoe

 

[BTravlin]

Vancouver, BC
Chicago
Las Vegas
New York
New Orleans
Washington, DC
Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area/Quetico Provincial Park
Glacier National Park
Tetons National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Olympic Peninsula
Ozark National Scenic Riverways area
Banff to Jasper and the entire Icefields Parkway in between
Rocky Mountain National Park
Denali, Alaska
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska
Cozumel, MX

And more yet to be discovered ...

 

[Sarah in SC]

Our trip on the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia was the best road trip I've ever had. Highly recommended!

And the Green River Gorge area (basically the most direct route from Grand Teton to Moab) has some wonderful sections and amazing remote camping opportunities.

Both of these were practically deserted, which was an even bigger plus!