Favorite Vacation Places in No America

[Idnar7]

What are/were your favorite vacation occasions or destinations? Do you plan to revisit? So far mine have been:

1. Maine coast rented a house for a week on Penobscot Bay
2. Grand Tetons/Yellowstone camping
3. Black Hills camping
4. Seattle watching the sea planes take off and land on Lake Union
5. Minnesota North Shore/Boundary Waters camping

Going back to North Shore the end of July. Plan to revisit Maine some fall.

 

[ivinsfan]

Sounds as if you like the Northern half of the US..I love Utah and all the National parks it has to offer. Some of the state parks in Utah rival the national parks...Dead Horse State park in Moab is great. As often as we visit Utah we can always find something new to see and the people are beyond friendly.

 

[aaronc879]

I haven't traveled as much as most peoplwe here but there are a couple places I really enjoy.

1. Yellowstone-camping
2. Florida Gulf Coast-Anywhere from Anna Maria down to Ft Myers Beach works for me but Siesta Key is the best IMO.

I hope to return to Yellowstone but not sure when. I plan to return to Florida most winters for the rest of my life.

Place I haven't been but most want to visit is Yosemite.

 

[Lsbcal]

We recently came back from a Utah trip. We spent 2 weeks and visited Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, and Arches (plus Canyonlands) in that order. We've found early May to be a good time to go there. Temperatures varied from the 30's to the 90's.

We like hiking and also watercolor sketching out in these parks. The geology is fascinating to me. Gives a good life perspective too with all those layers of history.

Visited Las Vegas for 1 night on flight out. Took in Cirque du Soleil but no gambling as I do all of that in stocks.

 

[kcowan]

I like Saint Martin and Guanajuato.

For the US, all three coasts. the UP and the mountains east and west.

 

[CoolChange]

Florida's Hollywood Beach along with the areas just north and south of there along the coast have always been favorites of mine in the USA.

The coastal towns south of Cancun in Mexico are also favorites and can be cheaper alternatives.

 

[W2R]

I am retired, so honestly I feel as though my entire life is a vacation.

I guess I'm taking that "Vacation in your own home town!" commercial literally. I do enjoy seeing the sights in New Orleans, photographing the architecture and monuments, and eating at our wonderful restaurants. Sometimes we even go to a parade or two during carnival season.

We keep talking about going somewhere, but it seems like a lot of effort and expense when we are perfectly happy already. I guess the last time we went anywhere was during our evacuation for Hurricane Isaac, back in 2012. At that time we explored the countryside near, but not in, Eutaw, Alabama (population 2934).

It was so nice to get back to New Orleans. I would not recommend Eutaw, Alabama as a vacation destination, so you can cross that one off your list.

 

[IBWino]

My wife and I really enjoyed our trip to the Black Hills area and our multiple trips through Utah. The Black Hills area is beautiful and has many interesting sites besides Mount Rushmore (e.g. many caverns, Deadwood, etc.), of which we were unaware prior to visiting.

In Utah, the hiking and scenery in the numerous national parks and monuments are unbeatable (e.g. Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion, etc.). We're already planning a return trip (our fourth in ten years) for next year.

 

[mpeirce]

I am retired, so honestly I feel as though my entire life is a vacation.

Me too. I've tried to change my vocabulary from vacations to trips. Seems more accurate.

Good places to visit? A few quick thoughts...

Grover Hot Springs in California's Sierras is a great camping area.

The drive from Monterrey down Highway 1 to San Luis Obispo is one of the best drives in the world.

Jackson Hole Wyoming is a wonderful base for Tetons and Yellow Stone national parks as well as other nearby areas.

If you like beaches and HOT weather, the North Carolina outer banks would be perfect in the summer.

For leafy mountain views anywhere from the Massachusetts Berkshires up through the Green Mountains in Vermont is breathtaking, especially in the fall.

Lake Erie islands are great for boating and fishing.

 

[ABQ2015]

Some of my favorites have been:

San Juan Islands in Washington state

Oregon coast

Long weekends in New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Santa Fe, and Taos (edited to add Las Vegas, Washington DC, Williamsburg, Monterrey, and Victoria, Canada)

Jazz Festival in New Orleans

A trip that started in Boston and up along the Maine Coast to Mount Desert (sp?)

Camping at the Grand Canyon

Northern New Mexico to include visiting pueblos, narrow gauge railroad ride, etc.

 

[tmm99]

Moraine Lake (Canada) and the Grand Cayon are probably my top two. Never seen anything like either place.

 

[Ally]

Our favorites:
The Oregon coast
Mt. Ranier and surroundings
California Coast near San Simeon and Hearst Castle
Santa Fe
New Orleans
Atlanta area
Kansas City (it helps that my son's family lives there)
Most of Colorado - it's a beautiful state

 

[grasshopper]

Wow,
North Carolina Outer Banks using every ferry you can.
Skyline Drive, Great Smoky Mts.
Finger Lakes New York, wineries.
Napa, Sonoma wineries.
CA route 1 LA to Bodega Bay or further north if time allows.
All the great lodges in the National Parks, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite.
Canyonlands, SW Utah as mentioned.
Over the Snoqualmie Pass Seattle to Spokane.
Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise in British Columbia, Canada
Glacier NP, Going to the Sun.
Baja, Gulf of California, Sea of Cortez.
Denali, Alaska
Santa Cruz CA, Redwoods, boardwalk.

 

[Sea Kayaker]

June to October - Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands B.C. (honourable mention to San Juan Islands).

October to May - Baja Mexico.

This is pretty much my ER itinerary - I love these places more than I can adequately describe.

 

[grasshopper]

June to October - Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands B.C. (honourable mention to San Juan Islands).

October to May - Baja Mexico.

This is pretty much my ER itinerary - I love these places more than I can adequately describe.

Not that you need a j*b, but Un-Cruise Adventures has adventure cruise in both locations at the same dates. Kayaking, hiking snorkeling and a few pennies to boot.
Small Ship Cruise Alaska Cruise | Un-Cruise Adventures

 

[cantlogin]

I am retired, so honestly I feel as though my entire life is a vacation.

... I do enjoy seeing the sights in New Orleans, photographing the architecture and monuments, and eating at our wonderful restaurants. ...

Me too, except that's your town.

Quebec City

Greenville, Me.

Watkins Glen, NY

NYC

Chicago

 

[WhoDaresWins]

In no particular order:

Finger Lakes of NYS (in the summer)
Monterey Bay Peninsula, CA
Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks of NC (I prefer the fall)
Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard (summer)
East and West Coasts of FL; Panhandle and also the FL Keys (winter)
Philadelphia (museums, historical sites and also the cheesesteaks)

 

[timo2]

Lake Louise, Canada

 

[MRG]

I'm surprised by the responses for Finger Lakes/Watkins Glen. I thought that area was our private haven.

Some more favorites:
Florida- Keys, Ft. Myres area, Treasure coast
Maine - Goose Rocks Beach to Bar Harbor
Vancouver and Vancouver Island
Yellowstone
Ozarks
Flagstaff, Sedona, Jerome
Mt. Washington
Thousand Islands area, Wolfe Island is a special place.

 

[Lsbcal]

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.

 

[aja8888]

I'm surprised by the responses for Finger Lakes/Watkins Glen. I thought that area was our private haven.

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.

 

[MRG]

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.

Great Great grandparents lived just north of there, long gone before my birth. Still have family the area.

Before the track was built in '56 the race ran through the town. I remember old family photos, race running in front of cousins storefront. I rode through a partial lap back in the '60s. A cousin who was older snuck his car on to the track with my sister and me, luckily we didn't get caught!

Lots of happy memories of summers spent on the lake, and the Glen. Yes, that area is beautiful.

 

[Tree-dweller]

Never had a bad trip to San Francisco. Beautiful city, great food.
Quebec City was great, for the same reasons (Montreal, not so much).
Someone else mentioned Goose Rocks Beach near Kennebunkport. I agree, one of the best beaches we went to when kids were young, and surprisingly comfortable water for Maine.
Haven't been there since the World's Fair (do they still happen?) in 1984, but "Nawlins" hit all the right buttons, starting with the Amtrak conductor singing "Young at Heart" as we crossed into the city. Haven't had decent crawfish etouffe since.
And we love cape cod too, but only from Chatham outward. The rest of it we leave to the 20-something partiers.

 

[Lucantes]

Cocoa Beach FL and the Outer Banks of NC does it for me!

 

[NoiseBoy]

Washington DC. World class museums that are almost all free. Extended hours during the summer season. Lincoln Memorial at night; you've seen pictures, but the impact of actually being there is something else. If you use public transportation, which is excellent, and walk to each day's destinations, you'll get your hiking in for the week! I would go back in a heartbeat, which is not something that I can say for other cities that I have visited.