USA Adventure: Places to Visit on a USA Road Trip

Located on Puget Sound, Seattle is a big city with a small-town feel. If you visit from mid-May to mid-October you will likely spot orca whales in the sound; although, many people travel to San Juan Island. Click here for a map of the best spots for whale watching

Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, and Chihuly Garden and Glass are amongst the must-sees in Seattle. If you are an aviation fan, you will want to visit the Museum of Flight or take a tour of the Boeing factory.

Seattle is listed first on this page as it was the starting point of a west coast USA road trip that took us to San Francisco, mostly driving along the coastal highway.

Our Oregon road trip is one of my best USA adventure memories. Our full itinerary took us from Portland to Astoria, then down the coast until just past Brookings, when we entered California.

Nature treated us to blowholes, wild waves, coastal forest, birdlife, and sea lions. If you enjoy endless sea views alternating from the clifftop to beachside, this is probably the best USA road trip to pick. It is the most spectacular drive we have done in the USA.

As we continued down the coast from Oregon, our California road trip took us through the redwood forests. Looking up at some of the world’s tallest trees, I found it an almost overwhelming experience. Then, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and entered a city close to my heart.

The iconic steep streets, cable cars, and sea lions are ingrained in the city’s culture. Add the aroma of freshly baked sourdough bread, fresh catch fish on the menu, and a world-renowned Irish coffee, and San Francisco can’t be beaten. It’s my number one destination pick for any USA adventure.

If you haven’t visited the USA in a few years, you may feel that your time in LAX was enough of a California adventure. After our last visit, we feel different. Our airport experience was efficient and easy, as was getting our rental car. As Los Angeles is our primary port of entry into the United States, we have taken several different road trips from LA over the years to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego.

We have also spent time enjoying the city. Being embarrassingly star-struck, we took a studio tour, visited Madame Tussauds Hollywood, and explored Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Phoenix is a lush, green desert city that wastes water like nowhere I have seen before. Fountains flow and sprinklers keep the grass green, but the cactus-covered desert on the outskirts of town is where I prefer to spend my time. That is, unless I am headed to the Musical Instrument Museum. Home to the largest collection of musical instruments in the world, it is well worth a visit.

My other favourite is the Desert Botanical Gardens.

Photo: Inside the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona

Our road trip from Phoenix took us to Los Angeles, stopping first in Joshua Tree Park National Park just in time to watch the sunset over the unusual trees. Had our Arizona road trip headed north, we would have visited Sedona and the Grand Canyon.

Home to the “Big Five” US national parks (Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands), Utah is the place for stunning great American adventures. So many of our travel blogging friends have been to Utah; however, it remains on our travel wish list.

Photo Credit: LoggaWiggler from Pixabay.

Bright lights and big city, Las Vegas is quite different from many of the nature-based travels we typically enjoy. A city that never sleeps, its strip is filled with one massive casino after the next. Each is more of a resort than just offering a place to rest your head. In addition to the casino, there are themed restaurants, first-class entertainment, swimming pools, spas, and extensive shopping.

Las Vegas is not the place to go for a relaxing trip in the USA. However, Vegas adventures aren’t usually filled with the drama seen in the movies, but it has the potential for it. Popular road trips from Vegas include Hoover Dam or an opportunity to shoot a machine gun just over the Arizona border.

Quite a bit off of the beaten path, Alaska is a destination on its own. It’s like nowhere else we have been. Lush and green in the summer, but too cold for my taste in the winter, it’s an outdoor paradise. We took the train to Denali, the national park that is home to Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak in North America.

One of the easiest ways to enjoy Alaska is to cruise the interior passage. We sailed out of Anchorage (Whittier) with ports in Hoonah, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Vancouver in Canada. See our itinerary and best tips for cruising Alaska. 

Born and raised in Chicago, I have a deep affection for the city; although, it has changed quite a bit since I last lived there. Each visit to Chicago is like seeing it new. It’s exciting, colourful, active, and familiar. Highlights of Chicago include several world-class art and science museums, two former ‘world’s tallest’ skyscrapers, and Chicago-style pizza.

Situated along the Atlantic coast between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Delray Beach isn’t often on the tourist path, although a great day trip from Miami. In fact, if we didn’t have family here, we may never have discovered it amongst so many other interesting Atlantic Coast towns. With its modern and redeveloped downtown area filled with boutique shops and quirky cafes just off the beach, there are plenty of ways to relax.

Additionally, it’s the wildlife that keeps me interested in Delray Beach. It is home to two free refuge areas offering boardwalks that keep visitors safe from the alligators while enjoying the abundant birdlife. Be sure to include a stop at Wakodahatchee Wetlands if you are doing an east coast Florida road trip.

America’s oldest city is filled with mystery. Stories of hauntings, hangings, and battles, it is also where I drank from Ponce de Leon’s fountain of youth. A very touristy city, there are entrance fees for just about everything we did. However, it’s good fun at every turn.

Our visit to the country music capital is one of my favourite unplanned road trips in America. After our plans to drive up the eastern seaboard were disrupted by a cyclone, we switched directions and headed from Flordia to Chicago (see map below). Nashville provided two days of non-stop musical fun.

The fresh aroma of autumn coupled with the nature’s rainbow of coloured leaves is unmistakable. There are only a few weeks a year to capture the true magic, but if you can get to New England during that time you will be rewarded.

Photo credit: Connecticut Office of Tourism

The drive from Washington DC to Manhattan was an interesting road trip. New York city traffic caught us by surprise after travelling at the limit on the approach. We returned the car and, like our previous trips to New York, explored via foot or public transit.

The largest city in the United States, New York has so much to offer and we hit all the major highlights: the Statue of Liberty, the Met, Central Park, Empire State Building, Stock Exchange, the Memorial at Ground Zero, and, of course, Times Square at night.