Where to go
New York
The one city that meets expectations: the museums — the Met, MoMA, the Natural History Museum — the neighbourhoods, and the walking. Manhattan is smaller than it looks and Brooklyn and Queens repay the subway ride. Four days minimum, and it will be the most expensive part of any trip.
Washington and the east coast
The Smithsonian museums are free and among the best in the world, and the memorials are walkable in a day. Combine with Philadelphia, Boston and the New England coast; the north-east corridor is the one part of the country where trains work well.
California
San Francisco and the bay, the Pacific coast highway to Big Sur, Los Angeles, and Yosemite or Sequoia inland. Two weeks by car, and the most varied single-state itinerary in the country.
The south-west national parks
The Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Monument Valley and Arches, usually as a loop from Las Vegas or Phoenix. Spring and autumn only — summer is dangerous in the desert. Ten days by car.
The South
New Orleans, the Mississippi delta, Memphis and Nashville: the music, the food and a history the better museums now confront directly. Charleston and Savannah for the architecture. Spring, before the heat.
Alaska and the north-west
Seattle and Portland, then the Olympic peninsula, the Cascades, and Alaska beyond. Summer only for Alaska, and the scale is unlike anything in the lower forty-eight.
Building the itinerary
- Three stops a week, no more. Every move costs half a day at minimum, often a whole one, and you see nothing of a place where you sleep one night.
- Alternate the pace. A dense city, then two quiet days: that is what makes travelling as a couple sustainable, especially if one of you lives there and works.
- Keep a buffer day before the flight home, in the departure city. Domestic transport delays are the leading cause of missed flights.
- Ask the person who lives there what they want to show you. Guidebook itineraries and the places that matter to them rarely overlap — and the second list is the better one.
Two reflexes that change a trip
Distances deceive. On a map two points look close; on the ground, road conditions, checkpoints and terrain double or triple the time. Plan fewer stops and more time at each.
Ask before photographing anyone, and never insist. Official buildings, soldiers, airports and bridges are best avoided almost everywhere — the most banal and most avoidable source of trouble.