United States

The United States is less one destination than a dozen. New York and the great cities for urban trips, the Southwest for desert and canyon country, California for coast and food, the national parks for wilderness on a scale most of the world can't match. Distances are large and a car is usually essential, so pick a region rather than trying to see it all.

Treat it as several trips and pick one. A city week in New York needs no car and barely a plan. The Southwest loop — Las Vegas out to Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon — is the best road trip on the continent. California strings San Francisco, Big Sur, and Yosemite into ten days. The money goes on hotels, the rental car, and tipping; park lodges and campsites book out months ahead, so commit early.

The downsides are structural: distances devour time, public transport barely exists outside a handful of cities, and costs have climbed — a mid-range hotel plus 20% tips adds up fast. The marquee parks are mobbed in summer, and several now require timed-entry reservations. Travellers who want trains, compact itineraries, and walkable old towns will fight the country the whole way. Come instead for scale: wilderness, cities, and variety with no real equivalent anywhere.