Hi everyone! I’m planning my first trip to the United States and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the size. I’ll have around 2 weeks. Would love suggestions on the best cities or regions to combine without rushing too much. Thanks in advance!

You need to decide which general area you want to visit. From your other thread, I gather you're open to the entire span of the continental U.S. (New York, Chicago, San Francisco were mentioned), but the U.S. is nearly equal in size to all of Europe... where you would likely just explore just one country or two countries that overlap a region. In the U.S., you could spend the entire time in California and not run out of amazing things to see and do.

Where are you coming from? Would your "around 2 weeks" mean 14 days not impacted by arrival and departure, or closer to 11-12 full days? What time of year? Some places are more impacted by weather than others at certain times of the year. Are you more or primarily interested in big cities?

I agree, you need to narrow it down to a few states or cities to start planning. Your question is like saying what's the best place to go in "Europe" or "South America"

At least narrow it down by regions... like do you want to go to New York City then up into the New England states? Or you want to see the east coast "down south" and on to Florida? Or maybe the west coast to visit Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Any one of these area can easily fill a two-week trip.

Welcome! Happy planning!! Tell us more and we can help more. Anything in particular you want to see? The Grand Canyon? National parks? Cities with history?

You might want to start with either one of these possible plans:

New York City and Boston, MA, or

Washington, DC, the capital; and Baltimore and/or Annapolis MD, or Colonial Williamsburg, VA and parts of Virginia.

For history starting from British colonies before the United States was a country if you don't want the above options, you could try Charleston, SC, Savanna GA, and maybe Saint Augustine, FL.

If you don't care about history and you want to rent a car and do a lot of driving, you could investigate some of the national parks in the West like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and possibly others.

I would focus on California. But you will need to rent a car.

The Eastern Sierras Nevadas is my favorite region of the US. Where towering granite peaks descend dramatically to a high desert plateau. A lot of geothermal activity here. The Alabama Hills, Mono Lake, Hilltop Tub, the Twenty Lakes Basin, Rainbow Falls, Hot Creek are jsut some fo the places that feature outstanding drama and beauty.

Another great option is Los Angeles / San Diego / Palm Springs combined with Mt San Jacinto and Joshua Tree National Park. The cable car up San Jacinto goes through several climates. Joshua Tree is where two deserts meet.

You need to narrow it down to a few states, or at least a general region, in order to receive "route suggestions".

Welcome!

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