Mother / Daughter Summer Trip
 

My 19-year old daughter and I want to take a summer trip in June somewhere in the United States for a week. We have traveled all over the world, but have not covered all of these United States. Any fun suggestions?

What are your interests? Where from and with what kind of a budget? Otherwise, you are just asking people to take a shot in the dark.

City? Country? Hiking/camping? Shopping? Museums? Birding? Beaches? The US is big, and without some indication of what kind of vacation you consider fun, it's impossible to give helpful ideas.

San Francisco

We are in Phoenix, budget is $5000, we love museums, beaches, hiking, spa's, history and weather is not an issue. She is pining for the Portland / Seattle area, but I am clueless about what there is to do there. I would like to see more of the east coast, but really, we are pretty easy to please.

Oh, and she is very interested in Canada!!!

Seattle and Victoria -- ticks all of your boxes and tons of stuff to see/do.

Go to Portland and Seattle. Weather will be great, you'll get natural wonders as well as vibrant cities, great local food and wine... Try searching the US Fodor's board for threads, and also search the NYT archive, they have periodic articles about both Portland and Seattle and the surrounding areas that might get you excited.

Well, I have yet to visit the Seattle area when it was not raining. How you can say the weather will be great NewbE I don't know. You must have a crystal ball.

On the Washington/Oregon coast I like Depoe Bay area. The self-proclaimed 'Whale watching capital of the Oregon coast.' The Oregon coast is indeed very scenic.
http://visittheoregoncoast.com/cities/depoe-bay/

I can suggest the Inn at Arch Rock as a good place to base yourself while exploring the coast.
http://innatarchrock.com/

A week is not much time but I suppose you could consider the Banff/Jasper area of Canada if the Rocky Mountains would interst you. http://travel.nationalgeographic.com...ada-road-trip/

The Canadian Rockies are far more spectacular than the US Rockies.

On the East Coast, I would suggest Acadia National Park. http://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/index.htm
For a place to stay you might want to consider Bar Harbor. I can suggest the Acadia Hotel which is right on the village green. http://www.acadiahotel.com/

Cities are not my thing. Seen one Gap store, seen them all. However of all the West Coast cities, Vancouver, Canada is an exception. http://www.tourismvancouver.com/
If that's your choice, don't miss Granville Island getting there from downtown by ferry (5 minutes). https://www.google.ca/search?q=granv...w=1280&bih=687

dulcie, I visited Seattle several years in a row always in June (college boyfriend), and the weather was always gorgeous. I think it rained now and then, but less than on the East Coast in the summer.

In fact, college boyfriend tried to persuade me to move to Seattle after graduation on the strength of these positive weather experiences; in the end, I knew better. But I digress.

So you see, I didn't need to employ my crystal ball, i was speaking from experience.

Seattle's fantastic... come here (I live here and it's sunny outside right now).

<we love museums, beaches, hiking, spa's, history and weather is not an issue>

See it's a PERFECT fit!

Museums: Seattle Art Museum downtown, The Frye, EMP, Chihuly Glass, The Henry at UW, Seattle Asian Art Museum Volunteer Park.

History: Klondike Museum, Pioneer Square historic district, the Underground Tour, Smith Tower.

Beaches: Alki in West Seattle, Golden Gardens, Discovery Park, Lake Washington, Madrona, Madison Park, Leschi, Rainier Beach.

Spas: Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie, Ummelina, Ananya, Gene Juarez, Habitutde, Nordstrom, Elaia, Spa Noir.

Also the Seattle Architecture Foundation's walking tours. The islands. Olympic Peninsula.

The Willamette Valley, and easy day trip from Portland, has better wine...

Yes, I'm sure Seattle gets some sunny days NewbE. But I still don't see how you can say, "Weather will be great". That's like you are guaranteeing it. That means a crystal ball to me. ;-)

Once again here I am sitting here in Seattle, it's sunny and in the mid 70's right now. Gorgeous weather.

New England in the summer is hard to beat- Boston with a night or two in Newport, RI would be my recommendation :)

Duhhh, the OP is talking about June. No specific date given but are we to surmise that since you are sitting in sun today suze, you are prepared to guarantee it will be sunny on whatever day in June the OP arrives and will stay sunny until they leave?

I made a simple comment in response to NewbE writing, "Weather will be great". NO ONE can tell what the weather will be in June and on a given day unless they have a crystal ball or the equivalent. ie. a direct line to the unlisted cellphone number of Mother Nature.

So forget trying to defend Seattle, suze. It rains a lot, it isn't debatable. It also gets a lot of cloudy days. If it isn't raining it's probably cloudy. What it does not get is a lot of days of sunshine. In fact, an average of only 55 per year. http://seattle.about.com/od/familyli...In-Seattle.htm

So the odds of 'Weather will be great' are decidely against it. 55 days vs. 315 overall. In June where to be fair the average should be a bit higher than the overall average, Seattle gets an average of 7 sunny days and 8 partly sunny days. That still leaves 15 days of cloud and/or rain.
http://www.currentresults.com/Weathe...shine-june.php

So the best odds of 'Weather will be great' is still only at 50% and that is IF we include partly cloudy days as being 'great weather'. I suppose for Seattle that is considered 'great weather'.

Have you been to Seattle in June, dulcie? I'm just curious.

I've probably travelled through Washington and Oregon in every month of the year with the exception of December, January and February. I made many trips from the Okanagan Valley in Canada down through them via various routes both on the coast and inland.

I honestly can't recall any trip through WA and OR when I didn't encounter rain along the way either going or coming at least once out of both ways.

I've stayed overnight enroute south or north, in Seattle and in Portland as well as other locations in those states simply dependent on how far I drove on a given day.

I have nothing against Seattle itself. It has its attractions like anywhere else. I simply don't beleive anyone can predict the weather at any given time and state, "Weather will be great".

Some people actually believe what they read in travel forums and take it as factual. For that reason, I think we should always make sure we clarify and qualify what we write.

I would write, if you go to Miami in June you can pretty much plan on good weather. If you go to Seattle in June plan on encountering rain and cloudy days. I'd risk Miami in June without a rainjacket but I would not do the same for Seattle.

My original comment to you NewbE was a simple throwaway line meant to poke fun at your apparent guarantee of 'great weather'. To me it was obvious that you cannot guarantee that. At most it was meant as a gentle reminder of that.