I should have said "the cites of the Northeastern US". I realize that Georgia, Florida, etc., are not like England.

yyy-the water of Palm Beach, Boca, Miami and the Florida Keys is tourquoise and clear. Have you never been there before?

Karen, my suggestion is instead of jumping into this board asking very broad question, why not visiting the library first and borrow a general guide about USA. From there, pick the places you that interest you. After you have some rough ideas where you want to go, then jump into this board again and viewing the posts according to your destination for good suggestions from other people and post your questions if there is any.

I really didn't suggest Montreal & Quebec City to be funny. Just trying to be realistic. On $50 per day, Karen isn't going very far from her arrival city. She has already been to Florida. I suggested she start in NC where she has free lodging, and work her way up as far north as possible using Amtrak. Amtrak goes into Canada and her dollar will go much farther there than it will in the US if she is running low on cash. I think she is going to run out of money in 2 months, so she won't get much further than NY anyway. How could she manage airfare or a rental car across country on that kind of budget?

Dear Karen,<BR> I think from the animosity in all these &quot;helpful&quot; replies you might want to consider Canada.

Karen, <BR><BR>Please don't just the rest of us based on these posters. <BR><BR>I would say, go to the pacific northwest, Oregon, Washington, and maybe even Alaska (but AK is very spendy). The hostels are all great and their is an awesome one at Martha's Vineyard and also Key West, hit both of them if you can. In Oregon, rent a car and drive the Columbia River gorge, tons of waterfalls, great scenery, ect. Seattle is a fun city, as are San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. Visit Disneyland for at least a day if you can. Also, the Southwest portion of the country is really beautiful and unique. Check out Las Vegas too. I say start in Newyork, go south to Florida, then move West across the lower states, up the west coast, then check out all the national parks, Yosemite Park is a great place to camp! Then there is Yellowstone national park, and of course, the Grand Canyon.

I'm not sure what the deal is with all the animosity on this site - sometimes its discouraging - but please don't form an opinion about Americans based on those posts. Most Americans are fairly nice people. <BR><BR>Anyway, about the budget, I checked the Amtrak site, and there is a 30 day Rail Pass available to international travelers - $550 for peak season which is June 1 - Sept 4, and $385 for off peak season. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Even still, I think that $4500 wont be enough because that leaves you roughly $35/day for 90 days after you buy 90 days worth of rail pass. That's very tight even considering that some of your nights will be on the train and you will stay in hostels as well. If you planned a 60 day trip, you would have roughly $60/day after buying your rail pass. That seems doable to me.

Ellen, my comment about &quot;trying to be funny&quot; wasn't directed at you. I think your suggestion is a good one. I was referring to the post by &quot;y&quot; who said that Montreal and Quebec City are &quot;the best places in the US to hear real French.&quot;