rjw_lgb_ca

I'd vote for southern CA. Especially since the summer has some incredible stuff going on-- concerts at the newly-refurbished Hollywood Bowl, special events at the Getty, the Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, beach volleyball up and down the coast, Dodgers baseball (and Dodger Dogs!!), increased Angelyne sightings (Barbie-esque aging starlet driving around in a pink Corvette), etc., etc., etc.

MightyIsis does make an excellent point, however: Why not hit some part of the country where airfare is usually expensive? With JetBlue and American having a JFK-LGB/LAX fare war, you can always come here on the (relatively) cheap. And Telluride is awfully pretty....

PamSF

I vote for the Pacifc Northwest and specifically Seattle. Seattle is a great town and the surrounds are stunning. You can easily drive to Olympic National Park or across the border into Vancouver BC which is an even more wonderful city imo.

enjoylife

Austin is great for the music scene and you can get great rates on hotels and rental cars through Priceline. (If you are a AAA member, you can get discount Hertz rental car coupons which may even save you more $ than Priceline.)

theruleof80

Western National Parks--Glacier, North Rim Grand Canyon, Grand Teton are the best in July and August; but hurry to make reservatons now--you want to stay IN the parks, not "nearby."

tinamidon

We are using our free tix to fly into Vegas & see Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce & Lake Powell areas ending with 3 nights at a luxurious resort just outside Vegas for some spa treatments...trying to squeeze in a little of everything on this trip! Have never been West & want to see it all!

padbrasher

Tasha8182:
How fun! 2 free tickets to anywhere in the lower 48 states! My recommendations:

1. San Francisco/Napa Valley area...great food, great scenery, great wine, very romantic

2.Telluride...most scenic area in all of the Rocky Mountains AND great food, excellent hiking, biking, fun festivals (Jazz, Blues, Blue Grass, Film)...Colorado at it's very best.

3.Seattle or Portland...beautiful,hip cities, fabulous food, the great outdoors.

Have fun!

Tasha8182

I also found out that Canada is included in the tickets. Where are some great places in Canada. ALl I have seen are Quebec City, montreal, and toronto.

AAFrequentFlyer

Tasha,

Is this some kind of a joke?

You got some great advice. You asked a general question, and many gave you some answers. Next you threw in a curve, yet many more gave you some answers. Now you throw in another curve, what's up with that?

Why don't you tell us what you like, what you expect out of your vacation, etc??????

What exactly do you want to hear? Just about the entire midwest to west coast was covered.

jacie413

I think there are some great suggestions here already. Definitely California if you've never been. If you don't want to do Los Angeles, the Bay Area - SF, Napa Valley, San Jose are great. Vegas and Phoenix would be my other suggestions but it's REALLY hot in July and August.

Clifton

I'm not sure what the magic button will be either that will peek your interest, but I'll vote for the Rockies. Almost anywhere in the Rockies. Colorado, Montana, Banff area. The southwest is beautiful but would be hotter, of course, in July or August. Upper penninsula of Michigan if those are too far. I'm used to flying trans-pacific, so you can't really go by me on flight times. East to west coast seems like a hop to me.

Are any of the suggestions people have made so far lighting any fires?

BostonJay

Take advantage of the free flights and go as far as possible. When is the next time you'll be able to get a free trip anywhere far away?

My fiance and I had a similar experience two years ago so we flew out from Boston to Seattle, drove to Vancouver, stayed a few nights, then ferried over to Victoria, B.C., stayed a few nights, then ferried back to Seattle... all in about one week.

It was an incredible trip in three great cities (and we went in February... the summer should be even better). Lots of scenery, great food, things to do, etc... While we're going to Alaska for our upcoming honeymoon, we're making sure to get an extra night on the way back in Vancouver since we liked it so much the first time.

Just to add, we love Arizona (especially Sedona and Flagstaff/Grand Canyon) equally as much, and we even went in July. "It's okay, it's a dry heat."

If you insist on not going very far, I vote for Texas. When I used to travel for business, I went all over Texas, and to my surprise, I loved all of it! Austin is a great city and it's also close to San Antonio, so you'd get two for one. Dallas/Ft. Worth area is also nice, but more like a cleaner, northeastern city than the rest of Texas.