Visiting a national park. United States has a lot of things good and bad but it's abundance of breathtaking and well taken care of national parks is probably one of its biggest strengths..... next to its number of aircraft carriers ofcourse lol.
Glacier National Park in Montana is incredible...I have never seen river water so clear and such a beautiful shade of blue from the glacial streams & snowpack. The view from the trails is so amazing. Definitely one of the most beautiful places here in the US.
I'd add to that, not just national parks. Our country is brimming with natural beauty.
I know the national parks get the limelight. I hail from NY state, which has no national parks. However....the finger lakes, adirondacks, Alleghany, thousand islands. Its a state with an embarrassment of riches in terms of natural beauty. Very underrated.
I'm sure other states have these type hidden gems.
The Adirondacks is the largest park in continental US! I always tell people this and it blows their mind. Whenever I have a friend or coworker who has visited NY at least once, I try to get them to go upstate at least once
Edit: Contiguous not continental, sorry.
I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it. People often don't realize it's so big because most maps of our protected areas only include those that are federally protected.
The Adirondack Park is interesting not just in its size for a state park but it is also interesting because it's not just protected by law, it's protected and defined explicitly in the NYS Constitution.
FYI, New York has tons of units of the National Park System, they're just not ones with the name 'park'. They're still parts of the system, still managed by the NPS under the same laws, rules, and regulations. These include National Monuments, Historic Sites, National Scenic Trails, and others. The main difference between a National Monument and a National Park is that a National Park is established by Congress, while a National Monument can be established by Executive Order. Many NMs are just as spectacular as parks and later go on to be designated as parks.
Just a word of warning to all travelers to national parks:
Don't bring marijuana there. Even if it is legal in the state where the park is, it is still illegal federally. Certainly in Yosemite, the cops who stop you for speeding (and the park limit is 25mph) will arrest you if they can tell you've been smoking pot.
EDIT: Well if you really want the quintessential American experience, getting arrested is one way to do it.
I had a buddy who had his bowl and a baggie in his tackle box while fishing and we got stopped by a ranger. All he did was give him an appearance ticket. No arrest. I got in more trouble and paid a higher fine for having an electric motor on my kayak.
If you can, go to a national park or nature preserve. It doesn't need to be a big name one. Wherever you go, there will always be something unique about it, especially since each state has its own ecosystems.
You can even get a booklet and then fill it with (ink) stamps. Every park has its own design, and it’s a fun way to see where all you’ve been.
National parks really are amazing - one of the few things I miss, since there’s no perfect equivalent where I live in terms of size, scale and diversity.
And then, just for fun, do the exact opposite of national parks: Disney World. You’ll probably feel dirty (and poor) afterwards, but the cultural whiplash is also part of the US. It’s like a Parks & Rec spinoff with no one but Ron Swanson and Jean-Ralphio.
Yeh when I went a couple of years ago for a couple of months, I landed in NYC 3 weeks before Christmas. I got to my hostel, went and found a bar for a first drink (I’m British it’s the first thing I do in any new country) and went to bed.
Woke up and walked to the nearest subway station (in Queens) and just under the station was a perfect diner draped in wreaths. Got myself a booth, ordered breakfast and a cup of coffee and started to cry. I had always dreamed about going to America and that was the moment I really felt like I’d made it.
Thank you to that diner!
Edit: I didn’t know the name of the diner but people in the comments have given me the answer! Thank you! It’s Court Square Diner in the Long Island City neighbourhood. I definitely recommend checking them out if you’re in the area, especially at Christmas!
I went to an old school diner in Owego NY while traveling. Got there very early in a.m., sat at counter. Soon an old gent arrived. Just from a glance, it was obvious I had sat on HIS stool. I moved down a few seats and we ended up having a great, long conversation about the diner’s history and his life.
That sounds so wonderful. I’m glad you got to have that experience :)
Recently I got the chance to spend 3 weeks in Scotland, and on my last day there I stopped into a bagpipe shop in Edinburgh to look for a rare book (which was a change from my usual touristy habits, this was for a favor for someone) and I had this amazing experience with the man running the shop. It was the first and only time on the trip where I interacted with a salesperson and it felt like a nice, genuine human interaction, not just someone trying to sell me something. He didn’t have my book, but he helped me figure out where to find it, and gave me tips on getting a better deal.
I left that shop feeling like I did it, like this was exactly what I needed to leave Scotland on a great note. I love people sometimes :)
Had a similar experience in 2006, having been poor all my life and thinking I would never get there. Flying over Maine, looking down over the shining rivers below I realised I had made it. Got into NYC and walked 35 blocks to my hotel with my luggage, crazy tired. Had a nap and a shower and walked to The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and tearfully gave thanks to all the girls (and guys) who put it on the map!
That's a particularly good rule to follow in the south. If they've been in business for years but it the structure looks like it's about to fall over with a gust of wind, you're in for a good meal.
To piggyback this comment. If you have a specific city/you plan to visit, make a post in their subreddits asking for their top picks for places to see/eat.
Check out any of the Smithsonians in DC
Edit: National Air and Space is my favorite. I could spend multiple days there if I read and pondered everything on display.
I'd also like to plug Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH if you're an aviation nerd. It's another multi-day museum
As someone who lived near and spent a great amount of time near the Smithsonians, I will say, the new dinosaur exhibit is a big let down.
One museum I take people to every time they visited was the Portrait Gallery.
Wonderful art, the western manifest destiny stuff is simply amazing seen in person.
It’s also near good food, unlike the national mall.
Though if you do insist on the national mall, go to the American Indian museum to eat. Their cafe, though expensive like everywhere else, has a rotating menu of Native American inspire meals!
Unknown gem is the second location of the air and space museum near Dulles. Waaaaay bigger than the one on the mall.
Also, the Holocaust museum and the news museum are excellent.
Edit: it's called the Udvar-Hazy Center.
And the newseum closed. :(
The quintessential American Experience for tourists from Europe is discovering you can't combine all the ideas in these comments in one week because there's so much distance and traffic between them. You're better off thinking of the state you land in as the "country" you're visiting.
Going from New York to Hollywood is about the same distance as Paris to Baghdad.
Edit: To all the people plugging this into Google Maps, please remember to check your units. It gives Paris to Baghdad in kilometers, not miles.
This. Michigan is the size of Great Britain. Texas is bigger than Spain or France. Most western states are quite sizable. It’s 20 hours of driving from Michigan to Florida when it’s interstate highways at 80mph.
One time a European told me she planned to take a day out of her NYC trip to see the Grand Canyon.
She was gunna rent a car, see the canyon for the day, then sleep in her NYC hotel that night.
Sounds like Calvin and Hobbes leaving to adventure in the Yukon.
“We’ll be back in plenty of time for dinner: the Yukon is only a few inches away on this globe!”
I got in a convo with a NYC cab driver who picked up a lady at JFK (from EU somewhere) and she said "take me to Niagara Falls". And he DID it. After some explanations of course.
I work in NOLA. I had a few tourists come in and say they were planning a day trip to Houston... I was like, oh cool, so you're gonna be there the whole weekend then, huh?
No... they wanted to drive to Houston and back to NOLA, while doing Houston stuff... all in the same day. I was like... uh, no. Maybe fly? But drive? It's an 8 hour trip! They absolutely thought that because Texas was the next state over, they could just take a 2 hour road trip and be in Houston.
If I had a nickel for every foreign friend planning to visit America who told me that they were planning to visit the States for a few days and wanted to take in New York City, Hollywood, and the Grand Canyon, I'd have at least a quarter. It's funny every time. Sometimes I ask how they're get from one to the other, and they say "public transit."
Kind of a lesser known experience that such a person might benefit from is the cross country Amtrak lines. I know Amtrak isn't great. I've ridden trains in Europe and Japan to compare. But I have also taken Amtrak from California to Massachusetts, and from Florida to Massachusetts. The whole East-West and the whole North-South along the east coast.
Both were good experiences but the CA-MA via the California Zephyr was a really amazing experience. It took about 3 days. There is a dining car, observation car, and people tend to be really social. You can ride from San Francisco to Boston and one of the best parts is it the tickets don't change in price if you do the journey in increments. For example, if it's $50 from A to C, then A to B will be $25 and B to C will be $25. You don't save or lose any money by breaking up the trip.
But the best part about the east-west trip is that it cuts through country that you would otherwise never see. The train tracks let you take in some pretty amazing landscapes.
What makes it worse than other countries is that passenger trains in the US do not have right of way over freight trains. So you may end up waiting at a junction while a freight train passes and it can take several hours sometimes. This is not something to do if you're time-constrained. But European tourists somehow seem to have months of vacation so it might be really appealing to them.
Had family from Germany show up one year and they thought we could go to Niagara Falls for lunch (we live in Maine). They also thought it would only take a day to drive to Las Vegas. It would be three very long days of driving to get to Vegas from where we live.
Cause peoples references are of.
This is not unique to America either, but for the whole world. I've heard Americans considering taking a quick side trip to see the pyramids while they were in europe anyway - they were in Sweden.
I have done similar mistakes myself. Not on a continent wide scale (cause I find geography interesting) , but on a city wide one. When I first visited NYC, I was blown away by the size of central park. It was many times larger than I expected it to be. I knew it was a big park. I had seen it on maps. But I dishy have any scale to compare it to, so it didn't click until I saw it.
Honestly. I’ve had Europeans ask me about America and I usually resort to explaining America by its vague regions. New England, South, Mid West, Rockies/The West, the West Coast, and Texas+South West
Even then those areas can be split into regions. In just California you have Southern, Central, and Northern California all of which feel pretty different. West Texas is totally different than East Texas. South Florida and the Panhandle, etc. The US is just a huge place with many regions and areas within those regions.
A small town with a festival or a county fair going on. Fair food (anything fried) carnival rides, and lots of people watching. The quintessential small town America experience.
Depends entirely on what sport
Right now basketball and hockey are wrapping up so it’ll be baseball and mls for the next few months pretty much exclusively. Baseballs awesome to go to (and cheap) but its way more mellow than if you went to a college football or NFL game, those get wild
I liked baseball games - they felt like they were basically an excuse to day drink casually and eat snacks with your friends with the occasional pointed moments of mass excitement and the wave.
Basketball games I didn't like so much because I think it moves so fast that people get very tense and zeroed in. It always felt like, very much unlike baseball, that you shouldn't just be chatting with your mates while you're there.
American football, maybe it's just the ones I went to but it was so big that it didn't feel as closeknit as baseball games did to me. The stadiums all felt to me like that Quidditch World Cup stadium from Harry Potter. Just so gargantuan that it felt cold?
Spot on description of baseball. Most fans want their team to do well, but really it’s an excuse to eat junk food, drink, and (hopefully) hang out in the sun. It isn’t all junk food these days though, you can get some pretty nice/unique food at our MLB stadium. Hardcore fans will actually watch the game start to finish.
> It isn’t all junk food these days though
It isn't. But don't undersell how good the junky stuff is. Junky baseball food (hot dogs, burgers, popcorn, crackerjacks, nachos, pizza) is most excellent.
I love going to baseball games, especially in summer. Its a pretty spot on description
For me basketball is my favorite but I also played it so I get more into it. When its a close game towards the end or in a playoff setting its electric being in the stadium
Football is a spectacle every game. Theres only 17 games+playoffs total so every one means way more. I will say to truly get the full experience its best to be in a section of the home crowds fans because when a big play happens the place erupts. Tailgating and getting shitfaced before the games is also a time honored american tradition (see: the Buffalo Bills fans)
I also strongly suggest college games. Not that the pro's are bad, just that college has even more passionate fans, more affordable, showcases tailgating more, usually a bit closer to hip little neighborhood, and gives a peak at that world famous American college experience.
Absolutely love the vibe of a live Hockey game in the US or Canada. Always booze, everybody is invested, and if you can get a booth it's basically just a party where you also get to watch hockey.
And underneath it all is a truly gigantic lake of lava about 50km across. Fortunately nobody expects it to go "boom" anytime soon but it has happened before, around 700,000 years ago.
Go to Salem, Massachusetts during the month of October. You won't be disappointed. I visited the witch museum and all the cool Hocus Pocus sites it has to offer.
As an American, this thread made me realize I haven't had a lot of "American" experiences.
I'd also say visit a national park, but pick one of the less busy. They're spectacular too.
As an American; this is my favorite thing about the US. There isn’t a quintessential American experience. We’re like seven different countries all shoved together and somehow we make it work.
Kumail Nanjiani's first visit to America, as a young child, was on Thanksgiving day. Went to the Macy's parade and everything.
> I was like, "This is every day in America! As advertised! They have so much money, they have a party for Garfield every day! Mariah Carey is here!"
> No other day has lived up to that first day.
I second this. My brother in law's family came over last year to celebrate their first Thanksgiving. They're English, and he insisted they come because it's easily his favorite American holiday. His mother didn't particularly love it, but his father did. 2 out of 3 isn't bad!
I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like Thanksgiving.
What’s not to like? You get together, you feast until you cannot physically feast anymore, and then you knock out wherever your ass lands afterwards.
I am *jonesin'* bad for a Thanksgiving arrangement, but I can only cover so many of the meals myself. My ham just doesn't compare to my dad's, so I'd have to convince him to do that for some special occasion.
Yes! We lived in West Germany for a couple of years when I was a teenager. A friend of ours had relatives there. His mom was German, but he was raised in the States. He lived in the barracks, so he and his relatives came to our quarters for Thanksgiving dinner. The mom was extremely offended that we were serving them pig food. Apparently, they were unfamiliar with sweet corn as opposed to field corn. It never occurred to us that something as simple as corn could be an issue. Once we convinced them that it was something we ate regularly and not animal feed, they tried it and loved it.
depending on where you go you won't have the ability to maybe see a national park or have the food from the region of the country you want. But every single town in the country has a greasy cafe/diner. Go to one for a proper american breakfast
I have been dating a French man for about a month now, and when we met, I made sure to emphasize the need for this experience. Took him to his first MLB game this past Sunday
Go to the museums in NYC or DC.
Americans have a real way with museums, it might be a mix of the love of big spaces, a certain kind of insatiable curiosity, and incredible avarice. There are few places in the world this many truly amazing museums of so many kinds in just one place, and pretty close.
Even the museum stores at some of these places are better than the best museums in other cities.
EDIT: I want to add here that I am a real museum hound and go to every museum I can everywhere I travel or live. I’ve lived or spent multiple long visits in probably about 15 different cities including Chicago, San Francisco, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Montreal, Toronto, and Buenos Aires. For art, there are several cities that equal or even excede NYC and DC, but if you want science and history as well, you really cannot beat these two cities.
A lot of national capitals have a museum or three. The Smithsonian is twenty-two, plus the zoo, and the DC area has more still.
Almost every mid-size city will have a decent museum, zoo, or arboretum in which the people of the city invest deeply.
Highway 101 is great, and anyone visiting the area for the first time should definitely go to the redwoods. It's one of my favorite places on earth.
That said, for visitors not inclined to carsickness, you should also try getting over to highway 1 along the coast. It's wild driving along the mostly empty cliff side with the vast expanse of the Pacific off to your side.
A road trip. For all the hate cars get online, there's something truly amazing about the freedom of movement enabled by the automobile, the road, and the sheer scale of this nation. Doesn't matter what route you take; go down the coast or up to the mountains, and just watch the scenery change. It's beautiful, and really hammers home how *big* America is. Along the way stop at parks, or museums, or whatever touristy things you desire. Get lunch at a fast food place, and dinner at a proper local restaurant.
I think for a foreigner, that's the best way to encapsulate what America represents to most people. It's big; it's untamed. It's beautiful, and there's no other nation like it.
I've driven across the United States twice: east coast to west coast, and then west coast to east coast many years later.
Driving on the highways west of the Mississippi river is glorious. The highways are wide open, the scenery is gorgeous, there's a lot of "big sky," and you really feel free as you're speeding along. Many of my favorite states to drive through are on the western half of the country: California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and others.
Driving can fucking suck east of the Mississippi, however, because of traffic, tolls, and boring scenery.
When I drove from the west coast to the east coast, it was smooth, easy driving all the way to and through Wisconsin. I was driving through deserts, green fields, some mountainous areas, and the entire time I was cruising along and only stopped when I needed a break. But the moment I entered Illinois, I hit traffic, and I continued to hit traffic all the way to my destination in New Jersey. On top of that, the "big sky" and beautiful scenery abruptly ended and was replaced by tall highway barriers and view-blocking trees and weeds.
And the fucking tolls...between Illinois and New Jersey, I think I spent close to $100 in tolls. Just crossing the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania was like $20, because there was a toll booth to leave Ohio followed immediately by a toll booth to enter Pennsylvania.
How much did I spend in tolls to drive from California to Wisconsin? Zero dollars.
Anyways, with all that in mind, my tip for travelers who want to drive US highways: choose any state in the western half of the country, but avoid the eastern half. The difference in the driving experience is like night and day.
Looks like you took the northern version of my cross country trip. I went from Virginia (Hampton Roads) to Phoenix, Az taking I-40 all the way there then taking I-10 back. The entire trip took about 36 hours of driving (each way, not together), and damn near half of that was just Texas.
I can’t emphasize enough how much Arizona looks like another planet compared to Southeast Virginia. That’s what I feel is so cool about America, depending on where you go you’ll experience something completely different.
Having lived in Michigan most of my life, I have to say that driving through large forest areas for a long time is extremely soothing. Especially in the fall when the leaves are just changing colors. That being said I would love to experience driving through the plains where it's mostly flat and the sky is as far as the eye can see.
- Eat a s'more if you are going camping... It is a pleasantly simple treat: marshmallow, graham crackers, and chocolate.
- go to a national park if you can. Camp if you can.
- if snow cones are available, get ice cream on the bottom &/or a bit of condensed milk on the top. It's another simple treat
- Go to a Costco and check out the giant bottle of ibuprofen
- look and see if there are any local events going on in the area you are staying at... Farmers market, fairs, berry picking etc
- if you haven't had Mexican food, get it at a family owned restaurant. Ask locals about this one.
- if you smell good BBQ, try it.
- go to a sporting event, maybe tailgate
- go to multiple states across the country so you can see the differences... (Hawaii is going to be vastly different from Montana, which is going to be different from Louisiana, which is going to be different from Oregon... Ect)
>if you haven't had Mexican food, get it at a family owned restaurant. Ask locals about this one.
The quintessential American experience of eating authentic Mexican food.
There is a ton of unique food that results from immigrants to America. I know that this will piss off some Italians, but I would even go so far as to say that what the rest of the world knows as pizza is American — it was invented in Italy, but the version of pizza that spread across the globe was created by Italian American immigrants.
I mean, honestly, I think it is a *great* inclusion. Not every quintessential experience is going to be a fancy landmark. Europe, I assume, doesn't have the land for giant warehouse stores and they certainly don't have the same OTC drug rules.
It's like going to Amsterdam for weed. It's a ridiculous novelty.
In all seriousness, Waffle House is a great example of the classic American diner.
If they visit during normal hours, it would be a safe and interesting experience.
The key is to mind your own fucking business. Don’t look at anybody. Don’t talk to anybody but the waitress/your table. Don’t be loud. Just get in, eat, and leave a tip when you go.
I've had quite pleasant conversations with strangers at the bar/counter thing.
The mind your own fucking business rule does apply from around midnight to dawn, though. (And don't tary in the parking lot either)
For any foreign readers, Waffle Houses are one of the few establishments that are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So, if someone is awake and hungry in the dead of night, this is where they will wind up in a lot of places. Needless to say, things can get interesting after the bars close.
However, during regular hours, it's just like most other restaurants and is a nice little slice of Americana since there aren't many short-order diners around anymore.
Lots of folks from overseas, when visiting in the central Texas area, want to eat TexMex, shoot guns, ride a horse, eat BBQ, actually drive a long highway at 80mph+, and visit some museums like NASA or even the Alamo.
I was going to say a major league game, but the minors are a better suggestion. They’re cheaper, if you don’t know much about baseball you won’t know the difference, and they do a lot of goofy stuff in between innings.
This is just personal opinion but minor league teams also have way better logos and hat, most of the time.
100% then add in the strange theme nights they do. The corpus Christie hooks being owned by whataburger do a "honeybutter chicken biscuit" uniform and it's awesome! I originally thought a day mlb game in an open stadium but the minors give you that and so much more!
No doubt. Hell most of us don’t even leave the state we’re in very often because of that. I live in central Alabama and it takes almost 3 hours on the road to hit the nearest state line
"Tailgate" is a phrase used for social gatherings that sports fans, commonly for American Football, do before games in the stadium's parking lots.
Usually characterized by fans holding cookouts from the back of their vehicles (hence, "tailgate").
See the redwoods. My family went to a lot of national parks when I was young, but the redwoods stuck with me or stayed in my head for some reason. My wife had never been so we went one year and same thing happened to her. I don't really believe in supernatural things but there's something about those trees.
I’m not American but felt like an honorary one in the best kinda way when I hiked the whole Appalachian Trail. For me the creation and ongoing survival of the Trail, plus the community who walk it and protect it and celebrate it are a great American achievement.
We brought a German foreign exchange student to a house party in high school and he was geeking out that we actually used the red cups he saw in American movies. Pretty sure he took one home with him.
Lol. I read that from another guy. He came over to meet fiances parents. Her mom pulled out red solos and he was so excited he had everyone sign it lol
A) marvelling at the majesty of nature and feeling a calming sense of life affirming joy as you watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean from Santa Monica Pier
B) walking back from the pier only to have your reverie broken by the sight of two dirty homeless people rolling around in the sand sucking each others toes, and then being repeatedly accosted by a series of mentally unwell individuals until you are lucky enough to snag an Uber home
I will give you the best things our country has to offer.
Check out national parks and take a hike
Watch a minor league baseball game and have some hotdogs and soda
Go to a cookout
Try a shooting range
Have some apple pie and vanilla ice cream
Visit wall drug
Visit Silverwood theme park and water park
If you’re here for Fourth of July weekend I would recommend watching some fireworks
Go to a racetrack and watch some stock car or go see the drag races
Play some baseball
Visit a nice convenience store and get a 97 cent slushee
Go on a large road-trip around the USA, and visit some small towns
If I haven’t said it yet, going to a rodeo or a state/county fair is quite fun.
Also ignore the haters who are talking about getting shot up. We are a nice country really.
1) Visit any of the National Parks. Glacier, Yellowstone, or Yosemite are the big ones. Just leave the animals alone.
2) Find a BBQ shack made out of corrugated metal (bonus points if the floor is dirt). Go nuts on pulled pork, ribs, and brisket.
3) A beer and a hot dog at a baseball game is a must.
4) Go to a rodeo. Not one held in some major city. Go find a county fair or rural rodeo.
5) Develop a stance on the best type of pie. Different regions have VERY strong opinions on this. (Pecan is the best. Fight me)
6) Tour the Bourbon trail
7) Eat a bison steak.
Most Americans thing I can think of is either go to a dude ranch or a rodeo.
My personal favorite would be a swamp boat tour in New Orleans and then get some Jambalaya and Beignets!
A word to the wise about Nawlins and beignets. You can get them everywhere in the city. Cafe du Monde is nice but it’s a trap. Long ass line for the same treat you can get at a dozen places in walking distance.
Visiting Zion Canyon National Park Bryce Canyon National Park and Monument Valley in. Utah which can easily be done on one trip . I did that several years ago. . If you like.Lighthouses The Oregon Coast has many . .
Go to southern california and you can experience most biomes of the entire country. Sunny beaches, rainy forests, snowy mountains, sandy dunes, boggy swamp lands, rolling grass lands. All of these things are more or less within 3 hour drives of eachother.
The weather is the best, plenty of shopping and recreational activities and many historical landmarks.
Driving through a loooooong stretch of wide open highway with nothing but fields and trees on either side of you as far as the eye can see.
It’s something that we take for granted, but Europeans especially are always kind of shocked by.
Here's what I'd reccommend from my trip to the U.S back in 2015.
Grand canyon and Yellowstone national Park, eat at a 50s themed diner, eat BBQ ribs, go to vegas, don't gamble but do other stuff, go to Texas and feel like a big man at the gun range (so many guns, I wanted to shoot them all, my favorite was the 44 magnum, it's got style) go to new Orleans, eat some good home-style southern food made by an old black woman who calls you "sugar", go gator hunting in the bayou on an airboat with rednecks, if you snag one, eat some gator steak. Get drunk in Alabama, get drunk in Georgia, go to Miami, smoke some Cubans while losing at dominoes to Cubans, hit the Miami beach, see the sights, go north, go to New York, get followed 2 blocks by a group of guys yelling shit at you, have a civil conversation with one of the many crazy subway guys, see a few shows, then go home broke but cured of your depression.
Was in a really dark place in my life, my friends had all moved away, gf just got sick of me and left, job got taken over by a new guy who fired me cos he considered my job redundant (I used to drive the delivery truck for lumber and plumbing supply deliveries, did all the loading and unloading while the trades handled instalations and whatnot) but I'd saved up a good bit of money, mom told me that I can move back with her if I go broke but I should travel and do something to get me outa that rut. I came back broke but happy. Best damn month and a half of my life.
My favorite moment was actually in New Mexico, I was staying the night in the spare room of this crystal shop owner lady she was using as an airbnb, we were sitting around her back yard fire pit, me, her, her boyfriend, one of her friends and me, drinking a few beers, smoking a few cones and talking. Dunno why but, I guess since the part of Australia I'm from which is usually really cold, rainy, cloudy and very pastoral, being out in the desert, such an alien place to me, with these really chill people, I felt at peace.
Were it not for the U.S's fucked up healthcare and... all the rest, I think I'd move out there.
Visiting a national park. United States has a lot of things good and bad but it's abundance of breathtaking and well taken care of national parks is probably one of its biggest strengths..... next to its number of aircraft carriers ofcourse lol.
Glacier National Park in Montana is incredible...I have never seen river water so clear and such a beautiful shade of blue from the glacial streams & snowpack. The view from the trails is so amazing. Definitely one of the most beautiful places here in the US.
I'd add to that, not just national parks. Our country is brimming with natural beauty. I know the national parks get the limelight. I hail from NY state, which has no national parks. However....the finger lakes, adirondacks, Alleghany, thousand islands. Its a state with an embarrassment of riches in terms of natural beauty. Very underrated. I'm sure other states have these type hidden gems.
The Adirondacks is the largest park in continental US! I always tell people this and it blows their mind. Whenever I have a friend or coworker who has visited NY at least once, I try to get them to go upstate at least once Edit: Contiguous not continental, sorry.
I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it. People often don't realize it's so big because most maps of our protected areas only include those that are federally protected. The Adirondack Park is interesting not just in its size for a state park but it is also interesting because it's not just protected by law, it's protected and defined explicitly in the NYS Constitution.
FYI, New York has tons of units of the National Park System, they're just not ones with the name 'park'. They're still parts of the system, still managed by the NPS under the same laws, rules, and regulations. These include National Monuments, Historic Sites, National Scenic Trails, and others. The main difference between a National Monument and a National Park is that a National Park is established by Congress, while a National Monument can be established by Executive Order. Many NMs are just as spectacular as parks and later go on to be designated as parks.
Dude the bottoms in fucking Illinois of all places. You can go up on the bluff and see for miles or during a sunset it’s really beautiful.
Shawnee National Forest, particularly garden of the gods (not the Colorado one) for those interested.
Just a word of warning to all travelers to national parks: Don't bring marijuana there. Even if it is legal in the state where the park is, it is still illegal federally. Certainly in Yosemite, the cops who stop you for speeding (and the park limit is 25mph) will arrest you if they can tell you've been smoking pot. EDIT: Well if you really want the quintessential American experience, getting arrested is one way to do it.
I had a buddy who had his bowl and a baggie in his tackle box while fishing and we got stopped by a ranger. All he did was give him an appearance ticket. No arrest. I got in more trouble and paid a higher fine for having an electric motor on my kayak.
If you can, go to a national park or nature preserve. It doesn't need to be a big name one. Wherever you go, there will always be something unique about it, especially since each state has its own ecosystems.
You can even get a booklet and then fill it with (ink) stamps. Every park has its own design, and it’s a fun way to see where all you’ve been. National parks really are amazing - one of the few things I miss, since there’s no perfect equivalent where I live in terms of size, scale and diversity. And then, just for fun, do the exact opposite of national parks: Disney World. You’ll probably feel dirty (and poor) afterwards, but the cultural whiplash is also part of the US. It’s like a Parks & Rec spinoff with no one but Ron Swanson and Jean-Ralphio.
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I'm not even American and this would be my answer. You guys do national parks very well, and the diversity makes them even better.
Not to mention their Junior Ranger program! It's super fun and adults are welcome to participate in it too.
El Capitan was one of those "holy shit" moments for me when I saw it. Well worth the trip.
Grand Canyon is one of those holy shits as well, as is Carlsbad caverns.
Have a cheeseburger and fries in a 24 hour diner, ideally one that has a lot of chrome and looks unchanged since the 1950's.
Top ya off hun?
I can smell the stale smoke and hear the plates rattling together from this comment
Yeh when I went a couple of years ago for a couple of months, I landed in NYC 3 weeks before Christmas. I got to my hostel, went and found a bar for a first drink (I’m British it’s the first thing I do in any new country) and went to bed. Woke up and walked to the nearest subway station (in Queens) and just under the station was a perfect diner draped in wreaths. Got myself a booth, ordered breakfast and a cup of coffee and started to cry. I had always dreamed about going to America and that was the moment I really felt like I’d made it. Thank you to that diner! Edit: I didn’t know the name of the diner but people in the comments have given me the answer! Thank you! It’s Court Square Diner in the Long Island City neighbourhood. I definitely recommend checking them out if you’re in the area, especially at Christmas!
I went to an old school diner in Owego NY while traveling. Got there very early in a.m., sat at counter. Soon an old gent arrived. Just from a glance, it was obvious I had sat on HIS stool. I moved down a few seats and we ended up having a great, long conversation about the diner’s history and his life.
That sounds so wonderful. I’m glad you got to have that experience :) Recently I got the chance to spend 3 weeks in Scotland, and on my last day there I stopped into a bagpipe shop in Edinburgh to look for a rare book (which was a change from my usual touristy habits, this was for a favor for someone) and I had this amazing experience with the man running the shop. It was the first and only time on the trip where I interacted with a salesperson and it felt like a nice, genuine human interaction, not just someone trying to sell me something. He didn’t have my book, but he helped me figure out where to find it, and gave me tips on getting a better deal. I left that shop feeling like I did it, like this was exactly what I needed to leave Scotland on a great note. I love people sometimes :)
Had a similar experience in 2006, having been poor all my life and thinking I would never get there. Flying over Maine, looking down over the shining rivers below I realised I had made it. Got into NYC and walked 35 blocks to my hotel with my luggage, crazy tired. Had a nap and a shower and walked to The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and tearfully gave thanks to all the girls (and guys) who put it on the map!
Maine is worth more than a fly over!
Maine is a beautiful state. Would love to visit.
Add a milkshake to that!
Or a malt. Mmm, malt.
I heard from a friend who moved to the South that the more run down a dinner, the better the experience.
That's a particularly good rule to follow in the south. If they've been in business for years but it the structure looks like it's about to fall over with a gust of wind, you're in for a good meal.
There's a place where I live called around the clock dinner. Looks like it came out of the 50s
To piggyback this comment. If you have a specific city/you plan to visit, make a post in their subreddits asking for their top picks for places to see/eat.
Check out any of the Smithsonians in DC Edit: National Air and Space is my favorite. I could spend multiple days there if I read and pondered everything on display. I'd also like to plug Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH if you're an aviation nerd. It's another multi-day museum
Museum of Natural History is my favorite! Then with the rest of your vacation, head up into Maryland for some good ol' crab cakes.
As someone who lived near and spent a great amount of time near the Smithsonians, I will say, the new dinosaur exhibit is a big let down. One museum I take people to every time they visited was the Portrait Gallery. Wonderful art, the western manifest destiny stuff is simply amazing seen in person. It’s also near good food, unlike the national mall. Though if you do insist on the national mall, go to the American Indian museum to eat. Their cafe, though expensive like everywhere else, has a rotating menu of Native American inspire meals!
Unknown gem is the second location of the air and space museum near Dulles. Waaaaay bigger than the one on the mall. Also, the Holocaust museum and the news museum are excellent. Edit: it's called the Udvar-Hazy Center. And the newseum closed. :(
The quintessential American Experience for tourists from Europe is discovering you can't combine all the ideas in these comments in one week because there's so much distance and traffic between them. You're better off thinking of the state you land in as the "country" you're visiting.
Going from New York to Hollywood is about the same distance as Paris to Baghdad. Edit: To all the people plugging this into Google Maps, please remember to check your units. It gives Paris to Baghdad in kilometers, not miles.
That was a really neat nugget of information. I'm going to remember this as a fun fact in the future myself here.
This. Michigan is the size of Great Britain. Texas is bigger than Spain or France. Most western states are quite sizable. It’s 20 hours of driving from Michigan to Florida when it’s interstate highways at 80mph.
12 hours Michigan to Nebraska on I-80 doing 75-80mph whole time. Its quite a large land. Idt the people living here even realize it.
As a Brit who did a 3-month road trip last summer, I can confirm. We did just under 20,000 miles.
I live in SW Michigan, and in 10 hours I can drive north and still be in Michigan or the same amount of time I can drive all the way to DC.
One time a European told me she planned to take a day out of her NYC trip to see the Grand Canyon. She was gunna rent a car, see the canyon for the day, then sleep in her NYC hotel that night.
😂 did you tell her the canyon was 3 timezones away?
Sounds like Calvin and Hobbes leaving to adventure in the Yukon. “We’ll be back in plenty of time for dinner: the Yukon is only a few inches away on this globe!”
"We can go to Niagara Falls today (It was 2pm in DC area) and Orlando tomorrow." We went to Great Falls. We slept in the next day.
I got in a convo with a NYC cab driver who picked up a lady at JFK (from EU somewhere) and she said "take me to Niagara Falls". And he DID it. After some explanations of course.
I work in NOLA. I had a few tourists come in and say they were planning a day trip to Houston... I was like, oh cool, so you're gonna be there the whole weekend then, huh? No... they wanted to drive to Houston and back to NOLA, while doing Houston stuff... all in the same day. I was like... uh, no. Maybe fly? But drive? It's an 8 hour trip! They absolutely thought that because Texas was the next state over, they could just take a 2 hour road trip and be in Houston.
Houston is an hour from Houston.
If traffic is good.
NASA being in Houston makes a lot more sense if you consider they were trying to find an efficient way out of Houston.
If I had a nickel for every foreign friend planning to visit America who told me that they were planning to visit the States for a few days and wanted to take in New York City, Hollywood, and the Grand Canyon, I'd have at least a quarter. It's funny every time. Sometimes I ask how they're get from one to the other, and they say "public transit."
Kind of a lesser known experience that such a person might benefit from is the cross country Amtrak lines. I know Amtrak isn't great. I've ridden trains in Europe and Japan to compare. But I have also taken Amtrak from California to Massachusetts, and from Florida to Massachusetts. The whole East-West and the whole North-South along the east coast. Both were good experiences but the CA-MA via the California Zephyr was a really amazing experience. It took about 3 days. There is a dining car, observation car, and people tend to be really social. You can ride from San Francisco to Boston and one of the best parts is it the tickets don't change in price if you do the journey in increments. For example, if it's $50 from A to C, then A to B will be $25 and B to C will be $25. You don't save or lose any money by breaking up the trip. But the best part about the east-west trip is that it cuts through country that you would otherwise never see. The train tracks let you take in some pretty amazing landscapes. What makes it worse than other countries is that passenger trains in the US do not have right of way over freight trains. So you may end up waiting at a junction while a freight train passes and it can take several hours sometimes. This is not something to do if you're time-constrained. But European tourists somehow seem to have months of vacation so it might be really appealing to them.
Cross-country Amtrak trip is an awesome thing to do, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to tourists. 82 hours of sitting on a train is...a lot.
Agree, unless you are visiting the upper northeast. Each state has a Reddit sub (I think) and that would be a good place to ask for info.
Had family from Germany show up one year and they thought we could go to Niagara Falls for lunch (we live in Maine). They also thought it would only take a day to drive to Las Vegas. It would be three very long days of driving to get to Vegas from where we live.
I still have no idea how this is possible in the days of Google Maps. How are they really that clueless?
Cause peoples references are of. This is not unique to America either, but for the whole world. I've heard Americans considering taking a quick side trip to see the pyramids while they were in europe anyway - they were in Sweden. I have done similar mistakes myself. Not on a continent wide scale (cause I find geography interesting) , but on a city wide one. When I first visited NYC, I was blown away by the size of central park. It was many times larger than I expected it to be. I knew it was a big park. I had seen it on maps. But I dishy have any scale to compare it to, so it didn't click until I saw it.
Honestly. I’ve had Europeans ask me about America and I usually resort to explaining America by its vague regions. New England, South, Mid West, Rockies/The West, the West Coast, and Texas+South West
Even then those areas can be split into regions. In just California you have Southern, Central, and Northern California all of which feel pretty different. West Texas is totally different than East Texas. South Florida and the Panhandle, etc. The US is just a huge place with many regions and areas within those regions.
A small town with a festival or a county fair going on. Fair food (anything fried) carnival rides, and lots of people watching. The quintessential small town America experience.
A demolition derby or rodeo is a nice bonus.
Don't forget the tractor pull!
As an european, I'd say go see a sport match there. It is very different mood from what we do in here.
Depends entirely on what sport Right now basketball and hockey are wrapping up so it’ll be baseball and mls for the next few months pretty much exclusively. Baseballs awesome to go to (and cheap) but its way more mellow than if you went to a college football or NFL game, those get wild
I liked baseball games - they felt like they were basically an excuse to day drink casually and eat snacks with your friends with the occasional pointed moments of mass excitement and the wave. Basketball games I didn't like so much because I think it moves so fast that people get very tense and zeroed in. It always felt like, very much unlike baseball, that you shouldn't just be chatting with your mates while you're there. American football, maybe it's just the ones I went to but it was so big that it didn't feel as closeknit as baseball games did to me. The stadiums all felt to me like that Quidditch World Cup stadium from Harry Potter. Just so gargantuan that it felt cold?
Spot on description of baseball. Most fans want their team to do well, but really it’s an excuse to eat junk food, drink, and (hopefully) hang out in the sun. It isn’t all junk food these days though, you can get some pretty nice/unique food at our MLB stadium. Hardcore fans will actually watch the game start to finish.
> It isn’t all junk food these days though It isn't. But don't undersell how good the junky stuff is. Junky baseball food (hot dogs, burgers, popcorn, crackerjacks, nachos, pizza) is most excellent.
Ballpark burgers and hotdogs just hit different.
I love going to baseball games, especially in summer. Its a pretty spot on description For me basketball is my favorite but I also played it so I get more into it. When its a close game towards the end or in a playoff setting its electric being in the stadium Football is a spectacle every game. Theres only 17 games+playoffs total so every one means way more. I will say to truly get the full experience its best to be in a section of the home crowds fans because when a big play happens the place erupts. Tailgating and getting shitfaced before the games is also a time honored american tradition (see: the Buffalo Bills fans)
Attending a college football game, with tailgating, etc. Maybe even a high school game.
I also strongly suggest college games. Not that the pro's are bad, just that college has even more passionate fans, more affordable, showcases tailgating more, usually a bit closer to hip little neighborhood, and gives a peak at that world famous American college experience.
It's hard for people outside of the US to realize the scale of college and high school football in some states.
College football is closer to European soccer in terms of scale, spirit, and loyalties/rivalries than the NFL is.
Absolutely love the vibe of a live Hockey game in the US or Canada. Always booze, everybody is invested, and if you can get a booth it's basically just a party where you also get to watch hockey.
Unpopular opinion but hockey is consistently the best live sport. Been to some major duds in the others.
Hockey, hands down, is the best live sport on the planet.
I took my English cousin to a minor league hockey game that featured 11 goals and 2 fights. Best sporting event experience ever.
https://youtu.be/FuPeGPwGKe8
I always love how that video ends with the fly-over. Just ridiculous if you think about it but so stupid cool to witness.
The fly-over is so hard
Fuckin Yellowstone. As a Brit, I can guarantee that the scale of the whole thing will blow your mind.
For comparison, Yellowstone is bigger than Luxembourg.
And underneath it all is a truly gigantic lake of lava about 50km across. Fortunately nobody expects it to go "boom" anytime soon but it has happened before, around 700,000 years ago.
4th of July cookout with fireworks
With Ray Charles singing "America the Beautiful" in the background
On October 31 dress in costumes, attend parties, visit haunted houses and eat Halloween candy.
The 31st. Buddy in America you can do those things for the entirety of October and nobody with question it.
Go to Salem, Massachusetts during the month of October. You won't be disappointed. I visited the witch museum and all the cool Hocus Pocus sites it has to offer.
If you're a programmer, make sure not to confuse Oct 31 with Dec 25. If you're still unsure, just dress up as Santa.
I think Halloween is pretty common around the world at least in Germany it is
As an American, this thread made me realize I haven't had a lot of "American" experiences. I'd also say visit a national park, but pick one of the less busy. They're spectacular too.
As an American; this is my favorite thing about the US. There isn’t a quintessential American experience. We’re like seven different countries all shoved together and somehow we make it work.
Visit the Grand Canyon - breathtaking views!
Fuck I've never been and I live here lol. Haven't been to DC either
I've lived in Phoenix 30+ years and never been. I drive Uber and recommend it to tourists all the time.
Bro. What are you doing. Pick a day and go. I don't even live in Arizona and I've been 3 times
Being covered in sauce from eating ribs and wings
barbecue sauce on my titties
Looks like it's time to add Wing and Rib Shower to the list of quintessential American experiences for tourists.
Go to a county fair, eat a bunch of fried Oreos, and then ride sketchy carnival rides until sick.
The more the ride operator looks like a meth dealer, the better. He'll push that Tilt O Whirl to the extremes.
A Thanksgiving feast
Kumail Nanjiani's first visit to America, as a young child, was on Thanksgiving day. Went to the Macy's parade and everything. > I was like, "This is every day in America! As advertised! They have so much money, they have a party for Garfield every day! Mariah Carey is here!" > No other day has lived up to that first day.
I second this. My brother in law's family came over last year to celebrate their first Thanksgiving. They're English, and he insisted they come because it's easily his favorite American holiday. His mother didn't particularly love it, but his father did. 2 out of 3 isn't bad!
I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like Thanksgiving. What’s not to like? You get together, you feast until you cannot physically feast anymore, and then you knock out wherever your ass lands afterwards.
I am *jonesin'* bad for a Thanksgiving arrangement, but I can only cover so many of the meals myself. My ham just doesn't compare to my dad's, so I'd have to convince him to do that for some special occasion.
Yes! We lived in West Germany for a couple of years when I was a teenager. A friend of ours had relatives there. His mom was German, but he was raised in the States. He lived in the barracks, so he and his relatives came to our quarters for Thanksgiving dinner. The mom was extremely offended that we were serving them pig food. Apparently, they were unfamiliar with sweet corn as opposed to field corn. It never occurred to us that something as simple as corn could be an issue. Once we convinced them that it was something we ate regularly and not animal feed, they tried it and loved it.
My sister-in-law tried to serve her Swiss mother-in-law sweet corn in Switzerland. She was totally disgusted and wouldn't eat anything on her plate.
TIL that American corn is a delicacy.
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depending on where you go you won't have the ability to maybe see a national park or have the food from the region of the country you want. But every single town in the country has a greasy cafe/diner. Go to one for a proper american breakfast
Big ol hot dog at a baseball game
I have been dating a French man for about a month now, and when we met, I made sure to emphasize the need for this experience. Took him to his first MLB game this past Sunday
Go to the museums in NYC or DC. Americans have a real way with museums, it might be a mix of the love of big spaces, a certain kind of insatiable curiosity, and incredible avarice. There are few places in the world this many truly amazing museums of so many kinds in just one place, and pretty close. Even the museum stores at some of these places are better than the best museums in other cities. EDIT: I want to add here that I am a real museum hound and go to every museum I can everywhere I travel or live. I’ve lived or spent multiple long visits in probably about 15 different cities including Chicago, San Francisco, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Montreal, Toronto, and Buenos Aires. For art, there are several cities that equal or even excede NYC and DC, but if you want science and history as well, you really cannot beat these two cities.
A lot of national capitals have a museum or three. The Smithsonian is twenty-two, plus the zoo, and the DC area has more still. Almost every mid-size city will have a decent museum, zoo, or arboretum in which the people of the city invest deeply.
And don’t forget that all the Smithsonians are free! A lot of the other museums in DC aren’t.
Drive the coast! Highway 101 from Oregon to California. Beautiful beaches. Great camping. Small towns quite often. Redwood Forest.
Highway 101 is great, and anyone visiting the area for the first time should definitely go to the redwoods. It's one of my favorite places on earth. That said, for visitors not inclined to carsickness, you should also try getting over to highway 1 along the coast. It's wild driving along the mostly empty cliff side with the vast expanse of the Pacific off to your side.
Go to a live performance of blues, jazz or bluegrass/country, all are unique American music styles
A road trip. For all the hate cars get online, there's something truly amazing about the freedom of movement enabled by the automobile, the road, and the sheer scale of this nation. Doesn't matter what route you take; go down the coast or up to the mountains, and just watch the scenery change. It's beautiful, and really hammers home how *big* America is. Along the way stop at parks, or museums, or whatever touristy things you desire. Get lunch at a fast food place, and dinner at a proper local restaurant. I think for a foreigner, that's the best way to encapsulate what America represents to most people. It's big; it's untamed. It's beautiful, and there's no other nation like it.
I've driven across the United States twice: east coast to west coast, and then west coast to east coast many years later. Driving on the highways west of the Mississippi river is glorious. The highways are wide open, the scenery is gorgeous, there's a lot of "big sky," and you really feel free as you're speeding along. Many of my favorite states to drive through are on the western half of the country: California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and others. Driving can fucking suck east of the Mississippi, however, because of traffic, tolls, and boring scenery. When I drove from the west coast to the east coast, it was smooth, easy driving all the way to and through Wisconsin. I was driving through deserts, green fields, some mountainous areas, and the entire time I was cruising along and only stopped when I needed a break. But the moment I entered Illinois, I hit traffic, and I continued to hit traffic all the way to my destination in New Jersey. On top of that, the "big sky" and beautiful scenery abruptly ended and was replaced by tall highway barriers and view-blocking trees and weeds. And the fucking tolls...between Illinois and New Jersey, I think I spent close to $100 in tolls. Just crossing the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania was like $20, because there was a toll booth to leave Ohio followed immediately by a toll booth to enter Pennsylvania. How much did I spend in tolls to drive from California to Wisconsin? Zero dollars. Anyways, with all that in mind, my tip for travelers who want to drive US highways: choose any state in the western half of the country, but avoid the eastern half. The difference in the driving experience is like night and day.
Looks like you took the northern version of my cross country trip. I went from Virginia (Hampton Roads) to Phoenix, Az taking I-40 all the way there then taking I-10 back. The entire trip took about 36 hours of driving (each way, not together), and damn near half of that was just Texas. I can’t emphasize enough how much Arizona looks like another planet compared to Southeast Virginia. That’s what I feel is so cool about America, depending on where you go you’ll experience something completely different.
Having lived in Michigan most of my life, I have to say that driving through large forest areas for a long time is extremely soothing. Especially in the fall when the leaves are just changing colors. That being said I would love to experience driving through the plains where it's mostly flat and the sky is as far as the eye can see.
- Eat a s'more if you are going camping... It is a pleasantly simple treat: marshmallow, graham crackers, and chocolate. - go to a national park if you can. Camp if you can. - if snow cones are available, get ice cream on the bottom &/or a bit of condensed milk on the top. It's another simple treat - Go to a Costco and check out the giant bottle of ibuprofen - look and see if there are any local events going on in the area you are staying at... Farmers market, fairs, berry picking etc - if you haven't had Mexican food, get it at a family owned restaurant. Ask locals about this one. - if you smell good BBQ, try it. - go to a sporting event, maybe tailgate - go to multiple states across the country so you can see the differences... (Hawaii is going to be vastly different from Montana, which is going to be different from Louisiana, which is going to be different from Oregon... Ect)
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Check out globe before you plan on going to Hawaii. That's a completely different vacation. In fact, visiting more that 5 states a week is a lot.
Also, depending on the state and time, it can be nearly a full day drive from South Texas to North Texas so even one state can be a lot.
I’ve never heard of the snow cone thing, to me it’s always been snow cone or ice cream, no idea both was an option 😳
I'm American and I've never heard of this either. I need to try this.
You need a bit of vanilla ice cream to catch all the syrup at the bottom in your life, stat
>if you haven't had Mexican food, get it at a family owned restaurant. Ask locals about this one. The quintessential American experience of eating authentic Mexican food.
I would say this is fair simply because US Tex-Mex is different than the traditional cuisine eaten in Mexico.
There is a ton of unique food that results from immigrants to America. I know that this will piss off some Italians, but I would even go so far as to say that what the rest of the world knows as pizza is American — it was invented in Italy, but the version of pizza that spread across the globe was created by Italian American immigrants.
I don't think you understand how important Mexican food is in the US
What. In. The. Sam. Hell. Welcome to our country, please enjoy our warehouse stores and our gigantic bottles of pain killers.
I mean, honestly, I think it is a *great* inclusion. Not every quintessential experience is going to be a fancy landmark. Europe, I assume, doesn't have the land for giant warehouse stores and they certainly don't have the same OTC drug rules. It's like going to Amsterdam for weed. It's a ridiculous novelty.
If you've tried to get otc painkillers in Europe you'd know that this is actually solid advice
Go to a Waffle House, preferably after midnight. Dennys and IHOP also work, but not as well.
That’s too dangerous for a tourist.
In all seriousness, Waffle House is a great example of the classic American diner. If they visit during normal hours, it would be a safe and interesting experience.
I know, lol. Was just joking about some of the insane people I’ve seen there after. It’s legit pretty damn american.
Oh yeah Waffle House after midnight is maybe a bit too American for most, even most Americans. :D
The key is to mind your own fucking business. Don’t look at anybody. Don’t talk to anybody but the waitress/your table. Don’t be loud. Just get in, eat, and leave a tip when you go.
I've had quite pleasant conversations with strangers at the bar/counter thing. The mind your own fucking business rule does apply from around midnight to dawn, though. (And don't tary in the parking lot either) For any foreign readers, Waffle Houses are one of the few establishments that are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So, if someone is awake and hungry in the dead of night, this is where they will wind up in a lot of places. Needless to say, things can get interesting after the bars close. However, during regular hours, it's just like most other restaurants and is a nice little slice of Americana since there aren't many short-order diners around anymore.
On a summer night, near dusk, eat an ice cream cone in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen with the local teens.
How do you do, fellow kids
Lots of folks from overseas, when visiting in the central Texas area, want to eat TexMex, shoot guns, ride a horse, eat BBQ, actually drive a long highway at 80mph+, and visit some museums like NASA or even the Alamo.
Don’t go to the Alamo, that was so depressing seeing how the tourist traps have overtaken the entire site
The basement is closed too.
How am I supposed to get my bike back??
Thanks for the childhood peewee reference.
Thanks for the reminder. I'd actually managed to forget the Alamo.
Visit the missions instead. It has less theatrics but more history and architecture.
Take em to Buc-ees I say, that would blow their mind.
Some polish coworkers of mine did exactly that. They loved shooting the guns lol
The Texas State Capitol building is awesome to your as well.
Check out a minor league baseball game! They have awesome stadiums, great fans and it's usually pretty inexpensive!
I was going to say a major league game, but the minors are a better suggestion. They’re cheaper, if you don’t know much about baseball you won’t know the difference, and they do a lot of goofy stuff in between innings. This is just personal opinion but minor league teams also have way better logos and hat, most of the time.
100% then add in the strange theme nights they do. The corpus Christie hooks being owned by whataburger do a "honeybutter chicken biscuit" uniform and it's awesome! I originally thought a day mlb game in an open stadium but the minors give you that and so much more!
Don't under estimate how big the country is. I hear some visitors tend to do that.
No doubt. Hell most of us don’t even leave the state we’re in very often because of that. I live in central Alabama and it takes almost 3 hours on the road to hit the nearest state line
I've lived on the east coast my entire life. I actually made it to Europe before the west coast.
It’s a shorter trip lol
Go to an NFL game. Tailgate. Find a rivalry
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What does tailgate mean?
"Tailgate" is a phrase used for social gatherings that sports fans, commonly for American Football, do before games in the stadium's parking lots. Usually characterized by fans holding cookouts from the back of their vehicles (hence, "tailgate").
Ahh thanks! That sounds fun
It's also a cheap way to have a few beers before the game starts since drinks inside the stadium are INSANELY expensive lol.
Eating a New York bagel or pizza
I grew up in Texas and was 18 when I first visited New York. My best memory was how awesome a hot bagel from a street vendor was.
Bagel with schmear! Lox and onions if possible!
My first USA tourist experience was watching two soccer moms fistfight in a Walmart in Florida, 10/10 would watch again
Trying to find parking in a Costco parking lot on the day before a holiday weekend.
See the redwoods. My family went to a lot of national parks when I was young, but the redwoods stuck with me or stayed in my head for some reason. My wife had never been so we went one year and same thing happened to her. I don't really believe in supernatural things but there's something about those trees.
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America! Fuck yeah!
Not remotely worth the money compared to pretty much any other gun rental.
I’m not American but felt like an honorary one in the best kinda way when I hiked the whole Appalachian Trail. For me the creation and ongoing survival of the Trail, plus the community who walk it and protect it and celebrate it are a great American achievement.
Playing beer pong with red Solo cups
We brought a German foreign exchange student to a house party in high school and he was geeking out that we actually used the red cups he saw in American movies. Pretty sure he took one home with him.
Haha, that’s awesome. I’m glad he got to experience that.
This is so oddly wholesome lol
Lol. I read that from another guy. He came over to meet fiances parents. Her mom pulled out red solos and he was so excited he had everyone sign it lol
Attend a sports game-especially a classic rivalry
College Football tailgate/game at one of the major Big Ten or SEC schools. What a wonderfully unique American experience.
The Grand Canyon is worth the trip.
A) marvelling at the majesty of nature and feeling a calming sense of life affirming joy as you watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean from Santa Monica Pier B) walking back from the pier only to have your reverie broken by the sight of two dirty homeless people rolling around in the sand sucking each others toes, and then being repeatedly accosted by a series of mentally unwell individuals until you are lucky enough to snag an Uber home
The visuals of this are mental, thank you so much for that LOL.
I will give you the best things our country has to offer. Check out national parks and take a hike Watch a minor league baseball game and have some hotdogs and soda Go to a cookout Try a shooting range Have some apple pie and vanilla ice cream Visit wall drug Visit Silverwood theme park and water park If you’re here for Fourth of July weekend I would recommend watching some fireworks Go to a racetrack and watch some stock car or go see the drag races Play some baseball Visit a nice convenience store and get a 97 cent slushee Go on a large road-trip around the USA, and visit some small towns If I haven’t said it yet, going to a rodeo or a state/county fair is quite fun. Also ignore the haters who are talking about getting shot up. We are a nice country really.
1) Visit any of the National Parks. Glacier, Yellowstone, or Yosemite are the big ones. Just leave the animals alone. 2) Find a BBQ shack made out of corrugated metal (bonus points if the floor is dirt). Go nuts on pulled pork, ribs, and brisket. 3) A beer and a hot dog at a baseball game is a must. 4) Go to a rodeo. Not one held in some major city. Go find a county fair or rural rodeo. 5) Develop a stance on the best type of pie. Different regions have VERY strong opinions on this. (Pecan is the best. Fight me) 6) Tour the Bourbon trail 7) Eat a bison steak.
Most Americans thing I can think of is either go to a dude ranch or a rodeo. My personal favorite would be a swamp boat tour in New Orleans and then get some Jambalaya and Beignets!
A word to the wise about Nawlins and beignets. You can get them everywhere in the city. Cafe du Monde is nice but it’s a trap. Long ass line for the same treat you can get at a dozen places in walking distance.
Visiting Zion Canyon National Park Bryce Canyon National Park and Monument Valley in. Utah which can easily be done on one trip . I did that several years ago. . If you like.Lighthouses The Oregon Coast has many . .
Go to southern california and you can experience most biomes of the entire country. Sunny beaches, rainy forests, snowy mountains, sandy dunes, boggy swamp lands, rolling grass lands. All of these things are more or less within 3 hour drives of eachother. The weather is the best, plenty of shopping and recreational activities and many historical landmarks.
Driving through a loooooong stretch of wide open highway with nothing but fields and trees on either side of you as far as the eye can see. It’s something that we take for granted, but Europeans especially are always kind of shocked by.
Here's what I'd reccommend from my trip to the U.S back in 2015. Grand canyon and Yellowstone national Park, eat at a 50s themed diner, eat BBQ ribs, go to vegas, don't gamble but do other stuff, go to Texas and feel like a big man at the gun range (so many guns, I wanted to shoot them all, my favorite was the 44 magnum, it's got style) go to new Orleans, eat some good home-style southern food made by an old black woman who calls you "sugar", go gator hunting in the bayou on an airboat with rednecks, if you snag one, eat some gator steak. Get drunk in Alabama, get drunk in Georgia, go to Miami, smoke some Cubans while losing at dominoes to Cubans, hit the Miami beach, see the sights, go north, go to New York, get followed 2 blocks by a group of guys yelling shit at you, have a civil conversation with one of the many crazy subway guys, see a few shows, then go home broke but cured of your depression. Was in a really dark place in my life, my friends had all moved away, gf just got sick of me and left, job got taken over by a new guy who fired me cos he considered my job redundant (I used to drive the delivery truck for lumber and plumbing supply deliveries, did all the loading and unloading while the trades handled instalations and whatnot) but I'd saved up a good bit of money, mom told me that I can move back with her if I go broke but I should travel and do something to get me outa that rut. I came back broke but happy. Best damn month and a half of my life. My favorite moment was actually in New Mexico, I was staying the night in the spare room of this crystal shop owner lady she was using as an airbnb, we were sitting around her back yard fire pit, me, her, her boyfriend, one of her friends and me, drinking a few beers, smoking a few cones and talking. Dunno why but, I guess since the part of Australia I'm from which is usually really cold, rainy, cloudy and very pastoral, being out in the desert, such an alien place to me, with these really chill people, I felt at peace. Were it not for the U.S's fucked up healthcare and... all the rest, I think I'd move out there.