America is too big for one trip. Start with the day out.
Which Grand Canyon coach actually reaches a rim. What the Liberty Island ferry costs before the queue forms. Whether a swamp boat beats the streetcar on a wet afternoon in New Orleans. Reviews of every tour you can book in the United States.
Manhattan, the French Quarter, the Strip, Waikiki, the Bay, the Chicago River.
Six starting points with enough on the doorstep to carry a whole week, and the day out that earns its place in each.
The Chicago River, Biscayne Bay, the Everglades sawgrass. Pick your hull.
Four kinds of American boat day, what it costs to board each one, and the city it belongs to.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Chicago Architecture River Cruise
Harbour and river cruisesA skyline from the water, ninety minutes, no hills.
Airboats and swamp boatsFlat-bottom hulls over sawgrass, alligators at eye level.
Snorkel and manta tripsTurtles off Oahu, mantas over a lit reef after dark.
Sunset and dinner cruisesGolden hour from the deck, dinner served on board.
All 278 days on American water →
The decks, the ferries and the canyon coaches everyone books before they land.
The full American list →The days out more travellers take than anything else between the two oceans, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Tickets
Enter SUMMIT through Grand Central Terminal and ride to the top of One Vanderbilt for mirror rooms, glass skyboxes, silver balloons, and wide city views. Plan 90 minutes to two hours. Visit by day for clear detail or at night for lights, music, and cocktails. Pants or tights are a smart choice for mirrored floors.
From · $47
Read our review →
2
9/11 Memorial & Museum Timed-Entry Ticket
from $25
3
Grand Canyon West, Hoover Dam Stop and Optional Lunch and Skywalk
from $109
4
Oahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe Experience
from $140
5
Charleston’s Old South Carriage Historic Horse & Carriage Tour
from $50
6
Chicago River 90-Minute Architecture Tour
from $45
7
Boston Duck Boat Sightseeing City Tour with Cruise Along Charles River
from $59
8
Niagara Falls in 1 Day: Tour of American and Canadian Sides
from $189
9
Grand Tour Around Island 16 Locations plus Snorkeling
from $109
America invented the ghost walk. New Orleans and Salem still do it best.
Cemetery gates in the Garden District, gangster corners in Chicago, a Salem lane where the trials actually happened. Most American cities read best on foot, and after sundown they read as a different city altogether.
Nothing prepares you for the scale of the Colorado Plateau.
Four hours out of the Strip the ground opens up and stays open for three hundred miles. Slot canyons you enter sideways, a river bend shaped like a horseshoe, buttes that half the westerns ever made were shot against. Much of it is Navajo land, and much of that is guide-only.
Every canyon day out →
A Broadway seat, a canyon coach and a swamp boat are nowhere near the same bracket.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good share of the best American days come in under the price of a theatre ticket.
Museum and observation-deck tickets, city walks, ghost tours and the short harbour runs.
The full-day standards: airboat and Everglades days, Alcatraz combinations, wine country out of the Bay.
Canyon coaches out of Las Vegas, helicopters, private guides and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that only happen in the United States.
City walks and boat trips exist everywhere. A Broadway house, a battleship still in the water at Pearl Harbor and a flat-bottom airboat over sawgrass do not.
A Night on Broadway
Forty-one theatres inside a few blocks of Times Square, most of them older than the buildings around them and small enough that a rear-mezzanine seat still hears the orchestra unamplified. The long-running houses sell out months ahead; the rush and lottery seats go on sale the same morning and cost a third of the price. Curtain is usually eight, and the doors shut on time.
- 1Aladdin the Musical on Broadway★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,800 reviews
- 2The Lion King on Broadway★★★★★★★★★★ · 1,609 reviews
- 3MJ the Musical on Broadway★★★★★★★★★★ · 1,510 reviews
Pearl Harbor
The USS Arizona still lies where she sank on 7 December 1941, with over a thousand of her crew aboard, and oil surfaces from the wreck to this day. The memorial straddles the hull without touching it, reached only by Navy launch on a timed ticket. Bags are not allowed past the gate, the visit is quiet by request of the families, and the first boats of the morning are the least crowded.
- 1Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS Arizona★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,433 reviews
- 2Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,209 reviews
- 3Pearl Harbor Remembered Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,143 reviews
The Airboat
An aircraft propeller bolted to a flat-bottomed hull, which is the only thing that moves over six inches of water and a foot of sawgrass. Drivers cut the engine in the middle of a slough and the noise stops dead, which is when you hear the place. Alligators sit out on the banks in the cooler months and submerge in August; ear defenders are handed out at the dock and you want them.
- 1Everglades Airboat, Wildlife Show & Bus Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 8,622 reviews
- 2Everglades National Park Airboat Tour & Wildlife Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,296 reviews
- 3New Orleans Airboat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,891 reviews
Four tickets that decide your dates, not the other way round.
Most of this country can be arranged from a diner booth the night before. These four run on ferry manifests, tribal-park permits and timed entry slots that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppFerry seats are capped and the island sells out weeks ahead through the summer. There is no walk-up option at the pier.
- 02Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryThe ferry ticket and the pedestal ticket are two different allocations, and the pedestal one is far smaller and released months out.
- 03Lower Antelope Canyon Entry and Navajo Guided TourThe canyon sits on Navajo land and can only be entered with a Navajo guide on a timed permit. Flash floods close it at no notice.
- 049/11 Memorial & Museum Timed-Entry TicketEntry runs on timed slots with a cap on each one, and the quiet early slots go first.
By city, coast to coast
By kind of day: deck, trail, water or stage
Las Vegas, the canyon, Page, Monument Valley: the drive almost everybody does first.
Hoover Dam
Grand Canyon
Page
Monument Valley
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