Ten (very good) reasons to visit the US

News from the US can often be mystifying to Australians but there’s still much to love about one of our favourite destinations, so let’s focus on all the positives.

Horseshoe Bend, Colorado River.

This is still a country with the friendliest welcomes and the widest smiles. It’s still a place of culture, from ancient to modern, culture that can feel so familiar thanks to the media we consume, and yet so entirely different to our own society.

There’s just so much diversity to this huge place that you can’t fail to find something to hold your attention, to enthral and envelop you.

It may be the landscapes, the highest mountains to the deepest valleys, canyons, rivers, lakes, forests. It may be the intangible brilliance of American music, in the home of everything from jazz to blues, rock to hip hop, country to … well, western.

It may be museums, theme parks, down-home diners serving up classic soul food. Whatever your preference, there’s still much that is great about a journey through the US.

The welcome

Here’s the thing about Americans. They’ll say “hi” and flash you their pearly whites. They’ll ask how your day has been. They’ll ask about your accent.

They’ll tell you a little about their hometown, pass on a few tips, whatever you’re interested in. They’ll wave goodbye at the end of this interaction and tell you to “have a great day”.

This you almost expect. What’s more surprising though, and more heart-warming, is the sincerity. Despite what may be said about them, Americans actually do mean this stuff. They really want to know how you’re getting on. They genuinely want you to have a great day.

In a world that seems increasingly cynical, and coming as we do from a country that prides itself on irreverence, it’s a pleasure to travel to the US and discover just how wholesome and sincere everyone is.

The national parks

Rocky Mountains.Credit: iStock

It sounds like hyperbole to say that Americans invented national parks, but it’s true. Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872 – there are now 424 national parks spanning every state and territory in the US, more than 34 million hectares of protected land.

Those national parks represent some of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes on the planet, and they’re all accessible to visitors, able to be enjoyed on foot, on mountain bikes, in rafts, canoes, and even above from helicopters.

There are the well-known favourites: Yellowstone of course, but also Yosemite in California, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Zion in Utah, and Rocky Mountain in Colorado.

But that still leaves hundreds of spectacular locations you may not have even heard about: more than 700 lakes in Montana’s Glacier National Park; the snow-capped peaks of Grand Teton in Wyoming; the pristine waterways in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota.

You could spend your entire holiday in the US just going from park to park, and it would not be time wasted. See nps.gov.

The theme parks

If this seems a little tacky to you, then you probably don’t have kids. If you do have kids, however, you will instantly understand the attraction of a country that does theme parks like no one else.

Magic Mountain.

This is the land of Disneyland; the world of Disney World (disney.com). It’s the home of Universal Studios (universalstudioshollywood.com), Six Flags Magic Mountain (sixflags.com), Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Hersheypark (hersheypark.com), Epcot, and even Dollywood (the theme park dedicated to the glitz and glamour of Dolly Parton – dollywood.com).

Americans hold nothing back when it comes to theme parks. These are monuments to amusement. There’s nothing to do at these places but have fun.

Every park has been carefully calibrated to make you forget any cares about the outside world and just immerse yourself in the all-singing, all-dancing, all-hotdog-munching joy of it all.

The cities

Lower Manhattan, New York. Credit: iStock

It’s reasonable to expect that a large country will have at least one city that is known to the rest of the world, somewhere big and exciting that will capture travellers’ attention and provide a playground for their varied interests. Most nations have one of these cities, maybe two.

The US, meanwhile, has many. It has New York City and Washington DC, it has Los Angeles and San Francisco, it has Chicago and Dallas, it has San Diego and Las Vegas.

And then remember Seattle, Denver, Nashville, Boston, Detroit, Memphis and Miami. Not to mention Austin, Oakland, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Phew. So yes, if you love cities, then you love the US. Choose a few that cater best to your specific interests, and you have yourself an itinerary. See visittheusa.com.au

The music

Bourbon Street, New Orleans.Credit: iStock

It’s hard to understate the importance of American music culture to the world at large. This is the country that spawned pretty much every form of popular music on the planet: jazz, blues, rock, R’n’B, hip hop, country and western, soul … It all originated stateside, and it’s all still played and performed in iconic venues across the country.

If you love music, then you need to see jazz at the Blue Note in New York City (bluenotejazz.com). You need to see hard rock at The Crocodile in Seattle (thecrocodile.com), a show at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (ryman.com) and a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in LA (hollywoodbowl.com).

These are the classics, though in truth any musical performance in the US will be an experience worth having, particularly in heartland cities such as Memphis, Austin, Chicago, New Orleans and LA.

The food and drink

A pastrami on rye sandwich from Katz's Deli, New York City.Credit: Getty Images

Wait, what? Food, in the US? Beer in the US? Wine in the US? Is this seriously a reason to travel stateside? We’re here to tell you - yes.

There is, of course, bad food in the US. There is terrible beer, awful wine. But if you know what you’re doing and where to look, the opposite is also true. The coffee? That’s a whole other story.

Consider New York City, a multicultural megalopolis where you can eat the cuisine of almost any nation on Earth, as well as enjoy the city’s homegrown classics: a bagel with a schmear; pastrami on rye; a “dirty water dog”; a whopping slice.

Then you have the soul food of New Orleans, the old-school barbecue of Austin, the new-wave food trucks of Portland and the life-changing Mexican food of LA.

This country also spawned the global craft beer obsession, with more IPAs than you can waggle a shaggy beard at, and in the likes of Napa, Sonoma, Willamette and Santa Barbara, you have wine regions that can hold their own with the Old World legends. See visittheusa.com.au

The road trips

Even if you’re not getting your kicks on Route 66, there’s so much to love about a road trip in the US. This is a huge country bisected by hundreds of highways and byways, well-maintained roads that take travellers through spectacular scenery as they make their way from A to B.

Route 66.Credit: iStock

How you tackle these road trips is up to you: on the cheap, in a simple hire car; in style, with a classic American muscle car; or go the whole hog with a rented RV.

Then, choose your journey. You might decide on a classic like Route 66, or California’s Highway 1, or go for something a little different, like the Blue Ridge Parkway through the Appalachian Mountains, the Overseas Highway connecting the Florida Keys or the Olympic Peninsula Loop in Washington state.

On any journey, the landscapes, the towns, the attractions, the truck stops … everything will be memorable. See visittheusa.com.au

The museums

The Kennedy Space Center, Florida.Credit: iStock

All you need to know is the names: the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the “Met”); the Smithsonian; the Kennedy Space Center; the American Museum of Natural History; the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; the National Civil Rights Museum.

For fans of museums and art galleries, the US has everything. You could spend days – weeks even – just wandering the many halls of the Smithsonian in Washington DC (si.edu) and you would never be bored.

But then you need to consider that some of the world’s most famous works of art can be viewed in New York City (metmuseum.org), America’s civil rights history can be traced in Memphis (civilrightsmuseum.org), pop cultural relics exist in Cleveland (rockhall.com), and the US sent people to the moon – actual people, US citizens, way back in the 1960s – and you can go and visit the place where they made that happen and find out how they did it (kennedyspacecenter.com).

The sport

No one does a sporting event quite like the Americans. We’re talking baseball, basketball, ice hockey, American football, soccer. We’re talking professional leagues, college leagues, even high-school match-ups. We’re talking all the pomp and fanfare you can imagine: cheerleaders, tailgaters, “kiss cams”, jumbotrons, 16-ounce beers and 10-gallon hats.

The home of baseball.Credit: iStock

These aren’t games, they’re events. They’re windows into culture, displays of local passion. They’re a full day’s worth of fun, from gathering in the car park before the game to grill some meat and drink some beer (“tailgating”), to post-match celebrations in local bars and restaurants.

Some of the greatest athletes on the planet grace the fields, courts and arenas of the US with some of the world’s craziest fans cheering them on.

It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting courtside with celebrities at the Lakers (nba.com), or up in the bleachers with the diehards at Wrigley Field (mlb.com), you will always have a memorable experience at an American sporting event.

The surprises

State of awe: Monument Valley in Utah. Credit: iStock

The true greatness of the US can’t be planned. It can’t be worked neatly into a well-organised itinerary. The true joy of this country is all the things you just have to sit back and allow to happen to you. The surprises. The serendipity.

These will be different for every traveller, though you can probably rely on at least a few of the following: rounding a bend in the road and seeing some incredible landscape you didn’t even know existed; finding yourself somewhere you immediately recognise from a TV show or movie; happening upon some local fair or event that thoroughly charms you; discovering that holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, Halloween and the Fourth of July are celebrated with such sincerity and gusto that you can’t help but be swept up in it all.