United States Travel Guide: Tips From an Expat

I've lost count of how many passport stamps the United States has given me - more than 70 trips and counting. It's the country I know best outside Australia, and every single trip still manages to surprise me. This guide is the one I wish I'd had before my first visit: how I plan a US trip, what the regions are actually like, and my state-by-state guides built up over years of going back.

My US Story

My American map is inked in over more than two decades of visits, and it started with family holidays. As a kid in Northern Ireland, we'd fly out of Dublin or Belfast and head for Florida - the theme parks were the family holiday, the same way they are for thousands of families every year.

Over time the trips branched out: city breaks in Chicago and New York, road trips through California, and most recently a big drive from Texas up through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky to the Smoky Mountains. Now that I'm an expat in Australia, the US has a new role too - it's often my route home. Flying via America lets me avoid transiting the Middle East, and the fares are often the cheapest way across the Pacific.

So this guide comes from all of those angles: family trips, solo city breaks, big road trips, and the long-haul expat route.

Why I Keep Going Back to the US

The short answer: no other country packs this much variety into one trip. In a single three-week visit you can watch sunrise over the Manhattan skyline, eat your way through New Orleans, and finish on a beach in Florida. Every state is effectively its own country with its own food, accent, weather and attitude.

The things that keep pulling me back:

• The scale. National parks, road trips and city skylines that photos genuinely undersell
• The food. From a $6 deli sandwich in New York to barbecue in Texas to key lime pie in the Keys
• The value. Outside the biggest cities, your money goes further than almost anywhere in Western Europe or Australia
• The people. Service is genuinely warm, strangers chat, and every trip produces at least one conversation I still tell stories about

How I Plan a US Trip

After 70+ visits, my planning routine has boiled down to a few rules:

• Pick two or three regions, not six. The most common mistake I see is trying to see the whole country in one trip. Distances are brutal - Sydney to Melbourne feels like a short hop compared with New York to Los Angeles
• Fly into one city, out of another. Open-jaw flights (say, into New York, home from Miami) save you a full travel day of backtracking
• Find the fare, then play the baggage game. From Australia I've paid as little as $500 return using Qantas points, and regular fares to the US can come in around $1,200 or less if you're flexible with dates. Fiji Airways frequently runs return deals around the $900 mark from the east coast - well worth watching if you book in advance. Domestically, I tend to stick with Southwest: you get two free checked bags (most US airlines now charge for every bag), you earn points toward cheaper flights later, and for a frequent visitor that maths often beats a nominally cheaper fare
• Sort your ESTA before you book anything. If you're travelling on the visa waiver program (UK, Ireland, most of Europe, Australia), you need an approved ESTA to fly to the US - and that includes transit: connecting through a US airport (even without leaving the terminal) counts as entering the country. Apply at the official ESTA website, keep the approval email, and note it's valid for two years
• Tipping is not optional. Plan on 18 to 20 percent at restaurants, and remember posted prices never include sales tax - the checkout total is always higher
• Hire a car outside the big cities. New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami are walkable or transit-friendly; everywhere else, a car is freedom

The Regions, Honestly

The Northeast: New York and Beyond

New York City is the obvious entry point and still my favourite city on earth. But don't stop there - Boston's history, Philadelphia's food scene and the fall foliage of New England (late September to mid-October) are all an easy train ride away.

A couple more of my own shots from New York trips - the Washington Square Arch above, and the Vessel at Hudson Yards here:

Seeing the Manhattan skyline from the water is one of my favourite ways to get a feel for the city's scale:

Boston is the easiest add-on of the lot - Amtrak gets you there from New York in around four hours, and the Freedom Trail pulls the whole Revolutionary-era story together through the old downtown streets.

The old burying grounds are the most atmospheric part - Granary Burying Ground holds its own Franklin memorial among centuries-old headstones.

The Midwest: Chicago

Chicago doesn't get the tourism it deserves. I've walked the Riverwalk, taken the architecture boat cruise, and stood in line to see the Bean (Cloud Gate) more than once - plus the arcades, the food, and that feeling of seeing real-life Grand Theft Auto on the streets. Do a tour or two while you're there: Chicago is genuinely two cities, and the contrast between them is something you only really see when someone local explains it.

The South

Charleston, Savannah, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans each deserve their own trip. This is the region for music history, incredible food and genuine Southern hospitality - and honestly, the friendliness is real. Tennessee and Kentucky people are some of the loveliest I've met anywhere. Summer is hot and humid; spring and autumn are glorious.

Florida: My Most-Visited State

Florida is where my US story started - the family theme park holidays from when I was young - and it's the state I've spent more time in than any other. Theme parks, beaches, the Keys, the space coast: I've put everything into a dedicated guide.

Read next: Florida Travel Guide: Theme Parks, Beaches & the Keys

The West: California, the Southwest and the National Parks

California alone could fill three holidays, and I've done most of it: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Hearst Castle, wine tasting in Sonoma, and more than one drive down the Pacific Coast Highway - I drove through the state just recently. Pair California with a drive to Las Vegas, or make Nevada its own trip. Then there's the canyon country of Arizona and Utah, the best road-trip pairing in the country, and Seattle and the Pacific Northwest for cooler weather and coffee culture.

And then there's Yosemite, which deserves its own mention because it stopped me in my tracks. Photos genuinely don't prepare you for Yosemite Valley - you come through the tunnel at Tunnel View and the entire valley is just there: El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Fall, all at once. Mariposa Grove was another highlight: standing in front of Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia that's thousands of years old, is the kind of thing that recalibrates your sense of scale. If you only do one national park in California, make it this one. I came away with more video than photos, which says something about how much there was to take in.

Mariposa Grove was the other half of the story:

Hawaii

A different rhythm entirely - island time, volcanoes and some of the best beaches in the world. Worth its own dedicated trip rather than tacking it onto the mainland.

My Favourite Road Trip: Texas to the Smoky Mountains

If you want one itinerary that shows you the real South, this is the drive I did - and it's the best road trip I've taken in the US:

• San Antonio, Texas: my surprise favourite. The River Walk is genuinely amazing, the city is very walkable, and yes, I loved Buc-ee's - the Texas-born mega gas stations where you can get anything and everything
• Houston for the space city vibes, then east into Louisiana: Baton Rouge, then New Orleans
• New Orleans: the architecture, the river and the vibe are real, and it's walkable with plenty of tours - but I'll be honest in a full write-up soon: I didn't love it, and I wouldn't recommend it solo
• North into Mississippi, then Memphis: the city itself didn't feel great, but Graceland was amazing - absolutely worth the drive
• Kentucky: quieter, not much "happening" in the tourist sense, but the people are lovely and the Ark Encounter (Noah's Ark) was one of the most surprising things I've done in America - a full article is coming on that
• Nashville: my favourite city in the US right now. It felt genuinely safe, the honky-tonks and the Country Music Hall of Fame are brilliant, the people are friendly - and I'm already booked to go back in December. A dedicated Nashville article (plus one on the jaw-dropping Nashville Parthenon, a full-scale replica with a 42-foot gold Athena statue inside) is coming soon
• Knoxville and the Smoky Mountains: Dollywood alone is worth the trip, and the Smokies were fascinating. A dedicated Dollywood article is coming too

San Antonio kicked the trip off, and it was the surprise package of the whole drive. The Alamo is smaller than you expect, tucked right into downtown, but standing in front of that famous facade is genuinely moving, and the defender statues in the gardens - Jim Bowie among them - really bring the 1836 story home. A sign inside the gift shop tells David Crockett's story, and a few minutes' walk away the San Fernando Cathedral is one of the most beautiful church facades I've seen in America. And then there's the River Walk, which was my favourite part of Texas: we rode the boat along the river, under stone bridges and past cypress trees, riverside restaurants and the Hilton Palacio del Rio towering over it all. The city is walkable, friendly and completely lived up to the hype.

The River Walk is the heart of the city, and seeing it from the boat is the way to do it:

At dusk the Hilton Palacio del Rio towers over the whole scene:

Houston was our Texas base, and it split into two very different halves. Downtown surprised us: Texas flags flying on the corners, streets full of life, and some brilliant street art, including a colourful mural of dancing figures. Then there's Space Center Houston, which was amazing - easily one of the best things we did on the entire road trip. You see Independence, the shuttle replica, mounted on top of the original NASA 747 carrier aircraft, and out in Rocket Park an actual Saturn V moon rocket lies on its side, stage by enormous stage. The space nerd in me was in heaven, and it's getting its own article.

At the Space Center Houston entrance, with the moon exhibit glowing behind:

Independence, the shuttle replica, sits stacked on top of the original NASA 747 carrier aircraft:

And out in Rocket Park, where an actual Saturn V moon rocket lies on its side, stage by enormous stage:

The New Orleans photos prove the one thing nobody argues with: the city looks incredible. Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, the cast-iron balconies, the Mississippi riverfront. And one experience stood out above everything: the Sazerac House, a free, multi-storey interactive cocktail museum where you learn the story of the Sazerac and New Orleans drinking history. It was genuinely brilliant, and it's getting its own article.

The cast-iron balconies of the French Quarter are everywhere once you start looking up:

And inside the Sazerac House, the best free attraction in the city:

The Ark Encounter deserves photos of its own, because nothing prepares you for the scale. Noah's Ark built to the biblical dimensions, over 500 feet long and seven storeys tall, sitting in the Kentucky countryside:

Here's the full 510-foot length of it:

And the bow towering over the entrance ramp:

Graceland deserves its own call-out, because it lived up to every bit of the hype. We spent most of a day there: the mansion tour with those famous white columns, the graves in the Meditation Garden, and Elvis's private jet, the Lisa Marie, with the TCB lightning bolt painted on the tail. Even my parents, who aren't Elvis fans, loved it.

The mansion itself, with those famous white columns:

And the Meditation Garden, where Elvis, Lisa Marie Presley and Benjamin Keough are laid to rest:

The Smoky Mountains stretch of the trip deserves its own photos too, because this corner of Tennessee packs a surprising amount in. Dollywood alone is worth the drive: Dolly Parton's theme park in the foothills, with the giant eagle at the entrance, coasters like Wild Eagle looping over the treetops, and when we visited it was all dressed up for Smoky Mountain Christmas, with a tree you can see from across the park. Just down the road in Pigeon Forge is the Titanic museum attraction, a half-scale replica of the ship. It's the best Titanic exhibition I've ever visited - you walk the grand staircase under the glass dome, wander corridors decked out like first class, and the captain's hat at the entrance sets the tone before you even go in. And Gatlinburg, the gateway town to the national park, is wonderfully touristy in the best way - all attractions and mountain views, and genuinely fun.

Down the road in Pigeon Forge, the giant captain's hat sets the tone before you even go in:

Inside, the grand staircase sits under the glass dome, dressed for Christmas when we visited:

A few of my own shots from Nashville. First, the skyline at sunset from the bridge heading into town:

Then a night out on Broadway, neon signs and a cowboy hat in the crowd:

And the Parthenon in Centennial Park, the full-scale replica on a clear autumn day:

Inside stands the towering gold Athena Parthenos statue:

With the lake and fountain outside ringed by autumn trees:

Practical Tips From Experience

• Apply for your ESTA weeks before you fly. Most approvals come back in minutes, but some applications go to additional processing and can take a few days or even a couple of weeks. Plenty of travellers have been denied at short notice and had to reapply, which is stressful and expensive when your flight is tomorrow - so treat the ESTA like a visa and apply as soon as you know your travel dates
• Bring more money than you think. America has got genuinely expensive - the exchange rate hits hard right now, and prices that felt cheap a few years ago don't anymore. Budget in Australian dollars, add a buffer, and don't assume your home currency makes it a bargain trip
• Hotels: shop around every time. I compare Skyscanner, Agoda and the rest rather than staying loyal to one booking site, and sometimes an Airbnb works out cheaper because you can cook. Qantas points can cover hotels too, but I try to save points for flights
• Beat jet lag the simple way. Take a daytime flight so you land during the day, sleep an hour or two on the plane, and then stay up until a normal local bedtime. It's not clever, but it genuinely works - you'll feel far better the next day
• ESTA/visa first, flights second. No approval, no boarding
• The US is bigger than you think. Check actual driving times, not map straight lines - what looks like two hours is often four
• City prices vs everywhere else. New York, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington DC run noticeably higher than the Midwest or South
• Sales tax is added at the register and varies by state and city - budget roughly 8 to 10 percent over the sticker price
• Tipping: 18 to 20 percent at sit-down restaurants, a dollar or two per bag for porters, round up for taxis
• Health insurance is essential. Never travel the US without proper travel insurance - a hospital visit can cost thousands
• Ages differ from Australia and the UK. Drinking age is 21 everywhere, strictly enforced, and you'll be asked for ID at any age
• National Parks pass. If you'll visit three or more parks, the America the Beautiful annual pass (about $80) pays for itself
• Pharmacies are mini-department stores. CVS and Walgreens are everywhere for basics, snacks and SIM cards

My State Guides

This hub grows as I publish state-by-state guides from my trips:

• [Florida](/florida-travel-guide) - theme parks, Miami, the Gulf beaches, the Keys and the space coast
• Coming next: guides to California (including Hearst Castle, Sonoma and the Pacific Coast Highway), Las Vegas and where to stay on the Strip, Chicago, the Sazerac House in New Orleans, Space Center Houston, the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, Nashville and the Nashville Parthenon, Dollywood and the Titanic attraction in Pigeon Forge, Celebration, and Salvation Mountain and East Jesus in the California desert

Final Thoughts

The US rewards repeat visits more than any country I know, and it's given me a lifetime of them: family theme park summers, city breaks, and road trips I'd happily repeat tomorrow. My biggest advice: slow down, do fewer places properly, and leave room to go back - because you will. And if you're picking one new city to try, take it from someone who keeps returning: Nashville is my favourite right now.

Start with the state guides above, and if it's your first trip, build it around one city plus one road trip. That's the formula that's kept me coming back more than 70 times.

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