Universal Orlando. More families come to me for this one square mile of Florida than for every country in Europe put together, and it is the part of my job I know best
United States Family Travel Guide
“It is not a country. It is fifty of them wearing one flag, and the single biggest mistake people make is thinking they can see it in two weeks.”
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Do I need a visa to visit the United States?
If you are from a visa waiver country you need an approved ESTA instead, applied for online at least seventy two hours ahead for twenty one dollars, good for two years. Use the official government site, not one of the resellers that charge four times as much for the same form.
How many days do you actually need for Orlando?
A single Universal park needs a full day on its own now that there are four of them, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay and Epic Universe. Most families need four to five days for Universal alone if Epic is on the list, plus whatever you are giving Disney.
Is it cheaper to fly or drive between destinations?
This is a country built around distance, and I have had people plan a day trip from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon, which is eight hours each way. Below about six hours, driving usually wins once you count airport time. Above that, price the flight.
How much should I actually budget above the sticker price?
Twenty five to thirty percent above what the menu and the room rate say, once you add sales tax, tipping, resort fees, parking fees and baggage fees. Tipping itself is not optional, twenty percent in a sit down restaurant is standard now, fifteen reads as a complaint.
When is the best time of year to visit?
March to May is the best all round window nationally, before Orlando gets hot and before the Southwest becomes unbearable. My own favorite is September, especially in Orlando, when the crowds thin out the week after Labor Day and stay down until Thanksgiving.
Can I really see New York, the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles in one trip?
Not in ten days without spending most of it in airports. Everybody arrives wanting all three. Shrink the plan to a region, and you will remember the place instead of the flights.
Nicole’s Perspective
Why families hire me for the United States
I am from Kansas. We sold that house before we left for Europe, which means the country I know best is also the one I no longer have an address in. That is a strange thing to write a guide about, and it is also why I think I can be honest about it.
In 2017 we drove forty five days across it with three children under six. Kansas to San Diego and home through Memphis and Nashville. Legoland, Sea World, the USS Midway, a dead battery in the rain, and a lot of hotel rooms. Before the kids we did the Southwest run, the Grand Canyon in snow, Sedona, Carlsbad Caverns, Taos. So I have driven it, not flown over it.
And then there is Orlando. More families have booked Universal and Orlando through me than any other destination on the planet, by a margin that is not close. Seventy five families and counting. It is the thing I know down to which park to do on which day and which ticket not to buy, and it is the one piece of this guide where I am not giving you general advice, I am giving you my actual job.
If you are coming from outside the country, the single thing I would tell you is to shrink the plan. Everybody arrives wanting New York, the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles in ten days. That is three flights and a lot of airports, and you will remember the airports. Ask me to build it properly.
Beyond the Bookshelf
Stories to carry you deeper into the United States. This is our own family shelf, real books, films, music and a cookbook tied to the place, not a generic reading list. Read it before you go and the trip means more when you get there.
- To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee
- The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald
- BelovedToni Morrison
- Charlotte’s WebE.B. White
- Where the Wild Things AreMaurice Sendak
- Little House in the Big WoodsLaura Ingalls Wilder
Book links go to Bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores. Film and music links go to JustWatch and Spotify. As an affiliate we may earn from qualifying purchases.
Why this country, for this family
Why United States
Poppy marks the family parts. Wherever you see her, that section is written for traveling with children.The United States is fifty countries wearing one flag, and I was born and raised in it. Families visiting from abroad and families crossing it from home make the same mistake, which is trying to see it in two weeks.
Who it is for. Families who pick one region. Theme park families. National park families with kids over six. City families for New York, Chicago or San Francisco. Anyone with a car and time.
Who should skip it. Anyone trying to see both coasts in ten days. Skip the road trip idea too with kids under five, the distances are punishing and the car seat hours add up.
One region per trip
The Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, Florida, New England. Fly between regions, drive inside them.
The national parks are the crown jewels
Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, the Grand Canyon. Book lodges a year out. Go in shoulder season.
Tipping and tax
Twenty percent in restaurants, tax added at the register. Budget fifteen percent on top of every price you see.
Every State On One Page
All fifty states plus Washington DC, grouped the way you would actually drive them. The ones with a gold Guide tag are written and live, so click straight in. The rest are on my list and I am working down it one state at a time. If you need one of them before I get there, just ask me.
The West
The Southwest
The Midwest
The South
The Northeast
How Much Time Do You Need
This is the question I get most from families outside the country and the honest answer annoys people. It is not a long weekend country unless you already live here. It is not a two week country either, not if you mean seeing it.
The numbers people do not believe
Kansas to San Diego is twenty four hours of driving. Texas alone is bigger than France. New York to Los Angeles is a six hour flight and three time zones. Miami to Seattle is further than London to Cairo. The map does not feel this big and then you drive it.
One region per trip
Ten days buys you one region done properly. Florida and the parks. California from San Francisco to San Diego. The Southwest loop out of Las Vegas. New York and New England. Pick one and go deep. You will have a better trip and it will cost less.
Fly between regions, drive inside them
Internal flights here are cheap and frequent and there is no shame in using them. Driving between regions eats days. Driving inside a region is the whole point.
We took forty five days and we still only did a corridor of it. If somebody tells you they did the United States in two weeks, what they did was three cities and four airports.
This is the part nobody photographs and it is most of the country. Hours of it, between the things you came to see
Orlando and the Theme Park Machine
This is my specialty and I am going to be blunt about why. Orlando is the single hardest thing to book well and the easiest thing to book badly, and the gap between those two is thousands of dollars and a week of your life. Seventy five families and counting have let me do it for them. Here is what I would tell you over coffee.
Universal is four parks now, not two. Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay and Epic Universe, which opened in 2025 and changed the whole shape of a Universal trip. A two day ticket does not cover it any more. Most families need four or five days if Epic is on the list.
Park to Park is not optional at Universal. The Hogwarts Express only runs if you have Park to Park, because it physically moves you between two parks. Every year somebody buys the cheaper base ticket and finds out at the platform. Buy Park to Park.
Express Pass comes free with three hotels. Stay at Hard Rock, Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific and Universal Express Unlimited is included for everyone in the room, every day. Price the room difference against buying Express separately for a family of five and the expensive hotel is frequently the cheaper trip. This one calculation is the most valuable thing on this page.
Disney is a different game. Lightning Lane Multi Pass, early entry for on-site guests, and a dining reservation window that opens sixty days out and is gone in minutes. Disney rewards planning far more than it rewards spending, which is the opposite of Universal.
When to go,. Late January to mid February, and the first three weeks of September, are the best weeks of the year. Low crowds, low prices, tolerable heat. Avoid mid June through mid August, Christmas week, Easter and Thanksgiving. Summer in Orlando is ninety five degrees, a thunderstorm at three every afternoon, and every line at its longest.
Why an advisor saves you money here specifically. Ticket bundles and room offers change constantly, they are not always public, and they are frequently repriceable after you have booked. I watch them. If a better deal drops between your booking and your trip, you get it. That is not a service you pay me for, it is how this works.
One more thing. Do not do seven park days in a row. Put a pool day in the middle. Every single family that ignores this comes home saying they wish they had listened.
Walt Disney World at night. Orlando has forty years of practice at this and it shows, which is also why it takes planning to get right
The National Parks
The best thing this country does. Sixty three national parks, and the system that runs them is the reason a family of five can stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon for the price of one park entry.
Buy the America the Beautiful pass. Eighty dollars, one vehicle, every federal park and site for a year. If you are doing more than two parks it has already paid for itself. And if you have a fourth grader, there is a free version of this pass for your family. Details just below.
The Grand Canyon in winter is better. We went in snow and had the rim close to empty. The South Rim is open all year, the North Rim closes for the season, and in July you are waiting in line to look at a hole in the ground with ten thousand other people.
The Utah five are the best road trip in the country. Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands, all within a long week out of Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. Zion and Arches now use timed entry or shuttle systems in season, so book those the day the window opens.
Book lodging six months out or camp. In park lodges at Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon sell out roughly a year ahead. Gateway towns are the fallback and they are not cheap in summer either.
Junior Ranger is the best free thing for kids in America. A booklet at the visitor center, a few activities, a badge and an oath from an actual ranger. My children still have theirs.
If you have a fourth grader, stop and read this one. Your fourth grader gets you into every national park in the country for a year, free, and almost nobody knows it exists. The program is called Every Kid Outdoors. It is run by the federal government, it costs nothing, and it takes about ten minutes to sort out.
Who gets it. Any child in fourth grade in the United States, including home school fourth graders. One pass per kid, not per family.
When it runs. It goes by the school year, not the calendar year. Every pass starts on 1 September and expires on 31 August the following year. So the 2026 to 2027 pass is good from 1 September 2026 through 31 August 2027, and it does not roll over. Sign your kid up in September and use the whole window.
What it actually covers. Entry to more than 2,000 federal sites, not just the headline national parks. At places that charge by the vehicle it gets in every child under 16 plus every adult in one passenger vehicle, so the whole car. At places that charge per person it covers all children under 16 plus up to three adults. It does not cover parking, camping, boat fees or special tours, so still budget for those.
How you get it. Go to everykidoutdoors.gov, do the short activity with your child, and print the paper voucher. The paper one works on its own. When you get to a park, hand it in at the visitor center and they will swap it for the plastic pass, which is the one your kid will actually want to keep. There is a digital version through Recreation.gov too.
One nine year old, one free pass, and our whole car walks into the Grand Canyon. If you have a kid in that grade this year and you are not using it, you are leaving real money on the table. Get the pass here.
Yosemite Valley. Book the lodging a year out or plan on a tent, there is no third option in summer
The Great American Road Trips
A family road trip USA style is how we did most of this ourselves. We did forty five days of it in 2017 with a three year old, a four year old and a six year old, and I would do it again. The road trip is the most American thing you can do here and it is better with children than a city break is.
Pacific Coast Highway. San Francisco to San Diego over a week. Big Sur, Hearst Castle, Santa Barbara, Legoland at Carlsbad which was one of the best days of our whole trip, then the San Diego Zoo and the USS Midway. This is the one I recommend most often to first timers.
The Southwest loop. Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Monument Valley. Ten days, enormous distances, and scenery that does not let up. We did a version of this before the kids and Carlsbad Caverns and Taos were the surprises.
Memphis to Nashville. The music route, and a short one. Beale Street, Sun Studio, Graceland, then three hours east to Broadway in Nashville. We finished our 2017 trip on this stretch and it is the part the kids talk about.
New England in October. Boston, the White Mountains, coastal Maine. Two weeks, gorgeous, and the one American road trip that European visitors consistently underestimate.
Washington DC down to Williamsburg. Mount Vernon and the Smithsonian, then two to three hours south to Colonial Williamsburg, Richmond or Virginia Beach. The full Virginia guide has the drive times and ticket prices worked out.
Rules that made ours work. No more than five hours of driving in a day. Stop at the ridiculous roadside thing. Book the hotel by lunchtime, not at nine at night. And a cooler in the trunk saves more money than any other single decision.
City Breaks
New York with children is easier than people think. The subway, a park in the middle of it, and enough sensory overload that nobody gets bored. Four days. Do the Staten Island Ferry instead of a paid harbor cruise, it is free and the view is the same.
Las Vegas is a better family city than its reputation. We went with all three kids when our house was empty and it worked. The pools, the fake landmarks, the free shows on the Strip, and it is the best base in the country for the Southwest parks. Just do not walk the Strip in August.
Nashville, and go before dinner. The Broadway honky tonks are all ages until the evening, so a family can hear live music at four in the afternoon and be gone by seven.
Washington DC is the best value city in America. Every Smithsonian museum is free. The zoo is free. A week there costs a fraction of what New York costs.
The Great Lakes loop through Michigan. Drive up from Chicago or Cleveland instead of flying. Mackinac Island bans cars, the Mackinac Bridge gets its own walking day, and the Upper Peninsula feels like a different state entirely. Full Michigan guide here.
Minnesota’s North Shore from Minneapolis. Under three hours up I-35 to Duluth, then Highway 61 along Lake Superior past Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse. Give the Mall of America one day and give the lake the rest. Full Minnesota guide here.
Door County or the Dells from Chicago or Minneapolis. About four hours from either city. Door County for quiet water and lighthouses, the Dells for a resort full of indoor waterslides. Pick one, they are not close to each other. Full Wisconsin guide here.
Santa Fe and Taos from Kansas City or Denver. Two days of driving from KC, one from Denver, and you land in adobe towns at 7,000 feet with a cave, a dune field and 500 balloons within reach. The closest thing to leaving the country without a passport. Full New Mexico guide here.
Idaho on the way to Yellowstone from Salt Lake City. Up I-15 past the potato museum, a night in Driggs on the quiet side of the Tetons, and West Yellowstone two hours from Idaho Falls. Shoshone Falls and the Sawtooths are the reason to add days. Full Idaho guide here.
Ohio from Chicago, Pittsburgh or Detroit. Cedar Point’s 18 coasters on a Lake Erie peninsula, a national park with a train running through it, and Hocking Hills, where the trails are free and short enough for a seven year old. Two hours from Detroit, five from Chicago. Full Ohio guide here.
Kansas from Kansas City, Denver or Oklahoma City. A Sporting KC match on the Kansas side of Kansas City, then the drive west most people skip: the Flint Hills, a salt mine 650 feet under Hutchinson, the real Apollo 13 capsule and Monument Rocks. Nicole’s home state, written as a local. Full Kansas guide here.
Missouri from Kansas City or St. Louis. The Gateway Arch and a free zoo on one end of I-70, a free streetcar and Royals fountains on the other, with Silver Dollar City and two big lakes in the Ozarks between. Three and a half hours across, and it’s been our weekend state for six years. Full Missouri guide here.
Where to go
Where People Go
If you are sketching out a usa itinerary with kids, there are fifty states and almost nobody visits more than a handful. These eight are where the overwhelming majority of family travel here actually happens, and the ones at the top of the list are not the ones a map would suggest. Florida takes more visitors than any other state, California is second, and after that it is New York and Nevada. Pennsylvania does not make that top eight, but Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell sit inside it, and it is still the state families skip past the most for what it actually holds. Here is how I route it with kids.
Anthem The Star Spangled Banner, sung before every sporting event with hats off and hands on hearts. It is famously hard to sing. Language and money English, and Spanish in the south and west. The dollar. Tax is added at the till and tipping is twenty percent, so the price on the menu is never the price.
California
Grand Canyon
Hawaii
Las Vegas
Nashville
New York City
Doing New York with kids without going broke.
Orlando
Universal, Epic Universe and Disney, and the ticket math that saves real money.
Utah National Parks
Culture and Etiquette
I was born and raised here and I still find the regional differences bigger than most of Europe’s. What follows is for families visiting from abroad or crossing the country.
Tipping is not optional. Eighteen to twenty percent in restaurants, a dollar a drink at bars, a few dollars a bag for porters, and the tax is added at the register, not on the shelf price.
Distances are enormous. Two states can be a full day of driving. A Chicago to New York road trip is thirteen hours. Fly between regions, drive inside them.
Small talk is normal. The cashier will ask how you are and mean it, roughly. Answer. Kids get spoken to directly and warmly.
Portions and free refills. Share plates. Water is free and comes with ice. Kids’ menus exist everywhere and they are all the same.
Every state does things differently. Alcohol rules, sales tax, car seat laws. Check the state you are in, not the country.
Food
American food outside America means burgers and fried chicken. American food inside America is regional to the point of being tribal, and the good version is almost never in a chain. Portions are enormous and splitting a plate between two children is normal and nobody will blink.
Getting Around
You need a car almost everywhere. New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington DC are the exceptions. Everywhere else the public transport is thin and the distances are not walkable. Plan on driving.
Rental car insurance is the thing visitors get wrong. The counter will offer you a stack of waivers at forty dollars a day. Your credit card may already cover the collision damage waiver and your home policy may cover liability, but check both before you land, in writing. Do not decide this at the desk at eleven at night.
Internal flights are cheap and there are a lot of them. Southwest, Delta, American, United, plus budget carriers where you pay for everything separately. A five hour drive is often a ninety dollar flight.
Car seat law varies by state and it is strict. Most states require a booster to age eight or a height of four foot nine. Rental companies rent them badly and expensively. Bring your own or check the specific state.
Amtrak is scenic, not practical. The California Zephyr and the Coast Starlight are experiences worth having. As transport between two points on a schedule, it is not competitive.
Big Sur, Highway One
Money, Tipping and Paperwork
Tipping is not optional and the numbers have moved. Twenty percent in a sit down restaurant is now standard, not generous. Fifteen is a signal that something was wrong. A dollar or two a drink at a bar, a couple of dollars a bag, ten to fifteen percent for a taxi. Servers are paid a wage that assumes this.
The price on the label is not the price. Sales tax is added at the register and it varies by state and even by city. Restaurant menu prices exclude both tax and tip, so a thirty dollar plate is closer to thirty eight.
ESTA if you are coming from a visa waiver country. Apply online at least seventy two hours ahead, it costs twenty one dollars, and it lasts two years. Use the official government site, because the top search results are resellers charging four times as much for the same form.
Travel insurance with medical cover is not a nice to have. There is no public health system to fall back on. An ambulance ride and a night in an emergency room can run into five figures. Buy the policy.
Cards everywhere, cash almost nowhere. Tap works nearly universally. Keep twenty dollars in small bills for tips and parking and that is all the cash you need.
When to Go
A country this wide does not have one season. What it has is one calendar problem, which is that American school breaks move the price of everything at the same time.
Mar to May
The best all round window. Orlando before the heat, the Southwest before it becomes unbearable, the national parks opening up. Avoid the two weeks around Easter and avoid Florida in March if you would rather not share it with spring break.
Jun to Aug
Peak, hot and expensive. It is also the only window most families have. If it is yours, go north and high. Yellowstone, the Rockies, Maine, the Pacific Northwest. Orlando and the desert in July are endurance events.
Sep to Nov
My favorite. September in Orlando is the quietest it gets all year. New England turns in October. The Southwest is perfect. Prices drop the week after Labor Day and stay down until Thanksgiving.
Dec to Feb
Florida is at its best and its most expensive. The Grand Canyon in snow is the version you want. Northern cities are cold and cheap. Christmas week is the single worst week of the year to be in a theme park.
How Many Days and How to Route It
The United States is a continent. Pick one region per trip, always.
Seven days. One city plus one nearby thing. New York plus a day in the Hudson Valley. Orlando and the parks. San Francisco and Yosemite.
Ten to fourteen days. One region by road. The Southwest loop, Canada’s Rockies to Seattle, the Florida Keys, New England in October.
Three weeks. Two regions with a flight between. Two weeks on the west coast and a week in New York, or the other way around.
Flying inside the country. Domestic flights are cheap and constant. Book the long legs first, then build the drive days around them.
The Na Pali coast of Kauai
Regions at a Glance
The Northeast
New York, Boston, Washington, New England. History, cities, fall color.
The Southeast
Orlando, Florida’s coasts, Charleston, the Smokies. Theme parks and beaches.
The West
California, the Southwest parks, the Rockies. The road trip country.
The Pacific Northwest and Hawaii
Seattle, Portland, the Cascades, and Hawaii out in the ocean. Green and volcanic.
Where to Go in the United States
The United States is fifty countries. Five places, and one per trip.
New York. Four nights. Central Park, the Natural History Museum, the ferry past the Statue of Liberty, a show, pizza by the slice.
Orlando. Five nights. Disney and Universal on property, a pool every afternoon, the space center an hour away.
The Southwest loop. Ten days. Las Vegas to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, back. Book the park lodges a year out.
San Francisco and Yosemite. Six nights. Cable cars, Alcatraz, the bridge on foot, then the valley floor and the giant sequoias.
Hawaii. Seven nights. Maui for the road to Hana and snorkeling, the Big Island for the volcano. It is its own country.
With Kids
Hotels charge by the room, not the person. Two adults and three children in one room is normal and free here, which is not true in most of Europe. Look for the ones with a free breakfast and a pool, in that order.
Restaurant portions will feed two children. Ask for an extra plate. Nobody minds. A kids menu exists nearly everywhere and it is usually cheap and beige.
The pool is a destination, not an amenity. On a long trip a hotel with a pool buys you two hours of everybody being happy. Ours saved several days in 2017.
Free stuff is everywhere. Smithsonian museums, most city parks, junior ranger programs, public libraries with air conditioning on a bad day. This country is expensive in the places you expect and free in the places you do not.
Splurge-Worthy Experiences
A national park lodge inside the park
The Ahwahnee at Yosemite, Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone, El Tovar on the Grand Canyon rim. Book a year out. Waking up inside the park is the whole point.
A Disney or Universal stay on property
Early park entry, the skyliner or the boat, and a pool for the afternoon crash. It costs more and it makes the week work with three kids.
A Broadway show with good seats
Not the back of the balcony. Orchestra, a matinee, dinner after. Kids over eight, and pick the show they already know.
A Hawaii resort week
The Four Seasons at Hualalai or Aulani for the Disney kids. Hawaii is its own country in the way that matters and it deserves its own trip.
What Visitors Get Wrong
The distances, every single time. I have had people plan a day trip from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon. It is eight hours each way. This is the one thing I correct more than any other.
How much the final bill is above the sticker price. Tax, tip, resort fees, parking fees, baggage fees. Budget twenty five to thirty percent above what the menu and the room rate say.
How empty most of it is. People picture cities. Most of this country is farmland, desert, forest and small towns where the water tower has the name of the place painted on it. The empty part is the part I miss.
How friendly strangers are, and that it is not fake. A cashier asking how your day is going is not selling you anything. It takes visitors about four days to stop being suspicious of it.
How brutal the summer heat is in the south and the desert. Phoenix in July is a hundred and eight. Orlando in August is ninety five with total humidity. Plan indoor middles of the day or plan a different month.
Where I Would Start
First time in the US with kids, or first time seeing it as a family? One region per trip. New York, Orlando, or the Southwest parks. Three different countries in one.
New York. Four nights. Central Park, the Natural History Museum, the ferry past the Statue of Liberty, a show, pizza by the slice.
Orlando. Five nights. Disney and Universal on property, a pool every afternoon, the space center an hour away.
The Southwest loop. Ten days. Las Vegas to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley. Book the park lodges a year out.
Numbers Worth Knowing
The United States, by the numbers
Ways to travel
The United States is not one kind of trip
How you move through it changes the trip more than which places you pick.
Road Trips
The road trip is the American form of travel and always has been. Route 66, the Pacific coast, the Blue Ridge, the parks loop.
Rail Journeys
Amtrak long distance routes are slow and wonderful. The Coast Starlight, the California Zephyr, the Empire Builder.
Ocean Cruising
Miami, Port Canaveral, Galveston, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles. More cruise capacity than anywhere on earth.
Walking and Hiking
Sixty three national parks and a trail network that runs from Georgia to Maine.
Guided and Small Group
The parks, the civil rights sites and the space centres. History and landscape both benefit.
River Cruising
The Mississippi paddlewheelers, and the Columbia and Snake in the northwest.
Independent Travel
The easiest country in the world to drive and the hardest to see quickly. Pick a region.
Explore by interest
What families come to the United States for
Theme parks
Orlando
Disney, Universal and the water parks. We lived close enough to go often, and the planning is the difference between a good week and an expensive one.
Nature
The national parks
Sixty three of them, and the big ones are bigger than some countries. Bison in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon at sunrise, Yosemite from the valley floor, redwoods you cannot see the top of.
Road trips
The great American drives
Highway One down the California coast, the Utah parks loop, Route 66 in pieces. The distances are the thing visitors get wrong, and the drive is the point.
Cities
City breaks
New York for the museums and the shows, Washington for the free Smithsonian, Chicago for the architecture boat, Nashville for the music. A long weekend each.
Something unexpected
Only in the United States
Do before you go
Get a Junior Ranger badge
Every national park has a free booklet at the visitor center. Finish it, take an oath with a ranger, get a badge. Kids collect them and line up for the next one.
Listen before you go
Live music with no cover charge
Nashville honky tonks on Broadway let kids in during the day, and the music never stops. New Orleans does the same with brass bands on the street corner.
Plan before you go
Rope drop a theme park
Be at the gate before it opens, walk straight to the back of the park, and ride the big one twice before the lines form. It is the only free upgrade in Orlando.
Only in the United States
A national park bigger than a country
Yellowstone alone is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island together, with bison on the road and geysers on a timetable. The park pass is eighty dollars for a year, every park.
Combine It With
If you have the time to add a second country, these are the ones I would actually pair this one with. Not a list of neighbors. A list of trips that work.
Cross by land and it barely feels like a border. Seattle into Vancouver, Glacier into Banff, New England into Quebec City.
Two hours from Texas and a completely different country. Add a few days in the Yucatan onto a Florida or Southwest trip and the trip doubles in range.
The natural add on to Orlando. A short flight or a cruise out of Port Canaveral, and it is the beach week the parks do not give you.
Plan the United States with Nicole
Tell me who is coming, and when.
The United States is the country I know best and the one I get asked about least, because families assume they can plan it themselves. A theme park week in Orlando, a national parks road trip, a city break or a mix of all three each take a different shape. Send me the ages, the dates, and what you are hoping this trip feels like. I will come back with what is really available.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel.
United States, Answered
Do I need a visa to visit the United States? If you are from a visa waiver country you need an approved ESTA instead, applied for online at least seventy two hours ahead for twenty one dollars, good for two years. Use the official government site, not one of the resellers that charge four times as much for the same form.
How many days do you actually need for Orlando? A single Universal park needs a full day on its own now that there are four of them, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay and Epic Universe. Most families need four to five days for Universal alone if Epic is on the list, plus whatever you are giving Disney.
Is it cheaper to fly or drive between destinations? This is a country built around distance, and I have had people plan a day trip from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon, which is eight hours each way. Below about six hours, driving usually wins once you count airport time. Above that, price the flight.
How much should I actually budget above the sticker price? Twenty five to thirty percent above what the menu and the room rate say, once you add sales tax, tipping, resort fees, parking fees and baggage fees. Tipping itself is not optional, twenty percent in a sit down restaurant is standard now, fifteen reads as a complaint.
When is the best time of year to visit? March to May is the best all round window nationally, before Orlando gets hot and before the Southwest becomes unbearable. My own favorite is September, especially in Orlando, when the crowds thin out the week after Labor Day and stay down until Thanksgiving.
Can I really see New York, the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles in one trip? Not in ten days without spending most of it in airports. Everybody arrives wanting all three. Shrink the plan to a region, and you will remember the place instead of the flights.
Keep exploring from United States
Cities, neighbors, and the wider region.
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City guides in United States
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OrlandoThe United States, state by state
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Zion National Park
The Grand Canyon
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