What was your best vacation in the U.S. ....

[ludari]

It's a difficult decision to pick my best vacation in the US but I would have to say Alaska. The beauty of the place, wildlife, tours and other activities (hiking, biking, etc) help pull this trip over the top.

 

[ariel71]

- Alaska, especially the Denali flightseeing tour/glacier landing out of Talkeetna.
- Grand Canyon rafting/camping trip, although the very steep, 8-hour hike out with our packs up the Bright Angel trail was very unpleasant.

I do enjoy visiting other cities, but I think because I have lived in cities ever since graduating college, trips involving nature resonate more. Even my favorite US city trips to date (Portland, OR and San Francisco) were favorites in large part due to nature-centric side trips. That said, with foreign cities that already have a ridiculous sense of history and awe about them, I don't need nature at all.

 

[NotUrsula]

I've enjoyed trips just about everywhere -- EXCEPT Southern California. I've been there 4X, and each time it just seems somehow alien to me; even those cliff-y beaches felt wrong. I feel right at home in Europe, but Southern California just isn't my place, I guess. (No offense meant to anyone who loves it there; I'm not even really sure about what it was that made me so uncomfortable in my skin there -- maybe the dry weather?)

 

[Diznotyzed]

When our daughters were elementary school aged we drove round trip from Oregon to Maine. My husband had extra vacation time that year, and we really wanted to do something big with it. We saw lots of corn fields and tons of amazing places like Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and Niagara Falls. We stopped to "pick up" family who live in Vermont, and traveled with them to a week long stay in Maine, which was a blast.

 

[minniecarousel]

We did a Western US driving trip - I think our sons were around 10-12 years old. We went to National Parks - a few in Utah, Yellowstone & the Grand Canyon. Ended up in Vegas for a couple of nights in luxury!

 

[tigercat]

I guess the trip to Chicago to see the Baha'i Temple and then Hawaii and Alaska.
tigercat

 

[jdb in AZ]

So many to choose from. Loved staying at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Fall foliage cruise in New England and into eastern Canada. The Hawaiian islands are amazing, and of course Alaska -- including Denali Park and Fairbanks as well as the cruise.

 

[mom2rtk]

I guess the trip to Chicago to see the Baha'i Temple and then Hawaii and Alaska.
tigercat

I used to drive by the Baha'i Temple every day on my way to class. It wasn't a bad commute.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Back in the mid 1980s, I had a month off between jobs. I flew to California and spent three weeks there and in Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. A friend accompanied me for a week, but the rest of the time I was alone.

I'm at Universal now, and this is MUCH better than any Disney trip I've ever had.

 

[Kimkimba]

Southern California - NO Disney. It just felt like we belonged there. We are going back next year.

Followed by Key Largo - very peaceful.

 

[andiraye]

Driving down the CA coast from Napa to LA by way of Big Sur. Included Carmel, Hearst Castle, Santa Barabara and a day trip to Disneyland, of course. But if I'm being honest, Big Sur was the highlight.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Driving down the CA coast from Napa to LA by way of Big Sur. Included Carmel, Hearst Castle, Santa Barabara and a day trip to Disneyland, of course. But if I'm being honest, Big Sur was the highlight.

Yeah, Big Sur is amazing, one of my favorite places. In the pre-kiddos era, we took a week to drive from Long Beach to Monterey via the Pacific Coast Highway/Cabrillo Highway. Stops included Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, Cambria, Big Sur, Carmel. The whole drive is just amazing. We would just pull over some random place every 30 minutes or so, the scenery is breathtaking. Definitely one of my favorite vacations, a must-do IMHO.

 

[smokeyblue]

About 11 years ago we planned a trip to California for a wedding. My boyfriend had always wanted to go to the Gilroy Garlic Festival and it was the weekend of the wedding! The only problem? The wedding was in Malibu and Gilroy was a 5 hour drive. We decided to make a whole trip out of it.

First of all, we scored a "manager's special" at Hertz and ended up with a sweet Prestige Collection car for only $50 more than we were already paying! We started with 2 days in LA, 2 days in Malibu for the most fun wedding I've been to, got up super early drove to Gilroy, did the festival. Than we went to the Winchester Mystery house and our final destination for that day was Sonoma. We stated in a little B&B that was basically an old farm and the converted all the little buildings in to single units. We stayed in this tiny stone cottage for 3 nights. We were close enough that we could walk into town and grab a bite to eat. We went to 5 wineries a day and ate at some really great/neat/cool places. Sonoma was very beautiful.

We drove than through San Fran on our way back to So Cal and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. We kept driving and found a room in San Luis Obispo. The kid at the desk even gave us the honeymoon suite. We got up bright and early and went to Disneyland for the day and then we stayed in southern Orange county at the bf's parents. I flew home after a day and my bf stayed and visited with his parents awhile longer. That trip was so fun. California is really interesting when you go from one extreme area to another. I would like to do this again, but maybe hit some different places.

 

[eastendlights]

We go to Bar Harbor, ME for two weeks every summer-hiking in Acadia is amazing. We also love San Francisco and San Diego/Coronado/So Cal and go to one or the other every year.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

We've done a lot of US trips, so it's hard to just pick a single favorite one. So I'll go with two.

Sanibel Island in Florida was amazing. I've seen several other people mention that one as well. We rented a great place with a kitchen so we could eat in or eat out depending on how it worked for us. LOTS of stuff within driving distance if you don't want to kick back on the island. And I LOVED the beach there!

We also did a memorable driving trip where we drove up through Virginia to DC. We stayed on the Virginia side and took the Metro wherever we needed in DC itself and saw everything we could. (The White House tour was totally worth the security line to get in there.) We also did Mount Vernon while we were on that side. Then we drove down the coast into North Carolina to the Outer Banks. (OMG, amazingly beautiful.) Then we drove across North Carolina back to Tennessee.

That last trip was fun because other than the first part where we had tickets for the White House tour and had to be in a specific place at a specific time, the rest of it was simply based on where we were at the time. I did a ton of research before we left, so I had an idea of what might be fun to do, but that was just a springboard for the rest of it.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I took a road trip with my husband to see a bunch of the national parks. We hit Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, the Badlands, etc.

 

[Shutterbug]

Started in Las Vegas. Then spent days at Grand Canyon, followed by Bryce Canyon, then a couple days at Zion. Then back to Las Vegas. Amazing sites both natural and manmade.
Then there was that one particular week I spent in Las Vegas.

 

[Funfire240]

Honeymoon in Florida Keys. We go there often and stay in Marathon at my in-laws place but for our honeymoon I didn't want to be in their house (even though they weren't there but just felt weird.) We started in Key Largo and throughout the week worked our way down spending time in different areas down to Key West where we spent our last 2 nights.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Several come to mind: Chicago, Wrightsville Beach, St.Joseph, Michigan, Saint Augustine, Gatlinburg...but the most surprising was Indianapolis. We had a blast there.

 

[BusyP76]

Cali trip that started in San Fran and ended in San Diego. 10 days (3 were spent at Disneyland but even without that portion of the trip it's was still amazing!). I adore California!!
And also we've been a few times to the Smoky Mountain/Blue Ridge Mountain area and we LOVE that part of the country! (Gatlinberg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Dolly Wood, The Biltmore, Smoky Mountain National Park)