World Destinations – North America – USA - Overview
Overview Passport & Visa Health & Safety Airport Guide
When to go
Weather
Climate varies hugely, check with individual states.
Festivals
The USA hosts thousands of different festivals, each with a different feel. Some of the biggest and best are listed here. The Burning Man Festival, held in Black Rock City, Nevada in early September. It has been described as ‘the most artistic, survivalist, and utterly surreal spectacle on earth’where ‘all the black sheep of the world graze together’. New York’s Manhattan Island comes alive over Halloween when two million people form the largest parade in the country, an over-excited, costumed street party. Like the San Francisco Carnival, it has a large gay following who enjoy hamming up the horror. Key West, the most southern island off Florida’s coast, hosts the Fantasy Fest in late October. A time of sexuality, nudity, and drinking, this ten-day fancy dress party attracts 70,000 people.
Highlights
“The United States is a country unique in the world because it was populated not merely by people who live in it by the accident of birth, but by those who willed to come here.” John Gunther, 1947
New York
The Big Apple, with that instantly recognisable skyline, and street names from the movies, is a must for trips to America. Visit Staten Island for the best views of Manhatten Island, rollerskate in Central Park, and be sure to have a big, New York breakfast.
Grand Canyon
Visit the South Rim at dawn for a sense of the enormity of nature. Spend a day trekking in the canyon, or get a permit and camp on the canyon floor. Or, for the less energetic, take to the air in a helicopter and watch the ground drop away.
Denali National Park, Alaska
Admire the tundra and glaciers in Alaska’s finest park, home to bears and wolves, with views of North America’s highest peak, Mount McKinley.
California
Home to two major but very different US cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The former is all gas-guzzling cars stuck in a concrete and glass jungle, home to the rich and vain, with holiday resorts for the many. The latter is eco-friendly, gay-friendly, boho chic, home to great food, an eclectic nightlife and a weird white fog disguising one of America’s best views, the Golden Gate Bridge.
National Parks
Aside from the Grand Canyon, America has a great geological diversity. Visit the lush parks of Yosemite and Zion for excellent hiking in clean, crisp air. Or enter Badlands, Bryce, or Monument Valley, a world away - dusty, arid and truly spectacular. Or Redwoods, with ancient trees you can drive through, some over 100 metres high.
Being there
Etiquette
Open friendly people of different cultures and origins. Normal courtesies apply. Smoking increasingly unpopular, ask permission first. Dress generally casual.
Food and Drink
American breakfasts are legendary. Fast food, from hamburgers to hotdogs, is available everywhere, and international cuisine is available in every city. There are numerous regional specialities, from Spanish flavours in the south-west to Creole or French in the deep south. Many different kinds of bar, with varying ‘happy hours’. Californian wines are good.
Shopping and Souvenirs
Clothes, electrical items, traditional artefacts from the different peoples and regions, sports goods.
Additional Info
People and Places
Capital: Washington.
Language: English.
Population: 294,800,000.
Population Density: 30.5. (pop per km²)
Size: 9,809,155. (area km²)
Transport
Numerous. Busiest 10 are: Atlanta (ATL), Chicago (ORD), Los Angeles (LAX), Dallas/Fort Worth(DFW), San Francisco (SFO), Denver (DEN), Miami (MIA), Newark (EWR), Phoenix (PHX), Detroit (DTW).
Excellent air, rail and road networks. Buses, taxis, and different types of car-hire available.
Red Tape
National driving licence accepted for a year. International Driving Permit recommended, not required.
USA: 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE, tel (020) 7499 9000, fax (020) 7495 5012.
UK: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008, tel (202) 588 6500, fax (202) 588 7866, email washi@fco.gov.uk.
State of the Nation
Life expectancy: M 74.89, F 80.67.
Finance: Credit cards widely accepted, cheques less so.
Business hours: 0900-1730 Mon-Friday.
GMT: Spans six time zones, from - 5 (east coast) to - 10 (Hawaii).
Voltage guide: 110/120 AC, 60 Hz.
Country dialling code: 1.
Source: Expedia
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