--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in the USA (City Guides) Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across the United States, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and more cities, mapped and filmed. When to go, how to get around, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/united-states type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-06 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across the United States A continent-sized country of **city breaks, road trips and national parks**. The United States rewards specificity: **pick one region, go deep**, come back for another. ## Quick answer First trips work best as one city and one drive. **New York** for a week of museums, food and neighborhoods, then either **San Francisco and the California coast** or **Miami and the Florida Keys**. Plan around the distances: New York to Los Angeles is a six-hour flight, and the interior between them is the part worth a car. **April to June** and **September to October** give the widest band of usable weather across the country at once. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct - **Ideal length:** 10–14 days - **Budget per day:** $150–320 - **Language:** English - **Getting around:** Domestic flights & car - **8** City guides - **340,110,988** People - **3** Video guides The United States is fifty states of very different weather, food and pace, so an itinerary that tries to see it all sees none of it. Most first trips pair one city with one drive: New York with New England, San Francisco with the California coast, Miami with the Keys. The interior is where the country stops looking like its own postcards, and the national parks are the reason to rent the car. ## 8 United States city guides 1. [New York City](https://wimup.com/city/new-york-city.md): North America · 10 picks 2. [Los Angeles](https://wimup.com/city/los-angeles.md): North America · 10 picks 3. [Miami](https://wimup.com/city/miami.md): North America · 10 picks 4. [Madison](https://wimup.com/city/madison.md): North America · 10 picks 5. [Las Vegas](https://wimup.com/city/las-vegas.md): North America · 10 picks 6. [San Francisco](https://wimup.com/city/san-francisco.md): North America · 10 picks 7. [Chicago](https://wimup.com/city/chicago.md): North America · 10 picks 8. [New Orleans](https://wimup.com/city/new-orleans.md): North America · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 340,110,988 - **Area:** 9,833,520 km² - **Density:** 34.6 / km² - **Capital:** Washington, D.C. - **Major cities:** New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** US dollar ($) Cards and phone payments work almost everywhere, including on transit. Sales tax is added at the till, so the shelf price is never the final one. - **Language:** English Spanish is the second language of daily life across the southwest, Florida and most large cities. - **Calling code:** +1 - **Power:** 120V · Type A/B - **Emergency:** 911, all services - **Visa:** ESTA · 90 days Citizens of the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries apply online for an ESTA before flying. Everyone else needs a visitor visa, and the interview wait is the long part. - **Getting around:** Domestic flights & car Flying is the default between regions. Amtrak is scenic but slow outside the northeast corridor, and anywhere beyond a big-city downtown assumes a car. - **Tipping:** 18–20% in restaurants Service staff are paid against tips. Add it in bars, in taxis, for hotel housekeeping and for anyone who carries a bag. ## When to visit - **Jan** - **Feb** - **Mar** (good) - **Apr** (best) - **May** (best) - **Jun** (good) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (peak) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (best) - **Nov** (good) - **Dec** ## Fun fact The National Park System runs to 433 units across more than 85 million acres, an area larger than the whole of the United Kingdom. Only 63 of them carry the National Park title. The rest are monuments, seashores, battlefields and parkways. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Americans are loud and superficial **Reality:** Small talk is a courtesy. It makes no claim of friendship. A stranger asking how your day is going means it politely, and the warmth behind it is real even when the conversation lasts a minute. - **Myth:** You need a car everywhere **Reality:** True across most of the map and wrong in the cities worth the most time. New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington and San Francisco all work on foot and rail. Rent the car for the stretch between them. - **Myth:** It is all fast food **Reality:** Every city runs on immigrant kitchens, farmers markets and regional cooking that predates the chains: Gulf seafood, New Mexican chile, Californian produce, Carolina barbecue. - **Myth:** One trip can cover it **Reality:** New York to Los Angeles is close to 4,000 km and a six-hour flight. Pick a region, finish it, and come back for the next one. - Tipping is part of the price. Restaurant staff are paid against tips, so 18 to 20 percent is the working norm. - Sales tax is added at the till. The shelf price is almost never what you pay, and the rate changes by state and by city. - Tap water arrives free and full of ice without being asked for. Say so if you want it any other way. - Lines are policed socially. Cutting one draws comment in a way that jumping a metro barrier does not. - The drinking age is 21 everywhere and bars card on sight, whatever your age. Carry a passport if you plan to drink. - Distances are quoted in hours, not miles. When someone says a place is close, ask how long the drive takes. ## Famous American faces - **Abraham Lincoln**: President who held the Union together and ended slavery - **Martin Luther King Jr.**: Minister who led the civil rights movement and the march on Washington - **Muhammad Ali**: Heavyweight champion, and the loudest conscience in American sport - **Bob Dylan**: Songwriter who turned folk into literature, and won the Nobel for it - **Marilyn Monroe**: Actor whose image outlived every film she made - **Toni Morrison**: Novelist of Beloved, and the first Black woman to win the Nobel in Literature - **Neil Armstrong**: First person to walk on the Moon - **Steve Jobs**: Co-founder of Apple, and the reason a phone looks like this - **George Washington**: Commander of the Revolution and the first president - **Franklin D. Roosevelt**: President through the Depression and the Second World War, elected four times - **Rosa Parks**: Her refusal to give up a bus seat started the Montgomery boycott - **Barack Obama**: First Black president of the United States - **Louis Armstrong**: New Orleans trumpeter who made the jazz solo the center of the music - **Aretha Franklin**: The voice of soul, out of Detroit - **Johnny Cash**: Country singer who played Folsom Prison to the inmates - **Beyoncé**: Houston singer who turned the album release into an event - **Meryl Streep**: The most nominated performer in Academy Award history - **Denzel Washington**: Two Academy Awards, and a stage career to match - **Steven Spielberg**: Director of Jaws, E.T. and Schindler's List - **Katharine Hepburn**: Four Best Actress Oscars, more than any other performer - **Mark Twain**: Author of Huckleberry Finn, and the closest thing to an American voice - **Ernest Hemingway**: Novelist who stripped the English sentence back to its bones - **Maya Angelou**: Poet and memoirist of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - **James Baldwin**: Essayist and novelist on race, exile and America - **Thomas Edison**: Inventor with over a thousand US patents, and the industrial research lab - **Katherine Johnson**: NASA mathematician whose orbital calculations put astronauts in space - **Richard Feynman**: Nobel physicist, and the finest explainer of his century - **Grace Hopper**: Computer scientist behind the first compiler and the language that became COBOL - **Jackie Robinson**: Broke baseball's color line in 1947 - **Serena Williams**: 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of the open era - **Michael Jordan**: Six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls - **Simone Biles**: The most decorated gymnast in world championship history - **Henry Ford**: Put the country on wheels with the moving assembly line - **Walt Disney**: Animator who built a studio, then built a theme park around it - **Oprah Winfrey**: Talk show host who became a media proprietor ## Must-try American food - **Cheeseburger**: The national default, and the best ones are griddled thin. - **Hot dog**: Steamed or grilled, and dressed differently in every city that claims it. - **Buffalo wings**: Fried, tossed in cayenne and butter, cooled with blue cheese. - **Fried chicken**: Brined, floured and fried. The biscuit alongside is not optional. - **Mac and cheese**: Baked with a crust in the South, stovetop and loose north of it. - **Pancakes with maple syrup**: The diner breakfast, with the bacon on the same plate. - **Biscuits and gravy**: Soft biscuits under a peppery pork sausage gravy. - **Reuben sandwich**: Corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss, griddled in rye. - **Texas brisket**: Salt, pepper, post oak smoke and most of a day. Nothing else. - **Carolina pulled pork**: Whole hog, chopped, dressed in a thin vinegar sauce. - **Kansas City ribs**: Thick tomato and molasses sauce, caramelised over the fire. - **Memphis dry ribs**: Dry-rubbed and served without sauce, so the crust does the work. - **Santa Maria tri-tip**: California's barbecue: beef over red oak, sliced across the grain. - **New England clam chowder**: Cream, potato and quahog, thick enough to hold a spoon upright. - **Gumbo**: Dark roux, the holy trinity of onion, celery and pepper, and whatever the season brings. - **Philly cheesesteak**: Chopped ribeye and melted cheese in a long roll. - **Bagel with lox**: Boiled then baked, split, and loaded with cream cheese and cured salmon. - **Chicago deep-dish pizza**: A buttery crust wall, cheese under the sauce, eaten with a fork. - **Green chile stew**: New Mexico in a bowl. The state question is red or green. - **Breakfast tacos**: Texas mornings: egg, potato and salsa in a flour tortilla. - **Maryland crab cakes**: Blue crab, almost no filler, and a heavy hand with Old Bay. - **Poke**: Hawaii's raw fish bowl, cubed and dressed with soy and sesame. - **Apple pie**: Double crust and cinnamon, warm, with ice cream if you are doing it properly. - **Key lime pie**: Florida's tart custard on a graham crust, and never green. - **Pecan pie**: Southern, sweet, and heavy on the syrup. - **New York cheesecake**: Dense, plain and baked, with nothing on top. - **Cinnamon roll**: Enriched dough, brown sugar spiral, cream cheese glaze. - **Bottomless filter coffee**: The diner pot comes back around before you ask it to. - **Sweet tea**: Iced, and sugared while still hot. Standard across the South. - **Old fashioned**: Bourbon or rye, sugar, bitters and one large piece of ice. - **Root beer float**: Sassafras-flavored soda poured over vanilla ice cream. - **Craft IPA**: The country has thousands of breweries and this is the flagship style. ## Films - [LA Like a Local](https://wimup.com/watch/los-angeles.md), 4:05:43 - [48 Hours in New Orleans](https://wimup.com/watch/new-orleans.md), 1:29:53 - [Manhattan Evening, Fifth Avenue](https://wimup.com/watch/new-york.md), 3:37:02 ## FAQs ### How many days do you need in the United States? Ten to fourteen for a first trip, built around one city and one drive. A week works if you stay inside a single region, say New York and New England, or California from San Francisco south. ### When is the best time to visit the United States? April to June and September to October. Those windows give usable weather across most of the country at once, while July and August are hot in the South and busy everywhere. ### Do you need a visa for the United States? Citizens of the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries apply online for an ESTA and can stay up to 90 days. Everyone else applies for a visitor visa at a US embassy or consulate, and the interview appointment is the part to book early. ### Can you travel the United States without a car? Between regions, fly: domestic routes are frequent and usually faster and cheaper than the train. Inside New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington and San Francisco the transit is enough. Almost everywhere else assumes a car. ### How much should you tip in the United States? 18 to 20 percent in restaurants and bars, a couple of dollars a bag for hotel porters, and something similar for taxis and rides. Tipping is how service staff are paid, not a reward for exceptional service. ## Related countries - [Canada](https://wimup.com/country/canada.md) - [Mexico](https://wimup.com/country/mexico.md) - [All of North America](https://wimup.com/north-america) Part of [North America](https://wimup.com/north-america.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.visittheusa.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.