America from Coast to Coast
The USA rewards the traveller who picks a circuit and follows it with commitment — each region is a distinct country with its own food, music, weather, and landscape logic.
New York (population 8.3 million city, 20 million metro — on the Hudson River estuary at the geographic nexus of the US Northeast — the world’s most recognisable urban skyline, built on a narrow island of Precambrian schist — the bedrock that is 2 billion years old and strong enough to anchor the foundations of the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center) is the most vertically dramatic city ever built, and the most permanently energised. Manhattan’s 13.4km length contains more cultural, culinary, and architectural density per square kilometre than any other urban area on Earth. The High Line (the 2.3km elevated park built on a decommissioned 1930s freight railway line above the West Side — the most innovative urban park created in any American city in the 21st century — the native plantings, the Hudson River views, the art installations, and the specific vantage point above the street grid that changes the city’s perspective entirely). Central Park (843 acres of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s 1858 design — the Ramble woodland, the Bethesda Terrace, the 6-mile loop reservoir run — the park’s north end at 110th Street is the most beautiful and least visited section). The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the largest art museum in the Americas — 5,000 years of human civilisation on 200,000 m² of floor space — the Egyptian Temple of Dendur (a 1st-century BCE Nubian temple dismantled and gifted to the US in 1965, reassembled inside a purpose-built glass wing — the most improbable interior in any art museum in the world) and the 19th-century American Wing are the two most rewarding stops). The city has its own Cooee guide at the link below.
- → Read the full New York City guide
- High Line — 2.3km elevated park, decommissioned freight railway
- Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Temple of Dendur inside
- Brooklyn Bridge walk — best skyline view in New York, any time of day
- West Village and Chelsea — the neighbourhoods that reward slow walking
The American Southwest — Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico — contains the greatest concentration of geological spectacle per square kilometre available to a visitor anywhere on Earth: the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and the Petrified Forest — each a distinct and overwhelming landscape, all within a 600km radius of Las Vegas. The Grand Canyon (1,857 metres deep — 446km long — 16km wide at its widest — carved over 5–6 million years by the Colorado River through 2 billion years of exposed rock layers — the South Rim accessible year-round, the North Rim open May–October — the canyon’s colour changes throughout the day from pre-dawn silver to ochre and red at sunrise, bleached white at midday, and deep amber-red at sunset — the correct viewing time is sunrise (Yavapai Point, 15-minute walk from the South Rim Visitor Centre) and sunset (Hopi Point, 2km west on the Rim Trail)). Antelope Canyon (the slot canyon on Navajo land near Page, Arizona — the beam of light that enters the Upper Canyon at noon from April to October, the orange and red Navajo sandstone walls 60 metres high and 1 metre wide at the base — Navajo-guided tours required, book weeks ahead at summer peak). Monument Valley (the Navajo Nation tribal park — the three Mittens and Merrick Butte — the landscape of every American Western ever filmed and the most iconic non-Grand Canyon landscape in the Southwest — the 27km Valley Drive self-guided tour, 2 hours, 4WD recommended).
- Grand Canyon South Rim — sunrise Yavapai Point, sunset Hopi Point
- Antelope Canyon — Navajo-guided, book weeks ahead in summer
- Monument Valley — 27km Valley Drive · 4WD recommended
- Zion Narrows — wading up the Virgin River through 600m slot canyon walls
- Horseshoe Bend — Colorado River horseshoe curve, 1km walk from Page AZ
California (population 39 million — the most populous US state and the world’s 5th-largest economy if it were independent — 1,350km of Pacific coastline from the Oregon border to Tijuana) is the USA’s most diverse single state and the destination that most Australian visitors combine into a Los Angeles–Highway 1–San Francisco driving circuit. The Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1 — the 6,500km US Route 1 with the most photographed section running 900km from Los Angeles to San Francisco — the specific Big Sur section (145km between San Luis Obispo and Monterey — the Santa Lucia Range rising directly from the Pacific, the Bixby Bridge (the 218-metre span at 79 metres above the creek — the most photographed bridge on Highway 1 — built 1932), the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park redwoods (the southernmost grove of coast redwood trees — Sequoia sempervirens — the tallest living organisms on Earth — 90–115 metres in this grove), and the McWay Falls (the 24-metre waterfall that falls directly onto a beach cove surrounded by 100-metre cliffs — accessible only from above, on the 0.5km Waterfall Trail from the parking area)). Los Angeles has its own Cooee city guide. San Francisco has its own Cooee city guide. Yosemite National Park (310km east of San Francisco via Highway 120 — the 7-mile valley floor encircled by 1,000-metre granite walls — El Capitan (the 900-metre sheer granite face — the largest exposed granite monolith in the world) — Half Dome — Bridalveil Fall — the timed entry permit required April–October from recreation.gov). The Napa Valley (90km north of San Francisco — the USA’s most internationally celebrated wine appellation — the Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stags Leap and Oakville districts that defeated the French in the 1976 Paris Tasting and permanently disrupted the narrative of European wine supremacy).
- → Full Los Angeles guide
- → Full San Francisco guide
- Pacific Coast Highway Big Sur — Bixby Bridge, McWay Falls, redwoods
- Yosemite — timed entry required Apr–Oct via recreation.gov
- Napa Valley — 1976 Paris Tasting Cabernets, Stags Leap, Opus One
New Orleans (population 390,000 — at the mouth of the Mississippi River — the most culturally distinct city in the United States, a product of French, Spanish, African, Haitian, and Creole influences that were never fully subsumed into the broader American culture — the city that invented jazz (the musical style that emerged from the intersection of African rhythmic traditions, European harmonic structures, and the specific social geography of New Orleans’ Congo Square, where enslaved people were permitted to gather and play music on Sundays)) has the most concentrated and most unapologetic food culture in North America. The French Quarter (the Vieux Carré — the 13-block-by-7-block original French colonial settlement of 1718, preserved in its Creole townhouse form — the cast-iron balconies, the courtyard gardens behind pastel plaster facades, the Bourbon Street bars and the Frenchmen Street jazz clubs (Frenchmen Street — 3 blocks of live jazz venues operating from 9pm to 2am nightly — Spotted Cat, Snug Harbor, the Maison — the authentic alternative to the tourist-oriented Bourbon Street)). The food: Commander’s Palace (the Victorian Garden District restaurant — the turtle soup, the bread pudding soufflé, the 25-cent martinis at Saturday jazz brunch — the single most celebrated restaurant experience in New Orleans), the char-broiled oysters at Drago’s (the Hilton Riverside location — the oysters in the shell, grilled over charcoal, finished with butter, garlic, Parmesan, and Romano — the most specific New Orleans dish that does not exist in the same form anywhere else), the beignets at Café Du Monde (the 24-hour open-air café in the French Market — the chicory coffee café au lait and the square beignets showered in powdered sugar — open since 1862 — the queue is always long — worth every minute). Nashville (460km north — the country music capital, the honky-tonks on Broadway, the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, the hot chicken (the Nashville specialty — cayenne-marinated and fried chicken — Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack inventing the dish in 1945)).
- Frenchmen Street — live jazz nightly, 9pm–2am · Spotted Cat, Snug Harbor
- Commander’s Palace — Saturday jazz brunch · 25-cent martinis
- Café Du Monde — beignets & chicory café au lait · open since 1862
- Drago’s char-broiled oysters — butter, garlic, Parmesan over charcoal
- Nashville Broadway honky-tonks — Grand Ole Opry, hot chicken at Prince’s
Hawaii (the only US state not in North America — an archipelago of 8 main islands in the central Pacific, 3,750km from the US mainland — accessible by 9-hour flight from Los Angeles — the most geologically active state in the USA, with Kīlauea on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi being the world’s most continuously active volcano) is the American destination that delivers the most complete surprise to first-time visitors expecting a beach resort and finding instead an active geological laboratory surrounded by coral reefs. The Big Island (Hawaiʻi) — the largest and most geologically diverse of the islands (the only island with all five of the world’s major climate zones on a single landmass — tropical rainforest, alpine desert at Mauna Kea’s 4,207m summit, black sand beaches from recent lava flows — the Big Island has grown by 875 acres of new land since 1983 from lava entering the ocean). Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (the Kīlauea caldera — the Thurston Lava Tube (a 500-year-old lava tube 130 metres wide accessible on foot) — the Chain of Craters Road (19km descending 1,200 metres from the caldera to the ocean, passing through lava fields from eruptions ranging from 1969 to 2018 — the road ends at the coast where the 1990 lava flow buried the town of Kalapana under 15 metres of basalt)). Maui’s Road to Hana (the 83km Hana Highway — 620 curves, 59 bridges, the most densely planted stretch of roadside tropical vegetation in Hawaii — the Waiʻānapanapa Black Sand Beach, the Seven Sacred Pools at ʻOheʻo Gulch — allow 10–12 hours return). Oʻahu’s North Shore (the world’s most famous surf breaks — Banzai Pipeline, Sunset Beach — the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational triggered only when waves exceed 20 feet — and the World War II memorial at Pearl Harbor).
- Big Island — Kīlauea active volcano · 875 acres of new land since 1983
- Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park — lava tube, Chain of Craters Road
- Maui Road to Hana — 83km, 620 curves, black sand beaches
- North Shore Oʻahu — Banzai Pipeline surf · Pearl Harbor memorial
- Mauna Kea summit — 4,207m · world’s best astronomical viewing site
Yellowstone National Park (established 1872 — the world’s first national park — 8,983 km² across Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho — sitting atop the Yellowstone Caldera, one of the world’s three large supervolcano systems, the last major eruption 640,000 years ago) contains the world’s most concentrated geothermal landscape: more than half of all the world’s geothermal features (geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots) are in Yellowstone. Old Faithful (the geyser that has erupted every 44–125 minutes since 1870 — average interval 94 minutes, predicted to within 10 minutes — 14,000–32,000 litres of boiling water per eruption, reaching 32–56 metres — the Rangers predict each eruption from the duration of the previous one — the prediction board at the Visitor Centre is updated after each eruption) is the most reliable natural spectacle in the USA. The Grand Prismatic Spring (the largest hot spring in the USA and the third largest in the world — 91 metres across, 49 metres deep — the rainbow of colour (deep blue centre from water too hot for life, yellow and orange edges from thermophile bacteria (Archaea) living at the temperature margins, the green from algal photosynthesis) is most visible from the Fairy Falls Trail overlook — a 3km round trip from the Midway Geyser Basin). The Lamar Valley (the “Serengeti of North America” — the valley in the park’s northeast corner where wolf reintroduction began in 1995 — the Druid Peak Pack (the most studied wolf pack in North America) — bison, elk, bear, wolf, pronghorn, and eagles all visible in the valley from the roadside at dawn).
- Old Faithful — erupts every 44–125 min · Rangers predict within 10 min
- Grand Prismatic Spring — 91m across · best viewed from Fairy Falls Trail
- Lamar Valley — wolf, bison, bear at dawn · 1995 wolf reintroduction site
- Grand Teton National Park — 30 miles south · most dramatic mountain silhouette
- Glacier National Park (Montana) — Going-to-the-Sun Road · grizzly bears
The America the Beautiful Interagency Annual Pass (USD$80 — currently approximately AUD$124 — purchased at any National Park entrance station or online at store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes) covers entry fees for all 63 National Parks and over 400 federal recreation sites for 12 months from the date of purchase. It covers the driver and all passengers in a single vehicle (or, for walking/cycling entries, the pass holder and up to 3 adults). The pass breaks even at two National Park visits — Grand Canyon alone is USD$35 per vehicle. On a Southwest road trip covering Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches, the pass saves USD$105. Buy it at the first park you visit (no online booking required — the ranger at the entry booth sells it in 60 seconds) and carry it for every subsequent park entry.