Wild West
You don't need to be able to ride; you don't have to be able to sing
Rhinestone Cowboy.
To enjoy a ranching holiday, you just have to love the American West, or the
idea of it.
I have now been on three ranching holidays - two in Wyoming and one in Montana
- and each followed a similarly delightful daily pattern: wake unfeasibly
early, eat high-calorific breakfast involving grits, pancakes and mountains
of bacon; saddle up; ride out with wrangler Clint/Spike/Bertha; marvel at
the astonishing scenery; dismount for lunch; fall over because knee muscles
have disintegrated; eat high-calorific lunch; swim; play horseshoes; shoot
clay pigeons; track moose; ride out again; hobble to bar; drink Bourbon as
sun goes down over prairie; weep at sheer beauty of the view/the barmaid/the
welts on your thighs; eat high-calorific dinner; play softball; return to
bar; offer to marry barmaid and move to Montana; topple into bed in quaint
cabin; sleep as you have never slept before.
The high point? Watching Cowboy Clint hypnotise a chicken on the bar of
Paradise Ranch, Wyoming. The chicken had no memory of this experience when
it woke up. I, on the other hand, will never forget it.
Ben Macintyre, former New York correspondent
Do it: Ranch America (0845 2773306, www.ranchamerica.co.uk)
has seven nights at Paradise Ranch in Wyoming from £1,699pp with full board,
soft drinks, most ranch activities and flights.
New York, New York
This is where the modern US was made, where the Italians, Jews, Poles and
Irish, Chinese, Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans began their American adventure.
From Central Park to Ellis Island, and beyond into Brooklyn and Jersey, it's
all a film set from a thousand movies, every inch familiar. Walk over the
Brooklyn Bridge, take the park stroll to the Met, yellow cab it with a Sikh
or Afghan down to the Village, breakfast at an old-style deli and never
experience even the shadow of a moment's boredom. New York is real-life
romance, everything else is a pretty dream.
David Aaronovitch
Do it: Letsgo2 (0871 2083015, www.new-york.letsgo2.com)
is offering a three-night break to New York for £525pp staying at the
three-star New Yorker hotel and flights.
Historic Charleston
In 1066 and All That, the Cavaliers are described as “wrong but
romantic”. The same is true of the Confederates in the American Civil War.
Charleston was the South's cultural and spiritual centre. It remains so.
This is proper Gone With The Wind territory. Here, if the locals talk about
something being “postwar”, they are referring to 1865, not 1945. It is a
place of extraordinary beauty, with more churches per square mile than any
other city in the US, surrounded by exotic islands and beaches. Yet what
really counts is its continuity. Charleston has been no more immune to
change than the rest of the inherently restless United States. It just feels
as if it has somehow managed to preserve its soul despite all the turmoil.
Political columnist Tim Hames
Do it: TrekAmerica (0845 3306095, www.trekamerica.com)
visits Charleston on a variety of tours, including the 35-day
Transcontinental South. The trip costs from £1,560pp, including transport,
accommodation, camping equipment and the services of a tour leader. Flights
cost extra.
Washington DC
The late Sir Robin Day once told me that if he were reincarnated, he would
like it to be as a US state governor. Me? I'd like to be a Justice of the
Supreme Court. I can see myself striding to work, robes flowing, taking
those white marble steps two at a time, on my way to defend the rights of
man.
There is America as you might imagine it (Las Vegas? Manhattan?), there's
America as it really is (Milwaukee? Rural Texas?), and there's America as it
sees itself. And that means Washington DC. You haven't been there? You
haven't visited America.
DC, where you can wonder at the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, visit the
Smithsonian museums, the Capitol, see the White House, read the aspirations
of democracy's great experiment etched in marble. And stride up the steps of
the Supreme Court, two at a time.
Daniel Finkelstein's Comment Central blog covers the US election
Do it: Thomas Cook Signature (0870 4434447, www.tcsignature.com)
offers five nights at the Holiday Inn Capitol in Washington from £884pp,
including flights and car hire, but not breakfast.
Florida theme parks
If you have kids, how could you not go to Orlando? You get sunshine, cheap
meals and service with a smile. They get the trip of a lifetime. They'll
drag you round the ride-based theme parks - Disney's Magic Kingdom,
Universal Studios - which are great, but exhausting. So insist on visiting
Disney's Animal Kingdom: in one short “Jeep” ride around the savannah,
you'll cross a lake of snapping crocs, and find enough animals with “k” and
“z” in their name to improve your Scrabble beyond recognition.
Dominic Wells, theme park aficionado
Do it: Premier Holidays (08444 937666, www.premierholidays.co.uk)
has a week at the Marriott Village, Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, from £1,049
per adult and £629 per child. This includes breakfast, car hire, five- day
passes for Disneyworld and flights.
Maine course
Go to Maine. Don't go in the summer, when everyone goes. I've been twice in
the late spring, and eaten the best fried clams ever in a nearly empty,
beautiful Bar Harbour, and walked through Acadia National Park when there
was still snow on the ground. The hotels were empty (with the dollar the way
it is, this would be less true now, but still...) and we could walk in peace
by the roaring ocean. Portland's a lovely little city, too, where (you'll
notice a snacking theme) we found a restaurant that made scrambled eggs by
frothing them with the steam attachment of a cappuccino machine. Brilliant.
Not to mention the lobsters, served just as they are with gallons of butter.
Erica Wagner, Books editor, US citizen
Do it: Bon Voyage (0800 3160194,www.bon-voyage.
co.uk) has a week's fly-drive to Maine for £699pp, including three-star
hotels car hire and flights.
When to come to DC: Forget the cherry blossoms in early April -- unless you love 12-year-olds en masse (on their spring break trips) and 40 degree weather. November through March are grey and depressing, and July and August are just steamy. Sept and Oct: Congress is in session and so are schools.
Amanda, Washington, DC, USA
Upstate New York is an excellent getaway, especially in August when the NYC heat and humidity are at its crime-against-humanity worst. Saratoga is well known for its summer thoroughbred racing and its Revolutionary War battlefield. Also, the Erie Canal and the Hudson River offer superb scenery.
T. J. Cassidy, Bronx, NY, U.S.A.
Most of my EU relatives want to know about the beach but think they have to go to Florida for that. Not true in summer. There is Virginnia Beach VA, Ocean City MD, Rhehobeth Beach, DE, Cape May, NJ. Those places are lots of family fun, sometimes tacky, but fun, and you can go to NYC and DC too.
Claudia, Atlanta, USA
Don't leave out Texas! It has lots to offer: pine woods in the east, mountains of Big Bend, Gulf of Mexico beaches and large cities with multiple ethnic groups. And the friendliest people around, especially in the smaller towns and cities. San Antonio is an unforgettable experience.
Mary, Fort Worth, U.S.A.
May I suggest Apalachicola, Florida? Located in the panhandle, it features a wild river, a bay that produces 90% of the state's oysters, and the Gulf of Mexico accompanied by miles of undeveloped white sand beaches. May and October are probably the best months, since it is ghastly hot in the summer.
Denise Roux, Apalachicola, USA
I like Charleston but I think Savannah GA doesn't get enough play in the European press. The town and nearby beach town Tybee Island are looking better every year. The towns are similar in tone yet unique. Go to the Riverfront, Forsythe Park, the squares, coffee shops on Bull Street, etc.
Claudia, Atlanta, USA
As a native from Wyoming, I can tell you that most of the people living there have never been on a horse. However, real cowboys still exist. With the U.S. dollar where it is, this is the time to come over and visit us. We are (most of us) very nice people. GW is just an awful, awful dream.
ann, Bend, USA
Why does everyone always forget that HAWAI`I is part of America? Forget the mainland, Hawai`i is where it's at.
John, Honolulu,
Boycott USA.
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan