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When in… Venice Beach, Los Angeles

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:37 +0000

Venice Beach makes for a great escape from the uptown uptightness of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Shop for art, hit the beach, then eat at some of LA’s best restaurants

New legislation could hit New York’s growing apartment holiday let market

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:37 +0000

A new law will make it difficult for travellers to find affordable apartments and vacation rentals in New York City through popular websites like AirBnB and Craigslist

* Update 24 July 2010: Governor David Paterson has signed the bill. The new law will come into effect on 1 May 2011. You can read his statement here

If you like the idea of renting an apartment during a short break in New York, you could be facing some problems if new legislation is pushed through. The controversial proposal could make it illegal to rent an apartment in the city for any period under 30 days.

The “subletting” bill – which has been passed by senators and is currently awaiting final approval from the state governor – has been designed to crack down on illegal hotels that cause problems for permanent residents by depleting the local housing pool and creating noise and security issues. However, it is feared the ban will affect growing online networks, such as AirBnB, Craigslist, Crashpadder and Homeaway, which allow travellers to find short-term accommodation in privately owned properties.

Although the bill is said to contain “appropriate exceptions for roommates and boarders who live or rent in the unit with the permanent occupants”, if you are looking to step in while the owner is away, you may only be able to do so if no money changes hands. This means home swapping is permitted, but paying to rent an apartment for private, short-term usage could become illegal.

The bill blames the internet for the rise of illegal hotels, stating that “it is easier than ever to advertise illegal hotel rooms” and “most tourists have no idea they have not made reservations at legitimate hotels until they arrive at their destination”. Sites such as AirBnB – which has more than 3,000 properties listed in New York City – maintain they make it very clear that these are residential properties.

Joe Gebbia, president of AirBnB.com, said: “We have received over 300 letters from New Yorkers who depend on renting by the night to make ends meet. As everyone knows, NYC is financially a challenging place to live – especially in a down economy. The consequences of this generalised bill will negatively impact thousands of New Yorkers more than by the small number of ‘illegal hotels’.”

Many residents argue that they rely on their right to sublet in order to
stave off foreclosure on their homes. For many travellers, renting an apartment or a room in an apartment is the only affordable option in a city where the average hotel room costs $232 a night.

On Wednesday, 500 bed-and-breakfast owners and private homeowners gathered to protest outside City Hall. “Save our sublet” petitions have also been organised, while a band of estate agents specialising in tourist rentals have created a website: protect-vacation-rentals.com.

“This is an extremely complex area,” said Michael T Sillerman, a New York-based land use lawyer at Kramer Levin. “We are in an era of mixed use. People want to live in hotels because of service, people want to buy a condo to occupy part of the year and rent for the rest, and people coming to a city may want to stay in a residential setting. The aim of this law is to bring clarity to a very ambitious area, but as often happens, certain groups have been overlooked.”

One online commenter wrote: “This industry needs regulation, not eradication.” They compared the situation to saying: “I don’t like NYC taxi drivers who rig their meters and overcharge passengers. Let’s create a law that will make all taxis illegal.”

Parisian authorities are also trying to crack down on short-term rentals in a bid to stop people buying pied-à-terres that are used for just few weeks a year and rented for the rest of the time.

Meanwhile, a new London website OneFineStay.com is trying to make the most of luxury central properties that lie empty for a large part of the year by renting them to tourists. Founder Greg Marsh has expressed concern over the New York bill: “By pushing for such wide legislation which criminalises anybody who has paying houseguests city authorities in New York could choose to go after both private individuals and the companies that help them. Would they do so? The issue is they could, and simply that threat may scare off the more respectable firms.”

Vicky Baker

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Fewer Britons taking overseas breaks as recession bites

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:37 +0000

More UK residents holidaying at home as 40-year trend towards foreign travel falls at fastest recorded rate

The number of Britons taking foreign holidays plunged last year as the 40-year trend towards regular overseas breaks fell at the fastest rate on record.

The recession prompted families to holiday at home and also saw a drop in business travel.

UK residents made 58.6m visits overseas in 2009 – 15% fewer than in 2008, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in its 2009 survey of travel trends.

The figures come from the ongoing international passenger survey, involving interviews with 300,000 travellers to and from Britain.

Last year’s steep decline, representing 10.4m overseas visits, effectively reverses a four-decade trend of increasing foreign travel triggered by the rise of “cheap and cheerful” package holiday in the 1970s and the more recent lure of exotic, far-flung destinations.

Trips to the UK by overseas visitors also fell in 2009, dipping by 6.3% from 31.9m in 2008 to 29.9m.

The ONS said the falls followed a long period of overall growth in visits to and from the UK. Visits abroad had grown at an average of 4% per year for 25 years, and visits to the UK grew at an annual rate of 3.2%.

Overall, business travel was the biggest casualty of last year, with trips falling by 23% among UK residents going abroad and 19% among overseas residents coming to the UK.

While overseas visitors spent more, on average, on their trips to the UK than in previous years, UK residents cut their overseas spending. The net result was a £5.4bn reduction in the travel-related deficit to the UK.

Last year, very few overseas countries saw an increase in visits by UK residents. Egypt, Jamaica and Lithuania were exceptions, continuing an overall trend of rises in numbers of British tourists to these countries in recent years.

But the numbers of visits to these countries are dwarfed by those to both the UK’s nearer neighbours in Europe and the US. Spain and France together accounted for 21.3m of the 58.6m visits abroad in 2009.

The swine flu alert discouraged travel to Mexico, which saw the sharpest drop – 49% – in visits from Britons.

Roger Smith, the survey manager of the International Passenger Survey, said the decline in foreign holidays taken by Britons was “striking”, adding that “the long term trend has been very much of an increase in travel”.

Looking at more recent trends, provisional figures for the first quarter of 2010 reveal that visits to the UK are bottoming out (falling by just 1% year on year), while the downturn in Britons’ foreign holidays is continuing – falling by a further 9%.

A spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said: “The downturn [in foreign holidays being taken by Britons] can be attributed to the recession of last year, while the value of the euro also had an negative impact.

“This year we are seeing the euro decreasing in value, which should have a more positive effect.”

Patricia Yates, the strategy and communications director at the national tourism body VisitBritain, added: “Last year was very tough, dominated by the global economic difficulties.

“There are some glimmers of hope in that holiday visits increased slightly in 2009 while business tourism continued to see sharp declines.

“The North American market showed signs of improvement towards the end of the year, but the volcano ash cloud in April knocked that back.”

She aaded that “our neighbours in Europe realised that the exchange rate with the pound had become so favourable that they could afford to spend more here”.

As a result, the total amount spent by foreign tourists was £16.6bn – up 1.6% before inflation on 2008 is taken into account.

A record 3.8m visitors came to Britain from France, meaning one in eight of the 30m overseas visitors to the UK was French.

Rebecca Smithers

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New England: the hidden claw

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:36 +0000

On the Massachusetts coast, lobster is as cheap as fish and chips, making New England a foodie heaven

A $4 supermarket sandwich has to be pretty damn good for two adults to start fighting over it. Looking at it, there was nothing special about this one – a plain roll in a plastic package, no salad or garnish, a little too much mayo. It was only the gasp of pleasure that accompanied my girlfriend’s first bite that told me it was worth trying. In it was the freshest, softest lobster I’d ever eaten, not minced-up leftovers (as in too many lobster rolls) but large meaty chunks of claw and tail that had us squabbling over the last mouthful.

We were picnicking on lovely Good Harbor Beach in the town of Gloucester on our first morning in New England, and that sandwich was a great taste of things to come. It was the sheer abundance, quality and low price of the lobster and other seafood here that drew me to New England.

I wasn’t the first Brit to be struck by the profusion of Homarus americanus, the American lobster. When the colonialists arrived they saw Native Americans simply picking them off the seashore, and until the mid-19th century, the “poor man’s supper”, as it was then known, was so readily available that servants demanded not to be made to eat lobster more than twice a week.

Unlike in most of the world, lobster still has blue-collar connotations in New England, particularly in the hundreds of shacks that serve “lobster in the rough” along the coast from Rhode Island to northern Maine. This no-frills atmosphere was in evidence at our first shack, Roy Moore Lobster Co in Rockport, Massachusetts, a classically pretty New England village – all clapboard houses and small craggy bays. Roy’s simple store, with its formica tables and plastic wineglasses, makes few concessions to wealthy weekenders from nearby Boston. As we cracked open our first succulent lobster ($12.50 each) with a pair of nutcrackers, our inexperience showed: a jet of water squirted out, almost hitting the diners at the next table. (So that’s what the plastic aprons are for!) They didn’t seem to mind, but a group of young, well-dressed girls turned their noses up … whether at us or at the no-frills service I wasn’t sure.

The girls might have been happier up the road at the Lobster Pool, with its millionaire views of Folly Cove. This red wooden bungalow has one of the best settings Massachusetts can offer – though the service is still no-nonsense. We ordered lobster and scallops at the self-service hatch, and sat at a picnic table, uncorking a bottle of Californian wine (Rockport is dry, so bring your own) and enjoying a fabulous sunset as our kids played on the rocks.

Folly Cove is at the mouth of the Essex river, home of New England’s other speciality, the clam. Woodman’s restaurant is the spiritual home of the clam – Chubby Woodman claimed to have invented the fried clam in 1916. Owner Steve Woodman, grandson of Chubby, took me down the river on his boat to see where they come from.

In the hazy morning light, the clam diggers were bent double in the thick mud of the estuary, searching for the large white shells with nothing but a pitchfork – as the law decrees.

“It hurts my back just looking at them,” I told Steve.

“Sure does,” he replied. “It’s the only job in the world where you spend all day with your ass below your head.”

Out on the mudflats Sergio, a professional clammer from Albania, was going at it like a JCB. Beside him was Bob Burns, a 70-year-old local who has been clamming for fun for 40 years.

“I don’t do it for the money,” said Bob. “I just like to take some for the family. I love it out here. It’s a peaceful place with its own silent beauty.”

In this part of the world, clams are as important as lobsters, and back at Woodman’s a queue was forming at the self-service counter at 11.30am. People were piling their trays with fried and steamed clams, lobster, onion rings and fries. Steve fixed me a bowl of clams, coated in a thin batter and fried, as they always have been, in lard. Eaten with homemade tartare sauce, they were deliciously sweet – but half a bowl was enough. I enjoyed the “steamers” more – thick juicy clams dipped in clam broth to clean off any mud, and then in melted butter.

That evening at my hotel, the 19th-century Emerson overlooking the ocean, I was singing the praises of the local seafood shacks when a salty old dog at the next table leaned over. “They’re not bad down here,” he said, “but for the real deal you need to head up my way to Maine. The water’s colder, so the lobster gets nice and fat and juicy.”

I’ll be heading up there next time.

• Five nights’ B&B at the Emerson Inn in Rockport, with Virgin Holidays (0844 557 3859) starts from £626, including car hire and direct Heathrow to Boston flights. Further information: Discover New England (020 8237 7977). For river excursions see Essex River Cruises.

Gavin McOwan

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Five underrated US cities

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:36 +0000

What to see, do, eat and listen to in Philadelphia, San Diego, Boston, Portland and Memphis

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Why go? Despite its sprawling size, Philly has kept some period charm, with cobbled streets, historic buildings and colonial houses, and is easily explored on foot.

Must-see The Old City is 18th-century Philadelphia. Head to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and mimic Rocky’s famous run up the steps. Check out the Comcast Center (1701 John F Kennedy Boulevard), at 300m, the city’s tallest skyscraper.

Eat Village Whiskey (118 South 20th Street), which opened last autumn in fashionable Rittenhouse, has more than 80 whiskies to try, and monster burgers for under $10.

Nightlife Start at Brauhaus Schmitz on South Street , a Bavarian brewery that stocks 80 bottled beers plus 20 on tap, all served by waitresses in dirndls.

Stay The Morris House Hotel (+1 215 922 2446, doubles from $179, room only) is a national historic landmark renovated into a cosy boutique hotel.

Fly British Airways flies from Heathrow, from £372.

San Diego, California

Why go? This elegant harbour town has miles of beaches, top-notch restaurants, historic sites and family friendly attractions galore.

Must-see Balboa Park is the largest urban park in the US, with museums, theatres, gardens and a zoo. Viva la Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape, from 18 July, will see public spaces transformed into art by artists including Banksy.

Eat Alchemy, on 30th Street, is part tapas bar, part fine-dining establishment, part art gallery; a meal for two with wine will cost less than $50.

Nightlife Fluxx on 4th Avenue, the latest addition to the city’s upscale nightlife, has a rotating art feature and a VIP “treehouse” area.

Stay Hotel Indigo (+1 619 727 4000, doubles from $189) is the city’s first green hotel.

Fly American Airlines flies from Heathrow, from £455.

Boston, Massachusetts

Why go? This historic city is full of great museums and landmarks, and has a thriving live music scene.

Must-see The Freedom Trail (thefreedomtrail.org), from Boston Common to Bunker Hill Monument, takes in 16 historic landmarks. The Museum of Fine Arts reopens in November after a $300m renovation; its new Art of the Americas wing will feature everything from ancient gold to paintings.

Eat Coppa on Shawmut Avenue, is a wine bar in the South End that opened in December and serves Italian-inspired small plates at reasonable prices.

Nightlife The opening of House of Blues on Lansdowne Street was big news last year. Expect big names and a great atmosphere.

Stay The Inn@St Botolph (+1 617 236 8099, doubles from $199) is centrally located and has stylish suites with steel four-posters.

Fly Virgin Atlantic flies from Heathrow, from £424.

Portland, Oregon

Why go? Voted one of America’s best towns for pedestrians, this eco-conscious city has great scenery, and a hip, alternative vibe.

Must-see The 19th-century Pioneer Courthouse and the great vintage shops. Hawthorne Bridge, across the Willamette River, is celebrating its 100th birthday, with a festival of art and music from 24 July to 7 August.

Eat A perfect lunch stop, Tao of Tea (3430 SE Belmont Street, taooftea.com) serves tasty bites and lots of teas.

Nightlife One of the best places for live music, Doug Fir Lounge has shows most nights and is open till 4am.

Stay Ace Hotel (+1 212 679 2222, doubles from $95) is a cool, unpretentious boutique hotel in downtown Portland.

Fly United flies from Gatwick, from £345.

Memphis, Tennessee

Why go? It’s home of the blues and the king of rock’n'roll.

Must-see Memphis Rock’n'Soul Museum explores the history of the city’s music. Graceland has a new exhibition, Elvis Presley: Fashion King, showcasing everything from handmade shirts to the king’s flashy jewellery.

Eat Bag a table on the patio of the new Thyme Bistro on Quince Road for salads, pizza and fish.

Nightlife Beale Street is “home of the blues” with bars, clubs and live music nightly.

Stay Talbot Heirs (+1 901 527 9772) has self-catering suits in an elegant downtown house from $800 a week.

Fly American Airlines flies from Heathrow, from £435.

Nicola Iseard

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Insiders’ guide to US national parks

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:35 +0000

Rangers, writers and guides reveal the best and most unusual ways to experience wild America, from cycling Hawaii’s live volcanos to GPS treasure hunting in Ohio

20 Lakes Basin, Yosemite NP, California

Thank heavens most visitors to Yosemite don’t think outside the box – or the park boundary. This keeps the crowds down in places like the 20 Lakes Basin, a glacial lake wonderland near some of the Sierras’ highest peaks. From the Tioga Pass entrance station, drive two miles north-east and turn left up the dirt road to Saddlebag Lake. Then hike the nine-mile 20 Lakes Basin loop trail which winds through meadows swathed in wildflowers to some of the region’s most spectacular lakes. At the end of the day, drive down Highway 120 to the town of Lee Vining and the Whoa Nellie Deli. Unpromisingly located inside a Mobil Gas station, the deli serves some of the best food in the Yosemite region: buffalo meatloaf, grilled pork tenderloin, fish tacos, chicken jambalaya – all post-hike meals you’ll find yourself dreaming about on the trail for years to come.
Fly to Fresno Yosemite Airport
Stay at Curry Village, within the park, tent cabins from $95
Danny Palmerlee, author of Lonely Planet’s guide to Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (£14.99)

Volcano biking, Hawaii Volcanoes NP

Kilauea volcano has been erupting pretty much constantly since 1983, creating a moonscape of lava fields, smoking craters, cinder cones and steam vents. Most tourists satisfy themselves with a quick drive around the crater rim, stopping for photos at the viewing points, but if you really want to smell the sulphur, feel the heat of the lava and hear the hissing of the steam vents, a bike tour is perfect. A classic ride – mostly downhill – starts at the summit of Kilauea where you can explore the rim of the caldera on off-road trails before dropping through rainforest to a 500-year-old lava tube. Then it’s on to Chain of Craters Road for a freewheel down to the coast where you can sometimes see lava pouring into the ocean in the distance.
Fly to Kona airport, a three-hour drive from the park
Stay at Volcano Village Lodge, from $195, or camp for free
Gwendolyn Hill, president, tour operator Volcano Bike Tours, Hawaii

Point Sublime, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona

Forget the guard rails, car parks, visitor centres and lodges. If you want to see the Grand Canyon as it used to be, head for the North Rim village, hire a sturdy 4WD and take the 16-mile, restricted-access trail to Point Sublime. It was named by the first surveyor of the Colorado plateau, Captain Clarence Dutton, who described it as “the sublimest thing on earth”. It’s a tough trip on rough roads through the vast Kaibab national forest. But the rewards are breathtaking.
Fly to Grand Canyon Airport, Tusayan
Stay at The Grand Hotel, from $169, or the Grand Canyon Lodge cabins (grandcanyonlodgenorth.com) in North Rim, from $118
Roly Smith, author of National Parks of Britain (AA Publishing, £20)

Ancient petroglyphs, Saguaro NP, Arizona

The park is named after the giant saguaro cactus forest, unique to the Sonoran desert. But, for me, the real highlight is the ancient petroglyphs at Signal Hill. It’s a little off the beaten path – you have to take a dirt road known as the Bajada Loop Drive, but it’s a short trip to make a journey 1,000 years back in time. It’s believed the Hohokam people carved these images and patterns into boulders while on hunting and gathering expeditions. Nobody knows what they mean: they may be solstice markers, clan symbols, decorative motifs or simply ancient graffiti.
Fly to Tucson airport
Stay at The Suncatcher Inn, (suncatchertucson.com), from $115, or camp at the Gillbert Ray Campground, the closest to the park, from $10
Bob Love, chief ranger

Beach camping, Olympic NP, Washington

Shi Shi beach is the most beautiful in the Pacific north-west, but you can reach it only on foot or by kayak (for expert paddlers – it’s very exposed). From the town of Neah Bay, follow the footpath through forest for two miles to a sweeping stretch of sand. It can get busy on summer weekends but at other times you may have it to yourself. There are campsites in the woods or you can camp on the beach (make sure you’re above high-tide line). The Point of Arches is a system of towering sea stacks and arches to explore at low tide. In spring and autumn you may see a grey whale, and the sunsets are unforgettable.
Fly to Seattle/Tacoma airport
Stay at One of the campsites, from $10 (see nps.gov/olym), or on the beach
Tammi Hinkle, owner, tour operator Adventures Through Kayaking, Port Angeles, Washington

Snorkelling and camping, Dry Tortugas NP, Florida

I was inspired to visit the Dry Tortugas by an aerial photograph I saw of Fort Jefferson, a hexagonal fortress that appears to be floating in the ocean. Originally built to protect the Florida Straits, it was later used as a military prison. It’s now a seabird sanctuary and the focal point for this national park. The main attraction lies in the sea – angelfish, barracuda, parrotfish, colourful coral and the turtles that inspired its name. Ferries and seaplanes make the 70-mile trip from Key West, but once the day trippers leave, you can camp on the beach (permits required) and have the islands to yourself. You’ll see lots of marine life by snorkelling or even in the seawater moat. It’s a world away from Florida’s sweaty cities and themeparks.
Fly to Miami International airport
Stay at The Dry Tortugas beach campsite ($3). Contact +1 305 242 7700 for a permit application
Jeremy Cuff, underwater photographer and contributor to Sport Diver magazine

Greenstone Ridge Trail, Isle Royale NP, Michigan

Isle Royale is a roadless archipelago in Lake Superior on the Canadian border. One of two national parks accessible only by water, it offers a real wilderness experience. Take a seaplane to Rock Harbor or Windigo and follow the Greenstone Ridge Trail, a 40-mile hike along the spine of the island, which takes four or five days. By day you can look for signs of moose, pick berries in the forest or fish in one of the many inland lakes. Camp at one of the designated wilderness campgrounds and listen for the sound of wolves calling. At Rock Harbor a “water taxi” can carry hikers back to their starting point.
Fly to Minneapolis St Paul airport
Stay at One of the Isle Royale campsites for free, or at Rock Harbor Lodge, from $223
Nathan Hanks, park ranger

Saline Valley Warm Springs, Death Valley NP, California

Miles of rough track take you well away from Death Valley’s asphalt roads. Just as you begin to worry you’re lost, you see a bunch of palms in the haze. No mirage, this really is a desert oasis with warm springs irrigating lawns occasionally dotted with pink plastic flamingoes. Dozens of people come for long weekends in spring and autumn, set up little campsite fiefdoms and spend the days chilling out in the hot pools. A cooler full of beer is usually at hand, though swimming attire typically isn’t.
Fly to Las Vegas McCarran airport
Stay at Saline Valley Hot Springs campsite (first come, first served), or at Furnace Creek Resort in Death Valley from $128
Paul Whitfield, co-author, Rough Guide to California (£14.99)

Amtrak’s Empire Builder, Glacier NP, Montana

Many of America’s national parks were created by railroads, and “Trails & Rails” guides often board trains to share their knowledge. Amtrak’s Empire Builder, for instance, crosses Glacier national park (celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2010) and allows exploration of a national park without a car. The train, from Chicago to Seattle, stops at East Glacier Park in summer, allowing you to hike directly into the park. To be sure of seeing the spectacular Rocky Mountain vistas by daylight, travel in the summer or take an eastbound train.
Fly to Glacier Park airport
Stay Glacier Park Rising Sun cabins, $119
John Pitt, author, USA by Rail (Bradt Travel Guides, £14.99)

Chesler Park Loop, Canyonlands NP, Utah

In a corner of east Utah is a place so disconnected from the modern world that its fanciful features could be from another planet. Accessible only on foot, the Needles section of the Canyonlands national park has pink and creamy turrets, chimneys, gullies, mysterious canyons and weird formations. The trails twist, turn, scramble and climb around the fairytale formations, a paradise for hikers and anyone seeking solitude or spiritual inspiration.
Fly to Salt Lake City airport
Stay at One of the park campsites, from $10, or at Best Western Canyonlands Inn , from $160
Bob Gibbons and Siân Pritchard-Jones, authors, The Grand Canyon Guide (Cicerone, £14)

Ancient dwellings of Mesa Verde NP, Colorado

Mesa Verde (Spanish for green table), offers a spectacular look into the Pueblo people, who lived here from AD600 to AD1300. Today, the park protects more than 4,000 archaeological sites. New this year are ranger-guided hikes to rarely visited cliff dwellings on Wetherill Mesa and to the Spring House site, a remote canyon where Pueblo multi-storey dwellings are built into the cliffside. On the way there are lots of opportunities for appreciating the spectacular desert landscape.
Fly to Durango airport
Stay at Far View Lodge, from $120
Rosemarie Salazar, park ranger

Sea kayaking, Acadia NP, Maine

Acadia is the only national park in New England. Covering much of Mount Desert island off the coast of Maine, the park has spectacular scenery with craggy inlets and rolling hills. My top tip is to get out on the water. The National Park Service offers ranger-led boat tours which give you the chance to explore remote ocean-sculpted islands and get up close to the wildlife, including seals, porpoises and bald eagles. Overnight sea-kayaking trips are available, with camping on uninhabited islands.
Fly to Bangor airport
Stay at A park campsite (free or up to $20) or the Acadia Hotel, from $59
Sonya Berger, chief park ranger

EarthCaching, Cuyahoga Valley NP, Ohio

EarthCaching is the national parks’ answer to geo-caching, the hi-tech treasure hunt where participants use GPS devices to locate “caches” and clues to the next site. EarthCaching is a geological treasure hunt that leads participants around natural features. Once there, they undertake a task that teaches them how the site formed and why it is important. Cuyahoga Valley national park has EarthCaches for several sites, from caves to waterfalls.
Fly to Cleveland Hopkins airport
Stay at The Inn at Brandywine Falls , from $129
Gary Lewis, director of education, Geological Society of America

Klamath River Overlook, Redwood NP, California

People come here for the redwoods – the tallest trees on the planet – but, for me, the view from this overlook near the town of Requa is a spectacular reason to visit. In autumn and spring, during the salmon runs, you can watch the food chain in action: fish entering the river being caught by fishermen and black bears, fish in the ocean being hunted by seals, and seals being hunted by sharks. Whales further out complete the picture.
Fly to Sacramento airport
Stay at A park campsite for $12 (redwood.national-park.com/camping.htm), or at the Turtle Rocks Oceanfront Inn , from $180
Grant Roden, naturalist and guide, tour operator Redwood Adventures, Orik, California

Mount Mazama Crater Lake NP, Oregon

After a volcanic explosion 7,700 years ago blew the top off Mount Mazama, the collapsed caldera filled with water to become Crater Lake, Oregon’s only national park. It’s as beautiful as Yosemite, but without the crowds. Drive around the rim in summer (snow can block the road as late as June) for stupendous photo opportunities. Take a boat ride to tiny Wizard Island – a “cone within a cone”. Or pick any trail into the heart of the majestic Cascades.
Fly to Portland International airport
Stay at Crater Lake Lodge, (craterlakelodges.com), from $157, or camp at Mazama Village Campground ( for $21
Tim Skelton, author, Bradt Travel Guides

Louise Dale

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Southern comfort in Kentucky

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:35 +0000

There’s more to this state than fried chicken and horses, as a driving tour of an authentic slice of America shows

It’s a thirsty, two-hour drive on wide empty roads, through the rolling bluegrass hills and horse farms around Lexington, through the genteel pioneer town of Harrodsburg, past the civil war battlefield of Perryville, then south-west to Mammoth Caves national park, home to the world’s biggest cave system. That’s where I’ve booked a clapboard cottage and I’m looking forward to a few beers, given that I’m here in the middle of a record 31C spring heatwave.

There’s a tiny problem. The state park doesn’t sell alcohol. It’s dry.

“Ah, where’s the nearest bar?”

“This whole county is dry, sir. But at Bowling Green, near the Tennessee border, there’s a liquor store.”

It’s 30 miles south, a long way at home but not in America. It’s different.

“Welcome to the south, sir,” smirks the man at the liquor store when I arrive. “Reckon a man can’t eat without a beer.”

Did I need my Kentucky Ale so badly? Yes, siree; I’m on holiday, on a 10-day tour, 1,000 miles of easy driving through the home of Colonel Sanders, of bourbon and horses, of bluegrass music and hillbillies; visiting battlefields and distilleries, chic hotels and B&Bs in old jails; and taking in the wonders: the Niagara of the south at Cumberland Falls, the catfish-filled lakes, the mountains and, surprisingly, the people.

Kentucky is full of surprises. It should be: it’s somewhat off the radar for foreign tourists, but it’s a great way to see the hidden, real America.

Bourbon is a major draw. About 95% of it is made in Kentucky, at distilleries such as the family-owned Heaven Hill, near Bardstown, the bourbon epicentre, open for tastings. Earlier in the week I was staying at the local Jailer’s Inn, a B&B in the old jail, with walls a foot thick and cells with barred doors for rooms. Breakfast is taken alfresco, by the old gallows.

Bardstown is also the home of the Chapeze House, where “Colonel” Masters and his wife, Margaret Sue, offer southern cooking lessons and bourbon tastings. The affable colonel – he’s more of an uncle type – is a TV regular, teaching Americans how to sniff bourbon or make a mint julep, drink of choice at the Kentucky Derby (sprig of mint, cane sugar, water, bourbon).

Lexington is the horse capital. Everyone seems to be in the industry: jockeys, trainers, vets, breeders. It’s also home to Keeneland, perhaps America’s Ascot – albeit without the hats – host to the world’s largest horse auctions, and spring and autumn race meetings. It’s a family affair, very child-friendly, although the same can’t be said for the plethora of bets: I get confused by “show” and “place”, and ignore “trifectas” and “superfectas”, but somehow still manage to win $80.

For a university city of nearly 300,000 people, Lexington has a very small downtown: a few skyscrapers surrounded by quaint Victorian brick-and-board homes, all with porches. The bars here, all within a block or two of my hotel, the Gratz Park Inn, are lots of fun on race weekends. The parties at Mia’s (120 South Upper Street; great for brunch), the Tap Room (135 North Broadway Road; think Cheers) or Molly Brooke’s (109 North Limestone Street; friendly Irish) go on till 2am, so I limber up with a sirloin patty burger and fries ($5.95) at the indie-aura Sidebar Grill (147 N Limestone).

The countryside around Lexington and the state capital, Frankfort, is stunning, making driving a joy, especially in spring. The undulating green hills are carved up by the horse farms, bounded by drystone walls or white picket fences, and dotted with old wooden barns, sentried by blossoming tulip trees, flowering cherry trees or red dogwoods. Enthroned in the middle of each are the mansions of the Kentucky colonels – titles bestowed for military service during the American Revolution – whose sweeping verandahs prompt some serious rubbernecking. Old Frankfort Pike is the best scenic drive, boasting Wallace Station, an organic diner in an old railway station that serves giant sandwiches using freshly baked bread, and local drinks such as Ale-8-One, a fruity ginger beer.

This rural idyll gradually meets urban chic a 90-minute drive west along the old Shelbyville road, past Valhalla golf club and some of the hugest houses I’ve ever seen: new condo-clusters with garages for six cars. I spot one named Notting Hill.

Louisville, a city of a million people abutting Indiana on the vast Ohio river, is fast regenerating and gaining a reputation for its art, restaurant and bar scene. It’s weird – in a good way. Low-key, laid back, with a smalltown feel and very friendly folk, it’s known for its chain-free centre and Victorian architecture.

I miss the two-minute Kentucky Derby (1 May) at the Churchill Downs track, and the two-week city-wide party it spawns, but I do get to stay at the 21C Museum Hotel, last year voted America’s best by readers of Condé Nast Traveller. Valet parking costs $21 a night so I use the car park next door ($6). The hotel is modern, swanky and funky – full of contemporary photography, installations and paintings. Set on West Main Street, it’s right by Museum Row (once Whiskey Row, before prohibition) and the Muhammad Ali Centre, a must-visit shrine to the boxing legend.

Classic joints nearby include the five-diamond (think Michelin star) Seelbach Hotel, mentioned in The Great Gatsby, and where Al Capone ate (using a secret door to evade the cops).

Old Louisville hosts whole districts of beautiful Victorian townhouses and mansions, with more picturesque porched homes in the Highlands district. In less salubrious Butchertown and Germantown you’ll find small, detached “shotgun” homes built from the end of the American civil war up to the 20s. They comprise three or more rooms with no hallway, and the name derives from the idea that you could fire a shotgun through the letterbox into the garden without hitting a wall, as the front and back doors line up. There are also “camelbacks” (shotguns with a second storey at the rear of the house) and “double-barrel shotguns” (semi-detached).

Indie bookshops, bars and boutiques abound on the Bardstown Road and Barret Avenue, an alternative nexus. The best vintage store is Nitty Gritty (996 Barret Avenue), where I just manage to resist a light blue 70s prom tuxedo ($35). There’s also the Oprah-featured Leatherhead (1601 Bardstown Road), making leather goods and whips to order: Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp are customers, apparently.

Wherever you drive (it’s best to drive in Louisville; until the downtown fully blossoms, its attractions are rather scattered), strangers smile and say “hello”. It’s enjoyably unnerving, and also infectious.

Kentucky is where north meets south, a pleasant cross between northern sensibilities and southern hospitality. Historically and geographically, it isn’t quite either. It stretches 400 miles from east to west, a six-hour drive, bounded by Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to the north, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia to the south. The locals prefer “gateway to the south” – Kentucky is more Sea Biscuit than Mississippi Burning, although it gets humid in summer, hence the porches.

Food is pretty southern, too: grits, fried catfish, smoked country ham, hickory barbecues, skillet-fried cornbread, burgoo stew (now with mutton rather than squirrel). And, yes, fried chicken, either the delicious homecooked version at Kurtz’s, in Bardstown, or KFC. Now, I’m no KFC fan, but when you pass the first ever link in the chain – still Sanders Cafe – near Cumberland Falls at Corbin, in the mountains, you have to pop in, at least to check out its small museum.

Kentucky’s other famous export is bluegrass – the foot-stomping, banjo and fiddle-led country offshoot – spawned by Scots-Irish ancestors who settled in the Appalachians, home of the “hillbillies”, where folk care less than the colonels about appearances and park rusting cars on their lawns. The town of Hazard (yes, the Dukes of Hazzard) is a short drive from the Falls. Bluegrass on the radio is the perfect soundtrack for driving here.

There’s one last thing you notice on the drive: the roadkill. Every few hundred yards there’s a victim. Sadly, you get used to it: squirrels, raccoons, possums, coyotes, deer. But look out for skunks, the stench of which will permeate the car for five malodorous minutes with windows and sunroof open. They alone are enough to drive you to drink.

Tim Bryan

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Nevada’s cult of the cowboy

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:35 +0000

They may look tough, but every cowboy has a romantic heart, as the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, goes to show

We are in a brightly lit school gymnasium, it’s the middle of the afternoon and outside the wind is howling across Elko, Nevada. The odds against us being offered a transcendent musical experience seem long, and grow longer when the bass player mounts the stage. He’s wearing a beret and toting a five-string bass, thereby igniting two of my most deeply held – though doubtless irrational – prejudices. But fleeing whatever is about to happen would also mean leaving this warm room and the roof over it.

My grudging decision to stay is richly rewarded. The bass player is followed by the rest of French Rockin’ Boogie, the backing band of Louisiana zydeco (American roots music) singer Geno Delafose. And, in fact, they’re astonishing: a glorious, joyful racket, led by largely the only person I’ve ever seen look supremely cool slinging a piano-accordion (and the bass player is, of course, brilliant).

I’ve been at Elko’s annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering, also a music festival, for a few days now, but it’s not until Delafose’s set that I realise what is unusual about this week. Unlike most cultural festivals, this isn’t a tourist attraction: my foreign accent has been a source of continuous excited curiosity. This is a festival actually for the people it’s meant to be for, a point Delafose makes much better from the stage.

“I guess,” he says, “that like us, you might not make a lot of money. But it’s a way of life, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

They saunter off to a standing ovation accompanied by much appreciative hat waving.

You really have to want to come to Elko. It’s a long way from anywhere, and feels even more so in winter, whether you drive here across a landscape which reminds me of the forbidding, glorious interior of Afghanistan – although, granted, with more casinos – or you fly from Salt Lake City in twin-propellor aircraft with the sort of pilots who, as I’ve learned, will take two swipes at landing their contraption at night in a blizzard if they have to.

The Cowboy Poetry Gathering has been wrangled in Elko since 1984 by the Western Folklife Center, an organisation dedicated to the cultural heritage of the American west. The Gathering has a broad programme – there are also exhibitions, workshops and seminars covering subjects from cookery to rawhide braiding. I’m attending at the suggestion of one of the Gathering’s artists, Canadian country star Corb Lund, whom I met a few years ago in London when my own modest country combination, The Blazing Zoos, opened for him. (We bonded over a shared nerdish interest in history – Corb’s last album but one, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!, was a concept record celebrating cavalrymen through the ages.)

Corb and his band, the Hurtin’ Albertans, have played Elko before, and seem to be regarded as part of the family. The audiences here appreciate that Corb, despite being from another country, is one of them: he grew up on a ranch, rode horses and herded steer before he picked up a guitar, and his experiences inform his songs, as should always be the case with country songwriters. (Titles from his current album, Losin’ Lately Gambler, include Steer Rider’s Blues, This Is My Prairie, and Long Gone To Saskatchewan.) And Corb enjoys playing to crowds which, while smaller than the ones he can draw in Canadian cities, know the life he’s singing about.

Corb suggests that I arrive a couple of days early so he can teach me how to play cards. At the end of this process, I will be forced to conclude that either Corb is a lousy teacher or I’m a terrible student. The expense is nevertheless worthwhile for the baleful banter of the dealers.

“Man,” says one, named Eddie, as he doles doom across the blackjack table at Stockmen’s Casino. “I’ve never seen anyone pull 11 losing hands in a row before.”

I try to match this with an observation to the effect that I’m only staying inside so I don’t get struck by lightning.

“Why,” he asks, not missing a beat, “do you think I’m standing this far away from you?”

Didn’t come all this way to be mocked, I tell him. Get enough of that at home, and so on.

“Lemme help you out,” he offers. “Load up the rest of your chips, and this time you can see my cards.”

How kind. An eight and a seven for Eddie. Yes, I’m sticking with my 19. With an inevitability that I can just about find amusing, Eddie draws a six.

There is, mercifully, greater – if annoyingly non-convertible – profit to be had from the Gathering’s other attractions. We plan our consumption of these over dinner at Biltoki (405 Silver Street), one of Elko’s excellent, if intimidating, Basque restaurants (I’d be unsurprised to learn that “bil” is Basque for “blocked”, and “toki” Basque for “artery”). Young men from the Basque Country arrived in Elko in the 1870s to work as ranch hands, and now dedicate themselves to serving food whose quality is matched only by its quantity. On our first night we make the amateur’s mistake of ordering a meal each, only to be defeated by a perfect filet mignon the size of a baseball mitt, incredible lamb steaks larger than most sheep, and side dishes which might elsewhere be mistaken for swimming pools. (On the last night, we arrive with a party of seven, order three meals and still plead for mercy before the waitresses, clearly doubting our masculine credentials by this point, can bring dessert.)

Corb especially recommends two of the Gathering’s elder statesmen, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Ian Tyson. Elliott, a contemporary of Woody Guthrie, was revered by Johnny Cash and singled out as “king of the folk singers” in Bob Dylan’s memoir, Chronicles. Tyson made his name and fortune by writing the folk classic Four Strong Winds, which has since been covered by pretty much everybody. The two men are both in their 70s and genuine legendary figures. Other than that, though, their performances could scarcely be more different.

Ramblin’ Jack, Corb has explained, did not acquire his nickname because of a penchant for long walks: in nearly an hour onstage, he gets around to three songs, including Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright. The rest of the time is taken up with a tangent-riddled anecdote about teaching his dog to drive. It contains not a single punchline, and is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.

Tyson, by contrast, does not mess about. When he storms the stage of the Folklife Center’s theatre a couple of nights later, he’s a whirlwind of coiled fury in Hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat, and ignites genuine scandal by deploying the word “fuck” in his opening song. (People talk about this for days – cowboys, it turns out, are awfully polite.) Tyson knows, however, that he commands this place with total authority – not just because he looks, sounds and plays like Joe Strummer’s grandfather, but because one of his best-known songs, MC Horses, mentions Stockmen’s Casino: this elicits a mixture of whoops and knowing laughter.

The music at Cowboy Poetry would make Elko worth the trip even if the people one met there were objectionable and uninteresting. As it happens, they are all the precise opposite of those things, which is just as well, as Elko is a small town, and it quickly becomes impossible to walk the few blocks between Biltoki, Stockmen’s, the Folklife Center, the spectacular cowboy-wear emporium of JM Capriola (where you can eavesdrop on the involved process that is buying a hat) and the rejuvenating oasis of Cowboy Joe’s coffee shop, without someone hailing you by name. You can reasonably expect to encounter such characters as: Larry Bitterman, a former New York lawyer who reinvented himself as a designer of western-style outfits, which he’s selling from his Old Frontier Clothing Company’s travelling stall at the Red Lion Casino; a mysterious, nameless, splendidly bearded bushwacker, the image of Roy Rogers’ sidekick Gabby Hayes, who politely turns down repeated offers of Hurtin’ Albertans guitarist Grant Siemans to play poker for his magnificent hat; Cindy White, a performing poet, and her husband, landscaper Scott Imus, who tells me: “This way of life is about people who still ride alone on days as cold as these, with large animals that can kill them. That promotes a style of thinking – self-reliance, courtesy and knowing that when you shake a guy’s hand he means it. And it isn’t bullshit.”

And one night at the Western Folklife Center’s bar, I’m discussing this and that with a fellow called Ron, to whom I’ve been introduced by someone I was introduced to by someone else. Ron is an affable sort with a silver-flecked goatee beard, clad in the festival fatigues of western shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. He has been explaining that, to him, Las Vegas was never the real Nevada, that the state is really about rural communities like Elko, and the egalitarian spirit of such places. After a couple of drinks, it occurs to me to ask Ron what line of work he’s in.

“Well, Andrew,” he says, in that punctiliously courteous way Americans have of employing your name as if it’s an honorific, “right at the moment, I’m chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court.”

It’s not the answer I was expecting, and my surprise is probably discernible. Ron proffers his card by way of confirmation. If I ever do shoot the proverbial man in Reno just to watch him die, I guess I’ll know who to call.

The final event of the festival is a midnight dance at the Folklife Center, headlined by the Hurtin’ Albertans. It’s the last of the four shows they’ve played this week, and they’ve stepped it up on the sartorial front, gracing the stage in embroidered tuxedos. The effort is reflected in the crowd too, and I need to remind myself that these people in hats, boots, pristine jeans and radiantly decorated shirts are not in fancy dress: these are their town clothes. And this is their music, straightforward and heartfelt, with fathoms of wisdom and humour likely to be lost on anyone who can’t or won’t see past the surface.

They mix it up tonight, leavening their own songs with a medley of Merle Haggard tunes, Waylon Jennings’ Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way, Tyson’s MC Horses, and their own signature drinking song, It’s Time To Switch To Whiskey – played, tonight, well past the point at which everybody has – amalgamated with Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. In the dressing room afterwards, Keri Lynn Zwicker, in Elko with country/folk crossover group Cowboy Celtic, performs an impromptu recital of 80s rock standards arranged for the harp: AC/DC and Bryan Adams have never sounded so stately.

It’s past three in the morning when the venue empties, but the lights of Stockmen’s are still ablaze across the snow-covered square.

“Come on,” says Corb. “I feel like getting into trouble.”
• Flights from London to Elko (via Salt Lake City plus one other city) booked through netflights.com (0844 493 4944) start from around £565 for January 2011. Netflights.com can also book hotels and car hire. The 2011 Cowboy Poetry Gathering runs from 24–29 January. Book accommodation well in advance; the festival website has a choice of options.

Andrew Mueller

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San Antonio: down Mexico way

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:34 +0000

With its Latino atmosphere, mariachi bands and Tex-Mex music bars, San Antonio feels like it still belongs south of the border. Garth Cartwright reveals why it’s his favourite US city

Texas is big. And, if you visit Dallas and Houston, awfully bland. Even Austin, now home to the super-hip South By Southwest music expo and film festival, resembles a super-sized suburb with constant traffic gridlock. To those looking for a genuine Texan rose, I would suggest San Antonio – quite possibly, my favourite American city. It surprises me that so few people – US citizens and Europeans alike – seem to be aware of its charms. But in some ways I like that, for aren’t secret love affairs meant to be the most tantalising?

San Antonio is superior to all other Texas cities. For starters, it has a centre, a heart. From there, San Antonio can be explored on foot. That the majority of the city’s inhabitants are Hispanic lends San Antonio a soulful, Latin ambience. It also means there are countless great Mexican food outlets and the sound of Tejano – a Tex-Mex musical hybrid – echoes out of bars and clubs.

Most people know one thing about San Antonio: the Alamo. Indeed, the fortified mission where Davy Crockett and allies fought a futile last stand against Mexican forces in 1836 (Texas then being part of Mexico) remains the city’s centrepiece. After watching the likes of John Wayne and Billy Bob Thornton defend the Alamo, I was surprised by how small it is. The solid Spanish mission architecture recalls a time when San Antonio was the wild frontier, and its thick walls do provide respite from the southern heat.

While many US cities appear to regard walking as a fairly suspicious kind of activity, San Antonio encourages strolling. Nowhere is this lovelier than the Paseo del Río (River Walk), cobble and flagstone paths that extend for 21 blocks (almost three miles) along the San Antonio river.

By the time I felt the need for a drink, I’d lost count of the number of blocks I’d walked. Seeing a sign for a bar, I hiked up an iron staircase to the Esquire Tavern (155 East Commerce St), and felt as if I’d stepped on to the set of a Sam Peckinpah film. Founded in 1933, the Esquire is the only bar on the River Walk that caters for locals rather than tourists. The original 76ft-long bar and the ceiling fans survive, as does a magnificent jukebox packed with classic blues, soul, rock’n'roll and Tejano tunes. When three strolling mariachis entered, the jukebox was unplugged and they began playing. A heavily tattooed patron, disgruntled by the slow flow of tips, stood up and shouted: “Give ‘em a buck!” From then on dollars flew thick and fast while the mariachis sang superb corridos (narrative songs that serve as a Mexican blues). The Esquire, I should also note, serves Shiner Bock – indisputably Texas’s finest beer – in long-neck glasses. On a hot Texan afternoon, I was in heaven.

San Antonio is a legendary music town, with the city’s bars providing a training ground for many rising country, rock, blues and Tejano stars. Best known to British audiences would be the late Doug Sahm, whose rocking Tex-Mex blend on hits such as Mendocino and She’s About a Mover won him an international following and helped shine the spotlight on local Tejano heroes Freddy Fender and Flaco Jiménez. But the city’s greatest musical icon remains Lydia Mendoza (1916–2007), the undisputed queen of Mexican–American music. Mendoza grew up singing on the streets of San Antonio, made her first recordings here in 1928 and rose to superstar status (among Spanish speakers in the US and Latin America) with songs such as Amor Bonito. The ultimate tribute to Mendoza can be found at Del Bravo Records (554 West Old US Highway 90), an old-school record shop that still stocks vinyl. Its affable 79-year-old owner, Salome Gutiérrez, has extended Del Bravo to include a Tejas y su Musica (The Texas Music Museum) honouring Lydia and other local artists. Lydia’s guitar is on display, and I knelt before it.

On a larger, if less personal, scale is the magnificent Institute of Texan Cultures, in HemisFair Park, close to the Alamo. The Institute offers superb exhibitions and hosts the Texas Folklife Festival every June, where more than 250 participants come together to celebrate their culture and heritage via music, dance, arts and food. And what food! San Antonio prides itself on superb Mexican and barbecue restaurants.

San Antonio’s annual Tejano-Conjunto festival (every May) is also a must for anyone enthusiastic about Texan vernacular music. “Tejano” is Spanish for “Texan” while “Conjunto” means “group” or “ensemble”, and the music made across this festival focuses on the accordion as the voice of cultural expression and Tejano pride. Both festivals are a bargain: daily entry is $7 for Tejano-Conjunto and $10 for Folklife. Also noteworthy is November’s Day of the Dead festival, where the city’s Mexican traditions reign.

And outside of festival periods, San Antonio boasts a rich live music scene. The North St Mary’s Street club strip is convenient to the downtown area and cover charges for most venues are rarely more than $10. Among countless bars offering loud rock, a fistful worth checking are Cool Arrows (1025 Nogalitos Street) and Saluté International Bar (2801 N Saint Mary’s), both featuring Tejano bands and DJs; Casbeers, founded in 1932, has recently shifted to 1150 South Alamo St and offers fine food and leathery singer-songwriters; Cowboys Dancehall (3030 North East Loop 410) lives up to its name, with everyone wearing Stetsons and line dancing to slick country bands. Going to local bars and clubs means experiencing local customs: frisking for weapons may accompany your entry.

Unlike so many US cities, where the downtown areas are dead after dark and chain restaurants dominate, San Antonio thrives on its multicultural identity. Doug Sahm once sang “you just can’t live in Texas if you don’t have a lot of soul”, and in San Antonio that is as true as ever.

• The Gunter Hotel (gunterhotel.com), where blues legend Robert Johnson recorded his first 16 songs for Paramount in 1936, has doubles from around $250 per night. Flights from London to San Antonio, booked on kayak.co.uk, start at around £460 return

More Miles Than Money: Journeys Through American Music, by Garth Cartwright, is published by Serpent’s Tail (serpentstail.com, £12.99)

Garth Cartwright

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Magnificent seven: classic American road trips

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:34 +0000

From New England to the Pacific, drive through some of the US’s most stunning scenery

Going-to-the Sun road, Montana

A thin strip of tarmac that snakes across one of the most rugged corners of the Rockies, the Going-to-the-Sun road carves through solid rock at the heart of the breathtaking Glacier national park. Climbing up between the Great Plains on the east and pristine forests around Lake McDonald in the west, with more than 15 “scenic viewpoint” lay-bys on its 50-odd miles, it takes you as close to heaven as one can get in a car. Glacier national park has three grand but rustic hotels that evoke the romantic 1920s heyday of the railroads, with opulent dining rooms and five-foot-wide, 75-foot-tall fir trees holding up the roof.
Jamie Jensen, author of Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways

The Old Spanish Trail, Texas

If your American road trip is inspired by the wild west, the desert southwest is the place for you. Head out from historic San Antonio and make your way to the existential emptiness of Big Bend national park on the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Made famous by films including No Country for Old Men, this sun-burned landscape exerts a fascinating draw, best experienced in air-conditioned comfort, cruising down Highway 90, the “Old Spanish Trail”. The landscape stays stunningly harsh all the way across to the Apache Indian homelands of southern Arizona, where the mining camp-cum-artists’ community of Bisbee adds another take on this classic American melange. JJ

Highway 61, Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico

Also known as the Great River Road, Highway 61 runs along the banks of Mississippi, offering a full-spectrum slice of just about any aspect of American culture: food, fun, music, literature – you name it. In the north, the choices are more literary (Mark Twain and Laura Ingalls Wilder both lived and wrote about life along the riverside). Head downstream from St Louis, and things get tastier: the music gets bluesier, and the food more exciting, from smoky barbecue to spicy Cajun. By the time you hit New Orleans, you’ll have earned yourself a PhD in American Studies. JJ

Route 100, Vermont

All your picture-postcard impressions of rural New England – village greens, white-steepled wooden church spires and roadside diners – can be enjoyed along Vermont’s Route 100, which runs the length of the Green Mountains. It’s a leisurely cruise, winding over covered bridges and past meadows, and it parallels two of the state’s great hiking trails, the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail, offering easy access to waterfalls, ancient forests and mountain scenery, as well as the pastoral beauty of Granville Gulf, where Moss Glen Falls drops into the Mad river. Continuing south towards Massachusetts, the towns get bigger and you can tuck into pancakes coated in thick maple syrup, roast dinners and slabs of apple pie served up at homespun cafes and classic stainless steel-sided diners. JJ

Strait of Juan de Fuca Highway, Washington state

With bald eagles above and grey whales in the water a few hundred metres away, the Strait of Juan de Fuca highway in Washington offers one of the best drives in the Pacific northwest, stretching 60 miles from Port Angeles out to Neah Bay. Visitors can stop to climb the Pysht Forestry Trail, then spend the night at the nearby Winter Summer Inn B&B in Clallam Bay (doubles from $85 B&B).
Max Grinnell, contributor to The Rough Guide to the USA (roughguides.com, £16.99)

Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina to Virginia

Wandering for almost 500 miles along the Blue Ridge mountain chain from the Great Smoky Mountains national park in North Carolina to the Shenandoah national park in Virginia, this is a trip to take over several days. Be sure to stop in the Southern Highland Folk Art Center for hands-on demonstrations, and make a turn off the parkway to Asheville for fried green tomatoes and goat’s cheese grits at the Tupelo Honey Cafe, to prepare you for the next leg. MG

North shore scenic drive, Lake Superior

From a formal faux-English style mansion to a precariously perched lighthouse, the north shore has the kind of attractions that make driving along the world’s largest freshwater lake even more enjoyable. The 140-mile drive starts in Duluth, Minnesota, and moves north to the tiny town of Grand Portage, with outstanding views of the craggy shoreline and waterfalls along the way. Save time for Grand Portage state park which has Minnesota’s highest waterfall. MG

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