Coast, canyon, swamp and skyline. Somebody has to go first.
Which Grand Canyon day trip leaves early enough to beat the haze. What the Statue of Liberty ferry really costs once you add Ellis Island. Whether the airboat or the tram tells you more about the Everglades. Reviews of the tours Americans and everyone else actually book.
Harbor ferry, river cruise, canyon rim, Waikiki water.
Four bookings that carry a first American trip, spread across four time zones. What each costs and what the people who took it say.
01The harbor ferryStatue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryLiberty Island and Ellis Island on one ferry ticket. Take the first sailing and you get the crown queue and the registry hall before the crowds land.
02Ninety minutes on the riverChicago Architecture River CruiseNinety minutes up the Chicago River with a guide naming every tower. The one city tour that teaches you how to look at a skyline.- 03The rim and backGrand Canyon West, Hoover Dam Stop and Optional Lunch and SkywalkGrand Canyon West with a Hoover Dam stop on the way out of Las Vegas. Long day, early start, and the only rim you can drive to and back in one.
04The Waikiki waterParasailing Experience in Waikiki, HIUp over the reef on a parasail line, with Diamond Head behind you. Twenty minutes of the best view on Oahu for the price of a lunch.
Nine places that carry most of the American trip list.
Every state we cover →Island chains, desert parks, a river city, a harbor city and the stretch of Florida where the water is the attraction. Pick a starting point and the best day out in each is already ranked.
Harbor boat, reef boat, swamp boat. Three different days.
More of this country is worth seeing from a hull than from a coach seat. Three kinds of water day, what it costs to board each one, and the coast it belongs to.
The parks are the reason half of you came.
Sandstone cut a mile deep, a slot canyon you enter sideways, geyser basins that steam through the snow. Most of the great American landscapes sit hours from the nearest airport, which is exactly why somebody else drives.
New York: pick your view, then pick your water.
Everything in New York →
Four observation decks now compete for the same hour of your evening, the harbor boats leave from three different piers, and the museums are worth a rainy afternoon each. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Summit, Edge, Empire or Top of the Rock
Summit is mirrored and strange, Edge hangs off the side, Top of the Rock puts the Empire State in your photograph and the Empire State does not. Book a slot an hour before sunset and you get both halves of the day.
Liberty from the water, not the queue
The Staten Island angle is free and fast, the Circle Line goes round the whole island, and only the Statue Cruises ferry actually lands you on Liberty Island. Three different promises, three different prices.
The Met, MoMA and the blue whale
The natural history hall with the whale over it is the one children remember; MoMA is two hours and done. Timed entry is worth the extra couple of dollars on any wet weekend.
The most booked days out in the country.
The whole American catalogue →The tours more travellers take than anything else on the site, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Tickets
Ride from Grand Central Terminal to the 91st floor for SUMMIT One Vanderbilt’s mirror rooms, glass skyboxes, silver balloons, and sweeping city views. Allow 90 minutes to two hours. Choose daytime or night, and consider sunset if available. Sunglasses and sensible clothing help.
From · $47
Read our review →
2
9/11 Memorial & Museum Timed-Entry Ticket
from $25
3
Empire State Building Tickets – Observatory & Museum
from $47
4
Edge Observation Deck Admission Ticket
from $39
5
Grand Canyon West, Hoover Dam Stop and Optional Lunch and Skywalk
from $109
6
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry
from $19
7
Oahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe Experience
from $140
8
Chicago Architecture River Cruise
from $39
Hawaii is four islands and four different holidays.
Oahu is the city one, with the reef twenty minutes from a hotel lobby. Maui is the road and the winter whales. The Big Island is lava and manta rays after dark. Kauai is cliffs you can only see from a boat or a helicopter.
Every Hawaii day out →
Florida sells water, and it sells it three ways.
Salt water down in the Keys, spring water at Crystal River where the manatees winter, and the slow brown sheet of the Everglades in between. The theme parks get the flights; the water gets the repeat visits.
- 1Little Havana Food and Walking Tour in Miamifrom $69
- 2From Miami: Everglades Airboat, Wildlife Show & Bus Transferfrom $49
- 3Biscayne Bay Millionaire’s Homes Sightseeing Cruisefrom $20
What a day out in America actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best ones cost less than parking at the trailhead.
Walking tours, ferry rides, museum entries and the short harbor hops.
The full-day standards: canyon runs, whale boats, island circuits and the guided park days.
Helicopters, small-group charters and the once-a-trip bookings that earn it.
Three days out that exist nowhere else.
Canyons and wildlife boats run all over the world. A sandstone corridor on Navajo land, a flat-bottomed boat over sawgrass and a spring full of wintering manatees do not.
The Antelope Canyon Slots
The canyon sits on the Navajo Nation outside Page, and you can only enter it with a Navajo guide, which is why every ticket is timed and why nobody wanders off. Light beams drop through the roof around the middle of the day between spring and early autumn. Rain thirty miles upstream can close the whole thing within the hour.
- 1Lower Antelope Canyon Entry and Navajo Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 7,801 reviews
- 2Lower Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend Day Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,764 reviews
- 3Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,216 reviews
Airboats Over the Everglades
An airboat sits on top of the water instead of in it, which is the only way to cross a river six inches deep and sixty miles wide. The engine is loud enough that the good operators hand out ear protection and then cut it entirely once they find something. Winter is the season: lower water pushes the alligators into the deeper channels.
- 1From Miami: Everglades Airboat, Wildlife Show & Bus Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 8,622 reviews
- 2Everglades National Park Airboat Tour & Wildlife Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,296 reviews
- 3New Orleans Airboat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,891 reviews
Manatees at Crystal River
The springs here hold seventy-two degrees all year, so when the Gulf turns cold several hundred manatees move up the river and stay put. It is the one place in the country where getting in the water with them is legal, under rules that say float, do not chase, and let the animal decide. Peak season runs November to March.
- 1Most Popular 3hr Manatee Swim Tour + In-Water Guide!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,782 reviews
- 2Manatee Sightseeing and Wildlife Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,590 reviews
- 3The ‘OG’ Manatee Snorkel Tour with In-Water Guide/Photographer★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,539 reviews
Four American bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be sorted out over breakfast the day before. These four run on ferry manifests, permits and timed entry systems that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppThe island is reached by one ferry operator on a fixed manifest, and summer sailings are commonly gone weeks out. There is no walk-up.
- 02Lower Antelope Canyon Entry and Navajo Guided TourEntry is by permit with a Navajo guide, in timed groups. The midday slots people come for are the first to go.
- 03Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS ArizonaBoat access to the USS Arizona Memorial runs on timed tickets with a daily cap, and the programme is paused whenever the weather or the harbor requires it.
- 04Muir Woods and Sausalito (Return by Bus or Ferry)The redwoods are inside a reservation system: every car and every shuttle seat has to be booked ahead, and turning up without one gets you turned around at the gate.
Hurricane afternoons, lake-effect snow and the ninety-degree noon.
American weather is regional and it is rarely subtle. A Florida afternoon in August, a Chicago January, a Phoenix midday in June: each of them ends the outdoor plan. All three have the same answer, which is a roof, a ticket and something worth two hours.
Salem to the French Quarter, the old streets walk best.
The oldest American cities were laid out before the car and they still read that way. Guides here trade in the same four things: who built it, who died in it, who haunts it now, and where to eat afterwards.
By place: cities, coasts and parks
Las Vegas, the dam, three canyons and the valley: the loop everybody drives first.
Antelope Canyon
Monument Valley
Zion & BryceReviews that landed this week.
More that arrived this month →
PRIVATE- Air Tour FUN: 3 Islands: (2-5 people): SEE it ALL!
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Molokini Crater and Turtle Town Snorkeling From Kihei
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Malibu: Guided Vineyard Hike with Photo Stops and Wine
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2 Tank Lanai Cathedral Scuba Dive Via Boat for Certified Divers
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Best of Martha’s Vineyard 3 hour Full-Island Tour
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Whale Watching Maui: 2-Hour Small Group Raft Tour from Lahaina
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ORIGINAL Old Louisville Walking Tour seen in The New York Times!
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Secrets of Louisville: Food & History Walking Tour in NuLu
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Phantoms of Prohibition: Ghosts Cocktails & Bites Walking Tour
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Bourbon Tour (03) : Buffalo Trace, Woodford, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, Other
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Universal Studios Hollywood General Admission Ticket, California
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