The best all-American experiences
Tamara Hinson picks star-spangled tours, races and food to look forward to
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Your support makes all the difference.Planning a bucket list-worthy American holiday?
Although it looks like the US-UK travel corridor won’t be opening this summer, with the Fourth of July just around the corner, it’s high time to suggest some all-American experiences to sign up for once we can return to the land of the stars and stripes.
Go on a road trip
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Thelma & Louise being filmed in Utah, making it the perfect time for an all-American road trip (although hopefully one which doesn’t end up with you driving off a cliff). We recommend starting in Southern Utah, weaving between crowd-free, lesser-known areas such as the Valley of the Gods. Known as a mini Monument Valley, it’s famous for its wind-sculpted pinnacles and sandstone buttes.
Utah’s also got some of America’s most spectacular campsites, but we suggest heading to Yonder Escalante near Bryce Canyon – stay at this luxury campsite, on the grounds of a now-shuttered drive-in movie theatre, you’ll be able to bed down in a beautiful airstream trailer.
Take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon
Splash out on one of the Grand Canyon tours offered by Las Vegas-based Maverick Helicopter and you’ll enjoy plenty of “pinch me” moments, whether it’s the second you touch down in the canyon (3,500 feet below its rust-red rim) and toast your arrival with a glass of champagne, or the thrill of flying above the Las Vegas strip’s neon glare while the theme tune to Star Wars plays in your headphones (it’s one of several songs passengers hear during their flight).
maverickhelicopter.com
Go to a baseball game
It doesn’t get more American than a baseball game, but if you don’t know your dingers from your doubles, it’s probably worth signing up for a pre-game guided tour, ideally at one of the more famous venues, such as Boston’s Fenway Park, home to the Red Sox. You’ll get the lowdown on the basics, as well as the history of this legendary sporting venue, while learning about the hidden morse code messages on the so-called Green Monster (the stadium’s supersized scoreboard) and discovering the story behind the lone red seat (seat 21 in row 37 of section 42, to be precise) in the bleachers on the right side of the field. After the game, toast the Red Sox at Fenway Park’s Game On Fenway, where you can hire a beer pong suite or practise your swing in the batting cage.
mlb.com
Book a multi-day Amtrak train journey
We love a bit of slow travel, just not when it’s the result of delays, leaves on the line, or signal failures, which are part and parcel of train travel in the UK. For a more enjoyable type of slow travel, book a seat on one of the multi-night journeys offered by Amtrak, which turns 50 this year and will soon get a multi-million-dollar investment, courtesy of Joe Biden, who’s often referenced his fond memories of riding the rails between Delaware and Washington DC. You’ll rumble through America’s most jaw-droppingly beautiful landscapes, whether it’s the snow-covered peaks and lush forests you’ll pass through on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight service, which connects Seattle with Los Angeles, or the alpine valleys and 7,000-year-old glaciers which tower over the route taken by the gloriously-named Empire Builder, which travels from Chicago to Seattle.
amtrak.com
Say yes to supersizing
As much as we love America’s national parks and wave-pummelled coastlines, we’re also suckers for the whole supersized thing: chomping on burgers the size of our head before a chaser of a Big Gulp drinks cup containing enough cola to fill a swimming pool. Our advice? Mask your gluttony with an air of sophistication by heading to the beautiful Bacchanal Buffet at Las Vegas’s Caesars Palace hotel.
Las Vegas’s biggest buffet restaurant recently emerged from a multi-million-pound refurbishment which involved an overhaul of the menu, to which 100 dishes were added. There are now over 500 on offer, and it’s not the grease-laden burger-fest you might imagine. Diners can chow down on everything from chipotle bourbon barbecue oysters and turmeric grilled octopus with chilli jam to earl grey mousse and yuzu tarts. Although not at the same time, ideally. Actually, scrap that, we’re going all in.
caesars.com
Pose next to a supersized food statue
Food is the category most likely to enjoy the supersized treatment in America, but we’re not just talking about items you can eat. Anyone who’s done an American road trip will know that the country is littered with supersized food statues, which double as brilliant backdrops for anyone keen to elevate their selfies.
Heading to Texas? Ditch the Alamo excursion and strut your stuff in front of the world’s largest pecan, instead. And while Charleston might be South Carolina’s coolest destination right now, we guarantee there’ll be less chance of an accidental flash bomb at the world’s largest glass of sweet tea, in nearby Summerville. Other favourites include the world’s largest corndog, on Oregon’s Rockaway Beach, the world’s largest Big Mac, at Pennsylvania’s Big Mac Museum, and the world’s largest pancake griddle, in the New York State village of Penn Yan. In 1987 the griddle was used to make the world’s largest pancake, although the record was sadly stolen in 1994 by a team of chefs in Rochdale, Manchester. See, we can do the whole supersized thing, too.
Bed down on a cattle ranch
Hundreds of ranches have popped up in America’s most scenic destinations in recent years, many of which appear to have been founded with Instagrammers in mind: think Nespresso coffee machines in pimped out-wagons and 5am ashtanga yoga sessions instead of campfire-lit hoedowns. For something more authentic, we recommend Texas’s Wildcatter ranch, a working cattle station which dates back to 1851. Activities on offer range from cattle roping lessons and tomahawk throwing masterclasses to guided horseback tours along the tangle of trails which fan out from the ranch. When it comes to accommodation, we recommend Ot’s Cabin, with its rocking horse-adorned veranda.
wildcatterranch.com
Go to a Nascar race
Attending a Nascar race is rite of passage for some Americans, who take certain traditions incredibly seriously, whether it’s the pre-race ceremonies, which typically involve a military salute, or the driver introductions, when drivers walk out as a pre-selected track blasts out (although there’s clearly no accounting for taste – Jimmie Johnson once walked out to Sisqó’s Thong Song, while Brian Vickers’ chosen backing track at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway was Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like a Woman). We suggest feeding your need for speed at North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway, which became the first modern track to host night racing in 1992, and where 34,000 slices of pizza and 9,500 gallons of soft drinks are consumed every race weekend. It’s also a short hop from the Nascar Hall of Fame, where highlights include racing simulators and thousands of exhibits, including a moonshine still built by moonshiner-turned-Nascar legend and Hall of Famer Junior Johnson.
Go on a swamp tour
Are you really a fan of America unless you’ve done a swamp tour, ideally one which involves a near-miss with an alligator while you’re munching on a crayfish po’boy? Louisiana’s airboat swamp tours are legendary, and provide a fantastic opportunity to learn about Cajun cuisine while exploring the Atchafalaya Basin, which is the country’s largest swamp, and covers one million acres of hardwood forests, swamps, bayous and backwater lakes. We recommend a tour with Atchafalaya Basin Landing Airboat Swamp Tours, which has the area’s largest fleet of boats – their guides are all wildlife experts, increasing your chances of spotting one of the 65 species of reptiles and amphibians which live in the basin. A fun fact: 22 million pounds of crawfish are harvested from the basin every year.
nascarhall.com
Attend a rodeo
Every fancied a career as a cattle hand? Texas isn’t the only option for some rodeo-themed fun. One of our favourite events takes place in Florida’s Indiantown, originally established as a Seminole trading post. You’ll find it in Martin County, otherwise known as Florida’s cattle country. The area is famous for its annual October Indiantown Chamber of Commerce Rodeo. You’ll see bareback and saddle bronco riding, bull riding, steer wrestling and cattle roping at this annual event, which has close ties with America’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Finally, if you’re planning a visit to Florida in February, head over to Palm City for some more bovine-themed fun. During Cow Plop Bingo, an annual fundraising event hosted by a different farm every year, farmland is divided into chunks, each representing a square on a bingo board. Participants purchase a plot of land, before a cow is let loose. The person who bet on the plot of land the cow eventually “plops” on wins $1,000.
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