From America's metropolises and small towns, national parks and monuments and natural and manmade wonders, there are more than three and a half million square miles to explore across the United States. If you wish to venture out on your own, you can fly into a city and rent a car or motor home and tour the USA at your leisure, spending the nights in campgrounds and hotels. Alternatively, you may prefer to book an organized tour and let professionals take care of the planning.
In conjunction with Cosmos Tours and Vacations to Go, Affordable Tours offers a 15-day, 12-destination tour through the Rockies and southwest desert. A motor coach tour departs Denver heading northwest through the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Chief Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore, and then continuing to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The tour then heads south though Utah's canyons and across the painted dessert of the Kaibab Plateau, along Lake Powell and onto the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The tour ends in Las Vegas with two days of exploring casinos, shops and shows. Accommodations and any admission charges for attractions along the route are included. Travelers are responsible for meals as well as transportation to Denver and from Las Vegas.
Affordable Tours
11150 Cash Road
Stafford, Texas 77477
281-269-2600
affordabletours.com
Vacations by Rail offers an eight-day, five-stop, three-train, three-cruise tour of New England during the fall foliage season. The tour originates and ends in Boston, Massachusetts, making a loop via rail, ship and motor coach, through New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The route includes a ferry ride around Maine's Casco Bay and riverboat ride down the Connecticut River. The trip ends with a tour of Boston and its harbor on a Maine Steamer ship. The tour includes all lodging and transportation with some meals, including breakfasts at the hotels plus two lunches and three dinners.
Vacations by Rail
833 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, Ill. 60642
877-929-7245
vacationsbyrail.com
Dubbed the Mother Road by author John Steinbeck, Route 66 was considered a super-highway when it was constructed in the 1930s. Linking the rural communities of eight western states, from Chicago through California, Route 66 was the first highway to provide access to the west to most Americans. While much of the original route has been preserved through the work of the Route 66 Historical Societies in each state, most of the original road is now bypassed by four-lane highways. Still, there are many historical sites waiting to be discovered including the Route 66 Gas Station and President Abraham Lincoln's home and museum in Springfield, Illinois, bank robber Jesse James' hideout in the Meramec Caverns in Missouri, the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, and the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma. For travelers wishing to take a self-guided tour of the American legend, books and maps are available that will guide you in exploring the even now famous route.
National Historic Route 66 Federation
P.O. Box 1848, Dept. WS
Lake Arrowhead, Calif. 92352
909-336-6131
national66.com
Trek America offers a 35-day, coast-to-coast camping tour from Los Angles, California through the desert Southwest, along the Gulf Coast, with a loop though Florida, before continuing up the Eastern Seaboard and ending in New York City. Western sights include a tour of Hollywood, looking for aliens in Roswell, New Mexico, and Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks. Florida stops include Everglades National Park, the Florida Keys, Miami and St. Augustine. From Florida the tour heads north with an after-dark tour of Washington D.C.'s monuments before ending in New York. All camping equipment, except a sleeping bag, is provided.
TrekAmerica
16/17 Grange Mills Weir Road
London, United Kingdom SW12 0NE
800-873-5872
trekamerica.com
