Hi,

Looking very likely i will be going to the states in September. Starting in New york (free with work)

I have friends in Ohio i want to see and Chicago.

I’ll have 14 days to travel around.

Essentially i want to see as much as i can.

Any MUST do’s ?

14 days won’t get you far in the US. It’s such a big place!

There are always must do’s it normally depends on how big the budget is and how much time you have.

you can see quite a bit, as long as you keep moving . . .

years ago, me and a friend went from New York . . .pittsburgh . . . cleveland . . . Chicago . . . Detroit . . Toronto . . niagara Falls thern back to New york . . .all in two weeks, we had two nights in Chicago and two in Toronto, every where else and along the way inbetween places one night stops, . . .do it, . .it’s great.

you could give Cleveland a miss and add Phily instead?

Go see a football game, college or Pro it’s awesome, niagara falls is a must

14 days is plenty if you are prepared to drive a lot.

internal flights are pretty cheap – try and work out a little loop hopping between cities.

Dependas whats on your list of must haves – LA, San Fran, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas is a pretty nice little weeks worth of trvaelling. Stayed over at the Grand Canyon, ’twas beautiful. LA is a bit mheh so wouldn’t be fussed if I never went back.

Assuming you are driving I would check out Budget car rental. The last 3 times I’ve rented with them all the insurance has been included in the price. In my experience this has not been the case with other rental companies.
Enjoy.
EDIT
Also might be worth considering joining a hotel chain rewards system. Some of them offer one night free after 3 or 4 stays, depends on chain.

Oh, if you are hiring a car use these people

http://insurance4carhire.com/

You can pay £99 a year which saves you £15 or so a day on the hire company’s insurance.

Forgot one part of info lol….

It’s just the East coast im doing – will do West next year.

My plans so far are 3 days in NYC, fly to Washington 1 day there. Fly on to Ohio for a few days touring the local area, then head to Chicago.

You didn’t say what part of Ohio you would be in, but if you’re near Cleveland, you should check out Ray’s.

any recommendations as to where to stay overnight at the grand canyon? we’re going out there for our honeymoon at the beginning of october and will be driving from vegas, probably one or two nights in the grand canyon area depending on how much fun we’re having 🙂

thanks x

Theres a great train service between NYC and Washington DC, if you want to consider an alternative to flying.
3 days in Manhattan sometimes is not enough, but if you like a few beers my tip is to get on the PATH train to Hoboken and have a few beers there one night, great place.
1 night in Philli is also recommended, rocky steps, liberty bell and such.

any recommendations as to where to stay overnight at the grand canyon?

Assuming you’re going to the South Rim?
We stayed in the park, at Maswik Lodge, $90 a night. Plain, simple, clean and very nice accommodation. Fairly good food in the complex restaurant, xanterra run all the lodges and hotels in the village, and seem to do a good job.
I thought it was a bargain considering the location, and well worth the money, though, since we went there at very short notice, we didn’t have many options in the park complex, even in late October- you’re probably advised to book sooner rather than later if you want a choice.
Oh, and it was snowing when we drove in, with an inch or two on the ground the next day.
Worth staying there in the park just for the doorstep access to the sunrises/sunsets.

possibly the south rim, driving over from vegas then onto LA afterwards… would that lead us to the south rim?

Whole of Canyonlands National Park. Or Angel’s Landing hike in Zion.
Think the north rim of the Grand Canyon is quieter isn’t it, and for some people more rewarding because of this. You can hike down into it and camp, but you’d almost certainly need to book ahead – well worth it though.

we’re going out there for our honeymoon at the beginning of october and will be driving from vegas

Phil.. have you thought about including Yosemite? We went NY-SF-Tahoe(skiing)-Yosemite(walking)-Vegas(sunbathing) for honeymoon, and Yosmeite was by far my favourite bit. Stayed in the Ahwahnee Hotel, which was incredible. Really good food to.

Best two holidays I had were in USA.

The best of the two was along these lines. Lots of driving, but still awesome

NYC 3 days, fly to Denver – hire car
Brekenridge, Ski 2 days, Drive to Utah
Moab, mtb 2 days
Vegas 1 day
Drive through loads of national parks 5 days, see sights, Zion, Grand Canyon, Yosimite etc.
Sanfranciso 3 days.
LA 1 day

Fly home

14 days won’t get you far in the US. It’s such a big place!

In 14 days I visited New York, Washington, New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago, Niagara and back to New York.

Did it all using the East Coast Rail Pass and did some travelling overnight to cut accommodation costs.