While you are in Miami you should go and see the Everglades for a bit of adventure. There are over 1.5 million acres of swampland and is home to 14 rare and endangered species including the American Crocodile and Florida Panther. Although you can get very remote if you wish, large areas of the park are only visited by researchers and adventurers  you may be more comfortable taking the more peaceful tourist trips by either walking, camping or canoeing (or of course a combination!).

You must not miss the truly unique Monkey Jungle park where the humans are in the cage. There are three areas to the park and the rainforest area actually had its own weather systems in the early nineties with low –lying clouds and enough rain to make it a real rainforest ecological system. Unfortunately this was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew and while it is slowly re-developing it will obviously take a similar 50 years that it took originally.

There are many, many things to see and do in Miami but it is really a city of relaxation and enjoyment. The key is to make sure that you unwind by eating good food, enjoying the beach and doing some shopping.

Depending on how much time you have for your trip I would suggest that you may want to spend 5 days here although a lot of people find that they spend much longer than this before they manage to prise themselves away from the appealing lifestyle that is on offer. There are many Florida holiday packages and so quite a lot of tourists but you can find your way around them without too much difficulty.

Total Trip – 28 days

Total Driving – 2932.4 miles (estimated driving time 40.88 hours @ 60mph, estimated fuel cost $236.66 @ 35mpg)

Header image under Creative Commons License from HTTP2007

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On the way down there is the possibility of stopping off at Nashville, Atlanta and maybe even Jacksonville as well as many other places. I have never been to any of these places and so I have done a quick browse to see what interesting things there may be that you would like to see in each of them.

It seems that the number 1 tour in Nashville is called the NashTrash tours which have been running for over 10 years. The tour consists of scandals from legendary country singers and is run by two sisters who, by all accounts, are side-splittingly funny. You are going to need to book this well in advance because it sells out quickly and is the must-do in Nashville. Pretty much everything else involves drinking and country and western shows. I can’t imagine wanting to spend more than one day here but could be a good stop-off if arriving early afternoon, hitting the NashTrash tour and then going to drink and dine in a country and western venue.

Atlanta has a huge array of things to do and see. It is the home of the Federal Reserve Bank and if that kind of thing interests you it may be worth walking past. A nineteenth century farmhouse that belonged to Joel Chandler Harris, the author of Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox is interesting for those that are familiar with the stories. There is a lot of theatre and arts with the Sambuca Jazz Café getting many exclamations of greatness for the world wide web community. Sadly in the top 20 things to see in Atlanta, IKEA ranks as number 15 which is rather a sad statement on what people enjoy doing with their time. Personally I think I would give this common warehouse a miss.

If you choose to stop in Jacksonville then, I don’t want to lie, there is likely not to be much to do except wander around and look at the scenery. The top sight is the zoo and the third best is a sandwich shop! Still it is meant to be a pleasant place and so could provide a nice afternoon and evening sleep over to break the journey south into 4 days with around 5 hours of driving a day.

There is no way around the massive journey south and although jumping on a plane is the easiest option you will see a huge amount of the country while driving and this can be some of the best times. There won’t be a huge amount to do but undoubtedly you will meet people and see things that will end up being the best stories from your road trip.

By the time you get to Miami and check-in to your hotel or hostel you will definitely be needing some sleep before hitting the streets.

Total Trip – 23 days

Total Driving – 2932.4 miles (estimated driving time 40.88 hours @ 60mph, estimated fuel cost $236.66 @ 35mpg)

Header Image by MrClean1982 under Creative Commons License

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The journey to Chicago from Detroit is 283.33 miles and should take around 4 hours and 20 minutes. I have spent quite a deal of time in Chicago as I was there a few years ago on a course. It is certainly different from a New York city break. I very much enjoyed my time in Chicago and while I wouldn’t class it as the American city with the most to see it is a very friendly place to visit.

What you will notice first is that everyone who lives in Chicago thinks that it is the best place to live in the world. They have a belief that there is no better place to live and while I may not agree with this it means that you are welcomed in and shown everything that the city has to offer which makes your stay more enjoyable than it otherwise may be.

Before you visit Chicago stop by the official tourism website to see what the latest shows and events are. This is a city where there is always something going on and you want to make sure that you are a part of it from the first time you join.

Although not as famous as Broadway, while in Chicago you definitely want to see a musical and there are many to choose from. The tickets are less than Broadway so you may choose to see one here rather than in New York if your budget is tight.

As you would expect in a city of this size there are many parks, museums, landmarks, cultural centres and other attractions to see. Again like most cities there are likely to be only a few that appeal to you. The fact that I cannot remember any of the sights that I saw while I was there shows that there aren’t many standout ones (while I am sure I enjoyed them at the time).

Of course Chicago is famous, at least in the culinary world, for its pizzas. Everyone will tell you how wonderful their pizzas are and how nobody can make them as well as Chicago pizzerias (they seem to have forgotten that pizza is an Italian dish). Obviously I couldn’t leave without trying this elite of the pizza world and so I headed to the pizzeria I had been directed to. Well I have to be totally honest and say that Chicago pizza is one of the most disgusting dishes I have ever sampled. What was served up to me was, in effect, a quiche with pizza topping. The base was thick and pastry like and the pizza was multiple inches think surrounded in a big crust. Served in a quiche dish I can say that I will never have another one.

Since I was visiting there is a new attraction. Barrack Obama is from Chicago!  This is America and so you can now visit President Obama’s Favourite Attractions. Personally this does not excite me, but if it something you fancy then there is a few days of sights that the president likes.

I would suggest 3-4 days in Chicago before heading to Florida through Nashiville, Atlanta and Jacksonville.

Total Trip – 19 days

Total Driving – 1548.8 miles (estimated driving time 25.81 hours @ 60mph, estimated fuel cost $125 @ 35mpg)#

Main picture licensed under Creative Commons by Discopalace

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Canada seems to have a love/hate relationship with its visitors. I know many people who love going there and many people who hate going there but there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. I have never had the opportunity to visit Canada and so do not know much about what there is to see and clearly cannot give an opinion on whether I like it or not!

Part of the reason that I included Canada in the route is because it seems that all road trips across America miss out the major cities in Canada that are actually pretty accessible and sometimes only a few miles from where you are driving anyway.

Having a little browse online there seems to be quite a lot to do, which isn’t really surprising. A good site is See Toronto Now.  There are of course many art galleries, museums, heritage sites, gardens and all the things that you would expect to find in a major city. What I wouldn’t want to miss out on are the many festivals that also seem to be happening all the time.

These include international jazz festivals, film festivals, theatre festivals, comedy festivals, there is even and IndyCar festival!

Clearly you could easily spend up to a week in Toronto (probably longer) but since we still have 75% of America to visit then I would limit the stay to 4 days. There is also a lot of wilderness in Canada if you like this sort of adventure travelling; I have recently been invited on a trip into some of it retracing the steps of an explorer. Fingers crossed that it goes ahead!

If you drove into Toronto then it is 230.87 miles to Detroit which should take you around four and a half hours to drive. You don’t need to drive if you flew into Toronto you can take the train across to Detroit as well. Although I haven’t investigated it you can probably take the train for the whole of this trip!

Detroit is the biggest city in Michigan and is famous for producing cars in Motor City and Motown. During the prohibition it was one of the major smuggling cities because of the close proximity to Canada.

While you are in the city there are a number of places that you shouldn’t miss, the Motown Musical Museum being one of them. Again like all major cities there are many attractions that you could spend a long time looking at. Being short on time I would stick to the Motown Musical Museum, The Henry Ford Museum and the Eastern Flea Market.

You can do all of this in a couple of days and you may also want to spend a bit of time on Belle Isle or trying to find the world’s largest stove! You mustn’t forget to spend an evening in one of the jazz bars such as Bakers Keyboard Lounge (supposedly the best).

Overall you shouldn’t need more than 3 days in Detroit before it is time to hit the road again and head towards Chicago.

I have put an update of the route taken so far on the map below as there were a few messages asking how far we had gone.

Total Trip – 15 days

Total Driving – 1265.47 miles

Top Photo of Car by Radiospike… Under Creative Commons

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Boston is a university city and so there is a plethora of pubs, bars and generally drinking establishments. Irish bars were hugely popular when I was last there (which admittedly was a little while ago now).

Aside from the drinking there is not a huge amount to do in Boston. Of course there is the famous Boston Tea Party. In 1773 Boston officials decided they wouldn’t return three shiploads of taxed tea back to Britain and so a group of colonists boarded the ships and through the tea into the harbour. There is more to it than that of course but you get the general idea. Although this is aimed primarily at children I thoroughly enjoyed it and even partook in the re-enactment as I was the only adult there without a family!

In the centre of the city there is also a famous war memorial which, if you are passing through, is worth a look. Other than that I can’t really recommend anything. This seems to be backed up by having a quick look at the Boston website travel section and finding that most of the best 25 sights include literary tours (read – walking around and seeing houses/cafes where people wrote books), I even found an article specifically on how you can ask the locals about how a square or road got its name (Seriously, you can see it here, this is on the top 25!!)

You may have gathered that I am not going to recommend staying in Boston for long. One night to be precise. It is 216.7 miles from New York to Boston and should take you around 3 hours and 38 minutes to drive. I would suggest leaving New York late afternoon and heading up to Boston. Pick up some dinner on the way and then check-in to your hotel for a good nights sleep, have a wander around the next day before heading out on the long road to Niagara Falls. You will need to make some stop-offs along the 496.2 mile journey and if you plan it right then you can drive overnight, swapping to sleep, and be there by the morning. It will take around 6 hours and 52 minutes to get to Niagara Falls. Find where you are staying and grab a couple of hours rest before a hearty breakfast.

Obviously the point of going to Niagara Falls is to see the falls! You are likely to only want a couple of hours to do this and so once you have seen as much as you want to see it is time to get back in the car and head to Toronto. You will be pleased to hear that Toronto is only 79.7 miles away and you should be there in 1 hour and 29 minutes. It is time to get a nice dinner and some well-earned rest before exploring this city. If you are short on time then you may want to just pick up a cheap internal flight to Toronto and visit Niagara from there. This could save you a day in time.

Total Trip – 8 days

Total Driving – 1034.6 miles

Photo of Niagara Falls by Ahmed… Under Creative Commons

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If this is going to be your first time in the big city then I would suggest that you should spend three days here at the minimum but if you have the time then there is plenty to do for much longer stays. In fact there is so much to do that I don’t think it would be right for me to highlight particular things to see aside from the obvious Empire State building and Statue Of Liberty. Instead I would like to direct you to a few excellent sites that can help you plan what you would like to see while you are there.

The first is NYCGO and is an excellent all round website. You can find places to stay, theatre shows, interesting sights and some of the more unusual things that are going on in the city while you are there.

The New York Magazine has updates on the latest news of what is hot at the moment in the city.

Finally the official city website is always a good starting point.

There are many guides to America and New York is covered heavily in all of them. I personally use Lonely Planet as this is the one used by most backpackers. There are two benefits to this, apart from getting an idea of places to see. The benefits are that if you want to have some company then head to the areas suggested in the guide as this is where most backpackers are to be found. If you want to get off the beaten track then look up where you are going and see what the Lonely Planet suggests. Then open your map and find things that are in the same area but aren’t in the guide and head there.

In the next post we are going to be heading up for a holiday in Canada but first we have to stop off at Boston and Niagara Falls (USA side) before crossing the border.

Total Trip – 6 days

Total Driving – 242 miles

Photo of New York by Paraflyer Under Creative Commons

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With a gaudy looking map that only has casinos and hotels highlighted on it firmly grasped in my hand, I marched along the streets to where I have wanted to spend my time  during my one-day trip. As I begin to walk, I realised that the streets were deserted. I felt like I was walking through a scene in some film where big glittering casinos are filled with wealthy gamblers while the streets lay deserted. Except that the casinos here aren’t so glittery. They are impressive without a doubt, but they lack the shine of the casinos in Vegas, and are filled with a lot of people who don’t have any money.

Macau likes to think that it is the Eastern Vegas when in fact, it is very far from it. A number of years ago a TV documentary was aired in the UK that showed how the great casinos here are built, or at least some of them. Chinese workers working illegally at impossibly low rates, and sleeping together in over-crowded rooms.  Women smuggling goods over the Chinese border, to try and make a small profit, these are all part of the day-to-day life of Macau. As soon as you get two roads back from the main streets where all the casinos are, you begin to see evidence of the real island.

Tenement blocks rise up all around, and slowly streets start to become busier until they are bustling with people as in most Chinese cities. There are some beautiful sights to see in Macau such as the facade of a Portugese church, and a beautiful temple, but sadly these are not the reason for the majority of visitors. Will Macau ever match Vegas? I sincerely doubt it.

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On the other fronts I am pleased to say that my short film is now in pre-production and things are beginning to come together. I am very happy to have the sound designer and screenwriter on board and in a few weeks we shall begin to get the rest of the crew ready. I was meant to be working on a short film this weekend but have been unable to get in touch with the person in charge and so it looks like it won’t be happening, still I haven’t taken the hint and will be making another phone call tonight!

In case you haven’t heard I am also producing and directing a play at Wimbledon Studio Theatre. It is going to be on for one week and there are 6 performances. Tickets go on sale tonight at midnight ad would be great to see everyone there.

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The journey is 149 miles and is estimated to take around 2 hours and 40 minutes. With an early start this means that you can be in Philadelphia for breakfast. You may want to grab breakfast at a diner on route so that when you get into town you can check-in and get started having a look around. If you enjoy casinos then you may want to stop in at Atlantic City on the way. Doing this you can take a little bit more time and maybe aim to arrive in Atlantic City for lunch, enjoy the casinos and then carry on to Philadelphia in the morning.

Before arriving in Philadelphia I would suggest having phoned ahead to book a hotel, motel or hostel so that you are ready to go. One day is all we are planning for Philadelphia, not a comment on the city but we need to get moving if we want to see the whole country without spending a year doing so.

Without a doubt your first stop should be the Independence Hall, get in early and beat the queues that slowly build up throughout the day. If you are like me then queuing, especially when you are short of time, is impossibly frustrating.

There are around 40 historic buildings in Philadelphia and it is obviously going to be impossible to see them all. This is where America began though and there are a few sights that you shouldn’t miss.

• The Liberty Bell – A powerful symbol for America. See it, photograph it and move on

• Christ Church – This is the church where George Washington and Benjamin Franklin worshipped, built in 1727. When you have had a look around head to the cemetery where you can find the graves of Benjamin Franklin and others who signed the Treaty of Independence. I have been told that tossing a coin onto the grave of Benjamin Franklin is similar to making a wish at the Trevi fountain. Whether this is true or not I couldn’t say, always best to make a wish just in case.

• Elfreth’s Alley – The oldest inhabited street in America. Not much to see but nice to have been.

• Reading Terminal Market – A historic farmers market and a great place to get lunch.

• Old City – I have been told that the old city is one of the best places to walk around. It is the artsy area and you can find the hot new artists of America displaying in the multitude of galleries.

Obviously you cannot visit Philadelphia without having a cheese steak. This is the speciality and I have yet to meet anyone from Philadelphia who can agree on the best place to go. As you can imagine there are a lot of places to get one and please make sure that you do. Two of the most famous are Geno’s and Pat’s, you can find out where they are by visiting their websites  at http://www.patssteaks.com/ and http://www.genossteaks.com/home1.html

After taking your fill grab a few drinks and head back to get some sleep. We are going to be driving to New York in the morning.

Total Trip – 3 days

Total Driving – 149 miles

Photo by James Loesch Under Creative Commons License

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If you prefer to spend the afternoon just getting your bearings then you may want to add an extra day or compact everything into two. I am not going to be putting in places to stay but will compile a list at the end of the series so that you can find somewhere to suit all budgets.

You can’t go to Washington DC without seeing the Lincoln Memorial, and this is somewhere that you want to arrive early. As the day progresses so do the throbbing mass of people trying to get a picture. Opposite the memorial is the Washington Monument with the incredible Reflecting Pool in between. In the distance you can see the Capitol building and it is a beautiful spot to get some good photos especially early in the morning when the low sun is giving everything an idyllic look.

When you have taken all the photos you want head along the south side of the pool and find your way into a grove. In late March and early April it will be covered in cherry blossom. Through this beautiful scene you will find yourself at the Roosevelt memorial. Keep on walking towards the Washington memorial and you will get a clear view to the White House.

Tours around the White House are available but you need to get their early. On my first trip to Washington I wandered down to find that people had been queuing since 4am! There are only a limited number of spaces and early mornings are not my strong point and so the tour was off my list. I believe that you can now reserve a tour a minimum of 30 days in advance but check out the White House website for more information.

Like every major city there is an abundance of museums to see and a majority of them are free to get in with The Simthsonian museums being some of the most famous. There is a great website called Museum Spot that categorises the major museums in the city and I suggest that if you want to visit a few then take a look and see which you would prefer. If museums aren’t your thing then you should go and have a quick look at one of The Simthsonian museums and of course The Capitol.

If peaceful walks around gardens appeals to you then the United States Botanical Garden is worth a visit. A trip to Georgetown and taking a stroll down the canal towpath provides a peaceful afternoon in the summer with the occasional site of the university rowing team training hard on the river.

The National Cathedral is worth a visit and if you head down Massachusetts Avenue you can see the mansions lining each side of the road.

You may want to spend less time in Washington and so head straight to Alexandria marina and get a 45 minute cruise to Georgetown. Along the route you will see a number of the important monuments in one of the most relaxing and quickest ways available.

Aside from the museums there are plenty of other places to visit. The Eastern Market can be an enjoyable afternoon browsing through stalls with books, furniture, fruit and flowers along the pathways. The Exorcist Steps on Prospect Street that featured in the movie look creepy at night and can take you to a nice eatery and although officially a museum, the International Spy Museum provides a fun twist with many things that will amaze you.

This city is littered with bars and restaurants that always provide a warm welcome in between the sights. Your first two or three days in America are going to be packed and I recommend that you get a good night’s sleep before an early rise for the drive to Atlantic City.

Photo By Metal Chris Under Creative Commons License

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