World-class Destinations in America?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Dottore

World class? What does that mean?

Is the Loire world class? Or Tuscany? Bali? Osaka?

Someone once said "world class" was the class for the world. He was suggesting you might mean first class. There was never gonna be a world class on a cruise vessel unless it was where you would put everyone in a cross section of the world's people.

[azasadny]

Originally Posted by AFC-911

Disagree with St. Augustine.

Trust me, when you live near Detroit... St. Augustine is indeed a "destination"!! I love that place!

[scottmandue]

Chicago... for the museums if nothing else. (Oh and deep dish pizza!)

Las Vegas... love it or hate it is one of a kind in the world

[Tobra]

I guess #1 would have to be a weekend at the OJU palatial estate.

Depends on what you mean by destination. If you mean something you won't see anywhere else, the national parks, Yosemite, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon would be the ticket. Chicago, SF, NY are all cities that are pretty incredible. Looking for the big deal spa experience, some in Napa/Sonoma area are great, down the coast in Santa Barbara too

Sort of a broad question

[Zeke]

World class destination = Pamela Anderson's bedroom.

[Brian 162]

Originally Posted by Christien

DC? Really? I mean, it's a nice city, with some important buildings and a lot of history, but world class? I don't know. Not like NYC. I guess similar to Vancouver, the word gets tossed around here a lot with respect to Toronto. I think it's a real inferiority complex, personally, but what the talking heads feel puts Toronto in the "world class" rankings is its theatre (3rd in the world behind Broadway and London). They point to a number of other things like orchestras, galleries, stuff like that, but it's all talk - all 3 levels of gov't keep cutting funding to those things. They're excellent, no doubt, but not on the scale of the Berlin Phil, or the Met Opera, or the Smithsonian.

Based on that kind of criteria, I think only NYC and LA would make the cut as "world class".

Yeah but city council were going to put in a giant ferris wheel and a mono rail down at the waterfront because we want to be a world class city.
Thankfully it got shot down

[944Larry]

Originally Posted by Zeke

World class destination = Pamela Anderson's bedroom.

Zeke-I admire your ability to cut to the point!

[GrindingGears]

Lake Tahoe

Las Vegas

[Tobra]

Tahoe is nice. I have been going several times a year for the last 4 decades. It is quite beautiful.

[Mothy]

DC Absolutely - been there lots of times for work and as a destination there was always something interesting to see or do. The standard of the museums, monuments and other attractions are as good as the best in the world.

SFO area - unique mix of transport, waterfront and attractions with interesting past.

Much like Australia, the USA does not have a long European history - like us you don't have any 400+ year old churches - but we both make good use of our more modern history as a focus for a destination - independance and civil war themes can make any number of places on the east side interesting.

Your national obsession with customer service works for visitors!

Tim

[Aurel]

The San Juan river in New Mexico, under Navajo Dam. World class fly fishing.

[Paco Anton]

Since I am from outside the US, I'll list the places I've visited as a tourist in the US. Most of them have already been mentioned.

In no particular order:

- NYC
- DC
- Niagara falls
- Boston - Cape Cod
- Philadelphia - Pensilvania - Amish country
- Miami - Keys - Key West
- Orlando - Disney
- Cape Canaveral
- LA - Hollywood - Malibu
- San Francisco
- Yosemite
- Death Valley
- Las Vegas
- Grand Canyon

Other places on my to-do list:

- Monument Valley
- Yellowstone
- New Orleans
- Skiing in Aspen/Vail
- ...

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

That all depends on what you mean by world class.

I would far prefer a smooth curvy road in Arkansas with no traffic over driving through New York City.

Agreed! I'm NYC born and bred. NYC is overated.

[motion]

Originally Posted by Paco Anton

Since I am from outside the US, I'll list the places I've visited as a tourist in the US. Most of them have already been mentioned.

In no particular order:

- NYC
- DC
- Niagara falls
- Boston - Cape Cod
- Philadelphia - Pensilvania - Amish country
- Miami - Keys - Key West
- Orlando - Disney
- Cape Canaveral
- LA - Hollywood - Malibu
- San Francisco
- Yosemite
- Death Valley
- Las Vegas
- Grand Canyon

Other places on my to-do list:

- Monument Valley
- Yellowstone
- New Orleans
- Skiing in Aspen/Vail
- ...

Paco, thanks for chiming in. I was hoping someone from Europe would let us know what they feel are important US destinations.

I definitely erred by not including Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon on my initial list. LA probably should be there also, just for its influence on the rest of the world via television, the movies and music.

Yosemite has been mentioned several times, but I'm not so sure. I grew up around Glacier, and have been resisting Yosemite just because I couldn't see how it could complete with the northern Rockies. I'm going to head up in a few days on the Ducati and check it out, finally.

[motion]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

Agreed! I'm NYC born and bred. NYC is overated.

I was just in Manhattan a few days ago. Lemme tell you, that place is over the top! I can completely understand why Manhattan is known as the center of the universe. I don't want that to sound like an ugly American comment, but wow, it really is a mind-blowing place!

[motion]

Originally Posted by Dottore

World class? What does that mean?

Is the Loire world class? Or Tuscany? Bali? Osaka?

I guess I would call it a place where well-traveled people from other parts of the world would have on their bucket lists.

[Paco Anton]

Originally Posted by motion

Paco, thanks for chiming in. I was hoping someone from Europe would let us know what they feel are important US destinations.

Motion.

since the US is so big a country, the destinations for foreign travellers must be, either very "big" (NYC, Disney) or grouped so you can see several in one trip.

In my case I have made three big trips to the US:

1. Florida (Miami - Keys - Cape Canaveral - Disney)
2. California (LA - Pacific highway - SF - Yosemite - Death Valley - LV - Grand Canyon)
3. North East US and Canada (NYC - Boston - Quebec - Montreal - Niagara - DC)

Each of these trips is 10-15 days. For me it is very diffcult to plan a trip to any of the other interesting locations (Yellowstone, Monument Valley, New Orleans, say Texas, ...) and fit them in a 2 weeks trip because the interesting bits are far away between them.

I am open to suggestions to another long trip

[Geronimo '74]

Originally Posted by motion

Paco, thanks for chiming in. I was hoping someone from Europe would let us know what they feel are important US destinations.
.

As a recent visitor of the US, I really enjoyed NY.

I visited Boston, NY, Washington, Scottsville (RickV's hometown), Cocoa Beach, Miami and Key West.

Boston, NY Scottsville and Miami are worth revisiting.

For someone visiting the US for the first time, I would highly recommend NY.
It is like the US equivalent of Paris or Amsterdam, a must see when visiting the country.

[Geronimo '74]

Originally Posted by Geronimo '74

As a recent visitor of the US, I really enjoyed NY.

I visited Boston, NY, Washington, Scottsville (RickV's hometown), Cocoa Beach, Miami and Key West.

Boston, NY Scottsville and Miami are worth revisiting.

For someone visiting the US for the first time, I would highly recommend NY.
It is like the US equivalent of Paris or Amsterdam, a must see when visiting the country.

Other must sees are Vegas and Venice beach, IMO.


Of course there are many many other places since the US is such a big country.
These are from my practical '(limited ) experience




(Why did I just quote myself? I meant to edit... Oh well.)

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Having lived in NYC, Boston, Chicago and traveled enough to SF over 3 years (5-10 days every month) to almost call it home, but not enough to comment on actually living there, I can say:

NY: there is nothing like it, easily the greatest city in the country with more to do, more to see, more to eat, more to experience, at all income levels, than any other US city. I have to find a way to get back to NY. There's an energy level to it that I haven't found anywhere else.

SF: Great place to visit, within driving distance you have great beaches/surfing in one direction and Napa in the other.

Chicago: Nice city. The people and the Lake make it great. Sometimes I miss it.

Boston: small, provincial, has a lot of history but not much more going for it. Just not that great of a city. it's Massachusetts that I love more than Boston, probably best state in the country.