USA travel guide: the best things to see and do in the United States

Amer­i­ca has to be one of the best hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions. Most of us have got at least one state or icon­ic city on our trav­el buck­et list (and even more of us dream of tak­ing a leisure­ly road trip that incor­po­rates a lit­tle bit of every­thing) so what­ev­er you’re plan­ning, make sure you check out our ulti­mate guide to home swap­ping in Amer­i­ca. With great house exchanges to pick from, and lots of things to see and do in some of the most excit­ing, beau­ti­ful and swap-wor­thy places in the USA, this is a coun­try that begs to be explored! 

First up, we rec­om­mend vis­it­ing San­ta Mon­i­ca, Los Ange­les which is famous for its gor­geous beach­es that epit­o­mise the sun­ny Cal­i­forn­ian dream. The city is syn­ony­mous with the glam­our of Hol­ly­wood, one of the world’s most famous neigh­bour­hoods in which you can go celeb spot­ting. While you’re in San­ta Mon­i­ca, make sure you check out some of our mem­bers’ favourite local spots such as Mis­fits and Sco­pa. This impres­sive home swap prop­er­ty is near both restau­rants, with a love­ly gar­den and only a short walk to the beach!

Lake Tahoe is a must-see attrac­tion in Cal­i­for­nia. This beau­ti­ful lake draws vis­i­tors in their thou­sands – and for very good rea­son. If you are vis­it­ing, check out this famous 72-mile jour­ney around the lake, and take in the most incred­i­ble scenic views. Wide­ly renowned for being one of America’s most beau­ti­ful dri­ves, stop at Emer­ald Bay Look­out (one of the most pho­tographed places in the world) and don’t for­get to go shop­ping or grab a bite to eat at Heav­en­ly Vil­lage.

Locat­ed in the east­ern part of Cal­i­for­nia, Yosemite Nation­al Park is an epic swap-wor­thy hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion. As one of the most-vis­it­ed nation­al parks in the Unit­ed States, Yosemite boasts awe-inspir­ing water­falls, glac­i­ers, cliffs and giant red­wood sequoia trees! If you’re explor­ing this stun­ning part of the world, make sure you get a glimpse of the famous Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls, which you can vis­it on var­i­ous hik­ing trails. Or, if you have a car, why not dri­ve the famous scenic Tio­ga Road dri­ve which offers breath­tak­ing views over Glac­i­er Point? To real­ly immerse your­self in all that Yosemite has to offer, stay in a stun­ning moun­tain view ranch like this Love Home Swap prop­er­ty which is only a short dri­ve away from Yosemite Nation­al Park. Its envi­able loca­tion means that after a long day of enjoy­ing all the splen­dours Yosemite has to offer, you can retreat to your ranch and toast some marsh­mal­lows on your pri­vate view­ing deck!

Las Vegas is renowned for its casi­nos, night­clubs and grand hotels, but have you ever con­sid­ered home swap­ping in the enter­tain­ment cap­i­tal of the world? You could stay in a love­ly cen­tral­ly-locat­ed prop­er­ty like this incred­i­ble home that boasts high-end facil­i­ties and a 10-foot deep pool! So what are the best things to see and do in Las Vegas? You might be sur­prised to hear that apart from the obvi­ous appeal of the casi­nos, there are many oth­er great attrac­tions. We’d rec­om­mend walk­ing down Fre­mont Street and tak­ing in the bright lights and live enter­tain­ment, before vis­it­ing the Stratos­phere Obser­va­tion Deck which is the tallest obser­va­tion tow­er with­in the entire Unit­ed States, and is guar­an­teed to give you some out­stand­ing views of the strip. For an evening treat, the Bel­la­gio Hotel’s foun­tain show is a must-see. Dur­ing the day it runs every half hour, while it’s every fif­teen min­utes in the evening — so if you love it, you can see it again and again! If you’re a real food­ie, con­sid­er book­ing the Bac­cha­nal Buf­fet at Cae­sars Palace, which is an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence of out­stand­ing food at an all-you-can-eat price – what’s not to love?!

Mov­ing on from Las Vegas, the beau­ti­ful Grand Canyon real­ly needs no intro­duc­tion. Based in north­ern Ari­zona, it’s an all-year round attrac­tion for tourists because of its out­stand­ing nat­ur­al beau­ty. There are numer­ous ways that you can vis­it the canyon. One option is to enjoy the scenery by foot – sim­ply park at the South Rim Vis­i­tor Cen­ter Plaza, then hop on a shut­tle bus to take you to start of some the stun­ning hik­ing routes. Or if you’re feel­ing real­ly adven­tur­ous and want to make the most of it, why not book a pri­vate heli­copter tour from Las Vegas?! Choose this option, and you’ll be able to land inside the canyon, fly over the Hoover Dam and get incred­i­ble views of the Neva­da desert, giv­ing you an all-round unfor­get­table experience!

If you fan­cy a trip to the big apple, New York City is the ide­al spot for a city escape! With stun­ning mod­ern archi­tec­ture and a pletho­ra of activ­i­ties to do, New York is a great choice for the­atre, restau­rants, shop­ping and so much more (par­tic­u­lar­ly if you’ve booked an ultra-com­fort­able home swap to retreat back to at the end of the day!) While you’re in the city, there are some obvi­ous famous attrac­tions to check out like The Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty on Ellis Island, Top of the Rock and the Empire State Build­ing (for equal­ly fab­u­lous views). And, of course, the ⁹⁄₁₁ Memo­r­i­al should be on your itin­er­ary too. To save mon­ey on all of these attrac­tions, we sug­gest buy­ing the New York City Pass.

For some well-loved local attrac­tions, check out the Cher­ry Trail where you can walk or cycle along the famous Hud­son Riv­er. If you fan­cy a bite to eat, stop at some of our mem­bers’ favourites such as Big Daddy’s Din­er and Red Roost­er. Anoth­er great spot is Ellen’s Star­dust Din­er where the wait­ing staff per­form songs from dif­fer­ent musi­cals off Broad­way – it’s a real experience! 

You can also vis­it The Adiron­dacks from the city, which are a stun­ning, yet often over-looked attrac­tion for those vis­it­ing New York state. These are a scenic range of for­est-cov­ered moun­tains in the north of the state, with numer­ous lakes and hik­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for our nature-lov­ing members.

As the largest city on the east coast of the USA, we strong­ly rec­om­mend a vis­it to the his­tor­i­cal city of Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts. The city is love­ly all year round, but autumn and spring are par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial, as the city comes to life with beau­ti­ful foliage and flow­er­ing trees, pro­vid­ing an extra dose of charm. There are a wealth of attrac­tions to be explored, but as Boston is steeped in his­to­ry (being the set­ting for most of the events lead­ing up to the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion), you should make the famous Free­dom Trail your first stop. 

Austin is becom­ing more and more pop­u­lar with tourists due to its beau­ti­ful yet mod­ern city land­scape, excep­tion­al food, great music scene and jaw-drop­ping hik­ing trails! If you’re there for the lat­ter, then explore all the nat­ur­al beau­ty that the city has to offer by check­ing out Time Out’s roundup of the best hikes in Austin. All that exer­cise will work up an appetite, so make sure that you treat your­self to some brisket which is a south­ern del­i­ca­cy. Austin has some of the best brisket out there, which you will find at Franklin BBQ — try to book a table if you can, as it is extreme­ly pop­u­lar! And for those who have a sweet tooth – plus those who fan­cy doing some­thing a lit­tle more out of the ordi­nary – then check out the Ice Cream Muse­um (yep that’s right!) There are a few great home swaps to choose from on our site, like this absolute­ly stun­ning mod­ern apart­ment in down­town Austin. Based in a con­tem­po­rary build­ing, it even fea­tures its own rooftop pool!

Regard­ed as being one of the most unique and spe­cial cities in Amer­i­ca, New Orleans is known around the world for its famous French Quar­ter and shut­tered hous­es, along with its excit­ing jazz scene — plus there’s a wealth of things to dis­cov­er. Explor­ing the stun­ning French Quar­ter is a must, as it’s sure to trans­port you into an archi­tec­tur­al world like you’ve nev­er seen before. Next, we rec­om­mend check­ing out the Gar­den Dis­trict to see the most stun­ning homes with rich his­to­ries, or you can delve into the south’s dark his­to­ry, by vis­it­ing the Ever­green Plan­ta­tion, which is the most intact plan­ta­tion in the south. For lots more ideas on muse­ums and attrac­tions that you shouldn’t miss, Trip Advi­sor do a great round up of the best things to do in New Orleans!

When it comes to evening time, this city real­ly comes alive. Make sure you vis­it one of the famous jazz bars like Fritzel’s Euro­pean Jazz Club, known as a mec­ca for jazz lovers in the city since 1969. For din­ner, you’ll undoubt­ed­ly be itch­ing to try gum­bo, a famous Louisiana dish which you will find at many places in the city — but for the absolute best gum­bo and fresh seafood, we rec­om­mend book­ing a table at The Munch Fac­to­ry! Final­ly, head home to this beau­ti­ful cen­tral­ly-locat­ed home. Pre­vi­ous home swap­pers have raved about this love­ly prop­er­ty, which is high praise indeed. 

Against the back­drop of the unpar­al­leled beau­ty of the Rocky Moun­tains, Aspen is home to some of the world’s most impres­sive ski slopes — plus it’s a great loca­tion for those who pre­fer the apres ski side of a snowy hol­i­day! Top restau­rants in the vicin­i­ty include Mat­suhisa and Cache-Cache. On top of going ski­ing in Aspen, you can also dis­cov­er the local his­to­ry, as the Aspen His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety runs many exhibits through­out the city which tell sto­ries of Aspen’s min­ing past. You can also explore the Wheel­er Opera House, which is known as Aspen’s best land­mark. Do a lit­tle for­ward plan­ning, and book tick­ets to a show if you can!

Last but cer­tain­ly not least, Hawaii is a great option if you fan­cy some­thing a lit­tle more trop­i­cal! There are so many amaz­ing activ­i­ties to do depend­ing on which island you’re stay­ing on. If you’re think­ing of head­ing to the cap­i­tal city of Hon­olu­lu on the island of Oahu, you’ll find a wealth of stun­ning nature. We’d sug­gest tak­ing a vis­it to the Manoa Falls which has been fea­tured in movies such as Juras­sic Park and The Hunger Games. Fan­cy swim­ming with dol­phins? Then make your dreams come true at Dol­phin Quest Oahu, or take a hike to the sum­mit of Dia­mond Head, which is one of the most famous volcanoes. 

There are also many oth­er islands with­in Hawaii that are worth explor­ing, like Maui, so make you arrange the per­fect home swap, like this stun­ning four-bed­room home. Sit­u­at­ed in a pri­vate, gat­ed com­mu­ni­ty, this prop­er­ty offers amaz­ing ocean views that are enhanced by palm trees and gor­geous sun­sets. The inte­ri­or design of the home is a fusion of mod­ern Hawaii with enchant­i­ng Bali­nese fin­ish­es, includ­ing cus­tom-made, hand-carved fur­ni­ture and a sprawl­ing stair­case to real­ly make you feel like a king or queen! There’s also plen­ty of space to enter­tain your guests indoors or out­doors, while the mas­ter bed­room boasts an ensuite bath­room that’s fit­ted with a TV and hot tub.