Ok, nobody else has offered this basic fact you need to address with your trip planning: the US has no real public transport infrastructure. I assume from your sentence structure and word choice - and that you are "visiting the US" - that you are not American. Probably European. Anyway, you have never been somewhere as big as America with as much space between things. Unless you have spent an unreasonable amount of time in the Taiga or the Australian Outback, there just aren't parts of world as spread out and inaccessible as America. So you need to get from one place to another? We fly or we drive. Period. My friend just drove from Seattle to North Dakota and back to buy a cat. That's three times the distance from London to Edinburgh... one way. This is the thing that foreigners just don't get about America. It is goddamn huge, and we hate tourists who don't rent cars. I think you'd be much better off flying between four different "hub" cities, and once in those cities, use local service like Uber, and CouchSurfing to find ways to get in, out, and around town. New York. Seattle (or Portland). New Orleans. Atlanta/Memphis/Charlotte. These cities each embody a different part of what America is, they have rich infrastructure to support exploration, culture, meeting people, etc, and they also are nearby to amazing things you can go do "out of town" for an afternoon or a weekend. Hiking. Sightseeing. Museums. Cultural shit. With Couchsurfing or AirBnB "shared room" accommodations, you also get to meet the hosts, who are excited to have you in town, show you around, and connect you up with their fun friends who are going camping this weekend, or have a boat, or maybe are playing in a band at show at a local club. THAT is going to give you way more of an "America" experience than sitting on shitty, piss-smelling buses full of ex-convicts for 2.5 days, or getting dropped off in the ass-end of town by Amtrak, 15 hours late, in an unsafe area, with no transport options into town. There are also a lot of people who are driving somewhere far away, and don't want to do it alone. So they post on Craigslist, or other sites, and are looking for someone to pitch in some gas money, good tunes, and conversation to make the hours on the road pass by faster. And there are heavily traveled corridors (like Interstate 5 between Seattle and LA) where you could get a ride probably any day of the week. So I'd rethink your itinerary. What do you want to learn about America? Do you like people? Do you make friends? When I travel, I prefer to find a place to stay, and stay there. Buy groceries from the local store. Make my own food. Meet people at the local bar, etc. I don't want to touch the "tourist" areas of any city. Take me to a dive bar instead, and let me talk with real people. Not people who are paid to smile at me and pretend they give a shit... So... yeah. That's my list of suggestions...
Thanks for putting this bluntly. I have already rethought some passages due to others commenting on how bad public transport is. Do you know why is it so bad? I’m indeed European and used to travelling around it by cars, bus and trains fairly easily. It’s hard to fathom how one could go this far for a cat. My experience with Airbnb so far has been mitigated. While the price for value is awesome compared to hotels/hostels, the hosts were almost never in the apartment/house with me and my friends. I think that most people used it as a complementary stream of income but don’t necessarily enjoy chatting with foreigners. I had one amazing experience in Praha though. I guess we have to get lucky and check the comments first. Definitely considering dropping all the “bus” part of the plan. Still wants to take the California Zephyr though. I’ve checked the reviews on Yelp & Tripadvisor, it’s known for arriving late but I think I’m ok with that. It would be part of the journey and if I make my plan a bit more flexible it should be no problem. As I would be taking it from Denver to SF, it seems reasonable to say I should not have a problem finding shuttles to gain the city center. A friend of mine might join me for parts of the trip and we are considering renting a car between SF & LA in order to do some of the natural parks. I’m interested in a lot of different things: the cities and their unique culture (e.g. New Orleans), the vastness of the Natural parks (Yosemite is now on the itinerary), discovering big cities in and out, seeing the country and getting off the beaten track (California Zephyr should also be a great occasion to discuss with Americans from all over the country). But I also want to do a bit of the touristy stuff. I have a month in NYC in July (will be working there), which should be great to see what the locals do and speak a lot with them and experience the city. Thanks again for the post.
You are welcome! Public transport in America is a multi-faceted problem. Each state is sovereign in many ways, while participating in the larger nation. Similar to the EU. So why would North Dakota pay their part to allow people quick transit across their boring and featureless state? They want people to stop. Buy gas. Buy food. Pay local taxes. Fill the local coffers. They don't want to offer people a simple and effective way to get across the state without dropping some money along the way. Many capital cities in Europe have brilliant transport infrastructures - Paris, Budapest, Berlin, etc - because the city was the Capital City, the gleaming jewel of the country. So the investment was made. Here in America, we grew too fast, and simply didn't give a shit about anyone else. "I got mine, you go get yours" was, and remains, the dominant philosophy. There is no "social contract", and no big thinkers any more. AirBnB is definitely more focused on amateur hoteliers. CouchSurfing is a better way to find real people, who charge reasonable rates, who want guests, and want to introduce you to their city. AirBnB is mostly just a yuppie money grab, with some hidden gems in there. Yosemite. Yes. Just, yes. Make sure you can get in, though. National Parks are very busy and sometimes limit admission so they don't get overrun. Do your research ahead of time and buy any passes you may need long before you need them. Culture. I chose that grouping of cities because they reflect distinctly different types of American culture. And, each of those cities have places you can easily "get away" to, so you can experience some of the countryside as well. Except LA. LA is just... unique. Sure, there are a hundred different cities around there, but the difference between them all are just signs you pass on the freeway. They flow seamlessly into one another into a totally featureless concrete landscape, spanning from the mountains to the ocean. But, you gotta experience it at some point in your life. The beaches. Hollywood. The freeways. You just have to see it to understand it, and you can't see it without... A rental car. This is going to be your big cost, but also your big lifesaver. I hate that you can't really experience "America" without a car, but... America is cars, and cars are America. And honestly, no matter what you do, you are going to have an American Experience. You are going to be here, eating our food, navigating our traffic, experiencing our customs, and seeing Americans you will never see anywhere else in the world. Only something like 20% of Americans will ever have a passport in their entire lives. That means 80% of Americans will never even go to Canada, much less another continent. You know those annoying loud Americans with the backpacks in the cafe in your home town, who drive you crazy with their loud laughing, lack of understanding of local customs, and brash "me first" hubris? Yeah... those are the GOOD ones. The ones who have actually gotten outside their own country once in their lives and experienced some of the world. When you come here you will see the other 80%. Should be an eye-opening trip for you, my friend!
+1 to all of this. I've tried to use the bus infrastructure in New York (state) and it's pretty much total shit. Buses don't run on time, barely anyone uses them and the people that do seem off, plus one time I was out at the one "bus stop" (a bit of sand across from the post office) in a small town and the bus straight up drove right past me. Ended up having to catch the next one, missed my connection, and would've been totally fucked if a friend didn't happen to be driving through Albany literally the same day.