America

Our Honest Guide to America

We spent about five weeks working our way across the US, starting in Oklahoma, down through the South to New Orleans, out to San Francisco and Yosemite, then a two-week road trip through Nevada, Utah and Arizona's national parks before finishing in Las Vegas. Here's what that actually looked like.

Oklahoma: Where It All Began

We started in Tulsa, staying with family friends on a lake, which turned out to be the perfect way to ease into the trip rather than diving straight into hostels and hotels. The accent alone took some getting used to, "y'all have a great day now" wasn't something we ever got tired of hearing.

Oklahoma also gave us our first real taste of American wildlife, some of it wonderful (bison, armadillos, hummingbirds), some of it genuinely alarming (a brown recluse spider next to our bed, two copperhead snakes). We did day trips to Kansas and a town called Pawhuska, filming location for Killers of the Flower Moon, and visited Woolaroc to see bison up close for the first time.

One honest observation: a lot of the small Midwest towns we passed through felt like ghost towns, a visible sign of rural decline that added a different layer to the trip beyond the usual highlights.

Memphis: More History Than Music

We arrived in Memphis the night before Hurricane Helene hit, which meant a quiet first evening on Beale Street followed by a full day of museums once the rain set in. Sun Studio was genuinely worth it. The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, was one of the most powerful few hours of the entire trip, we spent over three hours there and could easily have stayed longer.

Honest take: Beale Street itself didn't feel as authentic as we expected. And we skipped Graceland entirely, it felt overpriced and a bit gimmicky based on what we read, so we don't feel we missed much.

New Orleans: The Trip's Most Atmospheric Stop

New Orleans, timed right around the start of Halloween season, was one of the standout legs of the whole US portion. We did a swamp tour out of Slidell (alligators, cypress trees, Spanish moss), a walking tour of the Garden District, and a genuinely harrowing but essential visit to the Whitney Plantation, which gave real historical weight to a city that can otherwise feel like it's all Bourbon Street and beignets.

The ghost tour was a highlight for a different reason entirely, campy, theatrical, and led by a guide who fully committed to the bit. We had a Blood Bag cocktail at a vampire-themed bar and heard stories about the city's most haunted house. Café du Monde's beignets lived up to the hype.

San Francisco and Yosemite: Bridges and Bears

San Francisco brought the Golden Gate Bridge (best seen on foot via a long walk from Knob Hill), an accidental front-row seat to a US Navy Fleet Show with F18 jets flying overhead, and a night tour of Alcatraz.

Yosemite is where the trip peaked, unexpectedly, with a genuinely frightening and unforgettable moment: a mother bear and cub crossing the trail about 40 feet in front of us at sunset. We backed away slowly, picked up logs just in case, and watched them disappear into the forest. It's the kind of encounter you can't plan for, and exactly the sort of thing that makes long-term travel worth it.

Zion, Bryce Canyon and Horseshoe Bend: The National Parks Run

This two-week stretch through Nevada, Utah and Arizona was consistently the most scenic part of the entire US leg.

Zion gave us three full days of hiking, deer and stags right next to the trail, a stargazing session under genuinely dark skies, and a memorable nap under an oak tree that turned into one of those small, unplanned moments that stick with you. Bryce Canyon, smaller but no less impressive, let us walk directly among the hoodoos on the Queen's Garden Loop and Navajo Trail.

Horseshoe Bend was a quick but worthwhile stop, a short walk from the car to a sudden, dramatic drop into a canyon carved by the Colorado River, no railings, and plenty of people (including us) getting closer to the edge than was probably sensible.

Monument Valley: The Trip's Emotional High Point

Staying inside Navajo Nation land at Monument Valley, watching sunrise over the mesas from our balcony for three consecutive mornings, was one of the most genuinely moving parts of the whole US route. A sunset 4x4 tour took us into the "back country" area to see petroglyphs, traditional Hogans, and hear directly from a local Navajo guide about a culture still actively working to preserve its language and traditions.

A random roadside stop near dinosaur footprints, run by a small Native American-owned stall, turned into one of the most memorable unplanned moments of the whole US trip, real T-Rex footprints, still uncovered out of respect for the land.

Grand Canyon and Las Vegas: A Deliberate Contrast

We stayed in the historic town of Williams on Route 66 before the Grand Canyon itself, which delivered exactly what you'd expect, views that go on for miles, helicopters flying below the rim for scale, rocks over a billion years old.

Las Vegas was our final stop, and honestly, our least favourite. Smoking indoors, the sense of no daylight and no time, the Bellagio fountains that felt underwhelming after everything we'd just seen in the national parks. And to top it off, we lost $40 at blackjack!