United States
Peak: June – August. These months are warm. It can get very hot in some parts of the country. Great for beach locations and to more northern national parks. You will get more crowds of people during these months.
Shoulder: September – October. These are perfect months to visit the United States in general. During these months, a large portion of the country changes colors during the fall – particularly in the East Coast. These are perfect temperatures to visit most national parks and for hiking.
Shoulder: April – May. These months are also great. These months get the most rain during the year.
Off-Peak: November – March. This is winter! The northern parts of the country will get very cold temperatures. Most states will get snow. This is great for snow activities and also to visit national parks. Places like Miami can still get perfect beach days during these months.
Credit cards are widely used and accepted throughout the United States.
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Network Reality: You will get cellular services almost everywhere in the United States. You’ll have 5G in almost every major city. However, once you enter the “Interior” or deep into National Parks (like the Badlands or Yellowstone), you will hit massive dead zones. You will experience connectivity issues when driving through rural areas – away from coastal regions.
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The “Offline” Rule: If you’re road-tripping, download your maps for the entire region. GPS can be unreliable in canyon country or high mountain passes where the horizon is blocked.
- Power & Plugs: The US uses Type A and B plugs and runs on 120V.
The true scale of the American landscape doesn’t hit you until you drive it. Crossing from the deep, rolling greens of Virginia through the craggy heights of West Virginia and into the flat, infinite horizon of the Kansas plains is like watching the history of the earth unfold in fast-forward. My most uncalibrated moment happened right on the Kansas-Colorado border. We were looking for our accommodation—a converted barn—as a massive darkness settled over the prairie. The grass was so tall it swallowed the car; all we could see was whatever our headlights managed to pierce. It felt like the opening scene of a Halloween movie, driving through a silent, golden ocean with no sense of what lay ten feet beyond the road. We eventually found the barn and collapsed into bed. It wasn’t until the sun came up the next morning that the “horror movie” set transformed into a stunning, golden expanse that stretched out until we drove deeper into Colorado and the snow-capped Rockies appeared.