United States on your own
Canyons older than the continents, roads running dead straight to the horizon and neon-lit motels: the American West is the original road trip — the one all others descend from.
When to go
April-May and September-October are the kings: the Colorado Plateau fully driveable, bearable heat, thinner crowds. Summer (June-August) combines record crowds with furnace heat in the deserts (Arizona and Death Valley exceed 45 °C) but remains the only real window for Yellowstone, whose roads close from November to late April. Winter offers the Grand Canyon and Bryce under snow, spectacular but demanding — the Grand Canyon's North Rim closes entirely from December to May.
What it costs
Mid-size SUV $45-80/day (CDW/LIS insurance included), RV $150-300/day plus $0.35/mile with some rental companies and $50-90 a night for a campground with hookups. Fuel $3.20-4/gallon in the Rockies, $4.50-5.50 in California. Motels $90-160 a night, in-park lodges $200-350 (book 6-13 months ahead). Budget €4,000-6,000 for two over 15 days excluding flights on the SUV-and-motels formula, slightly less in a well-booked RV.
Driving & transport
Right-hand driving, universal automatic transmission, wide and easy roads — the traps lie elsewhere: strictly enforced speed limits (mobile radar, steep fines inside the parks), a FULL stop required at stop signs and flashing school buses, right turn on red allowed unless signed otherwise. In the deserts, fuel is managed like a vital resource: up to 150 km between stations, and GPS loses signal — download offline maps. Watch for wildlife at dusk (deer, elk, bison in Yellowstone: they have right of way, and they know it).
The American West invented the road trip and still practises it in capital letters: giant distances (expect 300-500 km between stops), national parks run with precision by the NPS, gas-station-general-stores in the middle of nowhere, and that unique feeling that the road itself is the destination. The classic circuit chains Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Utah's parks across the Colorado Plateau; the ambitious add Yellowstone to the north or California's Highway 1 as an oceanic epilogue.
Two schools of vehicle: the SUV with motels and lodges (maximum flexibility, hotel bookings essential in summer), or the RV — the American motorhome — which turns park campgrounds into rooms with a view. Either way, the trip is won months in advance on recreation.gov: NPS campgrounds, Angels Landing permits, Arches timed entry. The America the Beautiful pass ($80 for an annual per-vehicle pass) pays for itself by the third park.
The destinations that matter
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No. 012 nightsGrand CanyonA gash 450 km long and 1,600 m deep where the Colorado has sliced through two billion years of rock: no photograph prepares you for the moment the ground opens.No. 021 to 2 nightsMonument ValleyThree red buttes set on an ochre desert, a thousand westerns in the rearview mirror: Monument Valley is the West's most famous landscape — and it belongs to the Navajo.No. 035 to 6 nights for the three parksUtah's parks: Zion, Bryce and ArchesA cathedral canyon, an amphitheatre of orange spires and a desert pierced by two thousand arches: Utah lines up three masterpieces three hours' drive apart.No. 043 to 4 nightsYellowstoneA caldera the size of Corsica where the Earth still boils: geysers, rainbow springs, bison by the thousand — the world's first national park remains its most alive.No. 051 to 2 nightsDeath ValleyAt 86 m below sea level, the hottest place on Earth lines up cracked salt flats, blond dunes and crumpled badlands: beauty in its mineral state, without a shadow.No. 062 to 3 nights between San Francisco and Los AngelesHighway 1 and Big SurTwo lanes suspended between the Santa Lucia mountains and the Pacific, redwoods touching the fog and elephant seals sprawled at the foot of the cliffs: America's most beautiful coastal road.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“The United States, Independently”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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