USA
The U.S.A. is a truly great holiday destination. It offers almost unlimited choice of holiday activities and styles and at prices that are just downright reasonable in comparison to Brits used to high prices at home.
Whether you want to shop till you drop and party till dawn in one of the major cities like New York or Miami, hike the forests in North Carolina or Virginia, raft the Colorado River, take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, lose or win a fortune in Los Vegas, become a cowboy for a week in Montana or Colorado, you can do it here.
Or maybe you want to take a slow ride up the Mississippi on a riverboat, immerse yourself in world class museums in Chicago, gorge yourself on Cajun shrimp whilst listening to jazz in New Orleans, visit a certain Mouse in Florida, go surfing in California or Hawaii, pan for gold in Arizona, you can do it here. How about driving Route 66, living our shared history at Colonial Williamsburg, overdosing with lobster in Cape Cod, climbing a volcano in Hawaii.
Possibly you want to play golf at a different course every day for a fortnight, or tennis, or dive in the Gulf Stream or in crystal caverns, or in Pacific kelp, or visit hundreds of perfectly preserved shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. The U.S.A. offers you all of these or as many of them as you want - or can handle! Best of all, we almost speak the same language and you can be assured of a warm welcome wherever you go, a clean comfortable room for a low price and a mindboggling choice of restaurants all serving super-large portions!
See what I mean? The U.S.A. will amaze you with its bustling cities contrasted with vistas of virgin forest as far as the eye can see, tropical cayes and the icy Yukon, historic New England and supercharged Manhattan, the incredible breadth of the prairies, the dizzy heights of the Rockies and the desert canyons of Arizona, the empty beaches of the Northern California and the pazzazz of Miami, the warmth of the Gulf and the big surf of the Pacific, the wierd and wacky in San Francisco, the reassuring familiarity of a million mid western small towns. You could have a lifetime of holidays here and never see it all.
Diving Destinations:
With a whole continent to choose from, of course the diving is great! All states will have some sort of diving location, even Arizona has lakes and reservoirs. Florida is riddled with diving opportunities of every kind. The diving here is superb - don't underestimate it - and of course it is an unparallelled destination for a family holiday. California has a huge, rugged, beautiful coastline with offshore islands, kelp forests and exciting fishlife. The Great Lakes play host to hundreds of shipwrecks which have been perfectly preserved in its icy fresh waters - wreck divers heaven. The North East (New Jersey through New England) is another prime area for wreck diving. Hawaii is of course a fully fledged State of the Union - all the way out there in the Pacific. Many people believe that it offers the perfect holiday destination whatever the season - the diving is excellent. Finally, there is the Pacific North West, land of hundreds of islands, the giant octopi and squid and of course that great adventure destination, Alaska.
When To Go:
It's a big country, so you need to pick the right time for the place you want to be and the activity you want to do. Florida is a year round warm weather destination. The summer can be sticky and have rain but this is usually short and very sharp. If you want to dive California on the other hand, you have to go in the summer unless you want to take your drysuit - the Pacific gets cold. Certainly, you wouldn't want to dive the Great Lakes outside of the summer months. The south and the south west are warm year round generally and very hot in the summer. The northern states are very seasonal.
Getting There:
There are numerous flights from regional airports across the UK to international airports in the U.S.A. Within the U.S.A. you can buy air passes which may benefit you if you are moving around by air. Greyhound coach can also be a good choice allowing you to see some of the country. Wherever you end up, you will need a car - Americans drive everywhere and they don't cater for pedestrians really. Make sure you have adequate insurance. Train travel (Amtrak) is available but more limited than in the U.K.
Flight times are: 6 hours to New York, 7 hours to Chicago, 10 hours to Miami, 11 hours to Los Angeles.
British travellers currently do not need a visa to enter the U.S.A. but check with the U.S. Embassy as there are exceptions. You should expect entry procedures to be reasonably lengthy - two hours is not unusual, but it varies depending on the combination of flights arriving at the same time.
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BSAC TRAVEL CLUB BOOKSHOP SELECTION
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Great value destination. Distances are huge - don't try and do it all at once. Take USD Travellers Cheques rather than GBP. Credit/cash cards are the most useful. Don't be surprised by the warmth of the welcome especially if you venture away from the coasts and the cities where overseas visitors are more common. Remember that tipping waiters and service staff is a way of life and expected.
U.S. Embassy
Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort
Silent World Dive Center, Key Largo
Village Divers NY
Dive Alaska by Tony Reed
Chicago and The Great Lakes by Richard Knights and Malcolm Rahn
Diving The Great Lakes by Richard Knights and Malcolm Rahn
Diving Ginnie Springs by Alison Boler
High seas drifter - diving WPB by Alison Boler
Return to West Palm Beach, August 2006 by Alison Boler
Florida Keys by Jon Gunns
Florida Cave Diving by Steve Pearson
Manatees & more by Charles Stirling
Mermaids & Manatees: Crystal River by Alison Boler
Southern California - The Great Escape by Charles Stirling
Monterey, N California by Dave Barratt
Monterey, N California by Toby Mottram
Scuba Diving Magazine Guide to North America
Home of the Blues
Paddling in Catalina
Dive Las Vegas
The Empress's New Clothes
Wreck World
Diving the Big O
Fat Sirens of the Crystal River
Diving the Highway
Volcanic Activity
Round Trip From Anchorage
North! To Alaska!
Return of the Zombies
Wrecks and Raggies
Florida
California
Hawaii
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