USA Travel Tips - road and roam

Written by a English girl travelling to America!

My first trip to the United States was when I was 6 years old and I was lucky enough to visit Orlando, Florida – literally a magical kingdom at that age! I fell in love with the indulgent, over the top, wonderful world of America instantly and I have been back 16 times!

I have visited 19 states so far – I have every intention of visiting all 50 – when I tell some Americans this, they often tell me I can skip a few! I definitely can’t though as I have a great big fat urge to do them all and so far I like what I see!!

With this in mind I decided to pull together all the travel tips I’ve learnt along the way to help fellow visitors to the US, as they definitely do a few things differently to us! For example; it took us a while to figure out the pay system after a meal and filling up at the petrol station – or getting gas as they say!

First, lets cover getting into the country

Foreign visitors will need an ESTA (visa application) – get this in advance here.

You have to renew your ESTA every 2 years. Joe got a new passport after our first year to America. When it came round to year 2 of us going to America, we didn’t think anything about ESTA’s because they were valid for our second year – WRONG! Joe had a new passport and you can’t transfer an existing ESTA over to a new passport, you have to get a new one! It was 48 hours before we were due to fly to Washington DC and we were frantically ringing the ESTA Application Team to check if we could get it to come ASAP!! They say to allow 72 hours for approval! They were helpful but unfortunately no guarantees! We were chatting through all of our options, which included me going to Washington DC on my own and Joe following once it arrived – we had a bit of scope as we were in DC for 2 nights but it was complete panic stations! THANKFULLY it came within a few hours but again make sure you apply with plenty of time! Thank you ESTA gods!

You need to have six months validity left on your passport
Holiday Insurance is essential. Remember they don’t have the NHS equivalent over there so you will have to pay for any health care you receive.
Border Control – one word LONG!

Getting around the US

The US is pretty car dependent. Public transport isn’t as popular in the US as it is in Europe and the UK for example! I remember when I was 21 and visiting LA with a friend, we didn’t have a car and we walked everywhere – this is before I knew how big many of the Cities or Towns are in the US – OR got on the bus! Now the bus is okay (ish) but you will encounter a very mixed bag of people and as a young girl, it didn’t feel the safest! I remember sitting at the bus stop where there was one other person waiting and this car pulled up in the traffic right in front of us and shouted at the person “I didn’t know you couldn’t drive!!” as if in shock! Compare this to my friends in London, many of them couldn’t drive – they didn’t need to! Everything is so accessible there!

If you are in the City I would recommend using Uber or Lyft if you don’t have a car, especially if the place isn’t really walkable. I’ve used Uber plenty of times in the US and it’s totally fine. In San Francisco there are actual driverless taxis!!! I could not believe my eyes when I saw this! People actually sitting in the back of driverless cars!! Incredible! I’m really not sure I trust enough for that!

Just to note, if you are hiring a car in the US, it will be an automatic drive.

Filling up the car

Rule one, at pick up know what fuel your vehicle takes, and be super careful at the pumps – unlike the UK, diesel is green and petrol is the black pump in America.

After taking care of your rental paperwork with the clerk, one of their crew will show you to your car. Do not be afraid to ask how to open the fuel cap (many have slightly hidden releases in the cabin) and take this opportunity to check which side of the vehicle you fill up. Sure there could be long hoses at the station, but make life easy for yourself.

Many stations offer a slight discount for cash payments on fuel. Some pumps accept debit / credit card at the pump itself, but I often found my UK card wouldn’t work, so I just made the habit of heading to the Kiosk.

You prepay first, then you fill. If you have prepaid say $60 and it was $55 to ‘fill her up’, don’t worry – you will automatically be refunded the difference to your card – usually within 24hrs. If you pay by cash, take your receipt back to the kiosk and get a cash refund.

You will find station forecourts with staff more than happy to help take care of business and fill up for you – go for it – and consider a small tip if you can!

Phone Data

You will need data roaming whilst you are abroad. Some phone contracts include Europe but will exclude “rest of world” so double check your contract and what you have included. If you need to purchase additional data roaming for the US then check how much it will be with your provider for the month vs a week. For my first 3 years of travelling to the US the amount I paid increased every year; now I have it included in my contract, for me it’s worth it as I aim to travel multiple times a year. Once you have it you can use your phone as normal within the US. I NEVER make a phone call from my phone whilst abroad, anywhere. I’m too scared. I’m 41 and of the generation where we would accidentally rack up huge phone bills when abroad. Nowadays I always phone via WhatsApp. You can also buy a local sim to use whilst abroad but make sure your phone is unlocked and able to accept it.

Driving Tips

I feel like I could write a whole post on driving tips for the US and maybe I will, but for now here’s a few key ones when you are driving around on the wrong side of the road!

Remember the US spans 6 timezones! It’s a big country so be safe when you are on the road, travelling long distances! During one of our road trips, the temperature went from around 10 degrees celsius in San Francisco to around 30 degrees in Death Valley, 8 days later so prepare yourself if you are moving around for changing temperatures, climate and environment

Hospitality

I really believe hospitality is one of the BIG reasons we keep going back to America! It is fantastic! It is so rare not to get a friendly hello when you walk in the door and this may sound ridiculous to even mention, but it is SO important to be welcomed in – I think anyway – and the Americans do it the best! It makes you want to stay and spend your money there. I have to embarrassingly admit that it is not always the case in the UK. Joe and I have spent many a time up at the bar in a pub not even getting acknowledged and in some cases just blatantly ignored. In my personal opinion I don’t think the UK does a good enough job at “promoting” hospitality as a great job / career to be in. I can’t help but feel it’s a stop gap for many. It’s not the case everywhere of course and I don’t want to do a dis-service to those amazing people in UK hospitality but America really stands out in that department.

Tipping and Tax

Again, I feel like I could write a post specifically on tipping in the US, it’s a little bit uncomfortable at times, especially for us Brits. You have to remember that tipping is part of the culture in the US and part of the wage system. It is not like the UK where you tip if you get good service and don’t tip if you don’t, it is partly that, but also partly their wages. A good way to look at it, is whatever price you see, it’s likely going to be a touch more. Let me explain:

When you buy an item in the US or stay in a hotel, Sales Tax is to be added on, what you pay is not what you see on the price tag. It’s kind of the same thing when tipping, you have to think that when you read a menu you won’t be paying that amount at the end of your meal, you’ll be adding about 20% for the tip. If you think of it like that, it will come more naturally when paying.

It does sound a little counterintuitive when you are from a UK culture that you have to tip on a $2.50 cup of coffee that you stood in line to get with no “table service” or additional “service” that would enable a tip in the UK, but it’s part of the culture there and when you find out what that barista is getting paid, you’ll realise why they add it on!

A rough guide that Joe and I will normally use when tipping:

Restaurant 18% to 22% – more if exceptional service
Taxi $5 or if it’s a longer journey then 10%
Housekeeping $2 per day
Coffee shop / Bar $1 – $2 per drink

Paying by card – Hospitality

So now you’ve got your head around the tipping, paying by card for a meal out can be a little different! This is one that took us a while to get to grips with. Here’s what happens:

Once you have asked for the bill (“the check” is the common phrase) and it arrives, if you are happy you say you are paying by card.
They will then take your card away – yes that’s right, away – you should of seen my face when this first happened to us – sheer panic is the word! In the UK this does NOT happen as the card could be cloned, they could spend what little is on there – literally anything could happen!! I can just hear the “excuse me where are you going??”. This is totally normal in the US, they will take your card away to the till and present you with a SECOND bill generated from swiping (charging) the card. Breathe easy – your card no longer leaves your sight.
You will then have the original bill plus the second bill in front of you. The first is for you, on the second; confirm the total and your tip amount and total it up yourself. I hope you are good at maths! Then sign! You’re free to go.
The restaurant will then update the charge on your card with the tip, so it’s in essence two charges to your card. One for the bill and one for the tip.

Yep I know what you are thinking, unnecessarily complex right?! You’ll get used to it though or just pay the tip in cash! Just sign the second bill stating zero in the tip section and leave the cash tip in the wallet / book thing!

There are a high number of places where you can’t use contactless payments compared with the UK. It’s getting more and more accepted now but ALWAYS take your physical card with you at all times just incase.

Other points to note

Portion sizes are huge in the US – we love it! The salads are the best in the US, they are real salads in my opinion, they actually fill you up and have tons of ingredients! You won’t get a pizza with 5 pieces of pepperoni, you’ll get 25 pieces! Much more my type of place! It’s common to ask for a doggy bag (take leftovers home) so don’t be afraid to ask, they are set up for this.

Free refills! You will likely get free refills in many places, usually on fizzy drinks, including Iced Tea! Another nice thing that I like is when you sit down somewhere, most of the time you will automatically get water. I like not having to ask for it!

Measurements; They will refer to a “pint” of beer as 16oz and they also commonly serve 12oz beers. Ounces are the go to measurement in the US. I drink margaritas and they always seem stronger in the US – I then realised a “normal” shot is around 44ml in the US vs 25 / 35ml in the UK! 150ml is also the standard pour of a glass of wine, whereas the small in the UK is 125ml. In my “extensive” experience with ordering wine in the US, they always seem to be bigger measurements than you get in the UK.

Do NOT talk about politics! I’m deadly serious – unless you love politics of course or have a lot of time on your hands. It’s not a subject Joe and I gravitate towards, especially on holiday but Americans are particularly passionate about politics so don’t get into it. Joe and I have had to make our excuses a couple of times when this type of conversation has begun, one time we had to get out of a hot tub in the middle of Mammoth Lakes – most upsetting!

That’s it for now! I think that about covers the main US travel tips. If you have any questions or tip suggestions get in touch and I’ll get it added!