Before we flew to the USA in 2014 I was not totally convinced that we made the right choice. For me the USA was gangs, violence, Barbie girls, highly obese people, drugs, skyscrapers, traffic, greasy food….everywhere. I had a really bad image of the USA.

Yes I am still having this image of the USA but not as bad and extreme. After over two month of road trip mostly around California, Utah, Arizona and Colorado I realised that the gangs and the violence are not on every corner of the street. Not everybody are fat or Barbie skinny. There are drugs but we were never offered any. There is traffic but mostly in the big cities, like most of the cities all around the world.

Actually, David and I fell quite easily in love with the USA, at least of what we saw and what have experienced. We both saw an amazing side of the USA that we did not expect and we both agreed that we can’t wait to get back there!

Here are some of the reason of why WE love doing a road trip in the USA.

The landscape, national parks and monuments. 

We live in Switzerland and we are spoiled with beautiful landscape but the one in the USA is extraordinary! The USA has everything the mother nature has to offer! Just one hour drive away from a huge busy city you can find a stunning landscape and a feeling of calm and harmony!

The nature is the main reason of why we love the USA. This endless land is screaming to be explored! And most of it are for free! We have not once been disappointed of a national park we have visited. The visitor center are all great, clean and the staff are always helpful. We can feel that the rangers really care about the nature. There are tons of FREE, fully equipped camping site around the parks. Use them but please respect the rules too!

The Americans

The Americans are what Swiss people are not; open, friendly and very chatty! At first we were quite shocked of how people could come up to you and talk like we were best friends! And then she or he would turn around and totally ignore you like you don’t exist! We got used to it. Americans have a very positive vibe about everything.  “Aweeesome”, “Beautifuul” or “Amaaazing”, we keep hearing they say.

We just looove à l’américaine enthousiasme!

The highway

The USA is one of the best country to make the ultimate dream road trip not only because of the good roads but aswell of how many wow-moments you will have while driving on one! There are so many great, scenic highways all over the country. One highway that is well-known worldwide is the historical route 66 or the pacific coast highway route 1 along the west coast.

Our absolute favorite is the route 12 in Utah! Breathtaking!

Get out of the overrated route 66 and you will find the true beauty!

The service

The waiters and the waitress in the USA are dependent of tips and they really deserve it! We did not come across any waiter/waitress that showed us how much they hated their job! They were always cheerful and smiling. Every 5 min or so they would come to our table and ask if everything is alright, if we needed a refill..anything. David and I who live in Switzerland (or Europe ) are not used to that kind of service! At first we got annoyed! We even thought that they wanted us to hurry and leave the table for the next client!

The fast food and chain restaurants

Living in a country where there are not much choices of fast food chain, the USA was the food heaven for me. Ok fast food is not healthy but when you are on a road trip you sometimes don’t care! And it is really cheap and the plates are huge coming from someone who eats a lot!

Our favorite chains are :

Bubba gump shrimp CO (from the movie Forest Gump)

Panda express, chinese cuisine.

In-N-out burger

Taco Bell

The viewpoints/overlook

The Americans love the viewpoints! And so do we! Don’t get me wrong, I love to walk but sometimes you are just to lazy to walk some km to have the best view so we appreciated a lot those viewpoints where you can just park the car, step out of the car, walk 2 meters and there you have the view!

The free and cheap campgrounds 

During our 2 month road trip in the USA we only stayed 3 nights in a paid campground. The other times we were using this site, click Here, for finding a campground for free. Just tap the destination and green tents will appear.

Most of the time we were the only ones and the campsite are rarely far away from the National parks.

Just remember to dig a deep hole where you do your thing and don’t forget to buried it! Some respect please!

Other option are those cheap campground provided by the parks. They are very simple but often have a toilet and a place where you can make a BBQ. There is nobody there to so you have to pay in a box.

Another great thing is the Wal-Mart stores where you can park your car for a night. They have open 24/24h and there are always guards around.

What do you think? For those who has been to USA, have we forgot to mention something?

Don’t you know what car to rent for a road trip in USA. You can read about our car Jucy here.

Our dear Jucy!