The America you book ahead for.
Which Grand Canyon coach reaches the rim before the haze. Why Antelope Canyon only opens to a Navajo guide. Whether the Edge beats the Empire State. Every American tour, reviewed.
The days America is famous for.
The canyon rim, the harbour ferry, the airboat, the island road, the deck 300 metres over midtown. A handful of days carry most American itineraries, and each one books differently.
New York: pick which view you pay for.
All New York tours →
Four observation decks, a harbour ferry and a park the size of a town centre. These three are the ones New York trips get built around; the full list splits the rest by what kind of day you want.
Edge, SUMMIT and the Empire State
Edge leans out over Hudson Yards, SUMMIT mirrors you into infinity, the Empire State still owns the postcard. Book a slot an hour before sunset and you get both the daylight and the lit skyline.
Liberty Island, Ellis Island, one ferry
The only legal boat to the statue leaves Battery Park. Go on the first sailing, do Liberty Island first, and keep the afternoon for the Ellis Island registry hall, which is the half most people skip.
Central Park end to end, without walking it
The park runs 4km north to south and the good bits are scattered. A pedicab or a bike covers Bethesda Terrace, Bow Bridge and the Ramble in the time it takes to walk a third of it.
America’s most popular tours.
Every review →More travellers book these than anything else in the country, from a glass ledge over midtown to a nine-hour lap of Oahu.
1
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Tickets
Review of SUMMIT One Vanderbilt in NYC, with mirror rooms, glass skyboxes, skyline views, timing tips, costs, and practical advice.
From · $47
Read our review →
2
9/11 Memorial & Museum Timed-Entry Ticket
from $25
3
Empire State Building Tickets – Observatory & Museum
from $47
4
Edge Observation Deck Admission Ticket
from $39
5
Grand Canyon West, Hoover Dam Stop and Optional Lunch and Skywalk
from $109
6
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry
from $19
7
Oahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe Experience
from $140
8
Chicago Architecture River Cruise
from $39
What a day out in America costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what you actually pay. Plenty of the best American mornings cost less than airport parking.
Walking tours, ghost walks, museum entry, harbour ferries and the trolley loops that solve a city in an afternoon.
The standard American day out: architecture cruises, airboats, food walks, hop-on buses and half-day canyon runs.
Full-day canyon coaches, helicopters over the Strip, small-group park days and private guides worth the money.
Red rock country runs on permits and early starts.
The Colorado Plateau holds the Grand Canyon, the slot canyons, Monument Valley and the Utah parks inside one week of driving. Almost none of it can be arranged on the morning.
Hawaii sells out before the flight is booked.
Four islands, four different trips. Oahu does the island circuit and Pearl Harbor, Maui gets up for Haleakala, the Big Island puts you in the water with manta rays after dark, Kauai keeps the coastline nobody can drive to.
Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans walk after dark.
Three cities that kept their graveyards inside the street plan, plus Salem up north, which never lived its history down. The lantern tours are the most booked evening in the American South and the good guides are historians first.
- 1New Orleans Premier Ghost, Voodoo and Vampire Walking Tourfrom $27
- 2Adults-Only New Orleans Ghost, Crime, Voodoo, and Vampire Tourfrom $37
- 3Salem’s Best Ghost Tourfrom $30
Three American mornings with no equivalent anywhere.
Cities and coastlines repeat around the world. A Navajo slot canyon, a sawgrass airboat and a night dive with manta rays belong to this country alone.
The Slot Canyons
Antelope Canyon sits on the Navajo Nation outside Page, and there is no version of the visit that does not involve a Navajo guide. Upper Antelope is where the light beams land, roughly late March to early October around midday. Lower Antelope is narrower, taken by ladder, and usually cheaper. Horseshoe Bend is a separate car park a few minutes away with no shade at all.
- 1Lower Antelope Canyon Entry and Navajo Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 7,801 reviews
- 2Lower Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend Day Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,764 reviews
- 3Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,216 reviews
The Sawgrass Airboat
The Everglades is not a swamp, it is a sheet of freshwater moving south at a walking pace over a limestone shelf. An airboat is the only craft that crosses sawgrass in a few inches of water. Morning runs are cooler, quieter and better for alligators; the afternoon belongs to thunderstorms from June onwards.
- 1Everglades Airboat, Wildlife Show & Bus Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 8,622 reviews
- 2Everglades National Park Airboat Tour & Wildlife Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,296 reviews
- 3New Orleans Airboat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,891 reviews
The Manta Ray Night Dive
Off the Kona coast, dive lights are aimed downward to gather plankton, and reef mantas with four-metre wingspans come up through the beam to feed, barrel-rolling under floating snorkellers. It runs almost nightly, it is calmest in the first hour after dark, and operators here have counted the same individual mantas for decades.
- 1Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,656 reviews
- 2Big Island: Kona Manta Ray Snorkel Tour in Keauhou Harbor★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,465 reviews
- 3KONA Manta Ray Night Snorkel – FREE re-ride if no Sightings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,212 reviews
Half of America is best seen from a boat.
See every boat trip →
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option
Read our review →
Little Toot Dolphin Adventure at Clearwater Beach
Read our review →Book these before you fly to the States.
Most American tours can be arranged from the hotel the night before. These four cannot. They run on tribal permits, ferry monopolies and ticket releases that have nothing to do with your arrival time.
- 01Lower Antelope Canyon Entry and Navajo Guided TourAccess is by permitted Navajo guide only, in fixed group slots. The midday beam times in summer go first.
- 02Alcatraz Ticket, Ferry, & Self-Guided AppOne ferry operator holds the only landing rights, and the release window regularly sells out weeks ahead in summer.
- 03Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS ArizonaThe memorial programme runs on a limited daily allocation of timed tickets, released in advance and taken within minutes.
- 04Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryPedestal and crown access is a separate capped ticket, sold months out and never available at the pier.
Florida storms at four, Northeast snow in February.
American weather arrives on a schedule: the Gulf Coast thunderstorm most summer afternoons, the Northeast freeze from January, the Pacific Northwest drizzle from October. The answer is the same in all three. Go indoors, and go somewhere that was worth an hour anyway.
By city — where are you landing?
New York City93 tours
Las Vegas56 tours
Oahu50 tours
New Orleans42 tours
San Francisco25 tours
Miami24 tours
Chicago21 tours- All 64 regions →
By experience — what kind of American day is it?
The Southwest loop, reviewed stop by stop.
Las Vegas
Sedona
Page
Monument Valley
MoabJust reviewed: the newest American days out.
All recent →
Big Island: Night Swim with Manta Ray with Hot Chocolate
Read our review →
Big Island: Volcanoes, Waterfalls, & Coffee Farm Day-Trip
Read our review →
Hollywood & Beverly Hills Celebrity Helicopter Tour
Read our review →
Atlantic City: Dolphin Watching Ocean Cruise Adventure
Read our review →
Atlanta 5 Hour City Tour by Air-Conditioned Bus
Read our review →
Around Manhattan Official NYC Architecture Cruise
Read our review →
