North America Trip Planner: Cities, Parks and Beaches, a 12-Day Route and When to Go

Six guides plus Hawaii, spread over a continent where the distances are flights and the parks need a car. Here is how to pick a city, a beach or a park, how to link them, and two routes to start from.

How to plan a North America trip

North America does not work like Europe. The guides on this page span 3,000 miles, three countries and two currencies, and the useful train network stops at the northeast corridor. New York to New Orleans is a three-hour flight or a thirty-hour Amtrak ride; Banff and Yellowstone, both mountain parks, are a nine-hour drive apart. The first-trip rule is to pick a theme, not a region: a city-and-beach trip (New York, New Orleans, Cancún, linked by two flights) or a parks road trip (Banff and Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon with the Southwest), and to leave the other for next time. Hawaii, five hours off the West Coast, is its own trip and has its own hub.

The second rule is the car. New York is the only destination here where you should not have one; New Orleans and Cancún are walkable with taxis and tours; Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Banff are drives, with the sights 45 to 90 minutes apart, shuttle systems for the busiest corridors and no bus that reaches the trailheads. Rental cars cost $50 to $100 a day, and the parks sell out of lodge rooms six to twelve months ahead, so the parks half of any plan is booked first and the cities fitted around it.

Planning Hawaii? Start with the Hawaii trip planner → Which island for which trip, inter-island flights, the reservations that sell out, whale and surf seasons, and a 10-day two-island itinerary.

Which destinations for a first trip

  • First-timers: New York, then New Orleans

    New York needs no introduction and no car: five days of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the museums and a show, with the subway reaching all of it for $2.90 a ride. New Orleans is the anti-New York, a three-hour flight south, where the point is the French Quarter's music, the Garden District's oaks and the food (gumbo, po'boys, beignets) rather than a checklist. Together they show two Americas in nine days.

  • Families: Cancún or Waikiki

    Cancún's Hotel Zone is the easiest all-inclusive beach in the hemisphere for US and Canadian families: three- to four-hour flights, resorts with kids' clubs, Isla Mujeres and the cenotes for the day out, and the ruins at Tulum or Chichén Itzá when the beach palls. Waikiki, on Oʻahu, is the same ease inside the United States: lifeguarded beaches, the gentlest learn-to-surf wave anywhere and the zoo and aquarium at the end of the strip.

  • Wildlife and geysers: Yellowstone

    The world's first national park has bison, elk, wolves and grizzlies in the Lamar and Hayden valleys, Old Faithful and 10,000 other thermal features, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It needs four or five days and a car, with Bozeman (90 minutes) and Jackson (an hour through Grand Teton) as the airports. Late May to September is the season when every road and lodge is open; book the in-park lodges up to a year ahead.

  • The one big view: Grand Canyon

    The South Rim is 3.5 hours from Phoenix and 4.5 from Las Vegas, and two nights on the rim, with a sunrise at Mather Point and a walk partway down the Bright Angel or South Kaibab trail, is the right dose. Spring and autumn are the months; summer fills the rim by mid-morning and the inner canyon passes 40°C. Pair it with Sedona, Monument Valley or Las Vegas for a Southwest week.

  • Mountains and turquoise lakes: Banff

    Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, the Icefields Parkway and Banff town's hot springs sit 90 minutes from Calgary airport, with Jasper three hours up the parkway for a week-long loop. June to September opens every road and trail (Moraine Lake needs a shuttle or a booked seat; private cars are not allowed on its road); December to March is a ski trip to Sunshine, Lake Louise and Norquay.

  • Music, food and a slower pace: New Orleans

    Five nights on their own for jazz on Frenchmen Street, a second line if you find one, the St. Charles streetcar, a swamp tour and the plantation road. Mardi Gras (February or early March) and Jazz Fest (late April to early May) are the peak weeks and need hotels booked months out; October and November are the pleasant, cheaper shoulder. Late summer is hot, humid and in the heart of hurricane season.

12 days, three stops: New York, New Orleans and Cancún

Four nights in New York, three in New Orleans and four in Cancún, with two flights and no car until the last leg (and even then only if you want the cenotes and ruins on your own schedule). Fly into New York and home from Cancún. Each guide has the full three-day itinerary; the Plan-this-trip buttons open the planner prefilled with the city.

  1. Days 1–4, New York: Land at JFK (AirTrain plus the subway or LIRR, about an hour) or Newark. Base in Midtown, the Lower East Side or Brooklyn's Williamsburg. Day one is Central Park, Fifth Avenue and a rooftop at dusk; two is the Statue of Liberty ferry, the 9/11 Memorial and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; three is the Met or MoMA, the High Line and a Broadway show (book weeks out); four is Brooklyn, a bagel and the flight south.
  2. Day 5, New York to New Orleans by air: Nonstops from JFK, LaGuardia and Newark to Louis Armstrong International take about three hours and fifteen minutes on Delta, United, JetBlue, American and Spirit, $120 to $300 booked a month ahead. A taxi from the airport is a flat $36 for two people to the French Quarter or the Central Business District; the Airport Express bus is $1.50 and slower.
  3. Days 5–8, New Orleans: Three nights: the French Quarter's Jackson Square, Café du Monde and a Preservation Hall set the first evening; the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District, Magazine Street and a po'boy the second day, with Frenchmen Street's clubs after dark; a swamp tour or the National WWII Museum the third, ending with a proper Creole dinner. Stay in the Quarter, the Marigny or the Garden District.
  4. Day 9, New Orleans to Cancún by air: A handful of nonstops run New Orleans to Cancún in about two hours in season; otherwise connect through Houston, Dallas or Miami for a four- to five-hour journey, $150 to $350. Land, clear immigration (fill in any digital forms Mexico asks for before you fly), and take a pre-booked shuttle or an official airport taxi; the Hotel Zone is 20 to 30 minutes.
  5. Days 9–12, Cancún: Four nights on the beach, all-inclusive or in a Hotel Zone tower with the lagoon behind it. One day for Isla Mujeres by ferry and a snorkel at Garrafón; one for the cenotes and Tulum's clifftop ruins (a two-hour drive south, so leave by 7am); one for nothing but the Caribbean. Chichén Itzá is a long day (three hours each way) for those who want the pyramid. Fly home from Cancún on day twelve.

Plan this trip: New York · Plan this trip: New Orleans · Plan this trip: Cancún

Flights, road trips and the parks alternative

Flights do the distances

Reference flight times: New York to New Orleans 3h15, New York to Cancún 4h, New York to Las Vegas (for the Grand Canyon) 5h30, New York to Calgary (for Banff) 5h with a connection, New York to Honolulu 11h with a stop. The big four US carriers plus JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and Frontier compete on most of these; the lowest fares are four to eight weeks out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and basic-economy fares bar a carry-on on some airlines, so read the fare rules. Amtrak's Crescent (New York to New Orleans, about 30 hours) is a scenic overnight, not a shortcut.

The 10-day parks road trip: Banff and Yellowstone

The alternative to the city route is two mountain parks in ten days: fly into Calgary, spend five nights in Banff and Lake Louise (with a day up the Icefields Parkway), then drive nine hours south on I-15 through Montana to West Yellowstone, or fly Calgary to Bozeman with one connection, for four nights in Yellowstone split between the geyser basins and the northern range, flying home from Bozeman. Rental cars can usually be dropped in another country only with a heavy fee, so a one-way Canada-to-US car is rare; most people fly the middle leg or make it two separate trips. Mid-June to mid-September is the only window when every road in both parks is open.

Park passes and reservations

The America the Beautiful pass covers entry to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and every other US national park for a year and pays for itself on the second park; single-park entry is $35 per vehicle for seven days. Parks Canada's Discovery Pass does the same for Banff and Jasper. Neither Yellowstone nor the Grand Canyon's South Rim requires a timed-entry reservation, but Moraine Lake in Banff is shuttle-only with booked seats, the Grand Canyon's Phantom Ranch and Yellowstone's lodges open reservations a year ahead, and campgrounds go on recreation.gov months out. Check each park's official page for the current reservation rules before fixing dates.

When to go: cities, beaches and park seasons

The cities (April to June and September to November)

New York is at its best in spring and autumn, with July and August humid and December festive but expensive. New Orleans peaks from February to May (Mardi Gras, then Jazz Fest and 25°C afternoons) and again in October and November; June to September is 35°C, sticky and in hurricane season, with the deepest hotel discounts as the trade-off.

The beaches (December to April in Cancún; year-round in Hawaii)

Cancún's dry season runs December to April with sunny 28°C days and the highest rates over Christmas and US spring break (March). May and June are good value; July to October are the wettest and most humid months, hurricane season peaks in September, and sargassum seaweed can pile onto the east-facing beaches from spring to autumn, so check a recent report for your resort. Hawaii's leeward coasts are dry and about 27°C in every month; the Hawaii hub covers the whale, surf and rain calendars.

The parks (Late May to September)

Yellowstone's roads open in stages from late April and close again in early November; late May to September is the full season, with July and August the busiest and September the quietest with elk bugling. Banff's Moraine Lake Road, the Icefields Parkway viewpoints and the high trails open from roughly June to mid-October, and larch season (late September) is the local secret. The Grand Canyon's South Rim is open all year and best in March to May and September to November; the North Rim closes for winter.

Crowd calendars worth knowing (Holiday weekends and school breaks)

Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends fill every park lodge and campground; US spring break (mid-March) fills Cancún; Canadian and American school holidays (late June to Labor Day) fill Banff and Yellowstone. Thanksgiving week and the days between Christmas and New Year are New York's most expensive. Travel the week after a holiday, not the week of it.

What a day costs

Per person, per day, excluding long-haul flights, with two people sharing a room. North America's spread is wide: New Orleans and Cancún can be cheap, New York and the parks in summer are not.

  • Shoestring ($80–$140)

    A hostel or a shared room outside the centre, groceries and food trucks, public transit and free sights (Central Park, the Staten Island Ferry, the French Quarter, every park trail). Feasible in New Orleans and Cancún's downtown, hard in New York, where a dorm bed is $60 to $80, and hard in the parks, where the cheapest bed is a campsite or a motel an hour from the gate.

  • Mid-range ($150–$300)

    A three-star hotel, sit-down dinners, a rental car in the parks, tours and tickets. The guides' own ranges sit here: New York $150 to $300, New Orleans $100 to $200, Cancún $80 to $200, Yellowstone $150 to $300, the Grand Canyon $140 to $280, Banff $180 to $350. In the parks, the gateway towns (West Yellowstone, Tusayan, Canmore) cost less than the in-park lodges and add 30 to 60 minutes each way.

  • Comfortable ($350–$600+)

    Manhattan hotels below 59th Street, Cancún's all-inclusives at the Playa Mujeres end, the Fairmont hotels in Banff and Lake Louise, the Old Faithful Inn's best rooms and the rim-side El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, all with dinners and guided days to match. New York and Banff in high season reach $600 a day without much effort; New Orleans stays kinder at every band.

Entry rules and the three countries, stated generally

The United States

Visitors from the Visa Waiver Program countries (most of Europe, the UK, Australia, Japan and others) need an approved ESTA online authorisation before boarding, valid for two years and multiple visits of up to 90 days; everyone else needs a visitor visa arranged well ahead. Canadians enter with a passport. Hawaii is a domestic flight from the mainland with no extra formalities. Check the official ESTA site rather than a look-alike, which charges more for the same form.

Canada and Mexico

Canada asks visa-exempt visitors arriving by air to hold an electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA), applied for online in minutes; US citizens need only a passport, and crossing by road from the US needs no eTA. Mexico admits US, Canadian, EU, UK and many other passports visa-free for tourism; expect a passport stamp or a digital arrival form, and be aware that the state around Cancún has added a small tourist tax collected separately from the airline ticket. Rules and fees change, so check the official immigration pages in the month before you fly.

Money, tipping and driving

US dollars in the States and Hawaii, Canadian dollars in Banff (about 25 to 30 percent cheaper for US visitors at recent exchange rates) and pesos in Cancún, where dollars are accepted in the Hotel Zone at a poor rate. Tip 18 to 22 percent in US and Canadian restaurants and 10 to 15 percent in Mexico. A home driving licence is valid in all three countries; the parks post 45 mph speed limits and mean them, and bison have the right of way.

North America trip planning FAQ

Which North American destinations are best for a first trip?

New York for a city, Cancún or Waikiki for a beach, Yellowstone or Banff for a national park. A twelve-day city-and-beach route (New York, New Orleans, Cancún, two flights) or a ten-day parks road trip (Banff and Yellowstone) is the realistic first-trip shape; trying to do both in two weeks means most of the time in airports.

Can I see New York, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone in one trip?

Only with three weeks and three flights. New York to Las Vegas (for the Grand Canyon) is five and a half hours, the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone is a 13-hour drive or a flight through Salt Lake City, and each park wants three to five nights. Pick the coast-and-city trip or the parks trip, and keep the other for next time.

Do I need a car in North America?

Not in New York, where the subway does everything and parking costs $50 a night; optional in New Orleans and Cancún, where taxis, streetcars and tours cover the sights; essential in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Banff, where trailheads are 45 to 90 minutes apart and shuttles run only on the busiest corridors. Book park rental cars with the lodges; summer sells out.

When is the best time to visit North America?

It depends on the theme. The cities are best in April to June and September to November, Cancún from December to April, and the mountain parks from late May to September, when every road is open. September is the one month that suits all three: warm cities, dry-ish Cancún before the worst of hurricane season, and quiet parks with elk in rut.

Do I need a visa or ESTA to visit the United States, Canada or Mexico?

Visa Waiver Program nationals need an ESTA before flying to the US; visa-exempt visitors flying into Canada need an eTA; Mexico admits most Western passports visa-free with a passport stamp or digital arrival form. US citizens need only a passport for Canada and Mexico. Fees and forms change, so check each country's official immigration site in the month before you travel.

The six North America guides

Things to do, where to stay, what to eat, when to go and a three-day sample itinerary for each destination. The four Hawaii island guides live under the Hawaii hub.