Travel Tips for the USA

HERE are some useful tips for the would-be traveller to the USA. First of all, American airports are often crowded, and it is no fun travelling during peak holiday seasons, including summertime and holiday weekends such as Spring Break.

The shoulder seasons, away from holiday weekends, are better.

As for getting into the United States, as a tourist-type traveller, what you do is apply for a Visa waiver online first of all, answer some questions, and obtain an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) clearance, which only costs $14. If this does not work or if your country is not eligible, you have to apply for a visa, which generally involves an interview and costs more. Either way, your passport must be valid until six months after you plan to leave the USA.

You can use Travisa to organise a visa for you if you run into difficulties. Though of course you must pay for this service as well as for the visa. Travisa is also useful for other purposes as well, and worth checking out at least.

The Americans ask about earlier crimes and drug convictions, which can cause problems. Fortunately, in New Zealand we have a clean slate act which means that many past offences cannot be made public after seven years, and the act also applies to the filling in of foreign immigration questionnaires. You might have a similar law in your country.

I heard of a Kiwi visitor to the USA who had been arrested for drunk driving when he was nineteen. Even though he was now thirty-five and so didn’t have to mention it under our clean slate act, he did anyway. With the result that he was detained for five hours at one of the American airports before they decided to let him into the country.

But that was nothing comparted to the misfortunes of another guy, who posted on social media that he was looking forward to taking part in a riot at a New York nightclub. Even though it was surely a joke, he was detained for no less than three days and then sent back to where he came from.

So, it is probably a good idea to make sure there is nothing like that in your social media posts or on your computer before you go. Nor, of course, to tell any sorts of jokes that might be misunderstood, even by somebody who is listening. They really are very security conscious.

Travelling Around America

As to travelling around, there are a lot of self-guided driving schemes that you can sign up for. However, I was travelling mainly by train, my car hire was just local. You can get lots of very cheap last-minute deals.

There are a great many car rental companies, including the home-grown Avis and Hertz groups and the French Europcar, as well as smaller independent operators.

When I arrived in Houston to do most of the travel described in this book, I had to fill in six pages of forms and get interviewed for an hour before they let me have an American SIM card for my phone.

The SIM only lasted six months, so when I came back to visit some people in Red Hook, New York, it had expired and I had to get a new one. I went into a phone shop in New York and said, I suppose I will have to fill in all that paperwork again. The shop staff seemed a bit nonplussed when I mentioned the word paperwork, so I explained how it had been in Texas, and they laughed and said that they do things differently down there! So, New York is a good place to get your SIM. They have fifty states, and each one has different regulations.

On the other hand, New York is a lot stricter about regulating Covid immunity. From 16 August 2021 onward, New York City has made it compulsory to show proof of Covid immunity in order to access restaurants, gyms and indoor entertainment, a set of places that will probably be broadened in the near future. As of the time of writing, enforcement was to start in September. There are two apps to choose from, the Excelsior Pass, which uses a QR code and stores some personal information, and is thus controversial, and the New York Covid Safe App, which simply stores images of WHO-approved vaccination cards, test results and so on. The Excelsior Pass is basically for New York State residents or those vaccinated in New York State, so tourists and visitors mostly need to use the New York Covid Safe App. At the opposite extreme, more than a dozen states have banned what they call such ‘vaccine passports’: these are generally the states where people don’t wear masks so much, either (more on the mask wars, below).

Useful general apps for travellers, all of them with .com on the end, include:

Airbnb, for cheap places to stay and for events as well, which people tend to forget. In New York I went to jazz nights and rap nights, both based on info I came across on Airbnb!

Booking, for cheap hotels and other services.

Groupon, which is good for discount hairdressing services and eating out.

HotelTonight, for last minute hotel deals

Meetup, for hiking and other group activities ie cooking, eating out and even expat communities

Travisa, which I have already mentioned above.

Travelocity, for last minute hotel deals and other travel services. Not as focused on accommodation as HotelTonight.

Tripadvisor, which is very good for telling you what to do locally if you put your interests in.

As for the Internet, it is worth noting that public libraries seemed to offer free wifi everywhere I went.

For national parks and the outdoors, there are many government websites that tell you all about these places. I also found that discovernw.org was a great site about the northwestern corner of the lower 48 states of the USA.

When it comes to medical matters, you must have proper travel insurance, as medical care in the USA costs a fortune.

Apart from that, my loyal travel companion was my medical kit, which along with sticking plasters, bandages and scissors contained the diarrhoea stopper loperamide, some ciprofloxacin antibiotics, packets of Gastrolyte rehydration solution and Tramadol, Tiger Balm, Vaseline for dry skin, tea tree oil, iodine and bandages, and, finally, plain old paracetamol. Not exactly a romantic set-up, but realistic, nonetheless.

And also, be up to date with vaccinations before you go, insurance of every kind, and travel advisories.

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Here is a list of things that I find it useful to pack for outdoors trips.

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GEAR

Backpack (about 70L)

Plastic liner (essential)

Travel towel (small)

Raincoat

Over-pants (preferably waterproof)

Warm hat

Gloves

Sun hat

Shorts

Hand gel

Lip balm

Survival bag

Sunblock

Insect repellent

Crocs or light hut shoes

Torch (preferably a head torch)

Long johns, x2

Woollen socks (one pair per day)

Boots

Sleeping bag

Wool singlet, x2

Wool t-shirt, x2

Long sleeve wool top, x1 or 2

Fleece top, x2

Underwear

Sunglasses

Camera

Stove

Cooking gas

1.25L water

First-aid kit including blister Band-Aids

Lighter & waterproof matches

Food*

Billy, mug, bowl, spoon and sharp knife

Snap-lock bags for food

Plastic bags to divide clothes etc.

Toilet paper

Toiletries, small and light

Dishwashing liquid & a small pot scrubber

Pack cover (useful if it rains)

Compass, survival kit& whistle

Map

Puttees or gaiters (optional)

Strips of rubber

Rope

Pocket knife

Orthotics/soles/Vaseline/wool to wrap around toes

Thin cloths cut in two, for washing self and dishes

Waistband with pockets

Cheap reading glasses

Candle

FOOD SUGGESTIONS

Scroggin (mixed nuts& dried fruit)

Dried meals (I like Kathmandu, a New Zealand brand)

Couscous

Camembert & Cheddar cheese

Marmite/jam/chutney in film containers

Hot chocolate/cappuccino sachets

Tea bags

Muesli/porridge

Instant custard mix

Mashed potato (dried)

Soup mix

Dried vegetables

Cuisine rice

Crackers/pita breads

Dates and dried apple, mango& apricots

Milk powder

Gluten-free falafel mix (with rice and Thai chilli sauce!)

Packet of sweet-and-sour sauce mix and pine nuts

Eggs

Miso soups and instant packet soups

Hard boiled eggs

Energy drinks, eg. Hairy Lemon sachets

Packet biscuits — don’t bother about pudding

Marshmallows

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Lastly, a few other tips:

Always carry a spare mobile phone with international SIM in case yours gets lost with its US SIM. Also carry spare sunglasses and light.

You may also wish to hire a personal locator beacon. And always advise rangers of travels and discuss wildlife, diseases and hazards.

A bear fence to place around your tent may be needed in some places, along with bear spray.

Carrying butane for stoves, matches and lighter will probably not be possible on the plane.

And of course in the present Covid crisis, watch out for anti-maskers. In the words of Umair Haque,

'Ultra conservatives don’t "believe in" masks and vaccines. I put it in quotes because facts exist whether or not you believe in them. And yet one thing that America’s Red States and the Taliban have in common is that they don’t want people to get vaccines or to wear masks, unless you mean burqas. That’s how regressive the American conservative mind is: on the issue of Covid, it’s neatly aligned with…the Taliban.'

As of the time of writing, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a webpage called the CDC Covid Data Tracker that enables you to track Covid incidence state by state or county by county, and they also have a Covid-19 Travel Recommendations by Destination page that provides similar information for international travellers.

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