Hello,

You said you like big cities, since you plan on driving from Florida and you will be in the south I suggest you Nashville and Memphis if you can. Nashville is the country music capital of the US and Memphis is the home of the Blues. Beal Street is great, lots of good blues bars. You can also visit Graceland and see where Elvis "The King of Rock and Roll" lived. It's worth the trip. If you want to see the real America get on old Route 66, the "Mother Road". It's the old interstate highway. It runs from Chicago to LA. You will be glad you did. All you have to do is google Route 66 and you will get all sorts of information. Route 66 goes through lots of old towns and you will see cool things most people outside the US never get to see. If you want to save some money and see the parks you can always camp out. You can buy a couple of sleeping bags, a cheap tent and other camping gear at any Wal-Mart. Every state in the US has parks you can camp in. A lot of them have showers and great facilities. You can even reserve campsite on line in some parks. I'm one of those people who packs the tent, loads up the motorcycle and hits the highway every summer. I Hope this helps!

3 1/2 weeks not enough? no, but take a couple of years and you would still miss some. I have traveled with a time limit and had a great time, saw a lot of stuff and missed a lot. Bought a bus in Florida and drove to to Washington, took me 4 1/2 days. So that gives you almost three weeks to see stuff. Get off the freeways and see the real country.
To save money camp a lot or stay in motels away from the big cities, can often find a motel for $40. Food is cheap in US as well as fuel is a lot less than Europe, (right now at $2.00 gallon and you should get 35 mph). The big cities is where your funds will go fast.
Have fun, see as much as you have time for, and come back when you have a few months to travel.
Bob

I will say I have had a lot of luck with moderately priced ($50 -$100/night) hotels. There are a bunch smartphone apps and websites you can use to find deals the day you need it.... Ive used LMT (last minute travel) with great success. They have accurate reviews, unlike tripadvisor. And you can keep your travels flexible - stay longer when you want to, keep moving when you want to...

Just curious if you are willing to camp at all? There are a lot of cheap, beautiful campsites to be had for $20/night.

I would also second checking out Nashville and/or Memphis. Personally I feel like Route 66 is overrated, but you may love it. Any chance you get to check out one of the national parks, you should. You can buy one All-america pass to get in to all of them.

Have a great time!!

There is far too much to see in just 3 1/2 weeks, but just do it, see what you can, and make it to California and you might decide to come back for 'part 2.' The state of California has some great travel, and could take up 2 weeks, or more, alone! The entire gulf coast seems to have a lot to do, from what I understand, although I have only been to New Orleans, so I can imagine if you follow the southern route out of Florida, such as along Interstate 10, you will end up passing through the gulf states and on into Texas. Texas is a nice state, but does have its boring parts, as well as westward through New Mexico and my state, Arizona, all being big desert and quite boring. So, if you want a safe route out of Florida, and chose Interstate 10, my suggestion would be to get through Texas, go into New Mexico, travel north on Interstate 25 to Interstate 40 (Route 66) and then go westward as you will be in more mountainous (hence more scenic) parts of New Mexico and Arizona, as well as in the proximity to the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona, as well as in easy driving from the east to the west into Las Vegas (which is very accessible from the Grand Canyon).

Again, this is my opinion, and since I live here, in the US, and was doing what you are doing in only 3 1/2 weeks, and knowing what I know, this is what I would suggest. Once you hit Vegas, and figure out how much time you have left, then you can decide which way to go from there.

Hi All
We are embarking on a US trip starting May 11th in Detroit. We initially started with a 3 1/2 week plan to ride New York- Chicago-LA, I soon discovered that wasn't going to be enough time and we added on other things we wanted to add and have ended up with an 8 week trip.
Anyway our trip is
May 11th - 15th Detroit
May 15th - 16th Niagara Falls
May 16th - 17th Boston
May 17th - 25th New York
May 25th - 28th Washington DC
May 28th - 29th Indianapolis
May 29th - 31st Chicago
June 1st - 19th Route 66
June 19th - 21st Los Angeles
June 21st - 24th San Francisco
June 24th - 25th Yosemite
June 25th - 26th Bonneville
June 26th - July 1st Las Vegas
July 1st -7th Los Angeles (getting married 4th July Santa Monica beach )
any tips/advice gratefully accepted and appreciated.... Any advice I can give after our first big overseas moto adventure will be a pleasure to help others ....

Womp, womp. Was about to post elaborate reply... then saw the date of post.