When the months of summer fun at camp end, it’s time to board the yellow school busses and begin the journey to New York City. Taking part in the Camp America program means that I got a J1 visa, meaning that I was lucky enough to travel after camp for up to 30 days after finishing your time my camp.

As I went to a camp that is based close to New York City, we had quite a convent drop of point and also one that is easy to make travel plans from. Having completed three summers at camp I have been lucky enough to visit a number of places across America, so I thought that I would talk about the top 5 places that I have been.

Number 5- Chicago 

I visited Chicago the second year that I went to camp and it was actually a really last-minute random decision for me to go. I believe that I went onto Sky Scanner and searched for flights to anywhere from my previous location and picked somewhere that I hadn’t been yet. I spent two days in Chicago, this was the perfect amount of time to visit and enjoy all the sights on my own.

I took advantage of the Chicago Explorer Pass. This pass allows you to choose the attractions that you want to visit, which can include a hop on hop off bus pass as one of your options. I chose the 5-choice pass.

The attractions that I visited were:

• The Chicago Bean (you do not need the pass for this!)
• Shedd Aquarium
• Sky Deck Chicago
• 360 Chicago Observatory Deck (I took advantage of the Big Tilt here too!)
• Lake Tour

Chicago was also fantastic for food and drink. I try and make sure that I visit a local delicacy when I travel to a new place and then sometimes, like in Chicago, there are places that I have seen online that I love to try and visit too.

My Chicago top food and drink stops:

• The Nutella Cafe

• Giordano’s Pizza (I got this twice it was so good!)

As Chicago was one of the last places I visited on that trip, I also was sure to walk down the Magnificent Mile to pick up the last-minute shopping bits that I needed to grab.

Number 4- San Francisco 

I have been lucky enough to visit San Francisco a couple of times in the last couple of years. I have been fortunate to be able to stay in both the city of San Francisco as well as down by the piers. Personally, I preferred staying at the piers as I was there to see the sights rather than shop. From my experience I feel that two full days to explore is the perfect amount of time.

There was quite a lot of attractions that I wanted to visit in San Francisco and I have also taken advantage of a hop on hop off bus tour the times I have been there also. Below are the top attractions that I visited:

• Alcatraz
• Pier 39
• Lombard Street
• Taking a tram from the city to the pier
• Golden Gate Bridge

My San Francisco food and drink stops:

• Boudin Bakery
• Ghirardelli Chocolate

Number 3- Niagara Falls

Always since I can remember I have wanted to be able to visit Niagara Falls, so on my third year at camp I made it happen. So that I can stick within my visa restrictions, I visited the USA side. As the falls was our first destination after camp, we took a late-night flight to Buffalo on our drop off day and then spent a further full day as well as a half day in the town.

As neither myself or my friend had been to the falls before, we wanted to see everything, so we took advantage of the Niagara Falls Discovery Pass. Due to the weather, we were unable to see everything that was included on the pass but here’s what we did do:

• Maid of the Mist
• Cave of the Winds
• The Trolley

I honestly can’t recommend any local food here as it was raining so much when we were there that all of our extra time was spent in our hotel room.

Number 2- Grand Canyon

Similar to Niagara Falls I have always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon, but I didn’t know how many different ways there were to see it. I was recommended to fit in visiting the Grand Canyon trip to a trip to Las Vegas, so that’s what I did. I booked myself onto a day tour from my Vegas hotel room and it honestly couldn’t have been easier.

I booked onto a West Rim bus tour that included a bus stop at the Hoover Dam. The tour was very informative as well as fun, when we got to the side the locals were a wealth of knowledge also. The trip also included a breakfast box that we received at the Hoover Dam and a local authentic lunch at the Grand Canyon.

As we visited the West Rim we were given the option to complete the Sky Walk Bridge, this wasn’t included in the ticket price so was an extra charge. We didn’t choose to do this as the ticket was quite expensive and you were not allowed to take cameras or phones to take photos. You could purchase their photos at an extra charge. In my personal opinion the photos and the view that you can get were as good as those you could take from the rim edge right next to the entrance.

I would definitely love to go back to the Grand Canyon again and see another side of the Rim and eventually take a trip rafting down the river.

Number 1- Seattle

I always thought that it was going to be hard to choose a favourite place in America, but honestly every time someone asks me the best place I’ve visited in the states my answer has always been Seattle. Even though I have only spent a couple of nights here and visited only once.

You see pictures of the Pike Place Markets everywhere online and every time I saw one I always thought that they would never look the same in real life. But honestly visiting them, they were so much better. Walking down to the markets you get to see the sign, experience the array of smells and hear the hustle and bustle of everyone dashing around to get their shopping. I was even lucky enough to see the famous fish tossing,

On the edge of Pike Place Market is the original Starbucks store and as I am a lover of coffee this was a must-see place for me. Even though the store always seemed to have a cue when we walked pass, it moves super quickly. We were also lucky enough that the time that we were waiting they were passing out free samples in the line. The interior of the Starbucks store is not like any other one I have visited. It’s definitely a must see.

Like other places, we purchased an attraction pass in Seattle. We chose the CityPASS. The attractions that I visited were:

• Space Needle
• Seattle Aquarium
• Museum of Pop and Culture
• Chihuly Garden and glass
• Boat tour of the harbour
• Gum Wall

My Seattle food and drink stops:

• Starbucks, obviously
• Fish and chips at a cafe on the pier
• Cheesecake Factory