United States
🗓 Best time: April–June and September–October suit the coasts and canyons alike. Summer is road-trip season (and national-park crowds); winter belongs to city lights and ski states.
💰 Realistic budget: ₹2,50,000–₹3,50,000 per person for 10 nights including flights — and the 10-year visa amortises across a decade of returns.
🛂 Visa for Indians: B1/B2 visitor visa: fee US$185, interview required, and appointment waits vary sharply by consulate — begin months ahead. Once granted (typically 10-year validity), America becomes a repeatable habit rather than a single trip.
No country contains more trips: the vertical thrill of Manhattan, the Pacific Coast Highway's cliff-hung curves, the Grand Canyon rearranging your sense of scale, national parks the size of European nations. The visa interview is the famous hurdle — but the prize is ten years of a country you cannot finish, which changes the arithmetic entirely.
The shape of the trip
The first-timer's classic (10 nights): New York (4) — Central Park to Brooklyn Bridge, a Broadway night, the 9/11 Museum's gravity; fly west to Las Vegas as the improbable gateway (2) for the Grand Canyon day or overnight (3); finish in Los Angeles or San Francisco (3) — Hollywood and beaches, or cable cars and the Golden Gate. Second trips earn the great road trips.
The money
Budget honestly: city hotels ₹12,000–20,000, diner-to-dinner eating ₹2,500–4,000 daily, internal flights ₹8,000–15,000 per hop — and tipping (18–20%) as a real line item, not a rounding error. The offsets: outlet shopping, free city icons, and parks that charge per car, not per person.
Worth knowing
Book the visa interview before anything else — it sets the calendar. Carry travel insurance without fail; US healthcare bills are the world's least funny surprise. And resist the itinerary that 'does' both coasts and three parks in ten days: America rewards depth and punishes sprints.
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