What are the biggest mistakes people make when visiting the United States of America?
We had the pleasure of living in a great area (SF Bay area) for almost two years. And we took the chances to drive around, up to the Redwood parks in the North of California, to the coast up and down HW#1, and we enjoyed the state parks (that was for the weekends; for vacation we drove up to Alaska and down to Mississippi…). What we enjoyed (and what is most remarkable compared to most of Europe), is the wilderness, the emptiness of many places, and just some hours driving from SF! Actually, wilderness started just behind our house in a small canyon, with Bobcats, Lynx, Opossums and Coyotes - that’s just amazing (and a bit thrilling, especially when your landlord tells you about Mountain Lions occasionally coming up and being shot after they get after small children, just the age of your own ones).So visiting just some big cities and the one or other National Park keeps missing a big part of the overall picture (especially when done in a rush, asking, if 2h would be enough for any NP…).Then culture and food, as already mentioned: in Germany, it’s very hard to find authentic Chinese or Mexican food, and yes, McD is NOT the standard American burger - there are a lot of good burger restaurants out there, not to forget sophisticated other food. I worked at the 13th floor, and on our way down we always discussed, which restaurant of which nation to take today. (Yes, I gained some weight there…).Another thing I enjoyed a lot while living in that area was visiting the museums - and in the US they started much earlier to develop them from scientific show cases to eventful places, inviting to join in the experience (like at the Exploratorium). So cities are not just shopping…And talking to people: that’s probably something which many tourists would hesitate to do. And despite all saying about Americans being superficial, we took the opportunities to talk (sometimes for hours) with rangers, with people on camp-sites and in shops, museums and restaurants; that helped a lot to find the right places, but also to get to know something about the area and how people were living there. Not, that this wouldn’t be a good concept in European countries as well ;-)