Where to go in the States

david_ocdavid_oc
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hiya,



I'm planning on going to the US this summer on a J1 visa. I'm looking for advice on where to work.



A few friends have suggested San Fran, others Santa Barbara, more Mass.



I'd be interested to here from US residents, students who have done the J1 or similar, or anyone with good ideas on where a student could have a good time and make a bit of cash.



Cheers,



David
«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 47
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    don't touch indiana.
  • Reply 2 of 47
    magicfingersmagicfingers Posts: 703member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    don't touch indiana.



    omg I was just gonna say thAT
  • Reply 3 of 47
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    New York, NY



    Expensive, but worth it!!



    It is like the Apple of cities!, a big Apple!!



    and we will have 3 Apple Stores!!







  • Reply 4 of 47
    colanderofdeathcolanderofdeath Posts: 1,261member
    I'd say you have to decide what your priorities are. Do you want what would probably be a better experience in a larger city or are you looking for $$$? Everyone else wants to live in the same desireable cities like New York or San Francisco so there is generally a pretty high cost of living. Incomes go up in a similar fashion however at the bottom end of the scale where a student is likely to be you may not get much more than someone would in a cheaper city.



    I would look at maybe more midsize cities (500,000-1,000,000 or so) with a modern tech bent. Cities like Austin, Texas or Portland, Oregon or There will stuff be enough going on for you to have fun on a day to day basis and work out the cash side as well.



    Bear in mind that mass transit is marginal in most of the US outside of major cities.



    I would exclude the Desert SW obviously, Las Vegas, Phoenix et al are just too hot in the summer. Past that, throw out crappy states or rural states and I'm sure many people would disagree with this but my list of crappy states or places that just are not oriented towards what you are looking for would be:



    Maine (A bit out of the way)

    Vermont (Nice but small townish)

    New Hampshire (Nice but small townish)

    Connecticut (Boring Bedroom Community State)

    Rhode Island (Too small to find)

    Delaware (Whatever)

    West Virginia (Moonshine pales in comparison to Irish Beer)

    Alabama (Ugh, No)

    Arizona (Too hot in summer for Cent./S. AZ, Flagstaff is nice but a bit small)

    Arkansas (You fail the pickup truck prerequisite)

    Indiana (Blah)

    Iowa (You can buy corn at the store anyway)

    Kansas (Evil State)

    Kentucky (Nah)

    Louisiana (New Orleans = Visit not live and the rest...)

    Maryland (Tolerable but there are better choices so why MD?)

    Michigan (Industrial icky mostly, again better choices)

    Minnesota (OK but again, there are better choices)

    Mississippi (Why live Deliverance when you can just rent it at blockbuster?)

    Missouri (Again, OK maybe but not attractive really)

    Montana (Beautiful state but too rural)

    Nebraska (See Iowa or if you can avoid it, don't)

    Nevada (Las Vegas = Too hot, the rest too rural mostly)

    New Jersey (No one intentionally goes to NJ.)

    North Dakota (Too rural)

    Ohio (Land of boring averageness)

    Oklahoma (Because it is Oklahoma)

    South Carolina (Just my opinion)

    South Dakota (Too rural)

    Tennessee (To each their own but no thanks)

    Virginia (Well its like part West Virginia and part Maryland and I nixed both so same goes for Virginia)

    Wyoming (too rural though NW corner is of course gorgeous)

    Wisconsin (Cheese and Milwaukee aint my dream summer)



    That narrows it down at bit as that was about 2/3rds of the states.
  • Reply 5 of 47
    advance the manadvance the man Posts: 44member
    Several cities in Florida would fit the bill. South Florida (Miami, West Palm, Ft Lauderdale). Tampa/Clearwater. The panhandle with Destin is becoming very hip. Orlando can be a fun town even with the tourists. Jacksonville Beach has a great atmosphere with tons of golf around.
  • Reply 6 of 47
    advance the manadvance the man Posts: 44member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tonton

    San Diego, CA.



    Coming from Ireland, you would hate Florida in the summer time.



    San Diego is absolutely beautiful. Regarding Florida, somehow the hot girls deal with it! So I deal with it too!
  • Reply 7 of 47
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    It's really hot and humid in Florida in the summer. You could always get a job at some summer resort place up North. They are always looking for kids to work over the summer. It wont be much of a vacation but you are looking for summer work.
  • Reply 8 of 47
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Check out the Pacific NorthWest, Seattle is great, you've got the Gifford Pinchot National Forest/Wilderness, Kyaking, hiking, etc,. a very very neat, old (by American standards) city. There is an extensive ferry system that runs all over Puget Sound, and then there is Mt. St. Helens down south, and Mt. Ranier for some pretty cool dayhikes. The Pinchot National Forest has hot springs, ask the locals, they'll tell you where they are.



    There is a ferry about 140 km north of Seattle, that runs that runs all the way up to Alaska -- you can legally book passenger passage, and save money by pitching a tent on deck -- it looks like a campground with duct tape instead of tent stakes. Also, Alaska has the summer 'slime line' Salmon industry where you can bum around, see the country and do some really hard work.
  • Reply 9 of 47
    trick falltrick fall Posts: 1,271member
    Lots of Irish end up working in Montauk for the summer and I would think you could do worse.
  • Reply 10 of 47
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Advance The Man

    Several cities in Florida would fit the bill. South Florida (Miami, West Palm, Ft Lauderdale). Tampa/Clearwater. The panhandle with Destin is becoming very hip. Orlando can be a fun town even with the tourists. Jacksonville Beach has a great atmosphere with tons of golf around.



    Florida is very hot in the summer, the public transportation sucks, and it's very sprawly, so you have to travel a long way to get anywhere.



    I'd recommend the mid-atlantic / northeast. That is: Washington DC, Philly, NYC, Boston. There are a lot of Irish in Boston. Many have been there for a long time, many have not. Having grown up in DC I'm a bit partial to it: I find it to be a nice, medium sized city with a lot of history. It also has a very nice subway system that never gets ultra-crowded.



    But the bottom line is that you have to at least check out New York for a day or two. I don't think there's any city on Earth that is similar. Hong Kong might come close, but I doubt it can offer the level of varied experiences that New York can.
  • Reply 11 of 47
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    How long do you have? I've found that lots of Europeans have a hard time wrapping their brain around the idea that it takes two solid days of driving just to get across Texas.



    That said, if you're flying around the country, hit the big places: NY, D.C., Boston, Philly, then Chicago, then San Fran.
  • Reply 12 of 47
    colanderofdeathcolanderofdeath Posts: 1,261member
    Texas is big but it aint that big. The longest stretch geographically that you might actually do would probably be Beaumont to El Paso which is less than 1000 miles. Shreveport to El Paso would comparable in distance. Either way, it is definitely manageable in one day without extraordinary effort. Now, I guess if you really want to take US highways from the panhandle all the way from Brownsville that could be over a day but there are not many Point A's or Point B's for that trip that most tourists would be interested in.



    Still, the overall point is a good one. As a point of comparison, if you look at a US map you will see South Carolina along the East Coast, the little triangular wedge looking state. It's approximately the same size land mass as Ireland.



    You can always go here and there but realistically you'll probably have to choose a region. Chances are it will be East Coast or West Coast. West Coast is better of course. East Coasters are much too uptight and land is not pretty. The middle is also not as good. Avoid anything between I-25 and I-75 (except Austin Texas and Chicago Illinois and maybe a few others that I am forgetting).
  • Reply 13 of 47
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    I lived in Chicago for 8 years. It's one of those places that's a great place to live but you wouldn't want to visit there. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not like New York or LA where you could spend a week and never catch everything.
  • Reply 14 of 47
    johnrpjohnrp Posts: 357member
    Key west is stunning.



    I went swimming with dolphins there this past summer. The first time I had made the trip (this was my 4th visit to Florida) and I am sad I had not done it years ago.



    You would get bored very quickly but for 2-3 days it is something to be seen.



    Ohh and if you are in Florida you can go to Disneyworld



    j.
  • Reply 15 of 47
    ijerryijerry Posts: 615member
    I would recommend Denver, CO. Simply because of the diversity that you will experience.



    You have the Rocky Mountains! Which means lots to do for "Free". You also have a large city with all the stuff to do, and yes 2 Apple Stores! You are connected to the entire country for simple flights with their International Airport, so the central location makes it ideal to visit either coast line. You are able to easily drive to the NW corner of Wyoming for the beauty, or the NE corner for "Devils Tower". You can travel south into New Mexico for some culture and art like nowhere else, and all of this is within a days drive.



    Cost of living is great, and the mass transit system is cheap and efficient. Not sure what is on your agenda, but you can pretty much cover everything, I would think. Have fun when you do decide!
  • Reply 16 of 47
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ijerry

    I would recommend Denver, CO. Simply because of the diversity that you will experience.





    Denver is actually a pretty good choice. I still think you should check out New York City for a day. This might be easy given connecting flights, etc.
  • Reply 17 of 47
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ijerry

    I would recommend Denver, CO. Simply because of the diversity that you will experience.



    You have the Rocky Mountains! Which means lots to do for "Free". You also have a large city with all the stuff to do, and yes 2 Apple Stores! You are connected to the entire country for simple flights with their International Airport, so the central location makes it ideal to visit either coast line. You are able to easily drive to the NW corner of Wyoming for the beauty, or the NE corner for "Devils Tower". You can travel south into New Mexico for some culture and art like nowhere else, and all of this is within a days drive.



    Cost of living is great, and the mass transit system is cheap and efficient. Not sure what is on your agenda, but you can pretty much cover everything, I would think. Have fun when you do decide!





    don't forget the Medicine Wheel in Wyoming!
  • Reply 18 of 47
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Just remember that the US is a very, very large hunk of land, about 5000km from one end to the other, and that's not including Hawaii, which is way out in the Pacific, or Alaska, which is a lot bigger than people realize. You could waste a lot of time on travel if you don't plan well. I would suggest picking some activities first and mapping out your trip geographically to satisfy what you want to see within a reasonable sequence. You can do similar things in different places in some cases, so picking the right place to do it will allow you to fit in more stuff or take more time for those things.



    My sister had a client from Japan come over for a 3 day visit a few years ago. The guy wanted to do one thing in the States on each day. Day 1, see New York; day 2, see Texas; day 3, see Hollywood. Not really feasible.



    I love going to upstate NY and visiting Ithaca, the finger lakes,going on wine tours and maybe Niagara Falls while I'm up there, but it might be too out of the way for you. Ithaca is about 3.5-4 hours outside NYC, and Niagara Falls is about 8-9 hours.
  • Reply 19 of 47
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    San Diego, CA. Beautiful city just to drive around in.

    New York, NY. Enough said. Stick to Manhattan though.
  • Reply 20 of 47
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BuonRotto

    My sister had a client from Japan come over for a 3 day visit a few years ago. The guy wanted to do one thing in the States on each day. Day 1, see New York; day 2, see Texas; day 3, see Hollywood. Not really feasible.



    Exactly. I was in London a while back and in the tube was listening to two women plan their trip to America:



    "OK, on Monday, we'll go see Disneyworld (in Orlando). On Tuesday, we'll drive down to the Alamo (in San Antonio, TX...1159 MILES AWAY). On Wednesday, we'll go to Chicago (1241 MILES AWAY)."



    What is it Bill Bryson says? People in America will drive distances for a taco that British people would consider a weekend vacation.
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