Best affordable car-less, single US vacations

March 18, 2018 10:05 AM

I want to take a vacation this summer. I want to go somewhere in the US, I am unable to drive and I'll be alone.

June or July. 1-2 weeks. I hate beaches. I don't drink. I can't drive. Somewhere affordable to fly from Ohio. I'll be alone.

posted by Aranquis to Travel & Transportation (26 answers total)

What else do you like? It seems like any big city could work well
posted by raccoon409 at 10:06 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

What do you like to do? In your place I'd go to New York because I can spend a week just visiting museums. Austin, Portland and Chicago are also places I've visited and loved without driving, but they're all very different experiences.
posted by theweasel at 10:08 AM on March 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed visiting Washington DC. If you stay near a metro stop, you can get almost anywhere. If you like museums, the Smithsonian is free to visit.
posted by elmay at 10:10 AM on March 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I like anything that's not beaches or heavy drinking culture. I like nature, history, art, just walking around, technology, animals, museums, everything basically. I just want to get around without spending all my money on Uber.
posted by Aranquis at 10:13 AM on March 18, 2018

Clearly any number of city destinations but being without a car and somewhere for up to two weeks can be a bit tiresome. So if you fancy moving around this is what group travel was invented for. No affiliation but done a few trips.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:13 AM on March 18, 2018

If you're in a big city or near a train station, you can always take the train across country (and back of course). It's not hiking or nature based, but it's an interesting way to see the country without driving, and relatively cheap if you catch the right deal.
posted by patheral at 10:17 AM on March 18, 2018

My vote is for New York, which is definitely very easy to enjoy without a car, and has endless things to do on your own. Some of the obvious suggestions- Central and Prospect Park, the Met and Natural History Museum and the Cloisters, the galleries in Chelsea and the High Line, etc. etc. Plenty of interesting events related to technology. Just walking through Brooklyn Heights or down Broadway through the length of Manhattan is interesting. Great bookstores. Great music. You can buy an unlimited 7-day MetroCard and never need to use Uber. You can also take the Metro North train up to Cold Spring and go hiking in the mountains one day if you want more nature.
posted by pinochiette at 10:20 AM on March 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

P.S. When I travel (which is often, because I work remotely and can work from other cities), I usually cat sit for other people in exchange for a free place to stay. I typically use Trusted Housesitters. Memail if you have questions. There's a yearly membership fee around $100 or so, but if you arrange something for the dates you want to travel, you won't spend anything on hotels or Airbnb.
posted by pinochiette at 10:23 AM on March 18, 2018 [8 favorites]

If you like history you need to go to Washington DC. I went there on a solo vacation about 18 months ago and didn’t have a car—and I can’t wait to go back! I stayed about 1/2 mile from the National Mall and found it incredibly easy to get around. Lots of (free!) Smithsonian museums and others in easy walking distance, a major metro stop was 2 blocks from my hotel, the National Gallery was literally across the street—super easy to get to everything I wanted to see—except I ran out of time, and now I need to go back!
posted by bookmammal at 10:24 AM on March 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Vegas is fun without a car -- you don't have to drink and gamble, you can see shows (magic shows, musicals, Cirque du Soleil...) poke around the cool themed hotels, or go to a fancy spa with Roman baths and a snow room! Most of the big-name hotels are clustered together (I think some of them are even interconnected?) and they have a subway/light rail type of system if you need to go further afield. I think there are bus tour day trip type of options if you wanted to get out of the city and gaze at amazing desert vistas, but I never tried any of them myself.
posted by space snail at 10:26 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

You will never need a car in NYC. If you’re staying 2 weeks I’d do 1 in Manhattan and 1 in Brooklyn.

I loved Santa Fe without a car for 4 nights but I’d be hard pressed to fill 2 weeks if I couldn’t get to see the surrounding areas.

Some hotels arrange excursions including transport.
posted by kapers at 10:37 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

NYC, DC, or Boston. All are walkable/have decent public transit, excellent museums, even nature right there in the city if you want. (I'd say New Orleans, too, but it will be way hot and humid at that time of year, and there is a lot of drinking. But it's also really walkable and has a ton of history and good museums.)
posted by rtha at 10:41 AM on March 18, 2018

I'd look at doing an East Coast city tour by picking whichever one of Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia is cheapest to fly into and then using the train to get between cities. Washington DC would be a good option as well and the time I visited for the 4th of July holiday was a lot of fun. Lots of history, great museums, good public transit coverage, not reliant on bar or beach culture.

On the West Coast I've successfully vacationed in Seattle for a long weekend without a car, but I think it would be challenging to keep yourself entertained there for much longer. San Francisco/Oakland/Berkeley are certainly doable for a week carless (two weeks is probably pushing it), but it's a longer/more expensive flight from Ohio and the public transit coverage isn't as good as the East Coast cities.
posted by 4rtemis at 10:48 AM on March 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

I just got back from Vegas and the only light rail runs about six miles from one end of the strip to the other.

Seattle is pretty good for getting around without a car.
posted by ITravelMontana at 10:56 AM on March 18, 2018

Oh yeah, forget what I said and listen to 4rtemis. DC, NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, are all very different, easy to go between via transit, and have a lot of what you like.
posted by kapers at 10:56 AM on March 18, 2018

I too was going to add Philly. A lot of different neighborhoods to explore.
posted by salvia at 11:27 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Boston has great museums, the city is just lovely to walk around in, and it's great if you want to go have experiences of being near the water without taking a Beach Trip--there are some great Boston Harbor cruises and I love just walking around there--and the seafood is great.

A bunch of the cities mentioned have CityPass options if you're intending to do the museum thing, just so you know that's out there. It's not a great deal if you didn't already want to do everything on the list, often, but if you already wanted to do all those things.
posted by Sequence at 11:40 AM on March 18, 2018

If you haven't been to Chicago, go there and use the transportation savings to live it up.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:43 AM on March 18, 2018

Another vote for Boston. I lived there for almost 10 years before buying a car and it is easy peasy to get around without one. You can even do day trips all over with just the commuter rail/amtrak.

July will be hot and sticky but the breeze down by the water is wonderful.
posted by lydhre at 11:45 AM on March 18, 2018

San Francisco is fine without a car .. much better without a car, in fact. It's hilly but walkable, and public transit is fairly good.

The downside is that June weather can be grim. Who knows this year, with strange weather everywhere, but you'll have come across the comment (Mark Twain's perhaps) on his coldest winter being summer in SF.
posted by anadem at 11:59 AM on March 18, 2018

Denver was made for this. Train downtown from airport to Union Station, and if you want to go up to the mountains there are buses or Amtrak. Feel free to PM me.
posted by cyndigo at 12:07 PM on March 18, 2018

Chicago is wonderful in summer and very doable via transit. Museums, parks, lots of free concerts, and you can walk along the lake without going to the beach. Also a great city to do stuff alone in my opinion.
posted by mai at 3:00 PM on March 18, 2018

I don't (and have never) driven. I would say any major city on the east coast, Chicago, and SF are all public transit friendly. While LA is getting more transit friendly, uber/lyft seems way cheaper there for distance in my experience. Nashville, similarly since lots of stuff you'd want to see was downtown or one or two other neighborhoods, was cheap lyft wise.

Two weeks is a LONG time so you could also do a couple of cities on the east coast--i.e. fly into boston, take the amtrak or chinatown bus to NYC or vice versa. If you love museums and art DC/NYC would be a great combo!

If you were interested in something more outdoorsy, I have always thought about doing one of these tours. They look great for the carless.
posted by jennybento at 4:05 PM on March 18, 2018

Two weeks in Boston by itself might be a bit much (I say even as a Boston enthusiast), but splitting your time between Boston and NYC would be very doable. No need for a car at any time. The bus between them is fine if you don't want to spring for Amtrak--just avoid coming into (especially) or out of NYC on a Friday night unless you really enjoy hours in stop-and-go traffic. Take one of the regular buses, though, not the "Chinatown" buses, which have had some serious safety issues in the past several years.
posted by praemunire at 8:49 PM on March 18, 2018

I visited Portland, Oregon alone once. I stayed downtown and walked everywhere or took the bus or the street car. This was before I started using Lyft, so that's an option for you too. I basically ate food, drank coffee (lots of good coffee), saw soccer (Timbers for men, Thorns for women), visited parks (Japanese Garden, Rose Garden) and just wandered. There's apparently nice hiking there too.

I also visited San Francisco alone for a shorter stay. Again, I pretty much did similar things, though I did do a Big Bus Tour bus, which was worth it. I did the same in Vancouver - bus tour, Stanley Park, wandering, etc.

Two weeks does strike me as a long trip, so maybe find two cities that are connected by train. Like Portland-Seattle or Seattle-Vancouver. For whatever reason, Seattle has never impressed me, but you can visit and it should be fine for a few days. Cities on the east coast are a lot closer, so you could do New York-Philly or Boston-New York or Washington-Philly. Etc.

I love Chicago. If you have an interest in architecture at all, it's a very cool city to explore. Washington DC is not a bad visit - free museums everywhere do help pass the time. If you're into history and culture, DC has a lot of free stuff to offer. Boston is cool, but I can't imagine visiting for two whole weeks. NY is an obvious choice.

That's basically every city I can think of where you really don't need a car.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:50 AM on March 19, 2018

Yes! to DC & East Coast cities in June. July will be hot & humid. Smithsonian Folklife Festival is June 27-July 1 and July 4-8. https://festival.si.edu/
posted by MichelleinMD at 7:27 AM on March 19, 2018