Vacation ideas for late August?

July 1, 2024 10:30 AM

We will be a party of 3 adults looking to take a trip somewhere for a few days in late August/early September. We're flying from California and interested in staying in the US or perhaps Canada. More details below!

Here's a little taste of each person's interests:

Person 1 -- books, museums, architecture, yummy food
Person 2 -- computer games, computers, yummy food
Person 3 -- yummy Asian food

After writing that, I feel like maybe we're boring? Anyway, just looking for an interesting city to explore that has some culture and good food. So far, in terms of the US, I can only think of NYC, which I feel like is a city that really has something for everyone... architecture, museums, broadway show, good food, etc., but is there a city in Canada maybe worth exploring?

posted by massofintuition to Travel & Transportation (12 answers total)

Depending where you are in California, you could swap Los Angeles for San Francisco or the reverse.

Otherwise, most of the major Canadian cities have something to recommend them.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:32 AM on July 1

I mean, I feel like most cities could scratch those itches (well, I dunno about computer games). But given the time frame, I'd pick a city likely to have cool and pleasant weather.
posted by coffeecat at 10:37 AM on July 1

Seattle, Portland or Vancouver?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 10:55 AM on July 1 [3 favorites]

Chicago also works.
posted by ShooBoo at 11:06 AM on July 1 [4 favorites]

2nding Seattle. I just got back from a Seattle trip that hit all of the interests highlighted.

Museum of Popular Culture has an indie games exhibit right now that was fun. Seattle Center has a bunch of cool architecture and the Chihuly museum is totally fantastic. lots of great food including Asian all over the metro area, but IMHO the best Korean food is in Tacoma, 40 min south. I've mentioned it on here before, but the Connections Museum is a treasure, but only open sunday.
posted by Dr. Twist at 11:27 AM on July 1

Go to Montreal. It's Paris in North America.
posted by BadgerDoctor at 11:45 AM on July 1 [1 favorite]

I also just got back from Seattle last week and did all those things save for the computer games. We even took a tour of the downtown library building. It was a marvel and well worth the 20+ years I had waited to see it in person.
posted by mmascolino at 12:58 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]

My friend, you are looking for yummy Asian food and not even thinking about Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver? All three cities could entertain you all for days. I'd hit Vancouver first, I think, for the international flair.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:32 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]

Vancouver should be top of the list. It has one good museum, an excellent library, and Asian foods for days. You’ll have to have dedicated pilgrimages to Surrey for Indian and Richmond for Chinese. You can make a whole trip about food. Weather is temperate, dollar is weak. Hotels are expensive though.
posted by shock muppet at 2:15 PM on July 1 [3 favorites]

Person 1 would definitely love Chicago (Architecture foundation boat tours, Powell's Bookstore, Seminary Co-Op). Person 2 might enjoy the Museum of Science & Industry if their interests stretch to "technology" more broadly. Person 3 will like Chinatown.
posted by Johnny Assay at 3:51 AM on July 2 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Montreal. It's got all the stuff of a world city, with a unique POV of being Francophone/bilingual. There's a lot of good food, including Chinese, Japanese, etc, though when we went we were especially interested in Vietnamese. There's a lot of art and events in the summer. The weather should be pretty nice. It's a bit of a haul from California but not really more so than NYC.
posted by vunder at 10:06 AM on July 2

Another vote for Montreal
posted by atlantica at 11:47 AM on July 2