Our giant neighbor to the south offers a lot of tourist interest.

The border with the USA is about 160 Kms away, so a trip to this country is tempting.

However, such a trip confirms two things I always say to people on a budget who want to visit the U.S.:

1) This can be a pretty expensive place to have fun, and

2) You’ll have a hard time in many places without a car.

Money first

 

For example, if you want to enjoy a show at some place in Boston (about 400 kms from Montreal), be prepared to pay $ 50 per person just for the right of admission.

Obviously, you’ll need to consume: $3 to $4 for a beer, $3 to $6, and $2.50 for a large bottle of water.

If it’s about eating, in nice places, not very fancy, but not at McDonalds either, you’ll have to pay an average of $50 per day per person.

From here you can collect that after a week you will spend a small fortune. If we had been to one of the cheapest destinations in the world, what we spent in that week would have taken us from three weeks to a month and a half.

As for the car…

 

Depending on the city you must rent or not. In Boston, New York or New Orleans you won’t have much of a need, because there’s good public transportation (avoid the subway at rush hour!) and New Orleans is very pedestrian.

Things change with the mecas of Latinos in the USA: Florida and Los Angeles. Distances are large and public transport relatively scarce.

Really in these areas you will have to rent a car. In the state of Florida, car rental prices range from $30 to $50 per day, depending on the type of vehicle.

Are you scared of that? Well, hold on, because the average per day of renting a car in Los Angeles is $60 to $80.

But in Los Angeles you have the subway system, which, as with New York, is much better avoided at peak times.

To finish

 

The U.S. is the world’s leading economy and a huge country. These factors combine to make the cost of living high by Latin Americans, and even Spaniards, standards when it comes to a low-budget trip.

If you want to know any of the attractions of this country, it is better to segment very well and do a very local tourism, where the trips are short.

Unless you’re really adventurous and willing to hitchhike and have friends who can stay along the route you plan to do.

We do not tell you this to discourage you from traveling to the U.S., just to take these factors into account when organizing your trip to this country.

Have you gone to the U.S.?

What has been your experience?