Ladies and gentlemen, please form an orderly queue for the Great American
spring sale. First, we must thank the ever-weakening dollar: the tourist
rate is now $1.86 to the pound, compared to $1.39 three years ago. So, for
starters, that’s a whopping 34% off everything you buy stateside. We haven’t
seen rates like this since 1992.
Then there are the transatlantic flights: the big airlines are having sales
and you can fly from London to New York for £196 return — not bad when you
consider £83.50 of that is tax. And finally, the hotels: their high-season
rates don’t kick in for another three months.
What more reason do you need? Well, here are four more — the best destinations
to get on the plane for right now. By the summer, many of America’s finest
spots get too hot and far too bothered by Yankee hordes. If you can make
time for a spring escape, you will see the country blossoming after a long,
hard winter, but without the crowds. From the elegant bolt holes of Long
Island to the blooming deserts of California (the best in 50 years, they
say), here are the spring breaks worth battling through Homeland Security
for. The airport staff might be rude, but the savings are positively vulgar.
LONG ISLAND
Depending on your age, Long Island is either where Jay Gatsby and Nick
Carraway drank their way through the summer of 1922 in the classic novel, or
where Ross and Monica's parents live in Friends. Gatsby and the Gellars have
one thing in common: they're all stinking rich. And that's what Long Island
is about: wealth.
Luckily, I didn't need lots of cash to enjoy Long Island, but a fondness for
the finer things in life helps. Long Islanders feel more English than the
English. They live in immaculate clapboard houses and spend weekends
pottering round antiques fairs and hosting barbecues. This is not America as
I've ever known it — it's the nation's prettier, quieter cousin, attached to
the mainland by an invisible underpass. The sky's bigger here, the light's
brighter and the gardens turn into vast meadows dotted with red barns and
white sheep.
How to do it: the guidebooks will have you believe you can't
see the island without a car, but a good knowledge of the Long
Island Railroad schedule and some scrupulous time management will prove
them wrong. JFK airport is actually on Long Island, so avoid Manhattan and
head north to Long Island Sound (the drive is 45 minutes; the train takes 40
and costs £2). This is Great Gatsby country, where F Scott Fitzgerald rented
a house "in one of the strangest communities in North America" —
Great Neck, which later became the fictional West Egg. Here, imposing
mansions can be spied through polished gates. Many estates have been turned
into museums that close for the winter and reopen in April, but the gardens
are a little friendlier, allowing visitors to stroll among crocuses,
rhododendrons and daffodils for free.
Once you've walked up an appetite, eat at Peter Luger's award-winning
steakhouse in Great Neck (00 1-516 487 8800; credit cards not accepted).
Stay the night in nearby Glen Cove, where there are more hotels to choose
from. Harrison
Manor House (516 671 6400; doubles from £98) can be your own
aristocratic lodge for the night — it's a converted mansion, complete with
white pillars and Star-Spangled Banner. Glen Cove itself is charming enough,
with the 1950s-style Henry's Soda Bar and a small-town picture house.
Next day, head for Sag Harbour for a low-key brunch. They call this old
whaling town the "un-Hamptons", as the residents pride themselves
on the friendly, unpretentious atmosphere. Second-hand bookstores and delis
abound. Try Jeff & Eddy's for seafood (631 725 0055) or JLX Bistro (631
725 9100) for a burger. If you choose to stay over, check in at the American
Hotel (631 725 3535; doubles from £95). If the sun is shining, there are
some spectacular cycle routes along the coast and, by ferry, to the serene
and rugged Shelter Island (every 15 minutes; £2.50 return). Wear your
shades.
A quick snifter can be slotted in as you head east toward the Hamptons. Long
Island has two wine regions. The most prolific is on the North Fork, but
this area can't be reached by train, so go to Bridgehampton station and
catch a cab to the world-renowned Channing
Daughters Winery for a tasting (631 537 7224; £2.80). This is extremely
relaxed, and the knowledgeable staff will bend over backwards to make sure
you leave with rosy cheeks. Buy a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc 2004 (£10) to
take back to the hotel.
Last up is the notorious Hamptons, where you will notice that the traffic
changes to stretch Jeeps and canary-yellow Ferraris. Enjoy it for what it is
— it has its own Tiffany & Co, for heaven's sake — and be sure to
eat at one of the celeb hot spots (you'd never get a table in summer). Two
favourites are Nick & Toni's (631 324 3550) and The Palm (631 324 0411),
the latter of which is within the Hunting Inn, considered the best hotel in
town (631 324 0410; doubles from £85).
To die for: the southern fork beaches — Hampton Bays, East
Hampton and Amagansett. In August, these white-sand
ribbons seethe with Pimm's-drinking elderlies, plastic-breasted undergrads and
cigar-smoking equity brokers. But in spring, there isn't a soul to be seen
from P.Diddy's villa to the Kennedy residence. Pick up a roast chicken and a
jug of iced tea in Bridgehampton before taking your picnic down to the
water's edge.
Getting there: American
Airlines (0845 778 9789), British
Airways (0870 850 9850) and Virgin
Atlantic (0870 574 7747) fly from Heathrow to New York, with fares from
£196 if you book by Tuesday. Continental
Airlines (0845 607 6760) has flights from Birmingham, Gatwick, Glasgow,
Edinburgh and Manchester (from £194), and from Dublin (01 890 925252; from
€404). Holiday
Autos (0870 400 4461) has a week's inclusive car hire from £126. Expedia
(0870 050 0808) has three nights' B&B at Harrison Manor House from
£401pp, including flights.
Katie Bowman travelled as a guest of Expedia
THE APPALACHIANS
They drop like vultures and hog all the best views. Actually, they are
vultures. And if you want to see them, along with hawks, falcons and eagles
in varying degrees of baldness, you’ve got to beat the rush.
On the apex of the Appalachians, Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain puts the horn
into ornithology. By autumn, its viewing stages will bristle with visitors
eager to clock the continent’s scariest birds. Pausing along eight miles of
viewpoints, I met a sharp-shinned hawk. If I’d come with the crowd, I’d have
a sparrow-fart chance of such intimacy. “Everyone’s here for the fall,” says
Mary Linkevitch, my guide, “but few realise there are two migratory stages —
for the April-May one, you get this all to yourself.”
Pennsylvania is the best of rural America. By the summer, may apples (like
overgrown snowdrops), wild azaleas and pink columbines have packed up and
gone; from March, they carpet the Appalachians, a symphony of soft hues
under the blueberry bushes, red buds and sweet birch.
Down south, I found the grass greener in Gettysburg, where they serve a supersize
portion of history. Sounds stodgy, but for £21, an expert guide will jump
aboard and steer you through the battle story. See that paddock on your
left? That’s where 1,600 men died. In about six minutes. And that mortar
hole in the wall opposite? Went clean through a woman’s back. Suddenly, it’s
all nastily real. Now, this is an arrestingly serene place, but by June the
wars between jostling tourists will be far from civil.
How to do it: for chic country living and a neater class of clapboard
cottage, head northeast (via the I-95) to Bucks County, New York’s answer to
Hampshire. Stone Ridge
Farm (215 249 9186) has doubles from £52. It is a proper working farm,
with horses chomping under your window. Ostensibly a charming clapboard
town, New Hope is a bolt hole for rich city slickers. Marsha Brown’s
restaurant (215 862 7044) is a converted church serving tasty creole food;
main courses from £12. Follow the backroads to visit the famed covered
bridges.
Pennsylvania’s real pretty in spring time, but some “musts” require judicious
pruning. Amish country, west of Philadelphia, is a tacky tourism zoo. For a
shameless gawp at the locals as they skulk around in their horse-drawn
buggies, visit Intercourse, north of the I-30. The town is less exciting
than the name suggests — for more discreet Amish-gazing, drive 10 miles
north to the farms around New Holland.
Continue north to the I-22 to pick up signs for Hawk
Mountain Sanctuary (610 756 6961). Ten miles east, the Glasbern
(610 285 4723) is recommended in hushed tones, and deservingly so. My
split-level barn suite, with a log fire and a mezzanine whirlpool bath, cost
£160, B&B. To reach Gettysburg, follow the I-22 and, beyond
Harrisburg, the I-15. Harper’s Ferry is an hour’s drive further south, via
Frederick. This is the HQ of the Appalachian Trail, and the USA’s hiking
hub; lace up now for the trail, edged with trillium and virginia bluebells.
The pleasure outweighs the slim chance of being eaten by a bear.
East Coast B&Bs can make you feel you’re lost in Barbara Cartland’s
knicker drawer. The Washington
House Inn (304 725 7923; doubles from £55), in Charles Town, pleads
guilty, but it’s also an antiques showroom by day. And they serve a fine
waffle.
To die for: the keys to room 26 at the care-worn Hilltop
House Hotel (304 535 2132; doubles from £38), in Harper’s Ferry, buy a
literary frisson. Mark Twain slept here, and you get a fine view of the town
nestling in the cleft of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Just lie back
and listen to the Amtrak locos honking across the valley.
Getting there: British Airways
(0870 850 9850) flies from Heathrow to Philadelphia, and US
Airways (0845 600 3300) flies from Gatwick; each from £247. US Airways
flies there from Manchester; from £287. Hertz
(0870 844 8844) has a week’s inclusive car hire from £113.
Simon Hacker travelled as a guest of US Airways
PALM SPRINGS
I've walked the arid Anza-Borrego desert, to the northeast of San Diego, in
high summer, and just the mention of it dries my mouth and creases my shirt.
This time, in spring, I found myself treading carefully between bunches of
gleefully colourful orange poppies and purple verbena. Elsewhere, the
cracked ground was giving forth fields of green shoots, and in the far
distance, distorted by the mid-morning heat haze, I could see splashes of
yellow and red on some of the lower rises. Maybe it was a mirage? “Nope. And
it’s just a taster,” said Tad Monson, a fellow flower-gazer, who had driven
from Palm Springs and chosen to park next to me (600,000 acres and he
couldn’t find his own spot?).
“Those winter storms you read about? The ones that hit LA? They dumped plenty
of rain out here. Now, with a hot, dry spell, you’ll get flowers into April
and May. Up north, some say it’ll be the best display of blooms in the
Mojave for 50 years.” With that, he touched the brim of his baseball hat and
wandered off to find his own quiet spot in the scrub, to listen to the
silence and watch the flowers grow. I got back in my car. If Tad said the
Mojave was worth seeing, that was good enough for me.
He was right, too. The desert is at its finest right now — hot without being
broiling — and if you know where to look, it’s blooming. How to do it: the
desert city of Palm Springs goes through cycles of fashionability, but its
star is definitely in the ascendancy at the moment. Much of that is due to
the Parker Palm
Springs (760 770 5000; doubles from £125 per night). A Meridien hotel,
but not as we know it, it is 13 acres of playful hippie chic, with all the
de luxe touches. Alternatively, try one of the Historic Inns of Palm
Springs. Two popular ones are the Willows
(760 320 0771; doubles from £160), a 1927 Med-style villa with just eight
rooms, a private garden and its own waterfall; and, if you want something
less severe on the wallet, the Chase
(760 320 8866; doubles from £40), which has 26 rooms and a good location.
From Palm Springs, I took the 26-mile drive north to the scenic wonders of
Joshua Tree, with its bizarre rock formations and even more eye-popping
plants. Call at the visitor
centre (760 367 5500) for guides and maps. If you want someone else to
drive, Desert Adventures
(760 324 5337) offers a four-hour Joshua 4WD safari for £55pp; it also
explores the canyons and desert around Palm Springs (from £38). On my trip,
we had to stop to let a cluster of tarantulas cross the track in front of
us.
