United States
New York and the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Orlando, Hawaii and the Rockies — the United States is not one holiday but a dozen, and the good trips choose one coast, one region and one pace.
A continent that calls itself
a country
The United States is the size of a continent and behaves like one. New York to Los Angeles is a six-hour flight across four time zones; the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite are each a day's drive from the nearest big city, in three different directions. The first thing to understand is that nobody sees America in one trip. Every good itinerary picks a coast, or a region, and gives it room.
For Indian travellers it is also one of the most familiar far-away countries there is. Non-stop flights run from Delhi and Mumbai to both coasts, English is spoken everywhere, vegetarian food is easy in every city, and the Indian diaspora is large enough that Edison, Devon Avenue and the Bay Area have Indian high streets of their own. Many trips begin with family — a graduation, a new grandchild, a wedding in New Jersey — and grow a holiday around it.
What the country does better than almost anywhere else is scale. The national parks are enormous and genuinely wild, the cities are vertical and loud, the road trips are measured in days, and Hawaii is a tropical archipelago five hours out into the Pacific that happens to use the same currency. The visa takes patience; the country itself is easy.
When is your America?
A country this wide has every climate at once: Florida is warm in January, Yellowstone is shut, and the desert is lethal in July. The season follows the region, not the calendar.
How to Explore the World
Six ways to find your next journey — by map, by moment, or by the feeling you are chasing.
Explore the world continent by continent, country by country — every place mapped to the right season.
The landmarks that define a journey, from ancient sites to natural marvels worth crossing the world for.
Beyond the headline sights — the quiet streets and local secrets our specialists know first-hand.
Each destination timed to its finest moment, so you arrive when it is at its very best.
Direct routes, visa-on-arrival and e-Visa options that make the world more reachable than you think.
Use any destination as a starting point — every journey is shaped entirely to your taste.
US visa — what you need to know
Indian passport holders need a B-1/B-2 visitor visa — India is not in the Visa Waiver Program, so ESTA does not apply. The application is made online on Form DS-160, the fee is paid in India, fingerprints and a photograph are taken at a Visa Application Centre, and an interview follows at the US Embassy in New Delhi or the consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
The State Department states plainly that wait times for interview appointments vary by location, season and visa category, and that you should apply early. Its India portal encourages applicants to apply at least three months before the intended date of travel, and says that although processing is typically seven to ten working days, individual cases vary. The live wait at each post is published on the portal and changes constantly, which is why no figure is written here — check it before you book anything non-refundable. Expedited appointments exist but are, in the embassy's words, very limited.
First a Visa Application Centre appointment, where fingerprints and a digital photograph are collected — the portal requires it at least two business days before the interview. Then the consular interview itself. Interviews are generally required, with limited exceptions, and a consular officer may require one of any applicant. Applicants aged fourteen to seventy-nine are fingerprinted. Family members can be scheduled together using the portal's dependent option.
The interview establishes that you qualify under US law. Beyond the passport, DS-160 confirmation and fee receipt, the officer may ask for evidence of the purpose of your trip, your intent to leave the United States afterwards, and your ability to pay for it — employment and family ties are the usual proof. The State Department is explicit that a letter of invitation or an affidavit of support is not needed and is not one of the factors used in the decision. Some applications are placed in further administrative processing after the interview, which adds time.
The State Department states that a visa does not guarantee entry into the United States. It allows you to travel to a port of entry, where a Customs and Border Protection officer decides whether to admit you and for how long, recorded on an admission stamp or Form I-94. Overstaying that date, not the visa's expiry date, is what causes trouble on the next trip.
For all United States journeys we design, we prepare your complete visa documentation package — the forms, the supporting documents, the sequence of submission. Our visa specialists help travellers prepare complete applications with careful document guidance. Final visa decisions always remain with the relevant authorities.
Travel America intelligently
The country is easy once you are in it. The visa, the distances and the size of the bill are what catch Indian travellers out.
United States travel FAQ
The questions Indian travellers ask most often before booking America.
A country for every kind
of traveller
The regions are thousands of kilometres apart and each is a holiday in itself. These are the combinations that work rather than a list of everything in the country.
Manhattan first — the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the museums, a Broadway show — then Washington's monuments and museums by train, and Niagara Falls if you want the set piece.
San Francisco and the Golden Gate, the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur, Los Angeles and Hollywood, with Yosemite inland and Napa an hour north of the bay.
The Grand Canyon from the South Rim, Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend at Page, Monument Valley, then Zion and Bryce Canyon in Utah — a loop from Las Vegas that is the classic American road trip.
Walt Disney World's four parks and Universal in Orlando, the Kennedy Space Center an hour east on the coast, and Miami and the Keys for the beach at the end.
Oahu for Waikiki, Pearl Harbor and the North Shore surf; Maui for the Road to Hana and sunrise on Haleakalā; the Big Island for a live volcano. The same visa, five to six hours out from California.
The world's first national park — geysers, hot springs, bison and wolves — with Grand Teton next door and Jackson Hole as the base. Summer only for most travellers.
Chicago's architecture and lakefront, then the music cities — Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans — for the America that is about food and sound rather than landscape.
A great many Indian trips start with relatives in New Jersey, the Bay Area, Texas or Chicago. We build the holiday around the family dates — a canyon loop from Dallas or Houston, a coast drive from San Jose, New York from Edison.
Tell us how long you have, which coast you are drawn to, and whether family is part of the trip, and our travel designers will shape the route around it.
How far in advance
should you book America?
The visa interview wait drives the whole timeline, and it is different at each post and each month. Start there, then let the season of the region you want decide the rest.
DS-160, fee, biometrics appointment, interview. The State Department says wait times vary and to apply early; its India portal suggests at least three months ahead.
One coast or one loop. The season follows the region — parks in summer, canyons in spring or autumn, Florida and Hawaii in winter.
Park lodges, Yosemite valley hotels, Orlando at school holidays and New York in December sell out earliest.
Non-stops from Delhi and Mumbai, a domestic hop if the trip has two regions, and a car for anywhere outside the Northeast.
What to pack
for the United States
Pack for the region, not the country. A Hawaii suitcase and a January New York suitcase have almost nothing in common, and a Southwest road trip needs a third list again.
Everything is available and cheap once you land — clothes, toiletries, chargers — so pack light and buy what the weather turns out to need. The one thing to bring from home is your medication, in its original packaging with the prescription.