When we think of cities like New York and Washington D.C. we would probably never dream of renting a car while there. Why? Because they are very walk-able or at least have great public transportation systems. In fact, it’s often easier to not drive a car while in either of these cities. If you are looking for a different experience than either New York or Washington D.C. has to offer, these are some of the best places to travel to in the U.S. that don’t require a car.
Las Vegas
A lot of people who visit Las Vegas stay right on the Strip. This makes it easy to get by without a car. There’s plenty of places to go to as the Las Vegas Strip is easily walk-able. If you want to explore more, you can take a ride on The Deuce, which is a double Decker bus that costs just $8 for a one day pass. The city also has monorails, that are free and will take you to different casinos. The Arrow trolley bus will help you get around as well.
Philadelphia
The street grid setup of this city helps make it walk-able. There’s a lot of attractions and sights to see including 67 National Historic Landmarks. Philadelphia is rather large, being the fifth largest city in America, so if you want to do a decent amount of exploring you should take advantage of the many trains, buses, trolleys and subways that are available here.
Boston
It’s not surprising that this city has given itself the name of “the walking city”. The city encourages walking and one of it’s most popular attractions is the 2.5 Freedom Trail. It must be explored by foot in order to capture the history of of Boston. The city has a bike-share system that allows you to use a bike for just $6 a day. There’s also a water taxi, subway and buses. Who needs a car with all of these options?
Portland
If you would rather bike instead of walk, then head on over to this city. It’s considered the best biking city in the U.S. It is fairly walk-able as it’s rather small and the weather is pretty mild, although it does get rainy at times. There’s a lot of options here as far as public transportation goes including streetcars, a light rail system and buses.
San Francisco
While this city isn’t exactly small, it is a great place to visit if you want to ditch the car. For places you don’t want to walk to, you can utilize the cable cars, which seem to be famous in their own right. There is also the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, also known as BART. Overall San Francisco has one of the most efficient public transportation systems in the country with everything from buses to ferries.
