USA Travel

    Sea

    Cargo ship/freighter

    You can travel to and from the USA on a freighter, though it will be much slower and less cushy than a cruise ship. Nevertheless, freighters aren’t spartan (some advertise cruise-ship-level

    amenities), and they are much cheaper (sometimes by half).

    Land

    Border crossings

    The USA has more than 20 official border crossings with Canada. Busy entry points include those

    at Detroit (MI) /Windsor, Buffalo (NY) /Fort Erie, Niagara Falls (NY) and Blaine (WA) /British

    Columbia.

    The USA has more than 30 official entry points with Mexico. The main ones are San Diego (CA)

    /Tijuana, Nogales (AZ), El Paso (TX) /Ciudad Juárez and Brownsville (TX) /Matamoros.

    Bus

    Greyhound has direct connections between main cities in Canada and the northern USA, but you

    may have to transfer to a different bus at the border.

    Greyhound US and Greyhound Mexico have cooperative service, with direct buses between main towns in Mexico and the USA. Northbound buses can take some time to cross the US border, as sometimes US immigration insists on checking every person on board.

    Train

    Amtrak and Canada’s VIA Rail run daily services from Montreal to New York, Toronto to New York

    via Niagara Falls, Toronto to Chicago, and Vancouver to Seattle.

    Amtrak gets close to the Mexican border at San Diego, CA, and El Paso, TX, but there are currently

    no cross-border services. There are no Mexican train services to towns on the US border. Air

    Airports & airlines

    The USA has more than 400 domestic airports, and a baker’s dozen are the main international gateways. Many other airports are called ‘international’ but most have only a few flights

    Mexico or Canada. Even travel to an international gateway from other countries – typically

    sometimes requires a connection in another gateway city.

    Airports in the USA:

    Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC

    Airlines flying to/from the USA:

    Aer Lingus, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Air Canada, Air France, Air India, Air New Zealand, Alitalia, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, El Al, Garuda Indonesia, Iberia, Icelandair, Japan Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Kuwait Airways, Lufthansa, Northwest Airlines, Polynesian Airlines, Qantas, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Thai Airways International, United Airlines, US Airways, and Virgin Atlantic

    Asia

    Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo all have good connections to the

    US West Coast. Many flights to the USA go via Honolulu and allow a stopover. Bangkok is the

    discounted fare capital of the region, though its cheapest agents can be unreliable.

    URL: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/transport/getting-there-away#85012