Any ideas about how we can plan a visit to the United States?

Folks
I hope you don't mind me asking you about giving me some ideas of how we can explore the USA with 2 children 7 and 2.  I was thinking to rent a house/villa for 2 weeks in a nice part of the US and then drive around. please feel free to suggest. What area of the USA to you think we should start from? Although this can be easier for the family but maybe not a great project for me and my wife. So the alternative is if we can just drive from one end to the other! and stay in hotels! I am absolutely open to suggestions.  
many thanks
HP

It's a big place - what kind of stuff do you like to do?  Theme parks?  Shopping?  Nature?  Mountains?  Beaches?  Sports?  Etc...  Is budget/economy a concern?

I wouldn't recommend driving across the US in only 2 weeks - you'd be doing little else but driving (or recovering from driving) - lol!

Oh yeah & what time of year are you looking at going?  Do you want warm weather, cold weather, autumnal, etc?

I'd also say that it depends on which time of year you're going to be going. Some parts of the country are not so much fun in the dead of winter, and others are pretty dire in August.

Thank you very much for reply. As you mentioned budget is important and all other variables.  I try to make it more narrow. We will travel in the last 2 weeks of August.  Apart from tickets to get ourselves to the east coast we will spend 4000$ for the two weeks. Do you think that would be sufficient? I was thinking, California+Nevada or New Mexico+Texas or Florida or DC+Maryland or combine it with a cruise in US. As you mentioned the options are so open!

I would go for California, Oregon and Washington with British Columbia thrown in.
Stay away from the big cities except you could stay in the suburbs which are nice.
Start in San Diego and drive up the coast.

New Mexico, Texas and Florida will be brutally hot in August.

Are you talking about driving from the East Coast? Driving from the East Coast to California and back would pretty much take up the entire 2 weeks with little time to actually see California. I would stick to someplace on the East Coast. Driving across the US with a 7 year old and a 2 year old would not be a lot of fun for the kids. Take it from someone who was subjected to many a holiday trapped in a car.

A bold undertaking....

August is blistering hot in Florida (my home state), but bearable if you stay at the beach. If you go to Florida, no matter the weather, you have to visit Disney World. The seven year old will love it. It's about the most touristy thing in the world you can do. The beaches nearby on the Atlantic are pretty good...

A bold undertaking....

August is blistering hot in Florida (my home state), but bearable if you stay at the beach. If you go to Florida, no matter the weather, you have to visit Disney World. The seven year old will love it. It's about the most touristy thing in the world you can do. The beaches nearby on the Atlantic are pretty good...

E hum...................BP/BP

The first time I went to Ireland, two weeks was barely enough to drive across it and really feel I saw and experienced it.  That being said, two weeks is definitely not enough time to drive across and experience the US.  I'd pick a smaller area to explore, based on your interests. 

I have to agree with everyone, 2 weeks is not enough time to drive pretty much anywhere in the states and still experience it and even worse with a 2 and 7 year old. 2 day road trips were bad enough as a kid.

Would the leaves be changing that early in New England? You could do New York, Mass, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine in 2 weeks I'd say, or Atleast a large chunk of it. failing that, I would also recommend the North West. But I'd start in SF and go north (time restriction and not quite as hot). You wanted to do a cruise, so maybe drive to Seattle and do one of the cruises up to Vancouver or Alaska, although would $4k be enough for a cruise as well and there is the time issue there too?

To bring the cost down there is always camping, if you are adventurous

Would the leaves be changing that early in New England?

Not yet, but August is a gorgeous time to visit NE! Plus because they're all small states you can cover across them really easily in 2 weeks time. 

I second New England.  You could definitely do Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire and probably even Massachusetts in 2 weeks and it is a fantastic time of year for it.  Rhode Island is supposed to be nice as well, though somehow I've never been!

I used to go to the Southern coast of Maine every summer driving from New Jersey.  It took about 9 hours usually, if that's any indication of how quickly you can get from point A to point B in the Northeast.

We did that!  Well, we did two two week trips in NE.  I think Maine might be pushing it a bit, but yeah!

http://www.waterfire.org/season-schedule

You could take the kids to WaterFire. I love it. 

E hum...................BP/BP

Stay away from the Panhandle, and you'll be fine. Florida's east coast beaches are better than the west coast ones, oil or not.

I would definitely avoid the American South during the summertime. It's just plain miserable here. New England is lovely, no matter what time of year.

I agree - I'd steer clear of anywhere that might be uncomfortably hot in August; i.e., the South.

New England is gorgeous! And as a Rhode Islander, I can vouch for Lil Rhody! There's loads to do there! WaterFire is brilliant, and there's so much more!