Do you live in the US or have you traveled there during the 4th July?
If so, did/do you celebrate it? How do you celebrate?
Would you recommend that travelers visit the US during the 4th July or should we avoid it?
I was in New York one 4th July.
All I remember of the celebrations were fireworks going off as I hurried into the Bronx subway station at sundown. I wanted to avoid being on the subway too late.
Mel
Reply to this I see no reason to purposefully plan your trip around, or purposefully avoid, the 4th of July if you're traveling to the US. As it's our Independence Day, there are usually lots of festivals and celebrations with food, music, parades and fireworks (later in the evening) so if you like to attend regional festivals you'll certainly find plenty. I would say the most common way American's celebrate is getting together with their families and having a cook-out or picnic --hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, watermelon, fried chicken....all very typical 4th of July fare. Then, of course, either setting off fireworks or going to a larger fireworks display later at night depending on where you live. It's also a popular weekend to travel since many people have that day off work, so you might find that hotels, restaurants and other tourism places are either booked or (less frequently) closed that day if you don't plan in advance.
Reply to this I am basically in Philadelphia which is basically the home of independence here, so we do it up big. Yesterday was a day full of parades, concerts and fireworks and today they are having more of the same scattered at different areas throughout the city. At least here in Jersey/Philly area, it's also a huge time for people to go down the shore. The only issues with traveling are that hotels get booked more quickly and generally hotels and airlines can bump up their prices because they know that holidays are popular times to travel. Also, if driving through cities with big festivals and events such as Philly, the streets are often blocked or full of traffic so road trips can by a little longer than normal.
Reply to this Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays because it is largely about barbeques, hanging out with your family, and blowing off a ton of fireworks. Oh, and drinking a lot of beer. The bigger cities in the U.S. have huge firework displays, Philly and Boston are particularly noteworthy. I've heard from friends that D.C.'s gets a little too "Rah, rah, U.S.A.". Most places it has completely lost the overly patriotic tones, which I prefer. I'm from a small town in the midwest, and every town over 15,000 people has it's own fireworks display and most have parades. Wherever you go, you are bound to find some sort of festival going on. As mentioned above though, hotels are likely to be booked. It could possibly be a good time to do some couch surfing though. Your host could bring you along to their family barbeque and would be a great way to experience it.
Reply to this If you like firework displays, Flag waving parades, Barbeque, watermelon, and beer drinking this is your holiday. I live in Central Texas and every year there has been a big fireworks display in this little village called Andice. This year however we are in a severe drought and the county is under a burn ban because the brush fire danger is very high. The fireworks display was cancelled. So to celebrate the fourth with some local culture my cousin and I went to a mud wrestling,mud racing, demolition derby. Veeeery interesting! Red neck culture
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