Everyday practical information for United States

Flying inside the country

REAL ID is now fully enforced for domestic flights, and this alarms visitors unnecessarily.

• Your foreign passport is accepted at every TSA checkpoint. You do not need a REAL ID and cannot get one.
• Carry the passport for domestic flights, not a photocopy and not your home driving licence.
• Arrive 2 hours before a domestic flight. Security queues at the big hubs are genuinely long.
• Liquids and laptops rules vary by checkpoint depending on the scanner installed. Follow what the officer says rather than what you did last time.

Age 21, and they will ask

• The drinking age is 21 nationwide and it is enforced far more strictly than most visitors expect.
• Bring your passport if you plan to drink, because many bars accept nothing else from a foreigner and will not take a foreign driving licence.
• People in their forties get asked routinely. It is not personal and arguing does not work.
• Open containers of alcohol in public are illegal in most of the country, including on the street and in a car. Las Vegas and parts of New Orleans are the famous exceptions.
• Cannabis is legal in many states and federally illegal. Do not carry it between states, do not take it to an airport, and be aware that a federal park inside a legal state is still federal.

Units, dates and voltage

• Everything is in miles, gallons, pounds and Fahrenheit. 100 °F is 38 °C, 70 °F is 21 °C.
• Dates are month/day/year. 03/04 is 3 April to a European and 4 March to an American. This causes real problems with bookings.
• Electricity is 120 V at 60 Hz with flat two-pin and three-pin plugs. Modern chargers cope; hair dryers and shavers rated only for 230 V do not.
• The ground floor is the first floor, so a British second floor is an American third.

Everyday

• Nothing is within walking distance outside a handful of city centres, and pavements sometimes simply stop.
• Portions are large and taking leftovers away is normal, not embarrassing.
• Public toilets are free, clean and everywhere, in a way much of the world is not.
• Service is friendly and fast because it is tipped. It is not insincere, it is the job.
• Small talk with strangers is normal and means nothing more than politeness.
• Public holidays cluster around long weekends. Thanksgiving in late November and Independence Day on 4 July are the two where transport genuinely fills up.