United States travel on a budget: 25 ways to make the Australian dollar stretch further in America

Outdoorsy lists vehicles from just $74 a night (the average it's $337 a night, which is still well below, say, the cost of putting a family up in a hotel), including 24/7 roadside assistance and insurance.

2. GET ON TRACK WITH AMTRAK

Prefer not to drive? Train travel is not cheap in general in the US but there's one hack that lets you avoid the dreaded Greyhound to cross the country overland – and it's cheaper than car hire.

Amtrak's USA Rail Pass (amtrak.com) costs $660 and offers up to 10 segments of travel within a 30-day period. Hop on and off the train at more than 500 destinations, including along some epic stretches of rail.

The Sunset Limited route travels from New Orleans to Los Angeles passing breathtaking bayous and crossing the Rio Grande, while the California Zephyr climbs through the heart of the Rockies and into the snow-capped Sierra Nevada.

3. ENJOY FREE DAYS AND NIGHTS AT MUSEUMS

There are some excellent free museums in the US, such as the Getty Center (gettycenter.edu) in Los Angeles or, notably, the glut of federally funded institutions in Washington DC, home to most of the Smithsonian's 19 museums (si.edu).

Those which aren't typically free can charge upward of $50 for entry – but some also offer free or pay-what-you-wish on certain days.

New York City's Guggenheim (guggenheim.org), for example, is pay-what-you-wish every Saturday between 4pm and 6pm, and the De Young (famsf.org) in San Francisco is free the first Tuesday of every month. Check local museum listings.

4. SLEEP UNDER STAR-SPANGLED SKIES

Camping is always a cheap and adventurous option with a reserved campsite usually costing up to about $90 a night.

If you're looking to save even more, federal government land is largely free for you to pitch a tent on, especially spaces managed by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The downside? You're less likely to have amenities, but that just puts you closer to the nature you've come to enjoy.

Ogle views from the campsite on top of the thousand-foot cliffs above the San Juan River Canyon, Utah, or get a glimpse of the Northern Lights from your tent while pitched in Chena Hot Springs in Alaska.

Park Rangers are your most reliable resource once on the ground, but you can also research ahead of time on apps like alltrails.com and campnado.com

5. FEED OFF THE NATIONWIDE RESTAURANT WEEKS

At New York City's most recent Restaurant Week (findrestaurantweeks.com) — which is actually four weeks long — more than 600 restaurants offered meals for $44, $66 and $88 or two and three-course lunch and dinner menus across the city, making dinner at some of the city's usually alarmingly priced restaurants suddenly feasible.

Similar events now take place across the nation, such as in Boston, Massachusetts. Portland, Oregon and Palm Beach, California, some twice a year and many weeks long, and if you time it right – and book early – you can fine-dine for a fraction of the price.

6. DON'T PASS UP THE CITYPASS BARGAIN

If you tend to go big on sightseeing, costs can add up fast. CityPASS (citypass.com) sells discounted ticket packages to top tourist attractions in New York City, Chicago, Orlando and various others. Costs and inclusions vary, so it's worth making sure the attractions offered are on your must-visit list – and you have the stamina to make the most of it – but you can accrue savings of around 40 per cent on admission. Other destinations offer an equivalent, such as New Mexico's CulturePass, which allows one visit to each state museum and historic site statewide for $44.

7. TAKE A SHINE TO THE GREAT AMERICAN DINER

There is perhaps no greater emblem of Americana than the diner. It's where working class communities come for a good, cheap meal at any time of day and bottomless coffee.

New Jersey is the diner capital of the US – home to over 600 – but every state has their gems, from Mississippi's Ajax Diner, famed for its buttermilk cornbread, to Charlie Parker's Diner in Illinois, where your pancakes are on the house if you can finish the "16-inch stack" (hey, this is America).

Forget the absence of Michelin stars and the standard of the coffee and consider it a budget friendly front row seat of unfiltered American culture.

8. DIVE HEAD FIRST INTO A CLASSIC US DIVE BAR

What the diner is to eating, so the dive bar is to drinking; an all American institution. The best dive bars are dark unglamorous dens, oozing character and packed with relics from another era – both the clientele and the decor.

Much like the pub – and just as divergent in quality – dive bars have been closing down around the US in place of upscale, uniform (read: dull) drinking establishments: but a good dive bar is worth its salt such as Mac's Club Deuce in Miami, where happy hour begins at 8am, if you can manage it.

They all offer the ubiquitous beer-and-shot combo, otherwise known as a "boilermaker", and typically taken as a shot, followed by a beer chaser.

9. MAKE IT A CASE OF "CALIFORNIA HERE WE (DON'T) COME"

Two of the top three cheapest destinations to travel in the US are in Oklahoma, according to a recent survey.

One is Oklahoma City, which offers a glimpse of western cowboy culture and a cute arts scene – including the quirky collaborative Factory Obscura (factoryobscura.com) with hotels averaging just $131 per night.

Tulsa is the other, with its average daily hotel rate of $94 a night, art deco architecture, award-winning food (try the many stalls at Mother Road Market (motherroadmarket.com), and an important history – the recently opened Greenwood Rising (greenwoodrising.org) is dedicated to educating on the Tulsa Race Massacre, a vital stop for any visitors who want to better understand America.

10. DISCOVER THE ART OF TRAVEL IN AMERICA

The US is known for its endless expanses of wildly varied terrain, which for the great land artists of the 20th century offered one massive canvas.

This movement – a response to the commodification of art by creating unsellable pieces – was part of the fledgling environmental awareness, depositing epic site-specific pieces around the country.

Most are free to visit, such as Robert Smithson's 460 metres long "Spiral Jetty" in Utah, made of mud, salt, crystal and rock, and often submerged by the tide; or Nancy Holt's "Sun Tunnels", also in Utah, which aligns with the sunrise and sunset. Dia Art Foundation (diaart.org) maintains several art sites.

11. DRIVE INTO ONE OF AMERICA'S CLASSIC SCREEN GEMS

Once on the verge of extinction, with just 318 drive-in theatres left in the US, the iconic 1950s experience has experienced something of a renaissance.

It began before the pandemic, but social distancing accelerated it, and the holdouts and newcomers now offer updated twists on the classic experience, like the Harvest Moon Drive in (harvestmoondrivein.com) in Illinois, which is powered by wind turbines, or Four Brothers (playeatdrink.com) in Amenia, New York.

It opened in 2014 and offers a sleepover cinema experience in a vintage Airstream. They're also affordable, charging about $29 a car.

12. SPEND UP SMALL ON THE DOLLAR SLICE IN NEW YORK CITY

The dollar slice deserves its own entry, because it's fuelled the city's population since 1905 when an employee at Lombardi's (firstpizza.com) in Little Italy (still open today) had the ingenious idea of selling a slice for a US5¢.

A regular slice now costs about $4.40 on average, much to New Yorkers' chagrin, but a few US99¢ slice spots still exist.

Either way, it's a steal for a piece of pie (as the Americans call it) as big as your head and dripping with cheese. Fold it in half to eat it like a true New Yorker.

13. GET INTO STRIDE ON THE GREAT WALKING TRAILS

The US is home to a true bucket-list of great trails. The Pacific Crest Trail, made famous in Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild, runs from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada, and takes in every terrain between, from the starched Mojave Desert to the volcano-capped Cascade Mountains in Washington.

Walking the entire extent takes up to six months, so for a more manageable experience, it's best to pick a section which interests you. The long-distance permit is free (although in limited supply).

Another epic (also free) long-distance hike is the Appalachian Trail, a 5540-kilometre footpath along the Appalachian Mountain ridgelines between Maine and Georgia, perfect if you're after your own Wild-esque adventure. Visit the National Park Service website (nps.gov) to plan your trip.

14. PLAN TO PLAN AHEAD

From flights and hotels to cars and buses, almost everything is cheaper if you book ahead (for example, according to Expedia, booking international flights six months in advance saves an average of 10 per cent).

This also gives you time to take advantage of setting price alerts for when the cost drops on your desired route, and to secure accommodation in some of the best budget hotels, motels, inns and glamping situations, which book up fast. Other flight hacks? It's cheapest to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

15. PARTY HARD IN THE BIG EASY

The Big Easy (neworleans.com) offers a lot of bang for your buck and beautiful architecture to boot.

It's impossible to avoid music in the French Quarter, where it blasts out of bars (often without cover charges) and follows you down the street, as you dance with a notoriously lethal Hurricane cocktail in hand (this is arguably the birthplace of the mixed drink, after all).

There's also world class affordable dining, from the shrimp po'boys at longstanding Domilise (domilisepoboys.com) to the celebrated Haitain food from newcomer Fritai (fritai.com). There are plenty of free activities, from pay-what-you-like ghost tours to First Saturday Gallery Openings in the Arts District every month.

16. SWITCH ONTO THE OFF SEASON

There's a knack to travelling off-season, a sweet spot when the prices are low but the weather is still bearable, and the crowds disperse.

Wyoming's Jackson Hole (jacksonhole.com) is a notoriously ritzy ski destination but between May and October the ski slopes become hiking destinations and Grand Teton National Park is on the doorstep.

The notoriously bleak weather of Chicago's (choosechicago.com) may make it unthinkable as a winter weekend break until you look at the price of flights. Suddenly its museums and restaurant scene make it worth the journey.

17. BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF THE AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL PASS

America's 58 national parks total tens of millions of hectares of dramatic landscapes, truly wild wildlife (grizzlies, wolves) and the opportunity to experience true isolation – and that's before you've even considered the 352 national monuments, battlefields and preserves under the American Park Service's protection.

If you're planning a cross-country family road trip, a Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass — otherwise called America The Beautiful pass (nps.gov) — costs $118 and covers entrance fees for the entire vehicle to more than 2000 sites, from Joshua Tree National Park in California to the home of Franklin D Roosevelt in New York. Most Federal sites where passes are accepted will also sell them.

18. GET CRAFTY WITH CRAFT BREWERIES

With more than 8000 craft breweries nationwide, many locations have tapped into the boom by offering free tours and discounted flights or tastings.

Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware, has an incredible facility with a steampunk treehouse and offers free tours including samples; or just about anywhere in Colorado, which has more breweries than any other state.

Many craft beer destinations are now competing for tourists by offering brewery trail maps with discounts and incentives, like the Oregon Beer Trail (oregonsnorthcoast.com) or the app-based New York State Brewery Passport (thinknydrinkny.com)

19. EXPLORE THE MELTING POT OF AMERICAN CUISINE

While native American cuisine is receiving newfound attention, thanks to the hard work of some innovative indigenous chefs, the majority of the food consumed in North America stems from centuries of immigration.

In the ethnically diverse cities of the US, find pockets of culinary delight from every culture on the planet, often priced for the community in which they're found.

Head to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York, for everything from Nepalese dumplings to Colombian empanadas; or Little Haiti in Miami, home to some of the best Caribbean fare in town.

20. GAME RESALE TICKET SITES FOR SPORTS AND SHOWS

Find bargain tickets to games, shows and concerts on third-party ticket resale sites. While Ticketmaster sells tickets to just about everything, the fees are higher – SeatGeek.com, meanwhile, has the advantage of comparing the price of tickets at several different resale sites; and StubHub.com is particularly good for sports.

If you buy tickets within a week of the event, sellers are often more desperate to shift them. But to really score a bargain, avoid the big hits like Hamilton and The Super Bowl; there are plenty of excellent less-sought-after alternatives.

This article originally appeared in the travel section of The Daily Telegraph UK. The prices quoted may vary due to currency fluctuations. See visittheusa.com.au

MORE WAYS TO MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN

21. Stargaze as a dark skies tourist

Spend the night in a Dark Sky Preserve (darksky.org) stargazing and appreciating the unfiltered Milky Way. In some sites, there are free night sky interpretive programs and rangers who will help you use park-owned telescopes,

22. Order for two, not four

Food portion sizes in America's restaurants have doubled (and in some cases tripled) over the last 20 years. Order accordingly – two adult meals will easily feed a family of four. Just don't scrimp on the tip as that's your server's wage

23. Find free things to do

A destination's free activities are sometimes the quirkiest or even the most cultured. In New York City, for instance Little Island (littleisland.org), the adorable public park on New York's Hudson River, is free and often hosts family events.

24. Sort out your currency exchange

Between cash withdrawal fees and the often ungenerous currency exchange rate, holidays costs can rack up fast. But seek out the latest innovations in the debit and credit card world which mean you have far more options these days.

25. Offer your services as a volunteer

It's not glamorous, but if you're happy to get your hands dirty, there are residential volunteer opportunities across most public land (volunteer.gov), from caring for the trails at a wildlife refuge in Louisiana to dressing up in 18th-century garb to greet visitors at a historic fort in New York.

The Telegraph, London