I would tell them to stick to major coastal cities or perhaps Chicago, especially if they were foreigners. If they were French, I'd tell them to come to San Francisco and never step foot outside. If they were my friend, I'm assuming we would have something in commong, including a general similarity in travel tastes. Honestly, I'd say no the Deep South, or corn-y parts of the Midwest. Cold lake-lined places up north are out too, at least for me. I'd just give a few cautionary tales about children in cornfields and chainsaws in Texas, and let my friend decide from there.

I'd tell them just the opposite, to avoid major coastal cities or just cities in general. Heck, most people who stereotype Americans as Rude, ungrateful, and always in a hurry, are talking mostly about city people.

It would depend on how long they were here for and what time of year, but time permitting, I'd tell them to rent a car and hit the road, any road.

I'd tell them to avoid Howard Johnson's and TGI Fridays.

Yeah, avoid all chains. Well, most. Going into a chain restaurant *once* would be a good way of getting a feel for the commercialization and corporate crap that is *part* of America. Do that on your last day when you're tired and crabby and ready to go home anyway.
Otherwise, go to local places and off the beaten path.

Alabama

I also would tell them to steer clear of the coastal cities - that's where all the rude people, crimes, and expensive things are. I would hate for someone to come here and think everyone is cold and rushed like most people are in LA or NY. And even though the south is supposed to be full of polite people, it's also full of rednecks and people with backwoods educations so I wouldn't want them to think all Americans are ignorant either.

Really the only 'normal' place to go is the midwest. Chicago is a great city, as is Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Cleveland, etc. Des Moines is the largest test-market town in the nation because businesses consider Iowans to be the perfect normal American - we get all the new products here first. You can't see a Broadway show or a Hollywood sign here, but you can do everything else here you can in any other city, only cheaper. We are friendly and clean and intelligent too - if I wanted someone to get an idea of America, this would be it

I would keep them out of Indiana.

I would tell them to visit every part of the country to get a flavor of the different regions.

Most of the foreign friends who have visited here (mostly from Japan) already know about big cities and big city life, but they are absolutely fascinated by the long stretches of prairie of the MIdwest and the deserts of the Southwest. Much to my surprise, they are also fascinated by suburbia ---not the malls and such, but the houses with big green lawns with no walls separating them. To them, that is true Americana.

Avoid Ohio most definetly.

Harlem maybe? I dunno..never been there. Just guessing

Avoid the cities...maybe go to Seattle...I would want them to see the beauty of our natural resources. People from Europe and asia especially seem to be amazed by the vast space of the west...see that.

America is an all-together beutiful place. Besides some crime-ridden inner-citiesor the vast sameness of suburbia, I think most places would be good.

Hmm, yes, malls and Northern Virginia.

Stay out of the Bronx

Greenville, South Carolina. You can never get out again!!

Well, let them see the less desirable places too- to get a feel for the spectrum and diversity of what it means to be an American. There is no such thing as "The American People" like the politicians always say. Too big a place for that.

Ten years ago, I would have told them to stay out of Hell's Kitchen (where I mostly grew up); but now I hear it's all nice, and they call it 'Clinton' now.

CzarNicky: "Stay out of the Bronx"

Why? I live in The Bronx. If anything, I would encourage someone to go to a Yankee game. Manhattan, on the other is not such a good place.

HERE. Don't ever come to Fairfield.

New York City. ;)

Never been to the US, so I wouldn't know.

Well Krissy, you now know tons of American YTers who would gladly show you around the States--a pretty good opportunity!

I was going to say TGI Friday's but Bored stole it. I hate that place with a passion. Also, I wouldn't go to any fast food places and I wouldn't stay in Hollywood. Its overrated.

I would suggest going to all four corners of America.

You can see the big city skyscrapers of New York and Chicago, Hollywood, the openness of San Francisco, the nation's capital with all its museums and great architecture, the colonial history of Boston, New England and Philadelphia, Arizona's painted desert and stone monuments, Minnesota's lakes and forests, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, the buffalo still roaming the Great Plains of the Dakotas, the mountains and valleys of Colorado, the coastal rainforests of Washington state, the hospitality and drawl of the Deep South, the Jazz in New Orleans' French Quarter, the Blues of Memphis' Beale Street, the gator-teeming tropical swamps of southern Florida, and everywhere in between (I know I forgot a few places).

Then you will have really seen America.