Imagine paddling off the coast of Maui and pointing out a spiky but harmless red pencil urchin to your awestruck child. Or waking them up at 05:00 so they can gaze at a mother and baby bison grazing right outside the cabin window in Yellowstone National Park.

In a year when some travellers may be hitting pause on US trips, there's still a world of awe, play and unexpected joy to be found across the country's mountains, prairies, coasts, islands and cities. This list for 2025, informed by my own adventures across the United States with kids in tow, includes magical destinations that are also offering something new right now.

Who picked the list?

Amelia Edelman is a journalist and family travel expert living in the US who has travelled to 40 countries and 49 states, most of them with her two kids. In addition to BBC Travel, she has written for NPR, Travel Leisure, Lonely Planet, US News and World Travel and others. As a single mother traveller, she launched a series of city guides for families called Mom Voyage.

Across the US, cities, states and national parks are unveiling exciting updates, from newly launched initiatives to unexpectedly fun (and often surprisingly affordable) experiences that you won't find anywhere else. Add in kid-friendly accommodations – whether you're after a national park lodge or a luxury resort with activities built in – and all these destinations offer much more than just a holiday. That's why I've made it a priority to bring my own children, age two and nine, to every one of these places, and why you should consider booking them for your next family holiday too.

There are many things that make this string of barrier islands, stretching 200 miles off the North Carolina coast up to Virginia, so special. For one, the opportunity to go kayaking among great blue herons and wild horses – something my family does off the coast of Beaufort, NC, every summer. Another idea? Give back to the OBX (that's Outer Banks to locals).

The islands are the first US destination to create a tourism-specific volunteering programme that directly connects the traveller with 90-plus non-profit organisations for ways to live up to the Outer Banks Promise, a pledge by both visitors and residents to protect and preserve the ecosystem. Consider joining a beach cleanup between playing in the waves.

There are many interesting places to base yourself, from Hatteras Island up to the upscale town of Duck and all the way to Carova Beach, which hits the Virginia border. But I'm partial to Ocracoke, the southernmost town in the chain, where the local dialect is akin to Elizabethan English. The island has no beachfront development or chain hotels – just 16 miles of beaches protected by the National Park Service. Children will love exploring by bike, attending the fun Fig Festival in August and getting a taste of island life shaped by generations of fishermen and artists.

Bonus for the "noctourists" among us: Ocracoke is actively becoming a Dark Sky destination, and from here you can see the Milky Way, meteor showers and sometimes even bioluminescent waters on nighttime beach strolls. And don't miss the Ocracoke British Cemetery; this small plot of land on the island is British territory in perpetuity. There's an annual ceremony in May here, hosted by the heartwarming partnership of Royal Navy representatives and local school children, to symbolise the enduring friendship between the US and the UK.

Best time to go: June-August is peak beach season, but September-October hits that sweet spot of great weather and sparser crowds. Summer and autumn offer the best chances to spot bioluminescence.

One of 2025's biggest travel trends is the "destination dupe" – travellers seeking to avoid over-visited (and often pricey) places in favour of unsung settings with a similar vibe. So, skip the Grand Canyon and head to Grand Junction. The small city is on Colorado's western edge, between the 200,000-acre Dominguez–Escalante National Conservation Area and Grand Mesa, the world's largest flat-top mountain. Here, you and your family can hike the Colorado National Monument, a semi-desert that sits high on the Colorado Plateau, with spectacular canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite that earn it the nickname "mini Grand Canyon". Children can learn about local geology, ecology and cultural history – and even earn a Junior Ranger badge in the process. You can also hike Rattlesnake Canyon, which has the world's second largest concentration of arches, instead of dodging the crowds who are trying to get the same postcard photo in Utah's Arches National Park.

Just outside Grand Junction, the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Reserve is home to around 100 wild mustangs and is one of just three wild horse preserves in the country. Families can get there by hiking, taking an ATV or, fittingly, via horseback. Back in town, don't miss the

© BBC