These are the rules we hold ourselves to. They govern what can be published, how experiences are selected and ranked, which sources count, and how affiliate revenue is kept out of editorial decisions.
No operator, supplier, destination marketing organisation or advertiser can buy a recommendation, a ranking position, a verdict label or a mention. We accept no payment for placement.
Affiliate commission rates are identical across the Viator products we can link to, so there is no financial incentive to prefer one eligible experience over another. Selection is made before any link is generated.
An experience must be located in the United States, must be bookable, and must carry at least 1,000 traveler reviews. This floor is enforced centrally in our data layer, not as a display filter — an experience below it cannot appear in a listing, a comparison, a search result, our sitemap or our structured data.
If we cannot resolve a valid product-level booking link for an experience, we remove the call to action rather than send you to a generic page.
Among eligible experiences, intent match comes first: a page about cemetery tours recommends genuine cemetery-access tours, not a larger, more-reviewed but different product. After intent we weigh rating, review strength, logistical suitability (duration, pickup, transport, group size) and usefulness for the traveler the page is written for.
Labels such as "best overall", "best value", "best for families" or "best for limited time" are assigned only when the underlying data supports them, and each label shows its reasoning. We do not invent awards and we do not describe ourselves as having tested an experience unless that is true.
Facts that can change — entrance rules, permits, reservation requirements, fees, closures, seasonal access, operating status — are verified against primary sources: the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Land Management, state and city agencies, official visitor centers, and the institutions that run the sites themselves.
Experience-level data (rating, review count, duration, indicative price) comes from Viator's product feed. Where a data point is missing we omit it and tell you to confirm at booking rather than estimating it.
Reputable journalism may be cited for context or attribution. Citing a publication is not a partnership, a sponsorship or an endorsement, and we never present it as one.
Volatile facts are tracked in an internal freshness registry and rechecked on a schedule appropriate to how quickly they change. Where a page depends on such a fact, we show when it was last verified.
Prices, availability and opening hours are always subject to change at the operator's discretion; the booking page is the authoritative source at the moment of purchase.
If something on this site is wrong, we want to fix it. Email americaexperiences.travel@gmail.com with the URL and what is inaccurate. We correct factual errors as soon as we can verify the correct information, and where a correction materially changes a recommendation we note the change on the page rather than editing silently.
America Experiences participates in the Viator affiliate programme. When you book through a link on this site, we may earn a commission from Viator at no additional cost to you. We are not the merchant: your booking, payment, ticket, cancellation and customer service are handled by Viator and the operator.
Commission does not influence which eligible experience is recommended, ranked first, or given a verdict label.
We use automation to gather and structure inventory data and to assist drafting. Every published page is reviewed against the rules above before it goes live, and every verifiable claim is checked against a named source. Automation is never a reason to publish an unverified fact.
Related: how we choose experiences, about America Experiences, contact and corrections.