Anchorage, Alaska

If there is a metropolis in Alaska, it’s Anchorage, the largest city in the state, with a population of roughly 280,000. It has all the trappings of a major US city: five-star hotels, good restaurants, shops and boutiques, galleries, museums,...

Aspen, Colorado

Aspen is America's most famous ski resort. And that's an understatement. For, as a ski complex, Aspen is unsurpassed. Its four lift-serviced areas – Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk Mountain, Snowmass Mountain and the Aspen Highlands...

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is not your usual run-of-the-mill tourist destination. There are no beaches on which to bask. No mountains on which to ski. No cobblestoned quaintness or soaring gothic cathedrals. What is Atlanta? It’s a biplane ride for two over Stone...

Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is well defined by its distinctive skyline. From nearly any approach to the inner city, you will see a profile of domes, steeples, towers, monuments and tall chimneys, mixed with a few architectural giants that stand out above their...

Best Small Towns in California

Best Small Towns in Hawaii

Big Island, Hawaii

Hawaii, the island, is Hawaii’s “Big Island.” It is more than twice as big as all the other major Hawaiian islands combined. It also has two of Hawaii’s tallest mountains, Mauna Kea (13,796 feet) and Mauna Loa (13,679 feet), one of the world’s...

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston is a large city – more than half a million people, with over three million in the Metro area – and one of the nicest of its size. Much of the architecture celebrates the city’s prominent place in American history, with the oldest parts of...

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is one of the state’s most progressive cities, situated just north of Denver at the foot of the Front Range mountains, where the “Flatirons” rise in jagged peaks from the rolling plains of Colorado. This is a hip city, at...

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago is the city that ushered in America's skyscraper era. It has one of the most distinctive skylines in the world, with some of the tallest buildings in the nation

Colorado Ski Country

If Colorado is famous for one thing, it is its skiing. In fact, it is a place almost of pilgrimage for skiers of every stripe. Many of the state's famous ski area's lie largely to the west of Denver and are reached by way of the all-important and...

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs, situated approximately 65 miles south of Denver, is a delightful city. Frequently referred to simply as “The Springs,” this is Colorado’s second largest city and quite possibly one of the loveliest. It is a well planned city in...

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the "Big D." It is the most visible, the most famous city in Texas, frequently mistaken for the capital of the state. It is an unapologetically conservative, yet surprisingly cosmopolitan city, with a profound religious...

Denver, Colorado

Denver is the Mile High City, one of the highest in the country. It is situated in the Rockies, somewhere near the north-central part of Colorado. But while mountains in the immediate vicinity, snowclad throughout winter, are...

Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks is the hub of interior Alaska, both logistically and historically, and a good base from which to explore the vast expanse of the state’s “Interior” as well as its “Far North” region along the Arctic Circle. The city is situated just to...

Florida Keys, Florida

The Florida Keys are essentially a collection of numerous coral reef and limestone islands that string out in a gentle southwesterly curve from the southern tip of the Florida mainland. While some of these are little more than...

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the maligned stepsister of Big D (Dallas). Joined at the hip with one of fastest growing areas in the nation, it is part of what has been termed the “Metroplex,” a grand moniker that encompasses Fort Worth, Dallas and the dozens of...

Grand Canyon, Arizona

The Grand Canyon is Arizona’s foremost attraction, and a national treasure of gargantuan proportions. It is one of the great natural wonders of the world. To say that it is awe inspiring is to understate the case. In rich hues of...

Juneau, Alaska

Juneau is the capital of Alaska, and the second largest city in the state (which is not saying much, when you consider that it has a population of just over 31,000). It is situated along the Gastineau Channel, surrounded by lofty mountains, in...

Kauai, Hawaii

Kauai is Hawaii's "Garden of Eden," alternately known as the "Garden Isle." It is the tropical paradise people dream about, with lush valleys and towering green mountains, cascading waterfalls and freshwater lagoons, secluded...

La Jolla, California

La Jolla, a small, picturesque, Mediterranean-style town on the coast of Southern California, is most notably the home of Dr. Seuss, America's most famous, most prolific, most beloved children's books author – think The...

Lake Tahoe, California

Lake Tahoe is the premier lake resort of America, and the largest alpine lake in all of North America. It is an absolutely stunning lake, which Mark Twain described as "the fairest picture the whole earth affords." But besides...

Lanai, Hawaii

Lanai is first and foremost a "private island" (which Bill Gates “rented” for his honeymoon in 1994—yes, the whole island!), owned in its entirety by a single entity, Castle & Cooke Company. It is also a paradox, at once...

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is famous the world over as the home of gambling, its neon “strip” recognizable in virtually every corner of the globe. This is America’s most famous adult theme park, its premier “Sin City,” where the ephemeral promise...

Long Island, New York

Long Island is about 100 miles long, and is the largest island adjoining the continental United States. Its widest point spans about 20 miles. The island reached its present geological form about 6,000 to 8,000 years ago.

Los Angeles, California

LA is the city of angels. It is a city of dreams, a city of stars, a city of make-believe, a city of hype, a city of movies and entertainment, a city of freeways, cars and spaghetti junctions, and of cross cultures and mixed races. It is the...

Maine's Down East Coast

While many areas claim to represent “Down East” Maine, those in the know understand the real Down East does not begin until you cross over to the eastern side of the Penobscot River. The lofty suspension bridge that takes Routes 1 and 3 across...

Maine's Far North

For years folks in the state have talked about there being two Maines. They refer to the economic disparity between the comparatively prosperous southern part of the state, with its more urban lifestyles and manufacturing and office jobs, and the...

Maine's Great North Woods

Maine’s Great North Woods is a land where mighty rivers are born, the forest seems tractless, and where more deer and moose roam today than 100 years ago. It is a place the great nature writer Henry David Thoreau would still recognize today,...

Maine's Mid-Coast

Maine’s Mid-Coast, an area stretching roughly from Brunswick in the south to Belfast in the east, is a region just now coming into its own. For most of the latter half of the 20th century only a few towns along the coast here, such as Boothbay...

Maine's South Coast

Maine's South Coast, unlike much of the rest of Maine, which is famous for its rock-bound coast, is best characterized by its long, flat, sandy beaches. Great swimming and sunning begins in Kittery, just across the border from New Hampshire, and...

Maine's Western Mountains

With lofty peaks and winding valleys carved by boulder-strewn streams, Maine’s Western Mountains evoke a sense of timelessness. The hills here are old, as are the tidy towns and farms that nestle below them. It was not the mountains, but rather...

Maui, Hawaii

Maui is an incredible draw, and always has been. But the throngs of visitors have hardly dampened its appeal. In fact, the word from the islands is that Maui is "no ka oi!" ("the best")! Island residents and visitors...

Mendocino, California

Mendocino is the most surprising of all California towns: a typical New England-style village, picturesquely perched on a rocky bluff jutting out into the sea, frequently shrouded in fog, overlooking the sheltered coves at the...

Merrimack Valley, New Hampshire

From the Massachusetts border traveling north on Interstate 93, most of New Hampshire’s truly urban areas line the highway. You may not see much of them, because the interstate is often “greened in” by trees and fields, but from south to the...

Miami, Florida

The Magic City of Miami is a mosaic of distinct and diverse nationalities and neighborhoods. Each area of the city has its own culture, characteristics, cuisines, sights, style, and shopping opportunities, lending the flavor of far-off places...

Mid-Maine, Maine

The Mid-Maine region literally bisects the center of the state running roughly parallel to Interstate Highway 95 from the Lewiston/Auburn area in the south to the Greater Bangor vicinity in the north. Most of the major communities, including...

Molokai, Hawaii

Molokai may well be the most Hawaiian of the Hawaiian islands, and as far away from the rat race as you can get. It was one of Hawaii’s first islands to be inhabited, yet, in the absence of any resort development and the “...

Montana's Custer Country

Montana's Custer Country: In most Americans’ minds, “Custer Country” resounds with images of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s ill-fated 'Last Stand' at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. But Custer Country has...

Montana's Glacier Country

Montana's Glacier Country, the name given the mountain landscape of western Montana, celebrates the glaciers that once overlayed it. When the ice sheets retreated, roughly 20,000 years ago, they left U-shaped valleys shouldered...

Montana's Gold West Country

Montana's Gold West Country. The name says it all. The chunk of real estate squeezed between the Gallatins and the Bitterroots taps a rich vein of mountain country. Gold rush ghost towns drowsing amid hazy memories bring the...

Montana's Yellowstone Country

Montana's Yellowstone Country takes its name from the slim slice of Yellowstone National Park lying within Montana. Most of the park is in Wyoming. Yellowstone Country is a compact chunk of Montana spiced with forested mountains...

Monterey Peninsula, California

Monterey Peninsula is one of California's loveliest and most historic regions, located along the north Central Coast of California, at the southern end of Monterey Bay. It encompasses thousands of acres of unspoiled coastal...

Napa Valley, California

The Napa Valley is world-famous. It is one of the premier wine growing regions of the world, rivaling the likes of Bordeaux, France, if not in size, certainly in stature and notoriety. It is also practically synonymous with...

Nashville, Tennessee

New Orleans, Louisiana

New York City, New York

New York City is the center of the universe – at least metaphorically. It is the fictional home of Superman and that of the affable Hollywood beast, King Kong, who scaled the Empire State Building to rescue a damsel in...

Oahu, Hawaii

Oahu is Hawaii's "Aloha Island," its "Gathering Place," its melting pot. It's the hub of the islands where a majority of Hawaii's population resides. It has in it Hawaii's only metropolis, Honolulu, and the islands' most...

Orlando, Florida

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is America's most famous desert resort, situated in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, directly beneath the towering 10,831-foot Mount San Jacinto. It is also, as its name suggests, a city of palms –...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, the premier city of Pennsylvania, has the most famous bell in the world. Indeed, the iconic Liberty Bell, despite its conflicting histories and myths, remains the most recognizable symbol of American independence. And how did it...

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is a city of brilliant sunshine, set in the high Sonoran Desert in the southcentral part of Arizona, surrounded by mountains and Indian reservations, and deeply imbued with Southwestern American culture. It is a city with more golf...

Pioneer Valley (MA), Massachusetts

The Connecticut River cuts south through Massachusetts on its way to the Atlantic, separating the western part of the state where the Berkshires rise. The river valley itself, just a few miles wide at the north, is 20 miles wide near Springfield...

Portland (OR), Oregon

Portland is not the most happening place, nor the most cosmopolitan. But it is easily the most underrated progressive-liberal city on the West Coast, where in recent times the dining scene has exploded to offer the collective palette a...

Portsmouth (NH), New Hampshire

Portsmouth is a festival and celebration city. It is also a blend of historic port and joyful self-indulgence in good restaurants, galleries, and gift shops, with music and another good bakery always waiting to be discovered. Look for the music...

Reno, Nevada

Reno bills itself the “Biggest Little City in the World,” although it’s not clear why. For it is neither the biggest nor the littlest city around. It is, however, the second largest city in Nevada, and the largest in northern...

Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is situated in the Salt Lake Valley in the northern part of the state, at an elevation of 4,330 feet, surrounded by the lofty Rockies. This is the seat of Mormons (Latter-Day Saints), the site of the majestic Salt Lake Temple, the...

San Diego, California

San Diego is the quintessential Southern California city, situated on the coast some 125 miles south of Los Angeles, virtually on the border with Mexico. It has reliably good weather with blue skies and sunshine, and over 70 miles of coastline...

San Francisco, California

San Francisco is unequivocally the most popular, most visited city in the United States. It is the City by the Bay, the city built on rock and roll, the home of bohemians and the Beat Generation, and that of the "flower...

San Luis Valley, Colorado

The San Luis Valley is a study in contrasts, evident in the 7,000-foot elevation gain from the low-lying valley floor to 14,345-foot Blanca Peak. The Great Sand Dunes are reminiscent of the Sahara Desert. Fourteen-thousand-foot peaks, the spire-...

Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is the self-styled "American Riviera." It has all the trappings of the Mediterranean Coast: seaside setting, ambiance, good food and sunshine. It also has more in it that is reminiscent of Old Spain than perhaps any...

Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz is the all-American “Surf City,” famous for its beaches and surf and oceanfront amusement park. It has in and around it more than two dozen beaches, scores of surf shops, and even a surfing museum. It also has in it a...

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Seattle, Washington

Ideologically, Seattle is not dissimilar to other such West Coast liberal bastions as San Francisco and Portland: it is a progressive city, well-buffered from the conservative element. But in its physical attributes, it has the edge, for it...

South-Central Nevada

South-Central Nevada, also known as Pioneer Territory, is, in all fairness, harsh country. Here, the inevitable boom-and-bust cycle of a minerals-based economy has left an indelible mark, both socially and physically. Get-rich-...

Southwest Colorado, Colorado

Colorado’s southwestern corner encompasses a blending of cultures derived from at least two easily discernible sources. This much is known: Indians controlled the land for a very long time before white settlers arrived seeking gold and silver, or...

Tampa Bay, Florida

Tampa Bay is a big city – skyscrapers, industry, traffic jams, the whole bit. Known as “The Big Guava,” the city alone has a population of 303,000 plus. Many of its guests come on business. Tourists and adventurers are more...

Taos, New Mexico

The Berkshires, Massachusetts

When you visit the Berkshires, you are in good company: authors like Herman Melville and Edith Wharton lived here, Nathaniel Hawthorne hiked here, musicians like Itzhak Perlman and Van Cliburn and conductors like Seiji Ozawa perform here, and...

The Massachusetts Seacoast

The Massachusetts seacoast remains a working waterfront, providing fish and shellfish for New England and much of the rest of the East. Thanks to its enduring usefulness, the coast has not become simply a vacation destination, and there are many...

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is the Old Pueblo. It is a city drenched in sunshine - one of the sunniest in the US - and steeped in history and culture, where the distinct influences of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and early Western are still palpable. It is also...

Washington (DC), D.C.

Washington DC. Seat of American democracy. Home of the U.S. Supreme Court and the White House, and of Capitol Hill. City of monuments and national treasures, and of trees. Here is America's capital city, one of the great power centers of the...

Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester County makes up the central part of Massachusetts. It is probably one of the more ignored parts of the state: People think of Boston and the Seacoast to the east, and the mountainous pleasures of the Berkshires to the west, and overlook...

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone is America’s first national park. It is also one of its largest, the most extensive in the 48 contiguous states and the only one that extends over three states. Although parts of the park are in Montana and Idaho, most of the park’s...

Yosemite National Park, California

Yosemite is a national treasure of monumental proportions. It is one of America’s most famous, most scenic, most popular national parks. It is a naturalist's dreamland, with towering mountains with landmark granite domes and...