Discover USA Travel Guide

This Is the USA

Enormous in size and staggeringly diverse, America harbors an astounding collection of natural and cultural wonders, from teeming city streets to mountains, coastlines and forests covering vast swaths of the continent.

America: home to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Boston and New York City. Each is a brimming metropolis whose name alone conjures a million different notions of culture, cuisine and entertainment. Look more closely, and the American quilt unfurls in all its surprising variety the red-hot music scene of Memphis, the easygoing charms of antebellum Savannah, the eco-consciousness of free-spirited Portland and the magnificent waterfront of San Francisco.

This is a country of road trips and great open skies. It's a country where four million miles of highways lead past red-rock deserts, below towering mountain peaks and across fertile wheat fields that roll off toward the horizon. The scenic country lanes of New England, the lush rainforests of the Pacific Northwest and the Spanish mossdraped backdrop of the Deep South are a few fine starting points for the great American road trip.

Cuisine is another illumination of the American experience. New York locals get their fix of bagels and lox at a century-old deli on Manhattans Upper West Side, while several states away, pancakes and fried eggs disappear under the clatter of cutlery at a 1950s-style diner. Plates of fresh lobster served off a Maine pier, oysters and champagne in a wine bar in California, beer and deep-dish pizza at a Chicago pub just a few of the ways to dine la Americana.

The worlds third-largest nation has made tremendous contributions to the arts. Cities like Chicago and New York have become veritable drawing boards for the great architects of the modern era. Musically speaking, America has few peers on the world stage. From the jazz of New Orleans to the country of Nashville, plus bluegrass, hip-hop and rock and roll, America has invented sounds that are integral to modern music.

Grand Canyon National Park ()
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USAs Top Experiences

New York City

Home to striving artists, hedge-fund moguls and immigrants from every corner of the globe, New York City ( ) is constantly reinventing itself. It remains a world center for fashion, theater, food, music, publishing, advertising and finance. A staggering number of museums, parks and ethnic neighborhoods are scattered through the five boroughs, so do as every New Yorker does: hit the streets. Every block reflects the character and history of this dizzying kaleidoscope, and on even a short walk here you can cross continents.

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Grand Canyon National Park

Youve seen pictures and heard about it from everyone else is it worth the hype? The answer is a resounding yes. The Grand Canyon ( ) is vast and nearly incomprehensible in age: it took six million years for the canyon to form, while some rocks exposed along its walls are two billion years old. Peer over the edge to confront the great power and mystery of this earth we live on. Once youve seen it, no other natural phenomenon will quite compare.

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With over 200 vineyards, Napa is synonymous with world-class winemaking. ( )