Karla Zimmerman - Eastern USA

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Flanked by mega-cities New York City and Chicago; landscaped with dune-backed beaches, smoky mountains and gator swamps; and steeped in musical roots, the East rolls out a sweet trip.

Times Square (), New York City
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New York, New York is top of the heap, as Frank Sinatra famously crooned. Brimming with 8.3 million people, the megalopolis looms like an alien mother-ship over the East, offering a mind-blowing array of culture, cuisine and entertainment. Cloud-poking Chicago; power-brokering Washington, DC; and fiery, Latin-fused Miami rise up close on its heels as one-of-a-kind cityscapes. Look deeper, and youll find the captivating old quarters of New Orleans, still rising up from waterlogged ashes, and raw-edged Detroit, where young do-it- yourselfers are flocking to transform the abandoned city.

The East Coast is where America gets its beach on, from the wild dunes and whale-rich waters of Cape Cod, to the taffy-shop-lined boardwalks of Ocean City, to the coral reefs of the Florida Keys. Inland, nature puts on a show in the swampy Florida Everglades, wolf-howling Boundary Waters, mist-tipped Appalachian Mountains and, in New Englands forests which blaze red, orange and yellow each autumn. Slowpoke byways unfurl throughout so you can soak up the landscapes, along with historic Civil War battlefields and kitschy roadside attractions of the giant fiberglass-spaceman ilk.

Good eatin reaches epic proportions in the region, and belt loosening becomes a necessity. On the menu: hulking steamed lobsters with melted butter in Maines seafood shacks, bagels and lox in Manhattans delis, saucy barbecue ribs in Memphis roadhouses, butter-smothered biscuits in North Carolinas diners, hot-spiced gumbo in New Orleans cafes and for dessert thick slices of berry pie in the Midwests supper clubs. Youll certainly work up a thirst. Thats when the regions sweet white wines, microbrewed beers and home-grown bourbon do their slaking.

The museums here are the nations greatest hits the Smithsonian, housing everything but the kitchen sink; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a city-state of treasures; and the Art Institute of Chicago, hanging Impressionists by the roomful. Musically speaking, the Eastern USA birthed the blues, jazz and rock and roll. Explore the roots at Sun Studio in Memphis, where Elvis got his groove on; Clevelands Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for artifacts like Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster; and the juke joints of Clarksdale, where the blues slide guitar first pierced the air. For sky-high designs, Chicago and New York are drawing boards for the modern eras great architects.

Fall foliage, New Hampshire ()
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Home to striving artists, hedge-fund moguls and immigrants from every corner of the globe, New York City () is constantly reinventing itself. It remains one of the world centers of fashion, theater, food, music, publishing, advertising and finance. A staggering number of museums, parks and ethnic neighborhoods are scattered through the five boroughs. 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 you can cross continents.

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National Mall

Nearly two miles long and lined with iconic monuments and hallowed marble buildings, the National Mall (), where Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous I Have a Dream speech.

Lincoln Memorial
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Walt Disney World

Want to set the bar high? Call yourself The Happiest Place on Earth. Walt Disney World () does, and then pulls out all the stops to deliver the exhilarating sensation that you are the most important character in the show. Despite all the frantic rides, entertainment and nostalgia, the magic is watching your own child swell with belief after they have made Goofy laugh, been curtsied to by Cinderella, guarded the galaxy with Buzz Lightyear, and battled Darth Maul like your very own Jedi knight.

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Chicago

The Windy City () will blow you away with its architecture, lakefront beaches and world-class museums. But its true mojo is its blend of high culture and earthy pleasures. Is there another metropolis that dresses its Picasso sculpture in local sports team gear, or where residents queue for hot dogs and to dine in North Americas top restaurant in equal measure? While the winters are long, come summer, Chicago fetes the arrival of warm days with a huge array of food and music festivals that make fine use of its waterfront.

Crown Fountain (), by Jaume Plensa RICK GERHARTER/LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Fall Foliage in New England

Its a major event, and one approaching epic proportions in New England (): watching the leaves change color. You can do it anywhere all you need is one brilliant tree. But if youre most people, you want lots of trees. From the Lichfield Hills in Connecticut and the Berkshires in Massachusetts to Stowe in northern Vermont, entire hillsides blaze in brilliant crimsons, oranges and yellows. Covered bridges and white-steeple churches with abundant maple trees put Vermont and New Hampshire in the forefront of leaf-peeping heaven.

Vermont ()
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Route 66

Snaking across the nations belly, this fragile ribbon of concrete was the USAs original road trip (), connecting Chicago with Los Angeles in 1926. True, most of the Mother Road unfurls through the western part of the country, but the 300-mile section in Illinois offers a classic, time-warped stretch to tap into. Fork into thick slabs of pie in small-town diners; snap photos of roadside attractions like the Gemini Giant, a sky-high fiberglass spaceman; and motor on past neon signs, drive-in movie theaters and other Americana.