All Destinations

Vermont's biggest city is still small — under 45,000 people — and packs them onto a hillside that drops into Lake Champlain. Church Street Marketplace is a four-block pedestrian mall of brick, buskers, and farm-to-table restaurants. The University of Vermont (UVM) keeps the place caffeinated and progressive; Ben & Jerry's was founded here in 1978, Magic Hat brews on the south end of town, and the Adirondack peaks across the lake make every sunset look staged. Fall foliage peaks early October.

Where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez at the southernmost tip of the 1,200-km Baja California peninsula — the El Arco rock arch is the geological marker of land's end and the most photographed landmark in Baja. Calm Medano Beach, the buzzing 380-slip Marina, world-class sportfishing (the Bisbee tournament is the world's richest), December-April whale watching for grey, humpback, and blue whales, and the Tropic of Cancer running through the middle of Los Cabos. Easy US-friendly access — direct flights from every major US gateway, US dollars accepted everywhere.

The Caribbean's most visited resort destination — Cancún's Hotel Zone is a 23km barrier island of turquoise water so specific in shade it barely looks real. But Cancún is also the gateway to Mexico's greatest Maya site: Chichén Itzá (a New Seven Wonder, 200km inland), Isla Mujeres (30min ferry), and Tulum's cliff-top ruins above the sea. The cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula — crystal-clear sinkholes sacred to the Maya — are the most extraordinary swimming experiences in the Americas.

Cape Cod is the 65-mile hooked arm of Massachusetts that defines the New England summer for most of the East Coast. The Cape Cod National Seashore protects 44,000 acres of dune, marsh, and Atlantic beach from Eastham to Provincetown at the tip; the 22-mile Cape Cod Rail Trail runs the spine of the Lower Cape on a converted rail bed; and Hyannis is the ferry hub for day trips to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Six loose regions (Upper, Mid, Lower, Outer, plus Falmouth and Sandwich) each have their own character. The catch: Friday and Sunday traffic over the Sagamore and Bourne bridges can add two hours to a trip.

Charleston has perfected the southern coastal city — pastel Rainbow Row on East Bay, Battery mansions staring down the harbor where Fort Sumter sits, and a restaurant scene (Husk, FIG, The Ordinary) that has defined modern low-country cooking. Gullah-Geechee heritage, King Street shopping, and plantation day trips round out longer visits.

Charlotte is North Carolina's biggest city and the second-largest US banking centre after New York — Bank of America and Truist (formerly BB&T) are headquartered here, and the Uptown skyline along Tryon Street is a wall of corporate towers. Beyond banking, the NASCAR Hall of Fame anchors stock-car culture an hour from the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the US National Whitewater Center (a man-made Olympic-grade rapids course) sits west of town, and the Discovery Place science museum draws families. Charlotte is also the entry point to the western North Carolina mountains (Asheville is 2 hours northwest).

Chicago is America's architectural capital — a skyline of art deco towers and modern masterpieces rising from the shores of Lake Michigan. Deep-dish pizza is iconic, the jazz and blues scene is legendary, and the Art Institute is world-class. The Riverwalk, Millennium Park's Bean, and the city's diverse neighborhoods make the Windy City a must-visit.

Cincinnati hits above its weight — the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is one of the largest collections of 19th-century Italianate architecture in the United States, the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (1866) was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge, and the city's two contributions to American food (Cincinnati chili and the goetta breakfast sausage) are unlike anything else. The Reds play at riverfront Great American Ball Park, the Bengals next door at Paycor Stadium, and Findlay Market (1855) still anchors the OTR food scene every Saturday morning.

Cleveland sits at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River where it meets Lake Erie, and the city's two great institutions — the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Orchestra (one of the world's top five) — sum up its split personality: blue-collar rock town and high-culture European-flavored powerhouse. The West Side Market has been operating since 1912, the lakefront Edgewater beach gives you a real sand swim 10 minutes from downtown, and the city is now arguably the best sports town per-capita in America (Browns, Cavs, Guardians all play within walking distance of each other downtown).

A flat 478 sq km Caribbean island east of Playa del Carmen, reached in 35 minutes by passenger ferry. The reason to come is underwater: Cozumel sits on the Mesoamerican Reef, the second-largest barrier reef system in the world, with Palancar, Santa Rosa Wall and Punta Sur drift dives consistently ranked among the planet's best. San Miguel is the only real town, a low-rise grid built around a cruise terminal that sees regular Carnival and Royal Caribbean stops. Inland, Chankanaab Park combines a Mayan ruin with snorkelling lagoons; the rest of the island is mostly mangroves, beach clubs and one perimeter road.

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,949 feet, formed when 12,000-foot Mount Mazama collapsed roughly 7,700 years ago and the caldera filled with snowmelt. The water has no inlets or outlets and produces a near-impossible indigo blue that has stopped photographers for a century. The 33-mile Rim Drive circles the caldera (closed November to May for snow), Wizard Island rises from the western shore as a perfect cinder cone, and Cleetwood Cove Trail is the only legal route to the water — a 700-foot descent and a tougher climb back. The park sits 4 hours from Portland or 1.5 hours from Medford (MFR), peaks July-September, and is a designated International Dark Sky Park.

The City of Eternal Spring, 90 minutes south of Mexico City over the mountains, where 1,500 metres of elevation and a mild year-round climate have drawn capital weekenders since the Aztec emperors. Hernan Cortes built his 1526 Palace here on the ruins of an Aztec tribute centre, making it the oldest standing civic building in the Americas. The Borda Garden, laid out by a French silver baron in the 1780s, was Maximilian and Carlota's summer retreat in the 1860s. The Robert Brady Museum, in a former convent, holds the American expat's idiosyncratic collection of Frida Kahlo, Tamayo, and African and Asian art across 14 themed rooms.

A 444 km² Dutch Caribbean island just off the coast of Venezuela — the largest of the ABC islands (Aruba-Bonaire-Curaçao), defined by the pastel Dutch colonial Handelskade row of UNESCO Willemstad and the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge that swings open 30+ times per day to let cargo ships pass. Outside the hurricane belt, with 35+ beaches packed into a 60 km long coastline, the world's only authentic Blue Curaçao distillery, the second-oldest synagogue in the Americas, and Christoffel National Park's desert moonscape. Far less developed than Aruba but more architecturally distinctive; Dutch tilt with universal English.

Dallas anchors the 8.1M-person DFW metroplex. Downtown Dallas holds the 68-acre Arts District (the largest contiguous arts district in the US), the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza covering the JFK assassination from the actual sniper window, and Deep Ellum's live music. Forty miles west in Fort Worth, the Stockyards stage a twice-daily cattle drive, the Kimbell Art Museum (Renzo Piano) holds Caravaggios and Michelangelos, and Sundance Square is the most walkable downtown in Texas. The Cowboys play in Arlington at AT&T Stadium between the two cities.

Home to Denali (20,310 ft / 6,190m), tallest peak in North America — visible from only ~30% of visits due to cloud cover (the "30 Percent Club"). A 92-mile Park Road is the sole access, with private vehicles restricted past Mile 15 and park camper + tour buses handling visitors. Important: the 2021 Pretty Rocks landslide has closed the road beyond Mile 43, so Eielson + Wonder Lake remain inaccessible in 2026. Wildlife Big 5: grizzly, caribou, moose, wolves, Dall sheep. Anchorage (ANC) 4hr south, Fairbanks (FAI) 2hr north; Alaska Railroad Denali Star stops in the park. Aurora visible from late August.

Denver sits exactly one mile up — altitude real enough to floor first-time visitors. It's the Rockies' gateway city: craft beer everywhere, legal cannabis since 2014, a restored 1881 Union Station that's now one of the country's best urban train halls, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre 15 minutes west. Breckenridge, Vail, and Rocky Mountain NP are an hour or two into the mountains.

Detroit is the great American comeback city — the birthplace of Motown, the auto industry, and techno music, now in the middle of a 15-year reinvention that has restored Michigan Central Station, filled downtown with cocktail bars, and turned former industrial corridors into bike trails. The Detroit Institute of Arts holds a top-five US collection (Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry murals are here), Belle Isle is a 982-acre Olmsted-designed island park in the river, and the Henry Ford Museum complex in Dearborn is one of America's great Americana collections. Lafayette and American Coney Islands still serve chili dogs at 02:00.

Gatlinburg is a 4,000-person mountain resort town wedged into a Tennessee river valley right at the main entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most-visited national park in the country at 13 million-plus visitors a year. The walkable Parkway downtown packs taffy shops, moonshine tasting rooms, ski-lift bases, and the SkyLift Park up to a 680-foot pedestrian suspension bridge (the longest in North America) all in eight blocks. Pigeon Forge and Dollywood are five miles north along US-441, and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail loops 5.5 miles through old-growth forest just east of town. Closest airport is Knoxville (TYS, 1 hour 15 minutes northwest).

Northern Montana's crown — a million acres of jagged peaks, ice-blue lakes, and dwindling glaciers (26 left, down from 150 in 1850). The Going-to-the-Sun Road across Logan Pass is one of the world's great drives, open only late June through mid-October. Grizzlies are serious here — bear spray isn't optional. Amtrak's Empire Builder actually stops at the park, a rarity for U.S. national parks.

Central America's oldest colonial city on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Colorful Spanish-era architecture, volcano views, and island-hopping in Las Isletas — at backpacker-friendly prices.

One of the planet's most familiar landscapes still lands the first time you walk up to Mather Point. The canyon is 277 miles long, a mile deep, and took the Colorado River roughly six million years to carve. South Rim (open year-round, 90% of visitors) is where most trips happen; North Rim is 10% of the traffic and closed half the year. The rule on Bright Angel: down is optional, up is mandatory.

The most-visited national park in the U.S. — 13 million visitors a year, more than double #2 — and still free to enter (parking tag since 2023). 522,000 acres of Appalachian rainforest straddle the TN/NC line, with more tree species than all of Europe, 1,500+ black bears, and the world's only predictable synchronous firefly display in June. Cades Cove at dawn is the wildlife jackpot; the kitsch in Gatlinburg is its own experience.

Mexico's second city and the capital of Jalisco, a 5-million metro that gave the country mariachi, tequila and the charreria rodeo. The historic centre runs from the twin-spired Cathedral past the Hospicio Cabanas, a UNESCO-listed neoclassical orphanage whose chapel ceiling is covered in Jose Clemente Orozco's 1939 frescoes including the Man of Fire. Tlaquepaque and Tonala sit on the southeast edge as artisan neighbourhoods of pottery, blown glass and Saturday markets. The town of Tequila is an hour west by tequila-themed train through fields of blue agave. GDL airport handles direct flights from most major US hubs.

Guanajuato is the Mexican silver-mining city that became a multicoloured riot — pink, ochre, mint, and lemon-yellow houses tumbling up the hillsides of a narrow ravine, with most of the city's traffic underground in 18th-century mine tunnels that were repurposed for cars. UNESCO inscribed the historic centre and the surrounding mines in 1988. The university (founded 1732) keeps the streets young; Diego Rivera was born here in a townhouse that's now a museum; the El Pípila monument on the hilltop gives you the photogenic panorama; and on weekend evenings the callejoneadas — student musicians in 17th-century costume leading wine-soaked walking serenades through the back alleys — are the warmest way to experience the city.