All Destinations

Miami is tropical America with a Latin pulse — pastel Art Deco along Ocean Drive, Wynwood's street-art galleries, Little Havana's dominoes and cafecito, and some of the country's best clubbing. The Everglades and Florida Keys are day-trip distance, and Miami Beach's Atlantic sand is steps from downtown.

Milwaukee earned its German-immigrant brewing reputation honestly — Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz all started here, and the beer halls and corner taverns still anchor the city's social life. The Lake Michigan shoreline gives Milwaukee a 1,000-mile-long swimming pool, the white sail-like Calatrava-designed art museum is the most photographed building in Wisconsin, and the cobblestoned Third Ward warehouse district has become the food and craft hub. Add the Harley-Davidson Museum (the company was founded here in 1903), Bucks championship-era basketball, fish fries every Friday night, and you've got the quintessential Great Lakes city.

The Mississippi River city built around St. Anthony Falls — the only natural waterfall on the entire 2,340-mile river — with 22 lakes inside city limits, the 50-mile Grand Rounds parkway connecting them all, and the world's largest enclosed Skyway system (9.5 miles of climate-controlled second-floor corridors connecting 80 downtown blocks for the brutal winters). Prince was born and lived almost his entire life here; Paisley Park and First Avenue are the music pilgrimage sites. The Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Institute of Art (permanently free) are world-class; the Mall of America is 12 miles south. Twin city to St. Paul, 11 miles east — one airport, one transit system, no clear hierarchy between them.

Jamaica's second city and tourism capital offers white-sand beaches, reggae culture, jerk chicken, and a gateway to the Blue Mountains and Dunn's River Falls.

Monteverde sits at 1,330 metres on the Tilarán mountain ridge, where Pacific and Caribbean trade winds collide to create one of the wettest, mistiest, most biologically rich cloud forests on Earth. The town began in 1951 when a group of Alabama Quakers fleeing the U.S. draft bought land here for dairy farming, and accidentally protected the forest above their fields — now the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, with 500+ orchid species and the resplendent quetzal as its mascot. The dirt road in is famously rough, the gondola-and-cable canopy tours were invented here, and Santa Elena village still feels like a frontier outpost.

Montreal is the most European city in North America — French-speaking, festival-obsessed, and blessed with a food scene that rivals any major city. Old Montreal's cobblestone streets and basilica, the Plateau's colorful staircases, and the underground city are highlights. The bagels are better than New York's (don't @ us), and poutine is a religion.

Mount Rainier is a 14,411-foot active stratovolcano less than 90 miles southeast of Seattle, the most prominent peak in the Lower 48 and the centerpiece of a 369-square-mile park established in 1899. The Paradise area on the south flank (5,400 feet) is the busiest base, with the Skyline Trail circling subalpine meadows that erupt with avalanche lily and Indian paintbrush every July and August. Sunrise on the northeast side, at 6,400 feet, is the highest road in Washington and gives the closest road-accessible view of the mountain. Reflection Lakes is the iconic mirror shot, Mowich Lake holds the quiet northwest corner, and snow lingers on the high country into July most years.

Myrtle Beach is the resort capital of the 60-mile Grand Strand on the South Carolina coast and the most popular family beach vacation in the South. The 200-foot SkyWheel and the Boardwalk anchor the city center, Broadway at the Beach is the entertainment district with shops and restaurants, and the area holds more than 90 golf courses plus 50-plus miniature golf courses (a self-claimed mini-golf capital of the world). Direct flights into MYR from 30+ US cities, peak season runs April through September, and the food-and-mini-golf scene is unapologetically aimed at families and golf groups, not foodies.

A crescent-shaped 48-square-mile island 30 miles south of Cape Cod, named the Faraway Land by the Wampanoag and once the wealthiest port in the world during the 1820s peak of the Nantucket whaling fleet. When kerosene replaced whale oil and the harbour silted up in the late 19th century, the entire town fossilised in place, leaving the largest concentration of pre-1850 architecture in the United States: cobblestone Main Street, 800-plus surviving Federal and Greek Revival houses, and the Whaling Museum in the old Hadwen and Barney Oil Refinery. Daily ferries from Hyannis run one hour by fast catamaran or 2.25 hours by traditional ferry.

Northern California's premier wine region — a 30-mile-long, 5-mile-wide valley an hour north of San Francisco that contains over 400 wineries and produces 4% of California's wine while generating 27% of the state's wine value. The 1976 'Judgment of Paris' blind tasting put Napa on the world map when a French jury rated Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and Chateau Montelena Chardonnay above their celebrated French counterparts — Time magazine called it 'the day Napa Valley earned its place.' The first American Viticultural Area outside Augusta, Missouri (1981), the valley now contains 16 sub-AVAs each with distinct soil and microclimate. Cabernet Sauvignon dominates at ~55% of plantings, supported by daily marine fog rolling in from San Pablo Bay through the Petaluma Gap and a 40°F+ diurnal temperature swing. Anchored by Napa town in the south and St. Helena and Calistoga in the north along the SR-29 'Wine Route,' with the parallel Silverado Trail offering a quieter alternative. The 1989 Napa Valley Wine Train still runs vintage Pullman dining cars 36 miles round-trip at 18 mph past vineyards. Closest airports: Oakland (OAK) and SFO.

Music City is equal parts bachelorette-pedal-tavern chaos on Broadway and deeply serious songwriter culture at the Bluebird Cafe and Station Inn. Hot chicken sweats at Hattie B's and Prince's, the Ryman Auditorium still hosts acoustic sets under its stained glass, and East Nashville and 12South have eclipsed downtown as the city's creative heart.

The pastel-pink colonial capital of the Bahamas on New Providence Island — the 102-step Queen’s Staircase carved by enslaved labour in the 1790s, the British colonial Government House, the Pirates of Nassau Museum tracing the city’s 18th-century pirate-republic era, and the massive Atlantis Resort across the bridge on Paradise Island. Cruise-ship central (over 4 million arrivals/year), with US Pre-Clearance at the airport meaning you skip US Customs on your return flight. Pair it with a day trip to Exuma’s swimming pigs to elevate the trip.

The most culturally distinct city in America — where Creole and Cajun cooking, jazz, second-line parades, and a French-Spanish colonial heart create something you genuinely can't find anywhere else. The French Quarter's wrought-iron balconies, Frenchmen Street's nightly brass bands, and beignets at 3am at Café du Monde.

New York City needs no introduction — it's the cultural and financial capital of the world. Five boroughs, each with dozens of distinct neighborhoods, offering everything from Michelin-starred restaurants to $1 pizza slices. The subway runs 24/7, the energy is relentless, and there's genuinely something new to discover on every visit.

Newport, Rhode Island, is a 25,000-person harbor city on Aquidneck Island that doubled as the Gilded Age summer capital for the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Belmonts in the late 1800s. The Preservation Society of Newport County runs guided tours of seven mansions including The Breakers (Cornelius Vanderbilt II's 70-room summer cottage), Marble House, Rosecliff, and The Elms. The 3.5-mile Cliff Walk threads the cliffside behind the mansions, the International Tennis Hall of Fame is set in the Newport Casino, and the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals fill July and August. Bowen's Wharf and Thames Street hold the harbor restaurants and chowder bars.

Three waterfalls on the Niagara River between New York State and the Canadian province of Ontario — the American Falls (167 ft tall, 1,060 ft wide), Bridal Veil Falls (the small one separated by Luna Island, also on the US side), and the dominant Horseshoe Falls (167 ft tall, 2,600 ft wide) carrying 90% of the total water volume with the curve sitting mostly in Canada. Combined flow averages 750,000 gallons per second. Second-largest waterfall in the world by flow rate (after Inga Falls in DRC) but only 51st by height — the fame comes from being the largest in the inhabited Western world and the most accessible, drawing 12+ million visitors a year split roughly equally between US and Canadian sides. The falls erode upstream at about 1 ft per year (down from 3 ft historically due to flow control); the 7-mile gorge below is the path the falls have carved over 12,500 years since the last ice age. The Maid of the Mist boat tour has operated continuously since 1846 — the oldest tourist attraction in North America. Niagara also produces ~2.4 million kW of hydroelectric power, with treaty agreements diverting up to 75% of natural flow into the power stations at night and in winter. Closest airports: Buffalo Niagara (BUF, US side) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ, Canadian side).

Greenland's capital and largest city — population just over 20,000, more than a third of the territory — perches on a rocky peninsula at the mouth of one of the largest fjord systems on Earth, with Sermitsiaq mountain (1,210 m) rising directly across the bay. Founded by Hans Egede in 1728 as Godthåb ("Good Hope"), Nuuk holds the National Museum of Greenland, the country's best fjord boat tours, the Katuaq Cultural Centre, and a surprisingly Scandinavian-mild climate. Midnight sun late May to late July; long mild winters with regular aurora through April.

Mexico's culinary capital and a UNESCO World Heritage city. Famous for mole, mezcal, indigenous markets, Day of the Dead celebrations, and nearby Monte Albán ruins.

Hawaii's most populated island packs Waikiki Beach's surf, Pearl Harbor's history, the North Shore's legendary winter waves, Hanauma Bay's snorkel reef, and Diamond Head's crater hike into one island you can drive around in a day. Honolulu's Chinatown is unexpectedly great for food and art.

Olympic spans 922,000 acres on Washington's Olympic Peninsula and packs three separate ecosystems into one park, none of them connected by interior roads. The Hoh Rain Forest on the west side gets 12 feet of rain a year and grows moss-draped Sitka spruce cathedrals. The 73-mile Pacific coast strip holds Ruby Beach, Rialto with its sea stacks, and Shi Shi. The interior alpine zone tops out at 5,200-foot Hurricane Ridge with views from the Olympics back across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver Island. Lake Crescent and Sol Duc Hot Springs are the natural bases, the park is 2.5 hours from Seattle including a ferry, and the coast stays open year-round.

Orlando is the theme-park capital of the world — Walt Disney World's four parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom) cover 25,000 acres southwest of the city, while Universal Orlando (three parks including the new Epic Universe opening 2025) sits closer in. Beyond the parks, downtown Orlando wraps around Lake Eola with its swan boats and weekly farmers' market, ICON Park's 400-foot wheel anchors International Drive, and the Kennedy Space Center is an hour east. The metro is enormous (2.7M), the airport is one of the busiest in the US, and theme-park strategy (FastPass, park-hopper, off-season vs holiday weeks) is its own discipline.

The Outer Banks are a 200-mile chain of barrier islands off North Carolina, strung from the wild horse beaches of Corolla in the north through Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Hatteras, and ferry-only Ocracoke. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (198 feet, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States) anchors the middle of the chain, the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills marks the spot of the first powered flight in 1903, and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore protects 70 miles of undeveloped Atlantic beach. This is a quieter, fishing-and-family vacation coast, not a boardwalk-and-arcade one.

California's mid-century modern oasis — a 50,000-person resort city tucked against the 10,800 ft wall of San Jacinto Peak, 1.5 hours east of Los Angeles in the Coachella Valley. The town carries the highest concentration of preserved 1950s-60s desert modernism in the country (Modernism Week every February draws 162,000 attendees). The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway climbs 8,500 vertical ft to alpine wilderness in 10 minutes; Joshua Tree National Park is 30 minutes east. Pool culture is the local religion — over 100 hotels are designed around the courtyard pool. Coachella and Stagecoach drop into nearby Indio in April; summers spike to 45°C, but Oct-May is dry, mild, and built for cocktails.

A modern skyline rising above a historic old quarter (Casco Viejo), with the famous Panama Canal, tropical biodiversity, and a crossroads-of-the-Americas energy.