USA - Highlights
Pick city or country, a glittering metropolis or untamed mountains, star-studded museums or the timeless Mississippi.
New York's MoMA, or Museum of Modern Art, has been at the centre of modern art since its inception in 1929. Washington DC's John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts attracts international stars every year. Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the home of country and western, while Memphis's Graceland is a memorial to the King.
Let your eyes boggle in the Big Apple: at the Statue of Liberty, the spiral Guggenheim Museum and skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building – all instant icons. The White House is to presidential residences what San Francisco's Golden Gate is to bridges. Mount Rushmore's stony quartet – near the dramatic Crazy Horse mountain sculpture – ennoble South Dakota as the white letters spelling the hill-top H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D distinguish Los Angeles.
Fans of theme parks young and old have come to the right place. From Florida's Disney World to San Diego's SeaWorld, there's a theme park for every taste – even Dolly Parton has created her own at Tennessee's Dollywood. Kids love Washington DC's National Air and Space Museum and in nearby Virginia there's Colonial Williamsburg – the working recreation of a colonial-era township.
If you wake up peckish, locals are normally delighted to recommend their favourite breakfast diner and dish. Out in nature, get as far away from the roads as possible to feel that pioneer spirit that filled the land only a little over 100 years ago.
Drive down Route 66 to Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA. Head to the mountains to the tune of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. Sit around a log fire and try to remember the words to Don McLean's American Pie. And go to a ball game and sing The Star-Spangled Banner.
