|
Discover Places to Go and Things to Do
|
|
United States
|
|
|
|
|
|
United States of America ("USA," "US," "United States," "America," or simply "the States") is a large country in central and north-western North America. The U.S. also includes several Pacific islands (primarily represented by the state of Hawaii) and an unincorporated Caribbean territory (the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico).
One of the most powerful and wealthy nations on earth and third largest in territory and people, it has a mixture of densely-populated urban areas with wide areas of low population and incredible natural beauty.
With a history of mass immigration dating from the 17th century, the U.S. prides itself on its "melting pot" of different cultures from around the globe. Even the briefest visit to the United States is a study in contrasts.
CitiesThe United States has over 10,000 cities, towns, and villages. The following is a list of nine of the most notable.
One of the most powerful and wealthy nations on earth and third largest in territory and people, it has a mixture of densely-populated urban areas with wide areas of low population and incredible natural beauty.
With a history of mass immigration dating from the 17th century, the U.S. prides itself on its "melting pot" of different cultures from around the globe. Even the briefest visit to the United States is a study in contrasts.
CitiesThe United States has over 10,000 cities, towns, and villages. The following is a list of nine of the most notable. Other cities can be found in their corresponding regions.
Washington (D.C.) - The national capital, home to the United States' most grand public buildings as well as a thriving multi-cultural community.Boston - The capital of Massachusetts retains much of its colonial charm, but is kept young by its multitudes of students.Chicago - The "Windy City", bustling heart of the Midwest, transportation hub of the nation, notable for its large number of architectural gems and massive skyscrapers.Los Angeles - The home of Hollywood and the film industry, palm-fringed Los Angeles offers mountains, beaches, sunshine, and everything else visitors look to find in California.Miami - Miami is home to one of the greatest beaches in the country, and has a mix of sun-seeking northerners and immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean seeking a chance to make it in the US.New Orleans - Despite a devastating hurricane, "the Big Easy" is still famous for its atmospheric French Quarter and annual Mardi Gras celebration.New York - The United States' largest city, with world-class cuisine, unparalleled arts offerings, and one of the most diverse populations on the planet. Both a symbol of the country and intensely international.San Francisco - One of the most photogenic cities in the world, idiosyncratic San Francisco offers a diverse array of attractions, and is a popular gateway to the California coast and Yosemite National Park.Seattle - This green and rainy city is known for its trend-setting cultural scene and the business presence of international high-tech giants.Other destinationsThese are some of the largest and most famous destinations outside of major cities.
The Grand Canyon Yellowstone National Park Yosemite National Park Death Valley Great Smoky Mountains National Park Glacier National Park Carlsbad Caverns National ParkSee United States National Parks for a list of all national park areas.
BackgroundThe U.S. is difficult to characterize because of its size and diversity, both in geography and in people, but an overview will help travelers to see these differences and perhaps help to find what they are most interested in. It is not realistic to see a little of everything unless one has a very long time to spend; indeed, even lifetime residents have trouble taking it all in. Part of the States' appeal is that you can experience so much in one country.
Due to the vastness of their own country, and due to the fact that many of the neighboring countries did not require U.S. citizens to have them, fewer than a third of Americans have passports, although this number is expected to increase greatly. Recently, with the requirement of a passport to travel to its neighboring countries, Canada and Mexico, as well as to nearby Caribbean countries, there has been a surge in demand for passports.
GeographyThe U.S. is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of area (at roughly 9.6 million sq km, it's about half the size of Russia and around the same size as China).
The contiguous United States (the 48 states other than Alaska and Hawaii) are bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, with much of the country's population living on these two coasts. Its only borders are shared with Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south.
The country has three major mountain ranges. The Appalachians extend from Canada to the state of Alabama, a few hundred miles west of the Atlantic Ocean. They are the oldest of the three mountain ranges, and are not particularly high, but offer spectacular sightseeing and excellent camping spots. The Rockies are the highest in North America, extending from Alaska to New Mexico, with many areas protected as national parks. Their natural wonders offer impressive hiking, camping, and sightseeing opportunities. The combined Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges are the youngest. The Sierras extend across the "backbone" of California, with sites such as Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park, then give way to the even younger volcanic Cascade range, with some of the highest points in the country.
The Great Lakes define much of the border between the United States and Canada, also known as the North Coast. Formed by the pressure of glaciers retreating north at the end of the last Ice Age, the five lakes touch the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The lakes span hundreds of miles, and their shores vary from pristine wilderness areas to industrial "rust belt" cities. They are the second-largest body of freshwater in the world, after the shrinking polar ice caps.
ClimateThe overall climate is temperate, with notable exceptions. Alaska has Arctic tundra, while Hawaii and South Florida are tropical. The Great Plains are dry, flat and grassy, turning into arid desert in the far West.
Seasons vary dramatically in the northern and mid-western major cities. In a single winter storm, as much as 2 feet (61 cm) of snow can fall, with bitterly cold temperatures. Summers are typically mild but very humid. However, temperatures over 100°F (38°C) sometimes invade the entire Midwest and Great Plains region now. Some areas in the northern plains can experience dangerously cold temperatures of -30°F (-34°C) during the winter. Temperatures below 0°F (-18°C) sometimes reach as far south as Kansas or even Oklahoma.
The climate of the South also varies, but with the extremes coming instead in "the long, hot summer", somewhat resembling tropical climates (the climate in the South is partially tropical). Humidity and high temperatures make warmer months in these states good for little but sipping iced tea and plunging into cool bodies of water. But from October through April the weather is glorious, and nuisance insects subside.
The Great Plains & Midwestern states also experience tornadoes from the late spring to early fall, earlier in the south and later in the north. See the Tornado safety article for more information. States along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, may experience hurricanes between June and November. These intense and dangerous storms frequently miss the the U.S. mainland, but if one is forecast to hit, do not take the situation lightly. Evacuations are often ordered for areas in the direct path of the storm and should be heeded.
The Rockies are very cold and snowy. Some regions see over 500 inches (1,200 cm) of snow in a season. Some of the world's most famous ski resorts are located in Colorado and Utah. Even during the summer, temperatures are cool in the mountains, and snow can fall nearly year-round.
The Southwestern deserts are extremely arid and hot during the summer, with summer temperatures exceeding 100°F (38°C) through most of the summer. This includes such cities as Las Vegas and Phoenix. Thunderstorms can be expected in the southwest frequently from July through September because of the summer monsoon that rises from Mexico. Winters in this region are mild, and snow is unusual. Average annual precipitation is less than 10 inches (25 cm).
Cool and damp weather is common in the northwest in areas such as in Seattle or Portland. Rain is most frequent in winter, and snow is rare along the coastal regions. The Pacific coast rarely sees snow and extremes in temperature are uncommon. Rain falls almost exclusively from late fall through early spring along the coast, except in western Washington, where rain falls year-round.
HistoryAmerica was once populated by peoples who migrated there from northeast Asia. In the United States those that remain are known as Native Americans, or American Indians. With populations once in the tens of millions, most led tribal, hunter-gatherer lifestyles, although some developed political enclaves based on agriculture, such as the Five Nations of the Northeast and the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, various parts of the region were colonized by several European nations and/or their religious missionaries, including Spain, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Russia. The British colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts were the kernel of what we now know as the United States of America. By the early 18th century, 13 colonies ranged along the Atlantic coast from Georgia to present-day Maine. Their growth drove the displacement the Native American population westward and the extinction of many others, as well as the end of the embryonic Dutch and Swedish footholds.
The southern areas, because of a longer growing season, had richer agricultural prospects, especially for cotton and tobacco. Large plantations developed with most of the labor being provided by African slaves, as was typical of most of Central and South America. The Northern colonies developed as mercantile societies modeled after the "home" country, Britain.
In the late 18th century, colonial revolutionaries declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, eventually realized by a bloody Revolutionary War. The colonies formed a federal government, with its Constitution inspired by Enlightenment-era ideas about government and human rights. In the late 18th and early 19th century, this government established itself and expanded westward, under a "Manifest Destiny" for the nation to expand to the Pacific Ocean.
Territories in the Midwest were added as new states, and the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 gave the United States nominal control of former French territory along the Mississippi River. Florida was purchased in 1813 from the Spanish; American settlers in Texas rebelled against the Mexican government, setting up a republic that was absorbed into the union. The Mexican-American War of the 1840s won the northern territories of Mexico, including such states as California, Arizona, and New Mexico, giving the continental US the rough outlines it has today. The marginalization of the Native Americans, and their concentration in the west by treaty, military force, and by the inadvertent spread of European diseases, continued apace.
By the mid-19th century the differences between North and South had become severe. Though slavery was not the only issue between the two, it was an important one. By the 1860s, the Southern states decided to secede from the Union and the American Civil War broke out. It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, costing hundreds of thousands of lives. With the victory of the North a single country was maintained. While slavery was abolished, the former slaves by and large remained an economic and social underclass in the South.
The late 19th century saw the U.S. cementing its power on the continent and making tentative expansions abroad. Alaska was purchased from the Russians in 1867, and Hawaii was annexed in 1898. The Spanish-American War gained the first "colonial" territories: the Philippines (later granted independence) and Puerto Rico (which remains by choice a US territory).
In the Eastern cities of the United States, an immigration boom had begun. Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Italians, and Slavs, including many Jews fleeing Russian pogroms, joined Irish refugees to become a cheap labor force for the country's growing industrialization. Many Southern African-Americans fled rural poverty for the relative security of industrial jobs in the North. Other immigrants, including many Scandinavians and Germans, moved to the now-opened territories in the West and Midwest, where land was available for free to anyone who would develop it. A network of railroads crisscrossed the country, allowing faster movement of people and materials, and thus accelerating development.
With its entrance into World War I near the end of the conflict, the United States established itself as a world power. The creation of real wealth grew rapidly in this period. In the Roaring 20s stock speculation created an immense "bubble" which, when it burst in October of 1929, created economic havoc, known as the Great Depression, across the country and around the world. This crisis exacerbated the disaffection among the working classes in the United States and around the world and led to a rise in socialist thinking that was to have a large effect on the rest of the century.
At the end of 1941 the United States entered World War II. In Alliance with the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, the U.S. helped defeat the fascist regimes in Italy, Germany, and Japan. At the end of this war of unprecedented scale, the United States, which had been mostly spared from fighting on its own soil, became the dominant economic power in the world, responsible for nearly half of the world's production. It stood as the primary opposing power to the Soviet Union, a former ally which was attempting to recover from devastation and ensure its security by asserting its influence with military backing, giving rise to what is now known as the Cold War.
Also at the end of WWII, African Americans, who had long suffered de facto disenfranchisement, demanded equal rights, with widespread demonstrations. This, and the status of women and other "overdue" societal changes that had been contained by the effort of the war, flowered into a virtual revolution. The unpopular war in Vietnam, a by-product of the Cold War, added to the social strife. Taken together these changes led to significant change in the country: the economic and political conditions for African Americans substantially improved; a majority of women entered the workplace, and this had a powerful effect on homelife, the workplace and the economy.
CultureBecause of its size and because nearly all citizens are descended from diverse immigrants, there is no single universal "American" culture. Visitors to the South will find a far different culture from those traveling to California or New York City. However, there is a culture that is said to be American, in a way a stereotype of what America wishes itself to be, a culture that people over the globe have seen in Hollywood film, and that has energized immigrants from all over the world. Like many stereotypes, there is a certain truth to it; likewise, there is a certain falsity. For example, it has been said that America is a "classless" society. This is true in the sense of class as it is traditionally known in Europe or India, where one's class at birth largely determines one's social station in life. But there is a huge disparity in the socioeconomic status of the upper and lower classes in America. The "classlessness" means that one can freely move between them by changing one's financial situation; one's outcomes, not one's origins, determine one's class.
There is an impression that American culture is more materialistic and individualistic than many other cultures. The wealth on display almost casually in large shopping malls all over the country might seem shocking to someone from a developing country. Yet it is also true that America is more religious than most other industrialized countries. So it is a mixed bag, and this should make it an interesting place to visit.
Many current trends in industrialized and developing countries began in the United States, and lots of modern inventions were either invented or first mass-produced in the United States. The dependence on cars and the national interstate system to get around has long been an American icon, and to this day the United States has one of the highest per-capita car ownership rates in the world. Other traditional elements of United States culture include Hollywood films, country music, blues, jazz, rock, rap, baseball, multiculturalism as well as its infamously convenient fast food.
While numerous political parties exist, the system is dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties. The current Democratic party tends to be more to the left on fiscal and social issues and draws more support from urban voters, especially in the Northeast and West Coast. The Republican party is more to the right on these issues and draws more support from voters in rural areas, especially in the South and Texas. The United States political system tends to favor centrists (by American standards); far-right or far-left political movements that might take hold in other places tend to do poorly here.
HolidaysThe US has a number of holidays - official and/or cultural - of which the traveller should be aware (special events, closures, changed schedules, disruption, etc.) Note that holidays observed on Mondays are usually treated as weekend-long events.
New Years Day (January 1) - most businesses closed; hangovers from parties the previous night, football parties.Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January) - many government offices and banks closed; diversity-awareness programs.St. Valentine's Day (February 14) - no significant closures; romantic evenings out.Presidents Day (third Monday in February) - (also Washington's Birthday) - many government offices and banks closed; few observances, many stores have sales.St. Patrick's Day (March 17) - no significant closures; Irish-themed parades during the day, and parties in the evening. Travelers may want to be wary of the drunken revelry and associated drunk driving crackdowns.Easter (a Sunday in March or April) - few significant closures; religious observances.Memorial Day (last Monday in May) - most non-retail/tourism businesses closed; some patriotic observances; extensive travel to beaches and parks; traditional beginning of summer tourism season.Independence Day / Fourth of July (July 4) - most businesses closed; patriotic parades, fireworks after dark.Labor Day (first Monday in September) - most businesses closed; extensive travel to beaches and parks; traditional ending of summer tourism season.Columbus Day (second Monday in October) - many government offices and banks closed; few observances.Halloween (October 31) - no significant closures - trick-or-treating and costume parties in the evening.Veterans Day (November 11) - many government offices and banks closed; some patriotic observances.Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November, unofficially the Friday and weekend after) - most non-retail businesses closed; family gatherings, on Friday major Christmas shopping begins.Christmas (December 25) - most businesses and restaurants closed the evening before and all day; exchanging gifts, religious observances. If you need food from a restaurant, your best bet will be hotels and Chinese or Indian restaurants.
For more information The Federal system of government in the U.S. puts the states in charge of tourism and the federal government in charge of foreign policy. The result of this is that the Federal government provides the best information about legal requirements for entry, while the most detailed information about places to visit and see will be provided by the state tourism bureaus which will be happy to send you maps and literature. Contact information is available in the individual state entries. At state borders, highway rest stops usually serve as Visitor's Centers as well and often have a plethora of travel and tourism information and material for that state. If you call or write the state Commerce department, this is often the information they will mail you. Nearly every rest stop in the country has free maps of the state in which it is located.
From Wikitravel, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
By AdonyCab
2 days
This 2-Day trip covers a lot of "Boston"... The Boston Common, Boston Pops, Boston Tea Party Ship, Boston Red Sox. And oh, yeah, there is the Freedom Trail for a change of "name" pace. And a couple of Museums. And Paul Revere's House. All in all, a pretty neat Boston experience in a short time.
|
|
|
By Tomer3
3 days
A fun alternative to the pricey Vail area, is Breckenridge. Breckenridge is a 148-year-old quaint Victorian town in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. As one of the nation’s premier year-round resorts, Breckenridge has an incredible selection of recreational activities.
|
|
|
|
2 people reviewed United States
|
Top
|
|
|
|
at 7:00PM April 22, 2009
|
|
at 2:43AM May 29, 2008
I would like to travel all around the USA!
|
|
|
|
Add to
My Places
Add to Trip
