North America
The original melting pot — big cities, bigger landscapes, endless reinvention.
The United States is less a country than a continent of them — a sweep of world cities, wild landscapes and cultures running from Atlantic to Pacific. New York is the essential first hit: the densest, most electric city in the country, where a hundred nationalities stack onto one island of skyscrapers, the food and art and music never stop, and the energy is like nowhere else on earth. Fast, expensive and endlessly stimulating — the city the movies taught you to love before you ever arrived.
What things cost: New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world — hotels especially, plus a tipping culture (18–20%) and sales tax added at the till that inflate every price. But street food, the subway, the pay-what-you-wish museums and the parks cost little. When a zone below says 'low', that means low for Manhattan, which is still dear.
Boston
Chicago
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Maui
Miami
New Orleans
New York
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
Sometimes the event picks the city for you.
Annually, September, in Downtown
A huge downtown music, art and food festival that takes over the streets around Fremont East — big-name headliners, murals and installations. The city's marquee festival and a very different, local-flavoured side of Vegas.
Las Vegas · Downtown Las Vegas
The world's largest rowing regatta fills the Charles with thousands of rowers over one crisp autumn weekend, the banks lined with crowds and college tents. Peak New England fall, on the water.
Boston · Charles River
The giant-balloon parade that signals the start of the holidays — colossal cartoon characters floating down from the Upper West Side to Macy's, watched by millions on the streets and TV. Bundle up and stake out a spot early, or watch the balloons inflate the night before.
New York · Central Park West to Herald Square
Ten days when Vegas turns Western — the championship of pro rodeo fills the arena and the casinos fill with cowboys, boots and country music. A wildly fun, only-in-Vegas spectacle if you're here in December.
Las Vegas · Thomas & Mack Center
The Americas' biggest contemporary art fair takes over the city — galleries, satellite fairs, murals and non-stop parties from South Beach to Wynwood. Miami at its most glamorous and packed; book everything far ahead.
Miami · Miami Beach Convention Center
The Strip closes to traffic and hundreds of thousands pack the boulevard for a fireworks show launched from the rooftops of the resorts — one of the biggest New Year's parties on earth. Book everything far ahead; prices peak.
Las Vegas · Las Vegas Boulevard