USA Travel

. Boston is one of America’s oldest cities and first settled in 1630. The capital of Massachusetts, Boston is a city rich in history and tradition, yet vibrant and modern.

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. I have included some day trips to attractions that are close to Las Vegas. You can drive to these attractions in a few hours, spend some time seeing the sights and be back on the Strip the same evening. The overnight trips are to attractions a bit further from the city or ones that deserve more sightseeing time. Finally, I include a couple of extended driving tours that take you to multiple attractions in the Southwest and require several days on the road.

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Northeastern Driving Tour. New York City is a great place to begin a driving tour of northeastern USA. There are three major airports serving this city, JFK International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark International just across the river in New Jersey. That makes it easy to fly there from just about anywhere in the world.

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. The San Juan Islands of Washington state are located approximately 150 miles north of Seattle in the midst of the great ocean inlet formed by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. They consist of a cluster of picturesque islands with rocky shorelines that are covered in dense forests and rolling farmlands. San Juan Island, Orcas Island and Lopez Island are the largest.
Anacortes

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Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Hoover Dam is located about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas on Highway 93. It straddles the Colorado River at Black Canyon, a deep narrow defile on the border between the states of Nevada and Arizona. It was originally called Boulder Dam, and the nearby city of Boulder, Nevada was created to house the workers building this amazing wonder of engineering. You can easily drive to Boulder City and Hoover Dam from Las Vegas in less than one hour.

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Kennedy Spacecenter Visitor Complex. The John F. Kennedy space center is located on the central Atlantic coast of Florida about 50 miles (75 km) due east of Orlando and midway between Miami and Jacksonville. The actual spaceport and launch facilities are located on nearby Cape Canaveral, a vast peninsula with restricted public access. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, just outside of the cape is open to the public daily from 9 AM until 5 PM. It includes many exhibits, films and displays, plus it offers opportunities to tour the actual spaceport and launch facility.

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Florida Beaches. There are a lot of beaches to choose from in Florida. The state is surrounded by ocean on three sides and has over 800 miles of beach front with thousands of miles of additional shoreline on the many bays and inlets. As is common along most of the eastern coast of the US, the Florida beaches are usually located on long narrow islands or sand bars separated from the mainland by back bays or salt water marshes. The beaches are usually accessible via long bridges or causeways.

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. Niagara Falls Ontario is located just across the river from Niagara Falls New York with the great waterfall situated right between these twin cities. The Canadian side offers the best views of Niagara Falls and has a very different character than its counterpart in the USA. Niagara Falls Ontario is much more commercialized and tourist oriented than Niagara Falls New York. On the Canadian-side, the escarpment overlooking the falls has a beautiful park with well-manicured gardens, but just behind that, the hill is covered with high-rise hotels, casinos and numerous tourist attractions. The adjacent streets are filled with museums, souvenir shops, gaming arcades, restaurants, clubs and tourist attractions of all kinds. If you don’t mind all of the commercialism, Niagara Falls Ontario offers more to see and more to do than Niagara Falls New York.

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. Vancouver, British Columbia is the largest and possibly the most beautiful city in the westernmost province of Canada. It is located just 24 miles (38 km) north of the US border and less than a three-hour drive from Seattle, Washington. The city is situated at the Fraser River Delta on the Pacific Coast. Eighteen surrounding communities spread over the adjacent 2930 square kilometer area make it a large vibrant metropolitan center. Vancouver is 60 miles (96 km) northeast of Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of nearby Vancouver Island.

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Universal Studios Escape. Universal Studios Escape in Orlando Florida is making a strong effort to compete with Disney World, and they are off to a good start. With the recent opening of Universal’s new theme park called Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Escape now has two full-sized theme parks and a City Walk area, to compete with Disney’s four theme parks, and Downtown Disney area. Universal also opened its luxurious Portofino Bay Hotel, the first of several new on-property hotels scheduled to open in the next few years. Universal’s continued expansions are ensuring its status as a must-see attraction in the Orlando area.

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Disney World. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is not just a theme park, but a huge resort complex covering 47 square miles. The resort contains four separate theme parks, three water parks and 99 holes of golf on several different courses. Miles of outdoor recreation are available including hiking, biking, boating and swimming. It has three separate areas containing shopping, dining and entertainment facilities as well as a fourth area with nightclubs. A fairly new addition to the resort is the state of the art sports complex where Disney hosts a wide variety of sporting events. Finally, there are about 18 Disney owned and operated hotels and several non-Disney hotels in the resort. All this combined with many other attractions in the Orlando and central Florida area can be quite overwhelming.
Cinderella’s Castle

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