15 Things to Do in USA

The city that defined the 20th century — Times Square's neon, Central Park at dawn, the High Line's elevated gardens, and a restaurant scene so diverse that eating around the world in a week is possible without leaving Manhattan.

A mile deep and 277 miles long — the Colorado River's 6-million-year project that produced one of the world's greatest landscapes. At sunrise, the canyon walls turn from purple to orange to gold in layers.

The world's first national park sits atop the largest active supervolcano — producing Old Faithful geyser, the Grand Prismatic Spring's rainbow pools, bison herds and grizzly bears.

The most concentrated entertainment district on earth — casino resorts, shows by Cirque du Soleil, Michelin-starred restaurants and a desert backdrop that makes the neon fever dream look even more surreal.

Eight volcanic islands in the Pacific — Oahu's Waikiki Beach, Maui's Road to Hana, the Big Island's active lava flows. The USA's most distinct destination.

The birthplace of jazz — French Quarter balconies, Mardi Gras excess and a Creole-Cajun food culture with its own culinary vocabulary. There's nowhere quite like it in North America.

Central Park, the Met, the High Line, One World Observatory, Brooklyn Bridge walk and pizza at 2am — the best single NYC day starts with Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise and ends in a Harlem jazz club.

Grand Canyon → Monument Valley → Zion Canyon → Bryce Canyon's red hoodoos — four of the continent's most spectacular landscapes within a 500-mile loop through Utah and Arizona.

Bison herds, grizzly bears, wolf packs and 10,000 geothermal features in a park the size of Puerto Rico. The Grand Teton range at sunrise is the continent's most photographed landscape.

The city that invented the skyscraper — the Chicago Riverwalk boat tour reveals the greatest collection of 20th-century buildings in North America.

Broadway's honky-tonks have live music from noon to 3am every day. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Bluebird Cafe complete the experience.

Big Sur's cliffs, Hearst Castle, Santa Barbara and Malibu across 400 miles of Pacific coastline — arguably the world's most scenic coastal drive.

Denali, Katmai's grizzlies, the Inside Passage glacier cruise — America's greatest wilderness, still largely unexplored by international visitors.

Mardi Gras draws a million visitors; the rest of the year the French Quarter's jazz clubs, beignets at Café Du Monde and Creole seafood justify the trip.

Watch new land being formed as volcanic flows reach the Pacific at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park — the only place on earth where you can witness an island being built.