THE STATES: ILLINOIS - MISSOURI

Choose State Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri

Illinois

Illinois, home of the great city of Chicago, and boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln, boasts a population of nearly 11.5 million residents. Nicknamed the "Prairie State" because of the vast expanses of undulating grassland which awed early explorer, Illinois also has hundreds of miles of waterways, hill country, sparkling lakes, great forests and beaches - yes, beaches, 29 miles (46.4 kilometers) of Lake Michigan shoreline lie within the state and offer residents and visitors the amenities of 31 public beaches in addition to a variety of other beaches located throughout the state.

While Illinois is best known for Chicago, there is so much more here. The state is also home to the Amish communities of Arcola and Arthur; Cahokia Mounds, the largest Indian burial grounds outside of Mexico; charming small towns on the bluffs above the Mississippi River; the restored mining town of Galena; Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois; and Springfield, the state capital and home of Abraham Lincoln, beloved 16th President of the United States.

Chicago, of course, is not to be missed. The Art Institute is home of the largest collection of Impressionist paintings outside Paris’ Louvre, and the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry are internationally renowned. Chicago is a music town, renowned for dozens of blues clubs, home to one of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, the Chicago Lyric Opera and dozens of venues for jazz, gospel, reggae, country music and good old rock & roll. Chicago is also a theater town - from the acclaimed Goodman, Schubert, and Steppenwolf theaters to the newly restored Chicago Theater.

Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods are packed with unique restaurants offering cuisine of the world. Shoppers flock to Chicago from around the Midwest to browse and buy along the "Magnificent Mile," lined with trendy shops, designer boutiques and famous department stores. Outside of the city, there are treasures to be found in quaint antique shops, outlet malls and craft shops.

Indiana

Close your eyes and imagine that Indiana is a vast painting, its long, nearly rectangular shape a lively collage of varied peoples, historic places, striking architecture and dramatic sweeping scenery. Now, put yourself in the picture.

When Americans think of Indiana, they naturally think of sports: the Indy 500 auto race is run here, and no place is as closely associated with basketball as "the Hoosier State," home of the professional Indiana Pacers and a number of outstanding college teams.

Whether you enjoy city life or the great outdoors, Indiana will please you. Indianapolis is an exciting mix of old and new. The downtown, with its graceful radiating street pattern, houses numerous cultural attractions, restaurants and shops. Here you’ll find the renovated Festival Marketplace in Union Station, the Indianapolis Zoo, the Indiana Repertory Theater, the world’s largest children’s museum, the Indianapolis Art Museum, and a professional symphony orchestra and opera company.

Indiana boasts some of the nation’s finest state parks and federal wilderness areas. In the north, don’t miss the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a huge stretch of towering white dunes, blowing sands, and maritime fauna on the shores of Lake Michigan. In the state’s central section, the Hoosier National Forest is a mecca for all of your favorite outdoor activities with campsites available for those who like to sleep under the stars. This area is also home to Bluespring Caverns, one of the world’s largest cave systems.

Southern Indiana is rich in natural beauty and fascinating historic sites. Here you will find New Harmony, site of two 19th-century communal living experiments. Vincennes, a 300-year-old city, is a treasury of historic sites including the old French cemetery, a memorial to Revolutionary War general George Rogers Clark, and the Indiana Territory Capitol/State Historic Site, with its replica of Indiana’s first newspaper printing shop.

Indiana’s Amish country is another place to step back in time and experience a way of life that has changed little in hundreds of years.

Indiana is dotted with great architecture. Marvel at the Indigenous folk art of the 32 covered bridges of Parke county and the round barns of Fulton county. Enjoy the Old World charm of its great cathedrals and its spectacular new office towers alongside historic restorations in the larger cities.

Iowa

Come to Iowa to find the best of big-city life alongside the history and lifestyle of the American farm family. Iowa’s population of approximately 3 million people is spread among farms, classic small towns and a few metropolitan areas. As the only state in the nation bordered by two navigable rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri, Iowa, which also has a "Great Lakes Region" to the northwest, is a paradise for fishing and boating enthusiasts, campers and swimmers.

Many historic sites across the state tell the Iowa story, from riverboat museums along the Mississippi and the Herbert Hoover Birthplace and Presidential Library and Museum at West Branch, to the State of Iowa Historical building and restored governor’s residence in Des Moines, Living History Farms in Des Moines is a 600-acre, open air museum depicting Iowa’s farming heritage. Re-created 19th-century farmsteads make vivid the agricultural and domestic methods of a bygone age.

Bicyclists love Iowa for its well-maintained system of secondary roads and its ever-growing network of multi-use trails that criss-cross the state.

Iowa has been the inspiration and setting for many popular works. Fans of the film Field of Dreams flock to Dyersville to visit the site where the star, Kevin Costner, brought the ghosts of baseball’s heyday back to life. In Madison County, south of Des Moines, tour the six, century-old covered bridges that inspired the runaway best-selling novel "Bridges of Madison County".

If shopping is your pleasure, you’ll find many delights in Iowa. Your adventures can take you to an outlet mall or to a historic village specializing in fine woodworking, antiques and pottery. Search out Midwestern antiques in Walnut or Valley Junction or purchase a one-of-a-kind Amish quilt in the town of Kalona, near the largest Amish settlement west of the Mississippi.

Wake up to the smell of fresh baked goods or bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Stay in a restored Victorian mansion or modern country home on a working farm. Or, sample Iowa’s city life at a downtown hotel or motel. There’s something for every taste and budget.

Kansas

Fold a map of the continental United States in quarters. The place where those folds meet is Kansas - geographic center of the United States and in many ways a spiritual center as well. Within its boxy borders, the state of Kansas embraces so many aspects of those things the world thinks of as typically American. Kansas is criss-crossed with many of the historic trails that carried pioneers westward, in particular the Santa Fe Trail. Kansas is home to cattle towns that have retained their Old West flavor and cowpoke brashness.

Kansas boasts modern cities as well as the largest swatch of true tall-grass prairie left in the United States. And, Kansas is a breadbasket - a state blanketed with golden fields of grain. Kansas has nurtured her share of American heroes, most notably Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Perhaps the best place to get an overview of the state’s colorful past is the Kansas History Museum in Topeka. To experience the flavor of an Old West cowtown, visit Abilene, Dodge City and Wichita - all three restored to capture their frontier look. Abilene is also renowned as the boyhood home of Dwight D. Eisenhower. A museum, library and chapel dedicated to his life and work provide a fascinating look at this great American.

Two national Historic Sites, Fort Larned and Fort Scott, re-enact the rigors of frontier military life. The covered-wagon trains, perhaps the best-known symbol of Western settlement, once carried intrepid settlers to new lives. Today, they still haul travelers - those on holiday - over the sweeping prairies.

Kansas, however, does not live in the past, as a visit to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Discovery Center in Hutchinson will attest. This space center and museum boasts the second largest collection of space artifacts in the world.

As a rural state, Kansas has much to offer nature lovers. Large herds of buffalo still roam the plains in several game preserves, and Great Bend is an important rest stop for migrating birds.

Kentucky

Kentucky is famous throughout the world for its horses, horse racing and the Kentucky Derby. Kentucky is also known for Stephen Foster, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and world-class bourbon.

Kentucky has huge lakes for boating and fishing, resorts with lush golf courses, and scenic forested wilderness areas for hiking and camping. It also has the longest-known cave system in the world and many picturesque mountains.

Kentucky has large metropolitan cities with museums, ballet, opera and theater. It also has charming small communities with dinner theaters, festivals, scenic train rides and outdoors musicals. All across the state you’ll find Kentucky crafts, renowned throughout the world.

Part of Kentucky’s popularity as a vacation destination is because of its convenient location. Half of the population of the United States is located within a day’s drive of Kentucky.

Horses are a multi-billion dollar industry for the bluegrass State, providing plenty of exciting events and attractions for everyone to enjoy. There’s horse racing at one of nine race tracks almost every day of the year. The Kentucky Derby Museum at famous Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Horse Park, home to 40 different breeds and year-round special events, offer unique experiences for every family member.

There are more than 300 things to do and sites to see across the state including "The Stephen Foster Story". Outdoor musical, the original restaurant where Colonel Sanders developed Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Maker’s Mark and Wild Turkey Distilleries.

The state’s natural scenic beauty provides a variety of great vacation activities. There’s camping, boating and fishing on 21 major lakes, canoeing and rafting on 14 major river systems, and backpacking, hiking, biking and horseback riding on 1,400 miles of trails through forests and mountains. You can see the sites underground at Mammoth Cave, the longest-known cave in the world, or you can gaze at beautiful vistas from your mountain-top cabin at one of Kentucky’s famous state parks.

Louisiana

Louisiana’s credo states that life is a party and everyone is invited. The invitation goes out from every corner of the state, from the Scots-Irish descendants found in north Louisiana to the French and Spanish inheritors of south Louisiana.

New Orleans is the first point of contact for many international visitors. The heart of the city is the Vieux Carre (the historic French Quarter), founded in 1718 by French Creoles, and today beautifully preserved as an historic district. Explore the area’s lovely old pastel-colored buildings and balcony-lined streets on foot, in a carriage or aboard the oldest continuously operating streetcar in America. Browse through antique shops and boutiques and take advantage of the tax-free shopping program, which grants tax rebates to foreign visitors for purchases at more than a thousand shops statewide.

North of New Orleans, travelers delight in visits to restored plantations along the Mississippi. The area is called "Plantation Country" and its headquarters is the state capital, Baton Rouge. Students from all over the world flock to Baton Rouge to attend Louisiana State University or Southern University (internationally famed for its jazz program).

South Louisiana is home to the descendants of 17th-century French settlers who came here after being expelled from Eastern Canada by the British. This is Bayou country, where Cajun pirogues (Indian-style canoes) navigate alligator-filled swamps, and crawfish - the local seafood delicacy - is celebrated in a mammoth Crawfish Festival each May in Breaux Bridge. Equally famous is the festival International, which attracts performers from French-speaking nations worldwide.

North Louisiana reflects the Old South and a Scots-Irish heritage, alongside pockets of French, Spanish, Indian and other ethnic groups. Visit Alexandria for the popular "12 Nights of Christmas" celebration and Historic Natchicoches for the "Christmas Festival of Lights", made famous by the stage play and film, "Steel Magnolias".

National forests, state parks and numerous wildlife management areas abound here, as well as wonderful museums, restaurants, historic sites and attractions.

Maine

The rocky fingers of Maine’s justly famous coastline jut into the waters of the icy Atlantic in a thousand places forming the rugged scenery of isolated coves and sheltered harbors for which this state is best known.

But Maine, the largest of the New England states, is much more than sandy beaches and rocky shores. The state also boasts more than 6,000 inland lakes and ponds and hundreds of mountains. These include Mt. Katahdin, the state’s tallest peak at 5,200 feet/1,586 meters in Baxter State Park, and Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park at 1,530 feet/466 meters, the highest point on the eastern seaboard north of Rio de Janiero.

Those who love the outdoor life come to enjoy Maine’s parks, seacoast and islands year-round. Walk the Appalachian Trail or try hundreds of other hikes, ranging from easy strolls to rock climbing on sheer cliff faces. In winter, the state’s mountain slopes provide downhill skiers with challenging trails and some of the best conditions in the Northeast. Maine has two world-class ski resorts, Sugarloaf and Sunday River, and a 3,000-mile/4,800-kilometer snowmobile trail system. Fishing, hiking, camping and hunting for whitetail deer are all venerable Maine traditions.

If sailing is your passion, Maine is your dream come true. Its 3,700 miles/5,920 kilometer of coastline have made it a sailor’s paradise for hundreds of years. Those who prefer a rougher ride can book a whitewater rafting organizers.

The state’s villages and towns offer examples of New England architecture at its best, along with fine dining, historic attractions and great shopping. Between them, the towns of kittery, in the south, and Freeport, located mid-coast, boast over 200 outlet stores, selling everything from name-brand clothing to glassware, all at discounted prices.

Dining in Maine is synonymous with lobster, which is caught in the chilly off-shore waters and exported around the globe. Try it "in the rough" at a roadside lobster pound, where the crustacean is plucked from the tank before your eyes and served at a waterside picnic table. Or enjoy your lobster or any number of other treats, seafood and otherwise, at a fine inn or restaurant.

Maryland

Maryland - A coastal state nestled between Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Delaware - offers the visitor opportunities to relive the past, enjoy the present and look to the future. Many visitors start their exploration of the state in Baltimore, a harborside city whose renaissance in the last decade has been widely hailed. Harborplace, the centerpiece of Baltimore’s rebirth, is an amazing array of shops and restaurants complete with a waterside amphitheater. Nearby, you’ll find the Maryland Science Center and planetarium and the world renowned National Aquarium, home to dolphin, 5000 species of tropical fish and a temperate rainforest exhibit.

An hour west of Baltimore lies Antietam National Battlefield. It was on these quiet rolling fields around the village of Sharpsburg that twenty-three thousand young men died as Union forces repelled the Confederate Army’s first attempt to invade the North.

Two hours from Baltimore lies Maryland’s famed Eastern Shore, home to many quaint waterside communities. For many, the Eastern Shore’s greatest draw is the seaside community of Ocean city, a lively family resort with miles of boardwalk, a dozen golf courses, deep sea fishing and white sandy beaches. Nearby, nature lovers can soak up the tranquillity of Assateague National Seashore, a birder’s paradise and home of the famous wild ponies, descendants of 17th-century stock turned out here to graze.

Annapolis, the state’s capital, has been called "A Museum Without Walls". Nestled on the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis is best known as home of the United States Naval Academy. It also houses the country’s greatest concentration of 18th-century buildings, including several well-preserved examples of American redbrick colonial architecture.

Chesapeake Bay, which gives Annapolis and other historic villages and towns so much of their character, bisects the state and is the world’s largest inland estuary. The Bay and its surrounding wetlands are home to nearly 3,000 species of animals, plants and wild birds. At Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, 11,000 acres of marshland have been set aside and can be explored by bicycle or automobile on miles of trails.

Massachusetts

If you need a dose of history and you’re short of time, come to Massachusetts. Massachusetts is home both to the first permanent European settlement north of Virginia and to Boston, where over three centuries of history are etched into every cobblestone and brick.

Massachusetts has also been home to a higher than average number of thinkers and creators and today boasts a cultural life which is the living legacy of that tradition. From the colleges, universities and fine art and science museums of Boston, Cambridge and the Berkshires to the musical strains of the Boston Symphony, Massachusetts has much to satisfy culture buffs.

The city of Boston is the beating heart of Massachusetts. On the twisting, cobblestone streets of Beacon Hill, block after block of beautifully preserved 18th-century houses are lit by gas street lamps. Just a short streetcar ride away, you will find the Museum of Fine Art and one of the world’s greatest collections of Impressionist and Japanese art.

Drive an hour out of Boston in almost any direction and you can come in contact with history: due north there’s Gloucester, an important commercial fishing center, where you can hop on a tour. Also north of Boston is Salem, a well-preserved colonial village whose infamous 17th-century witch trials sent many innocent people to their deaths. An hour south of Boston is Plymouth and the Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of the first Puritan settlement. If the seashore is your pleasure, you can’t find a more celebrated beach resort than Cape Cod, with its miles of beaches and bike trails, numerous golf courses and picturesque villages. Just of the coast lie the equally lovely islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

To the west of Boston lie the woods, farmlands and orchards of central Massachusetts. Worcester and Springfield, the state’s second and third largest cities, are found here amidst some of the most spectacular fall foliage in the nation.

Continuing west you come to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer performances at Tanglewood to the great hiking, camping and skiing at Mount Greylock and Otis Ridge, the Berkshires have something to please everyone.

Michigan

Michigan, comprising two huge peninsulas carved by glaciers 15,000 years ago, continues to be shaped by the glaciers’ legacy: Lake Superior to the north, Lake Michigan to the west and Lake Huron to the east. This provides a spectacular backdrop for rugged wilderness landscapes, lush resorts and gleaming cities.

Many visitors enter Michigan through its largest city Detroit, where an international airport (one of ten in the state) services direct flights from Europe and Asia. One of the city’s major cultural attractions is the Henry Ford Museum & Green Village, America’s largest and most popular indoor-outdoor museum, where 80 famous historic structures and scores of exhibits tell the exciting story of how inventions shaped the world: from Thomas Edison’s original laboratory to the new $6 million, multi-media exhibition, "Made in America".

A unique geography is by driving the Great Lakes shoreline. Follow the well-posted "Circle Tour" signs to beautiful resorts as well as to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, boasting some of the nation’s most spectacular sand dunes; Pictured Rock National Lakeshore in the tranquil Upper Peninsula; scores of lighthouses; restored and preserved historic forts; maritime museums; charming lakeside villages; marinas, and picturesque Mackinac Island (pronounced MACK-in-naw), a 19th-century summer resort.

Sports enthusiasts of all persuasions will find limitless possibilities in Michigan. The state’s 630 public golf courses - the most of any state - include a number of courses created by such golfing greats as Arnold Palmer, Jack Niklaus, Robert Trent Jones and Donald Ross. If skiing is your sport, some of these same resorts open their slopes to skiers in the winter.

With its pristine wilderness areas in nearly 100 state parks, national forests and private campgrounds, Michigan is prime camping territory. And with water everywhere, there are ample opportunities for canoeing, boating and fishing.

Shopping in Michigan ranges from antiques malls in Williamston, Mason, Manchester and Saline, to the haute couture shops of the Somerset Collection in suburban Detroit, to half dozen outlet malls at convenient freeway interchanges.

Minnesota

Located in the heart of North America and sharing a border with Canada, Minnesota is home to farms, prairies and cities. Half the state’s four million people live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. The "Twin Cities" are separated by the Mississippi River, which runs through them.

Minnesota is best known for its breathtaking wilderness. From the shores of Lake Superior to the headwaters of the Mississippi, Minnesota is laced with 24,800 miles/40,000 kilometers of rivers and streams, many of which run through vast swath of national and state park land, including Voyageurs National Park and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Two national monuments, Grand Portage in the northeast and Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota, recall the state’s Indian legacy and its fur trapping history.

The state’s cultural and governmental center is Minneapolis/St. Paul. Scores of theaters, galleries and museums, as well as two professional orchestras - the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra - contribute to the Twin Cities’ reputation as an arts center of national importance.

Perhaps the state’s greatest treasure is the mighty Mississippi, which begins its 2,500-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico as a trickle, easily crossed on foot, at Itasca State Park in Minnesota’s northern reaches. Visitors can reach the river’s headwaters by air to the city of Bemidji or by car 200 miles/320 kilometers north from the Twin Cities. As it has been for more than a century, the Mississippi is a busy highway carrying barge traffic as well as paddlewheel excursion boats filled with excited travelers bound for destinations downriver.

With its spectacular natural resources, Minnesota is a popular destination for the sport-minded. Avid golfers will find courses everywhere from public city greens and private clubs to spectacular ranges attached to full-service resorts.

With its abundance of water, Minnesota is famous for its fishing. Fishing guides are easy to find; just ask at your hotel or resort.

There’s excitement indoors, too, at Minnesota’s newest attraction, the Mall of America. This is the largest, fully-enclosed combination retail/family entertainment complex in the United States.

Mississippi

The name conjures up images of the powerful Father of Waters. But beautiful and mysterious as the mighty river is, as a state, Mississippi is so much more. Here, you’ll find varied landscapes from hills and loess bluffs to flat, fertile deltas and cypress swamps overgrown with ancient trees dripping Spanish moss. The worlds’ longest man-made beach borders Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico - miles of pristine white sand and swaying palms.

The history of Mississippi is everywhere you look. Natchez, the oldest settlement in the Mississippi River Valley, boasts more than 500 pre-Civil War structures including stately mansions, many of which are bed-and-breakfast inns in the $50-$125 per night range. Visit Port Gibson, the small town General Ulysses S. Grant spared during the Civil War, declaring it was "too beautiful to burn", and the nearby ruins of Windsor, the ghostly remains of the state’s largest antebellum mansion.

Climb the rolling hills and ponder the marble monuments of the Vicksburg National Military Park, which overlooks the Mississippi River and commemorates the 45-day siege of Vicksburg whose fall in 1863 opened the way for Union victory over Confederate rebels.

Mississippi’s 28 state parks offer a wide range of water recreation as well as creature comforts: cabins, RV hookups, tent camping and forested hiking trails that meander past frothy waterfalls. Wade in rocky streams or glide in a canoe down wide creeks. Look closely, you might see an alligator or two.

Wildlife abounds in Mississippi: more than 150 species of freshwater fish and more white-tailed deer per capita than in any other state make this hunting and fishing paradise. If golf is your sport, 160 greens await you.

Entertainment takes many forms in Mississippi: Enjoy some of the more than 300 festivals and events held each year throughout the state including the second largest rodeo and livestock show east of the Mississippi River in Jackson, complete with cowboys, cowgirls and the twang of country music. Kick back and enjoy the earthy sounds of the Delta Blues in its birthplace. If you’ve got a bit of the gambler in your soul, Mississippi offers no-limit gambling, 24 hours a day.

Missouri

Missouri is a state blessed with abundant natural beauty. Lush oak and hickory forests line the rugged hills and bluffs in the southern part of the state, which are honey-combed with deep caves. To the north, rolling plains and prairies are criss-crossed by tree-lines rivers.

Missouri’s climate is bets described as humid continental. Summers are long and winters can be brisk but are rarely extreme, and the state enjoys the variety of climate and activity that four distinct seasons bring.

Water sports such as sailing, powerboating, water-skiing, canoeing, and swimming are widely available on the state’s many lakes and rivers. Outdoor enthusiasts may also enjoy camping, hiking and bicycling three full seasons out of the year and even on milder winters days.

Missouri’s countryside is just part of the story : The state also boasts several lively cities, the largest being St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield. St Louis offers all the amenities of a major urban area : a top-flight symphony orchestra, a world-famous zoo, and art museums and galleries. A trip to the top of the towering Gateway Arch is a must.

Kansas City blends Western friendliness with Old World sophistication. It’s a city that offers incomparable shopping, fine architecture and a nightlife full jazz and blues. Springfield lies near the western edge of the Ozark Mountains, just a short drive from the town of Branson, the newest music capital of the United States. Many famous country and pop performers have opened theaters in Branson, in a picturesque setting of wooded mountains and sparkling lakes.

Missouri has been home to many famous Americans. Explore Hannibal, Mark Twain’s home town along the Mississippi River or browse through the Harry Truman Library in Independence, the city where one of America’s most beloved presidents lived before and after his time in office. Visit St Joseph where the notorious Old West outlaw, Jesse James, was shot down and where the famous Pony Express began.

Accommodations in Missouri range from the posh Lake of the Ozarks resorts and the fine hotels of the big cities to small, friendly, family owned bed-and-breakfast establishments found all over the state.