It’s hard to encapsulate the full depth and variety of the USA Dropdown content – any nation that can marry cities as life-filled as New York Dropdown content, San Francisco Dropdown content and LA Dropdown content with landscapes as breathtaking as those of Alaska Dropdown content, Arizona Dropdown content and Hawaii Dropdown content is beyond easy summary. Its rewards come in droves, from all-American icons like baseball, blues and bourbon to the unbridled spectacles like Mardi Gras in New Orleans Dropdown content.
As a travel destination, the USA’s possibilities stretch to the far horizon – with plenty of surprises along the way. Here are 7 of the country’s offbeat highlights from the new edition of
The saucy climax of
Picture a nudist miniature golf course, an advanced pole-dancing workshop and a bunch of neon-painted bodies, and you may be getting close to imagining what Burning Man is all about. Every year during the last week of August, several thousand digerati geeks, pyrotechnic maniacs, death-guild Goths, crusty hippies and too-hip yuppies descend on the Nevada Desert to build a temporary autonomous “city”. Known as Black Rock City, this is the most survivalist, futuristic and utterly surreal show on Earth, where the strangest part of your alter ego reigns supreme.
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As you manoeuvre your way towards the towering face of one of
Just after sunset, Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from the deep crevices of the Congress Avenue Bridge in
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Underground tunnels, quirky museums, swingers’ sex clubs, crackpots, ghosts and geeks. These aren’t the stories you find in the official history of
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The central plains may not seem the likeliest of places to find a weather wonder, but every long, hot summer these cornfield-flat states play witness to some of the most powerful storms on Earth. Behind every terrible storm is an even greater equipped team of daredevil storm-chasers who specialize in stalking tornados from vans loaded with the latest in GPS systems, Doppler radars, satellites and lightning-detector sensors. Few people know that you can join these professionals on the hunt, keeping an eye on the skies as they try to anticipate growing storms.
Your knees buckle slightly and you step in. The safety bar locks over your lap: there is no going back. Above the rallying cries of your fellow riders, one question screams inside your head: “Why am I here?” “Here” is Cedar Point, the roller-coaster capital of the world, which sits on the shores of Lake Erie in Sandusky,
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Top image: Fantasy Fest in Key West © Chuck Wagner/Shutterstock