Explore the USA's Best Destinations
For the first time, the experts at Lonely Planet have ranked the top 500 unmissable experiences - from the famous to the obscure - across all 50 states.
The Grand Canyon nabs top spot in Lonely Planet's Ultimate United States Travel List
From towering forests to buzzing city streets to the ever-changing hues of larger-than-life rock formations, the United States of America is graced with an abundance of natural wonders and historic landmarks. The sheer variety can sometimes be dizzying.
Luckily, Lonely Planet has amassed its largest compendium of the USA's best travel experiences to date.
"The Ultimate United States Travel List is a true labor of love for all of us at Lonely Planet and a source of real pride for me personally," says Piers Pickard, Managing Director of Publishing at Lonely Planet.
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PhotographyHow the Guggenheim Museum remains a haven of artistic wonder in the crowded NYC landscapeSeptember 14, 2021
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Ultimate USA Travel List
Metropolitan Museum of Art
To describe the Met, let's go ahead and lay out some stats. The largest art museum in the United States. The fourth-most-visited in the world. More than 2 million works across 17 acres of exhibit space. That might start to give you an idea of the enormity and importance of this 1870-built museum, with collections spanning prehistory through the present from every part of the globe. See ancient African textiles and Picasso abstractions. Stradivarius violins and Walker Evans photographs. Old Master oil paintings and medieval armor. Islamic calligraphy and Ming pottery and indigenous Australian rock paintings and Etruscan chariots and ceiling-hung Modernist sculptures and - oh yes - an entire first-century BCE Egyptian pyramid, the Temple of Dendur, relocated from the banks of the Nile to New York in the 1960s.
Grand Canyon National Park
So many must-see items are not as impressive as billed. Smaller. Shorter. More crowded. Less colorful. The Grand Canyon is not one of these disappointments. In fact, your first peek over the rim will probably have you muttering "it really is that big." One of the world's greatest natural wonders, the canyon is the result of six million years of erosion by the mighty Colorado River. Up to 6000ft deep, 18 miles wide and 277 miles long, it cleaves the earth in two.
Yosemite National Park
If there's one uniting quality in this monumental park, it's that Yosemite lifts your gaze. You'll crick your neck staring up at towering sequoias. You'll gape at lofty granite monoliths, and shield your eyes from sunshine bouncing off huge waterfalls. Everywhere you look, the only way is up: welcome to nature on its most mind-bending scale.
Bryce Canyon National Park
It's always golden hour in Bryce Canyon National Park. Peachy rock arches and sandstone amphitheaters form a landscape that is ever-blushing. Battalions of copper-colored buttes stretch to the horizon, and turrets of rock glow bronze in the sun. Along Scenic Drive's numerous lookout points, it's hard to pick favorites - but the view of Bryce Amphitheater from Bryce Point truly brings home the staggering scale.
Yellowstone National Park
The USA's oldest national park, Yellowstone is so incredible that, when the first Europeans to set eyes on its wonders related what they had seen, they were regarded as lunatics or liars. For over 50 years the reports of fire and brimstone, of boiling mud and spouting water were disregarded - until in 1872, when Yellowstone gained national park status and the recognition that its fantastical landscapes deserved.
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Discover 500 of the USA's ultimate travel experiences
For the first time, the experts at Lonely Planet have ranked the top 500 unmissable experiences and hidden gems across the USA - to create the ultimate hitlist. Lonely Planet's Ultimate USA Travel List is the regional follow-up to our bestselling Ultimate Travel List and the must-own bucket list for both travelers to the USA and residents who want to discover their country's most iconic sights and activities
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