East USA: van New York tot Miami via Outer Banks

New York: the largest city in the USA, and the most captivating one. Its core is the island of Manhattan, thriving with many microcosms and different lifestyles: Harlem, Central Park, the city’s outstanding museums, its iconic skyscrapers, the ethnic neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan – Chinatown, the Jewish district, and what’s left of Little Italy –; restored SoHo, Tribeca and the Village, good as new; and Wall Street, where business means business.

Continue across New Jersey towards the so-called “Capital Region” – namely the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the Federal District: a key area for American history, ever since the days of the early settlements. Washington DC is the capital city of the United States – and its very political heart. Washington is a monumental city, with impressive white-marble buildings, memorials and some of the very best museums. It also boasts extremely pleasant residential districts, dotted with antique houses, parks and gardens, making for a lively, multicultural city.

The vast seaside resort of Virginia Beach, with its 57 kilometers of coastline, is one of the most prosperous realities on the entire Atlantic coast, with a rapidly growing economy for several decades. Virginia Beach is the classic summer tourist destination, with hotels, motels, sometimes flashy restaurants, and long sandy beaches that stretch for kilometers. The main street is the lively boardwalk, Atlantic Avenue. It is not surprising that Virginia Beach is also particularly renowned for surfing; at the end of August, it hosts the East Coast Surfing Championships, an important event where top-level surfers compete.

Myrtle Beach is part of the Grand Strand – a 100- km-long expanse of shores bordering the Atlantic, a popular vacation place for American families. It’s the perfect spot to go kayaking, fishing, wreck diving, and golfing. You might want to try offshore fishing or a dolphin watch cruise. The boldest may venture out to sea on a jet-ski, a windsurf or see it all from above while parasailing. If you’d rather go for a relaxing shopping tour, you will find your favourite brands on sale at Tanger Outlets. Another option is Market Common, offering several shops and restaurants.

Leave Myrtle Beach and travel 30 minutes south along the coast, towards the southern end of the Grand Strand. You will arrive at the cozy and peaceful Pawley's Island. Famous for its cypress wood cottages and rich in expansive marshlands, rivers, and oceanfront parks, it is a perfect destination for outdoor enthusiasts. Continue south along the pristine coastline and cross the Francis Marion National Forest until you reach Charleston. Charleston is one of the most elegant cities in the USA, with nineteenth-century mansions dating back to before the Civil War, warm hospitality, century-old trees, and azalea gardens. In three centuries of history, the city has survived hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, and the Civil War, which broke out here on April 12, 1861. Not to be missed is a visit to the typical villas, decorated with wrought iron and painted in different colors, the Battery, the historic waterfront, the City Market, where you can buy baskets made of hemp from the ancient rice fields, a plantation at Middleton Place, and the Fort Sumter National Monument, where the American Civil War began.

In Savannah, you will encounter the famous Southern Living, a different America, with old-fashioned homes, colorful eccentricities, ancestral traditions, charming lacework, and gothic shadows. Savannah stretches lazily along the river, with green squares, cafes, romantic houses, magnolias, oaks, and Spanish moss swaying in the wind. You start from the River Street waterfront and explore the squares, which are actually subtropical parks with oak trees, dogwood trees, and blooming magnolias. The most famous is undoubtedly Chippewa Square, with Forrest Gump's bench. The old rice and cotton warehouses, perched on the river, are accessible via iron walkways and are now overflowing with shops and restaurants.

Daytona Beach, and especially its Daytona International Speedway, draws hordes of car and motorbike race enthusiasts.

Turquoise waters, boundless shores, round-the-clock fun: this is Miami, a city where design, arts, and visionary architecture have more than one moment in the sun. Occupying the southernmost three miles of Miami Beach is gorgeous South Beach, with its hundreds of dazzling pastel-coloured 1920s and 1930s Art Deco buildings. By night, Ocean Drive becomes one of the liveliest stretches in Miami. If this is too much for you, head a block west of the beach to Collins Avenue or to Washington Avenue, with fashion shops and cool coffee bars. For more shops, restaurants and cafés, head for the Lincoln Road Mall (between Alton Rd and Washington Ave), a pedestrianized zone where you can stroll and graze. North of downtown the Design District, hemmed in by 36th and 41st streets between Miami Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard, is also worth a visit, crammed with hip restaurants. Miami does Cuban food best, and it’s not limited to the traditional haunts in Little Havana. You’ll also want to try Cuban coffee. Cuban cooking is complemented by sushi bars and American home-style diners, as well as Haitian, Italian and new Floridian restaurants, among a handful of other ethnic cuisines. Coral Gables, South Beach and the Design District are best for upmarket cafés and restaurants. Seafood is abundant. Stone­crab claws (served Oct–May), are another South Florida speciality.