Florida and Georgia along the Atlantic coast

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.

Orlando is a city of fun. It owes its fame to DisneyWorld and its theme parks (EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom), SeaWorld and Universal Studios with its fantastic Wizarding World of Harry Potter and countless other exciting attractions.

St Augustine's Spanish colonial heritage, the oldest European settlement in North America, can be seen and felt in its historic district. A Mediterranean atmosphere pervades the pedestrian area, just a short walk away from a beautiful beach.

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.

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.

Almost completely destroyed by general William Sherman during the Civil War – an iconic moment as depicted in “Gone with the Wind” –, today's Atlanta is a beautiful, young, lively city, one of the most important in America. It is home to the headquarters of CNN, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, as well as the house where Martin Luther King was born, and his tomb. Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996.