GUIDE LIGHTS

Tips from the best guidebooks

CANADA

Skidegate, BC

See weathered totem poles in situ, new ones at Haida Heritage Centre

CANADA

Vancouver, BC

What to look for when buying, and suggestions of shops to choose

CANADA

Vancouver, BC

Vancouver’s best museum covers Northwest Coast aboriginal art and a lot more

CANADA

Victoria, BC

Where to see new and old totem poles on Vancouver Island

CANADA

Brockville, ON

Baronial Beaux Arts house built on “pink pills for pale people” profits

CANADA

Toronto, ON

19th-century distillery now home to shops, galleries and cafés

CANADA

Windsor, ON

Three sites where escaping American slaves found freedom

CANADA

Annapolis Royal, NS

Four centuries lets Nova Scotia town claim numerous firsts

CANADA

Souris, PE

Visit Canada’s first and only legal moonshine maker

CANADA

Montréal, QC

Paddle the 14-km route that once brought fur pelts from the wilds

CANADA

Montréal, QC

Winter, summer, spring and fall—and lots for the niche-film buff

CANADA

Québec, QC

The best places to sample Québec’s unofficial food

CANADA

Batouche, SK

Historic spot marks the last place where Canadians fought Canadians

UNITED STATES

Anchorage, AK

Two long-distance dog-sled races wake Alaska from its winter slumber

UNITED STATES

Skagway, AK

Preserved downtown recalls town’s wild origins

UNITED STATES

Winslow, AZ

Last great railroad hotel on Santa Fe’s Chicago-L.A. line

UNITED STATES

Amboy, CA

Preserved sections recall heyday of what was once America’s most famous highway

UNITED STATES

Colomba, CA

Stone cairn marks the spot where the 1849 California Gold Rush began

UNITED STATES

Los Angeles, CA

L.A. has some of star architect Frank Gehry’s early works

UNITED STATES

Los Angeles, CA

L.A.’s “downtown” is a cluster of pedestrian-friendly enclaves

UNITED STATES

Los Angeles, CA

A guide to historic bars seen onscreen and frequented by stars

UNITED STATES

Napa, CA

A guide to six Napa Valley wineries worth paying to visit

UNITED STATES

San Diego, CA

San Diego has over 30 local breweries and the beer-nerd heaven Belgian Corridor

UNITED STATES

San Francisco, CA

From R. Crumb and Peanuts creator Charles Schulz (who helped endow it), back to 18th century

UNITED STATES

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco’s new Museum of Modern Art is the largest in America

UNITED STATES

San Francisco, CA

How they work and which one to take

UNITED STATES

Denver, CO

Tours to take, places to buy in state where marijuana is legal

UNITED STATES

Fort Collins, CO

Old Town buildings the inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A.

UNITED STATES

Mesa Verde, CO

Ancestral Pueblo site has over 600 cliff dwellings, one with 217 rooms

UNITED STATES

Washington, DC

Places to see a play in the capital include Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was shot

UNITED STATES

Miami, FL

Winter Music Conference in March has attendees from over 70 lands

UNITED STATES

St. Petersburg, FL

Dalí Museum has 96 of his paintings; St. Pete’s also home to Dale Chihuly’s permanent collection

UNITED STATES

Sarasota, FL

A Venetian-style mansion, whopping big art collection and the world’s largest miniature circus

UNITED STATES

Andersonville, GA

National Prisoner of War Museum covers U.S. POWs from all conflicts

UNITED STATES

Darien, GA

Vestiges of a short-lived independent black republic remain in coastal Georgia

UNITED STATES

Hilo, HI

Annual spring festival is Hawaii’s biggest hula event

UNITED STATES

Kahului, HI

Pre- and post-European contact Hawaii, and Duke Kahanamoku’s massive surfboard

UNITED STATES

Lawa‘i, HI

Rare and highly valued shells made into leis, earrings and bracelets

UNITED STATES

Waikiki, HI

Calvinist missionaries tried to eradicate surfing; the Waikiki beachboys ensured it survived

UNITED STATES

Boise, ID

Boise has the world’s largest Basque population outside of Spain

UNITED STATES

Chicago, IL

The inventor of the sleeping car also created an “ideal” company town

UNITED STATES

Chicago, IL

Where to see up-and-coming comic talent in the Second City

UNITED STATES

Chicago, IL

Where to hear jazz in Chicago

UNITED STATES

Boston, MA

Harvard prof’s café brings innovative science to food & beverage

UNITED STATES

Boston, MA

Candlepin bowling is New England’s unique take on the 10-pin game

UNITED STATES

Mackinac Island, MI

Mackinac Island and the Grand Hotel preserve the Gilded Age

UNITED STATES

Bannack, MO

Ghost town Bannack once a poster child for the violent Wild West

UNITED STATES

Asheville, NC

George Vanderbilt’s French château dream house once America’s largest

UNITED STATES

Lincoln, NM

The town where Billy the Kid started his notorious career

UNITED STATES

Las Vegas, NV

New performing-arts centre brings some cultural cachet to Sin City

UNITED STATES

New York City, NY

Where to hear and how to appreciate gospel singing in Harlem

UNITED STATES

New York City, NY

One’s in a freight elevator, another is NYC’s most famous squat

UNITED STATES

New York City, NY

A Museum of Modern Art that’s smaller and hipper

UNITED STATES

Cleveland, OH

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a museum of considerable substance

UNITED STATES

Ashland, OR

Oregon Shakespeare Festival brings arts to Ashland

UNITED STATES

Eugene, OR

Counter-culture still thriving at Oregon Country Fair

UNITED STATES

Portland, OR

Portland places where liquor and learning go together

UNITED STATES

Portland, OR

Suggested wineries to visit close to Portland

UNITED STATES

Philadelphia, PA

Elfreth’s Alley has been residential since 1702

UNITED STATES

Philadelphia, PA

America’s first White House examines how early leaders could square slave owning with “equality”

UNITED STATES

Loíza, PR

It’s where to hear bomba and plena music, and buy vejigante masks

UNITED STATES

San Juan, PR

Best places to watch—and learn—salsa dancing

UNITED STATES

Newport, RI

Eleven good ones are strung out along Newport’s 5 1/2-km Cliff Walk

UNITED STATES

Providence, RI

Weird fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft remembered in his hometwon

UNITED STATES

Charleston, SC

The American version of Italy’s leading international arts festival

UNITED STATES

Charleston, SC

Reachable only by boat, this is the national historic site where the U.S. civil war began

UNITED STATES

Jamestown, TN

In August, it runs 1,110 km on Hwy. 127, from Michigan to Alabama

UNITED STATES

Austin, TX

World’s largest indie-music fest can have more than 1,600 bands

UNITED STATES

Dallas, TX

Lots of Dallas places have links with Kennedy’s 1963 assassination

UNITED STATES

Marfa, TX

Marfa (pop.1,981) has become a cultural hotbed for artists—and a popular movie backdrop

UNITED STATES

Promontory Summit, UT

The railway lords who built the transcontinental line were lousy at driving spikes

UNITED STATES

Williamsburg, VA

America’s largest living museum recreates an 18th-century town

UNITED STATES

Ripton, VT

The summer path that poet Robert Frost often took comes to a junction

UNITED STATES

Maryhill, WA

Maryhill Museum of Art a folly worth travelling to see

UNITED STATES

Orcas Island, WA

Arts and Crafts–style retreat has 1,972-pipe Aeolian organ and a singular ghost

UNITED STATES

Seattle, WA

The oldest continuously operated public market in the United States

UNITED STATES

Seattle, WA

Birthplace of Starbucks also has good local coffee alternatives

UNITED STATES

Cody, WY

Buffalo Bill Center no lightweight—it’s the West’s version of the Smithsonian

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Recommendations from 296 of the latest guidebooks