Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, is rich in history and natural beauty, from its majestic mountains to its vast desert mesas. And with an elevation of 1,615m (5,300ft), it ranks among the highest metro areas in the nation.

A sunny and dry climate
Take a tram to the top of the 3,050m (10,000ft) Sandia Mountains, and you can look out over nearly 40,000 sq km (15,000 sq miles) of spectacular scenery. Albuquerque enjoys dry, clear skies and averages more than 310 days of sunshine a year, making it a popular destination with artists and photographers, as well as outdoor enthusiasts. Hot-air ballooning, biking, hiking and golf are favourite activities.

Spanish settlement
Founded in 1706 by Spanish colonists as an agrarian outpost, Albuquerque lies on the banks of the Rio Grande and is named in honour of a Spanish duke, hence its ‘Duke City’ nickname. The devoutly Catholic Spanish settlers erected a small adobe chapel, which remains an anchor of the city’s charming Old Town district.

Albuquerque grew in prominence as an important stop on the Camino Real, a vital trade route from Chihuahua to Santa Fe. Historic Route 66, which became a famous automobile road of the early-20th century for western travellers, weaves through Albuquerque, lending a bit of vintage architecture and retro nostalgia to the Duke City.

Indigenous roots
Albuquerque has rich Native American cultural ties, which are honoured here through museums, restaurants, shops and festivals. Most of the state’s 19 pueblos are within a two-hour drive of Albuquerque, as are a number of small villages where Spanish heritage is vibrantly celebrated.

Located in the northern half of Georgia known as the Piedmont in the USA, Atlanta’s landscape is one of undulating hills wedged between rugged mountains and a flat coastal plain. Its unique geographical position has made it the transportation core of the South since the 19th century. Railroads, highways and its airport – the world’s busiest – have made it accessible to the rest of the country and attractive to the convention trade. Atlanta was and is a crossroads town.

History
By the time the Civil War began in 1861, Atlanta was a major railroad hub, manufacturing centre and supply depot. General William Sherman burned the city on his infamous March to the Sea in 1864, but four years later she rose like a phoenix from the ashes and was established as Georgia’s new state capital.

In 1886, a local drugstore, Jacob’s Pharmacy, began selling a new headache and hangover tonic called Coca-Cola, and six years later the Coca-Cola Company was founded.

Brimming with Southern hospitality, Atlanta hosted the International Exposition in 1895, and 101 years later was the site of the 1996 Olympics.

The city is the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement and birthplace of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King. The Center for Human Civil Rights will open in 2010, housing all of Dr King’s personal papers.

Economy and tourism
Today, Metropolitan Atlanta, with a population of over 5 million, sprawls over 28 counties and 140 cities and towns. An efficient transportation band encircles the city proper, a diverse range of neighbourhoods with a growing population of 520,000 residents and over 52 different streets named Peachtree.

Besides being the economic and cultural centre of the southern United States, and corporate headquarters for dozens of major companies, Atlanta offers traditional charm with a modern flair. Filled with attractions and activities, including the world’s biggest indoor aquarium, Atlanta Civil War Cyclorama, CNN Studio Tours, the Martin Luther King Jr Historic District, and Six Flags Over Georgia, metropolitan Atlanta has something for almost every visitor.

Climate
Spring and autumn are the ideal times to visit the city. In spring, Atlanta is a beautiful Southern Belle, ablaze with blossoms of Bradford pear, white dogwood and pink azaleas. Summers are hot, humid and languid, and the city noticeably moves at a more leisurely pace. Winters are unpredictable, often with ice rather than snow.

Baltimore is Maryland’s largest city, although it’s not the state capital. Perched on the River Patapsco, at the top of the northwestern fork of the Chesapeake Bay, it gives direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. In the early days of European settlement, Baltimore was the westernmost ocean-going harbour. The Inner Harbor area is representative of the city’s forward-looking attitude. Baltimore clippers (fast two-mast schooners) were once built there; now the harbour successfully combines business, shopping, hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions.

The West Side’s redevelopment includes the city centre and thriving Lexington Market. Established in 1782, the market still houses over 150 merchants. The once shabby historic districts of Fells-Point, Federal Hill and Harbor East have been revamped as bustling communities housing commuters. Mount Vernon and Little Italy also boast a village atmosphere.
 
Baltimore’s vitality is also evident on the campuses of the University of Maryland (near Downtown) and Johns Hopkins University (to the north). Johns Hopkins rose from being a humble greengrocer to a wealthy philanthropist in the 19th century, embodying Baltimore’s work ethic and the American dream.

Its history is a microcosm of that of the USA’s eastern seaboard. Named after the second Lord Baltimore, George Calvert, the city was founded in 1729. Grist mills prospered on the rivers flowing into the Bay, ensuring that industry and shipping were soon established.

Baltimore is a city with distinct seasons – hot summers, sometimes snowy, cold winters and moderate temperatures in between. It tends to be windy all year round. Residents are not only proud of its heritage but also confident of the future, preferring to shape the inevitable changes rather than be subject to them. Nonetheless, one thing has never changed – it is considered almost a crime for one to leave the city without tasting Baltimore’s speciality, Maryland crabs.

As one of America’s oldest cities, and the capital of Massachusetts, Boston’s modern, vibrant streets echo its revolutionary past. Beyond being a historic milestone, Boston is also a thriving metropolis, rich with culture and hidden beauty.

Boston is a winding network of neighbourhoods and boroughs lining the sprawling Charles River. Each section has its own unique charm with great Italian food in the North end, Fenway Park in Kenmore Square, and Irish Pubs in Southie’. Like London, Boston is a fusion of old traditions and new arrivals that make it the cultural hub it is today.

One thing to keep in mind is that Boston is steeping with tradition, with none stronger than Red Sox baseball. For an authentic Boston experience, a visit to Fenway and a Fenway Frank will do the trick, just don’t mention the New York Yankees.

The city of Calgary stands at the point where the vast Canadian prairie meets the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Its young, glittering skyscrapers rise out of older suburban neighbourhoods and seem oddly superimposed on this breathtakingly diverse western landscape, as though dropped from the sky onto the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers.

Accordingly, the land is never far from the minds of the people of Calgary. The oil that lies beneath it drives the city’s vibrant economy; the distant mountains attract legions of skiers and snowboarders during the chilly winters; and, during balmy summers, cattle roam the flat expanse of grassland, marking this out as cowboy country.

As well as being the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, Calgary has grown into a tourist destination in its own right. Visitors flock to take in the city’s burgeoning cowboy culture, expressed in July every year in the Calgary Stampede (held formally for the first time in 1912).

The Rocky Mountains and, in particular, Banff National Park, attract thousands more who are drawn by the park’s stunning alpine beauty and its famous hotels – The Banff Springs Hotel and the Chateau Lake Louise. As the popularity of winter leisure sports (such as downhill skiing and bobsleighing) have increased, so has Calgary’s own popularity, all culminating in the city’s hosting of the XV Olympic Winter Games in 1988.

Many have likened the Calgary of today to a Canadian Dallas, a comparison that is not without merit. Like Dallas, Calgary is a confident, often brash cowboy town that grew wealthy on oil, where they play country and western music in noisy taverns and eat thick and juicy steaks in the restaurants.

As an image, however, this captures only a small part of what the city and its people are actually like. Calgary is also a city of diverse and vibrant neighbourhoods, where its citizens relax in cafes, stroll the scenic streets or take in the opera, although they are just as likely to head off to the great outdoors.

Today Calgary is known as the New West, a casual, oil-rich, vibrant city growing faster than its infrastructure can keep pace with, expanding its cultural life as new blood follows its prosperity. Technology and production industries have grown immensely as oil and gas production has increased, propelling this one-time, one-horse cowboy town into a radically evolving 21st-century city.

Often called the ‘Second City’, Chicago is number one when it comes to culture, fine dining, shopping and commerce. Situated on Lake Michigan, incomparable architecture erupts from its western shores. 

The Downtown area is known as the ‘Loop’ since the raised metropolitan railway (known as the ‘El’ or ‘L’) circles the central business and shopping district. Just east of it is Michigan Avenue, an upscale shopping area a few blocks from the lake.

Over 50 languages are spoken in this culturally and religiously diverse metropolis. Chicagoans are friendly, hard-working and serious sports fans. 

History
Though Chicago got its nickname, ‘The Windy City’, from long-winded politicians, the original American Indians named it ‘Checaugou’ meaning ‘strong’ or ‘great’. Modern-day Chicago certainly lives up to this heritage. A hub for roads, canals, railways and aeroplanes, this mere village of 350 people in 1830 is now the nation’s third largest city (behind New York and Los Angeles).

The Great Fire of 1871 levelled most of it. But the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition attracted 26 million visitors and made it famous. In the 1920s and 30s, Prohibition gangsters like Al Capone and police adversaries like Eliot Ness made it infamous.

Culture and architecture
Festivals, theatre, dance, art, music, including a world-class symphony and great jazz, make Chicago a city of culture. An extensive French Impressionist collection puts Art Institute on the world map. Famous architects, such as Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie School of Architecture thrived here. Chicago is home to the Reliance Building (now Hotel Burnham), the first steel-framed skyscraper as well as the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower), one of the world’s tallest buildings. A newer addition, Millennium Park is the setting for the works of Frank Gehry, Jaume Plensa and Anish Kapoor.

When to go
Be forewarned. Winters can be brutal. Opt instead for its delightful spring and autumn or its sometimes steamy summers.

Cleveland sits on the southern banks of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River – a city of green parks, lively neighbourhoods and historic buildings. 

Visitors are often surprised to discover a vibrant Downtown with distinct neighbourhoods and a lively urban atmosphere. True, its roots are certainly more prosaic than those of New York, Los Angeles or Boston, but Cleveland has outgrown its industrial past from the era of Ohio’s prolific development, and is now a healthy mix of manufacturing and service industries.

Cleveland’s Downtown is the focal point around which the rest of the city sits. In the middle of the Downtown area is the historic Public Square, a European-style square with statues and fountains.

The lakefront, having benefited from renewal, is home to the stunningly designed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which, when it opened in 1995, epitomised not only the renewal of Cleveland’s Downtown but the city’s growing cultural presence as well.

More recent additions to Cleveland’s Downtown include Jacobs Field, home to the Cleveland Indians baseball team, and Cleveland Browns Stadium, where the Cleveland Browns play football. The Great Lakes Science Center with its Cleveland Clinic OMNIMAX Theater, nestled between the ‘Rock Hall’ and the stadium, features a hands-on look at science.

Downtown areas, such as the Theater District, the Historic Warehouse District, the Flats Entertainment District and the Historic Gateway District, are only a few of the trendy spots that continue to grow and prosper.

Cleveland is blessed with long, hot summer days, during which locals enjoy the many restaurants featuring alfresco dining, picnic in the surrounding state, national and municipal parks, or gather around the barbecue for casual entertaining. During the cold, sometimes snowy winters, the city’s cultural attractions, including theatre, symphony, opera and museums, thrive.

Dallas is a young city with all the vigour of youth. Effigies of modern architecture rise like glass trees out of the downtown area. In 1841, it was simply a plan of 20 streets on the 256 hectares (640 acres) of south central America, claimed by a Tennessee lawyer, John Neely Bryan. Today, it is the ninth largest city in the USA, and including its western neighbour of Fort Worth, it is the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan area.

History
As a frontier post of the Wild West, Dallas established its reputation as a place for entrepreneurs and go-getters. The infamous gambler and gunfighter, Doc Holliday, started out here as a dentist. In the 1870s, two major railroads met at Dallas and became the catalyst for the city’s rapid development as a trade centre.

In 1907 the Neiman Marcus store put Dallas on the fashion map. The Federal Reserve Bank was established in 1914, and an old prospector struck oil (black gold) 160km (100 miles) east of Dallas in 1930, leading to the development of the East Texas Oilfield. Already a financial and business centre, Dallas was booming.  

Dallas will always be remembered for one, if not two, shootings. The first and most shocking occurred on 22 November 1963, when President J F Kennedy was assassinated in downtown Dallas. The second shooting may only have been fictional but, when J R Ewing was shot by an unknown killer in the TV series Dallas, fans across the world were devastated.

Dining and culture
Today the city is a mecca for dining, shopping, arts and entertainment. Large scale developments of urban lofts, apartments, condominiums, retail and both indoor and outdoor recreational facilities are springing up across the city. An impressive new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts opened in October 2009 to vie with New York’s Lincoln Center.

Climate
Whether visited in the mild winters or hot summers (when air conditioning is an absolute necessity), Dallas offers true Southern hospitality, be it in a humble apartment or in the Mansion on Turtle Creek, recently ranked as one of the world’s top hotels. And with a 10th of its workforce in the hospitality industry, Dallas is always a welcoming city.

Locked in the crook of the Rocky Mountains’ bulky arm, and nestled up to the western fringe of the Great Plains, Denver is a perfect blend of big city living and country charm.

As Middle America’s biggest city, Denver offers all the perks of a metropolis without the hassle of actually having to live there. It has an impressive commitment to culture and the arts, having doubled the size of the Denver Art Museum, whilst the redevelopment of the Lower Downtown (LoDo) area continues, with galleries, restaurants, bars and impromptu theatres springing up in the old warehouses.

With big league sports teams in ice hockey, baseball, American football, basketball and football, Denver also claims to be ‘Sports Town USA’. As well as the many parks that line Denver’s suburbs, the city also has two beautiful stretches of paved bike paths along Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, and numerous hiking and climbing opportunities in the Rockies. Unsurprisingly, these facilities plus the abundance of sunshine has led Denver to be dubbed the thinnest city in America.

However, it’s not all early mornings and fresh air. Denver is home to some of the finest micro-breweries in America, and hosts the annual Great American Beer Festival, where visitors get merrily drunk on 1,300 varieties of beer. For more refined tastes, head to the upmarket Larimer Square, the historical and geographical centre of Denver which now doubles as a hotspot for restaurants, bars and clubs.

Fuelled by the car manufacturing boom of the last decade, Detroit is a city bouncing back from its backward image with thriving arts, music and culture scenes.

Once thought of as a dark and depressing industrial town, the ‘Motor City' is reinventing itself with relaxing parks, hot nightclubs and a regenerated downtown district.

Music has always been at the heart of Detroit. This is the city where Motown was born, with artists like Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson all cutting records here. More recently, Eminem emerged from the infamous 8 Mile trailer park to become a global superstar, while techno music keeps the clubs jumping well into the morning.  

The residents who fled to the suburbs during the civil unrest of the 1960s are slowly returning to Downtown Detroit. Here they can enjoy the vibrancy of Greektown's bars and restaurants, pleasant strolls along Detroit River and ice hockey or baseball at Detroit's two new sport stadiums.

With all this development, it's important to Detroiters not to lose a sense of their history. It is after all the oldest city in the Midwest, and already a national centre for African-American history.

Whatever the future may hold for Detroit, it still represents the best of the American dream: Dreams made, dreams lost and dreams built again.