34 days in United States Itinerary

More than the country of car-packed streets seen in TV shows and movies, the United States of America is a complex and diverse home to over 300 million people living in a wide range of landscapes and climates. From its big-city skyscrapers to its sprawling natural parks, the country's ''melting pot'' combines many ethnic groups that share a strong sense of national identity despite their cultural differences. A country of road trips and big blue skies, the United States harbors orderly cities filled with restaurants, parks, museums, and innumerable sightseeing opportunities, as well as pristine natural areas perfect for a holiday in the great outdoors. To see as much as you can of this diverse land quickly, drive over some of the more than 6 million km (4 million mi) of highways leading through deserts, mountain peaks, fertile fields, and giant urban centers.

The core of Pennsylvania's famed "Dutch Country" lies in Lancaster County, a compact area in the southeastern portion of the state. The county features a rolling landscape of green fields and gentle hills, interspersed with small towns and Amish farms. Despite its somewhat misleading nickname, the county is not home to Dutch but German-speaking Swiss Anabaptists, who began settling in religiously tolerant Pennsylvania in the early 1700s. Although Lancaster County thrives on tourism and the Amish community is its main attraction, the Amish themselves remain an intensely private people who are not particularly fond of camera-toting visitors. To learn about their hard-working way of life respectfully, take a trip to one of their hardwood furniture showrooms, clustered around the county's main roads.

Located entirely within the Appalachian Mountain region, the aptly nicknamed "Mountain State" represents the highest state east of the Mississippi River with an average elevation of about 460 m (1,500 ft) above sea level. With an official motto of "Mountaineers are always free," West Virginia is home to a fiercely independent people, proud of their state's rich natural resources, physical beauty, and traditional culture. The state is often overlooked by tourists, and its major attractions retain an off-the-beaten-path character and exemplify a laid-back pace of life. West Virginians like to describe their part of the country as both wild and wonderful, a claim you can easily test on a holiday here by filling your itinerary with exploration of the state's green mountains, white-water rivers, and historical small towns.