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Happy Independence Day to our readers in the USA! We’re celebrating at NCS Travel with the launch of our record of America’s 10 Best Towns to Visit for 2026. While this weekend is hotter than many people may like (stay safe in case your area’s being hit exhausting by the US heatwave), the 250th anniversary of the USA is a time to have a good time the nation’s individuals and locations.
And whereas the Travel workforce’s not at all times massive on staying shut to home, airfares remain high right now, whilst jet fuel prices are dropping sharply. The world outdoors your window is wanting fairly engaging.
American communities are the threads that weave the United States collectively, they usually have by no means been extra important. Even in divisive instances, we will commerce concepts, voice disagreements and study from each other in cafés, bars and bookstores or whereas strolling alongside paved city trails or up mountain paths.
Our third annual record of America’s Best Towns to Visit appears to be like past a few of American tourism’s heaviest hitters to discover less-discovered communities or locations whose sudden histories and curiosities have been obscured by splashier sights.
At No. 10 on our 2026 record, we have now Roanoke, the Virginia mountain city that’s a gateway to outside adventures alongside the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The “Star City of the South” has a compact, walkable downtown with a rising meals scene for refueling after a day in the hills. We’ll have extra on our prime cities in the weeks to come.
Beautiful and distinctive
If magnificence is in the attention of the beholder, then prime these peepers as, boy, do we have now a present for you. We’ve rounded up 25 of America’s most stunning destinations, with each the pure and the man-made converging to create really magical environments.
As with each July 4, a number of fireworks and sizzling canine shall be loved this weekend coast to coast, but for this particular yr celebrating 250 years of US nationhood, there are additionally some unique and unusual happenings happening.
A flotilla of tall ships and navy vessels is making its approach up the Atlantic Coast as a part of the summer-long Sail250 occasion, stopping this weekend in New York earlier than delivery up to Boston for July 11 to 16.
On land, the world’s largest working steam locomotive is making an epic month-long journey from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a number of stops arising earlier than the tip of July.
Finally, in Washington DC, National Geographic’s new $300,000 Museum of Exploration lets visitors look wildlife in the attention through 1,000 animal portraits, comply with in the footsteps of an Everest expedition, and sip a cocktail as projections of whales drift throughout the wall — all a couple of blocks from the White House.
Any American treasures we’ve missed? Let us know by saying hello on the backside of the publication, and we would simply function your picks in an upcoming roundup.
Why Revolutionary War reenactors are shrugging off America 250
These colonial reenactors spend their free time stitching traditionally correct uniforms and portraying Revolutionary War figures. Just don’t mistake them for the most important Fourth of July followers — their ardour is historical past, not patriotic celebrations.
Seoul’s “birthday cafes” have a good time the arrival into the world of South Korea’s Ok-pop idols.
Even in the absence of a visitor of honor, they nonetheless draw crowds of followers.
A tragedy prompted this American to construct a brand new life in Prague.
Twenty-five years later, he’s still there.
Buckingham Palace is a must-see for vacationers.
So why don’t the royals need to live there?
Think you recognize America?
Test your knowledge of US historical past in 25 questions.