3966 Best Sights in USA

This Gothic revival–style church memorializes the founders of Methodism, brothers John and Charles Wesley, who both lived in Savannah for a brief time in the 1730s. The sanctuary is patterned after Queen's Kerk in Amsterdam. It dates from 1868 and is particularly noted for its magnificent stained-glass windows.

The most popular beach in the park is also the most developed, with lifeguards, showers, year-round restrooms, and picnic facilities. Three interconnected loop trails crisscross the area: Dune Succession Trail (0.9 miles, moderate), West Beach Trail (1.2 miles, easy), and Long Lake Trail (2.2 miles, moderate). Dune Succession offers some of the best dune views, while Long Lake is a prime birding destination. Amenities: lifeguards; parking (entrance fee required); showers; toilets. Best for: swimming; walking.

This is one of the best beaches on the south shore (Nantucket Sound), with the crowds to prove it. A breakwater was formed here in 1837 in an effort to protect the mouth of Bass River, but that was abandoned when a sandbar formed on the shore side. It's a long, wide, and popular sandy beach, stretching for 1½ miles, with marshland and the Bass River across from it. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); toilets. Best for: swimming; walking; windsurfing.

More than 200 art galleries, antiques shops, fashion outlets, and interior design stores are found here near 30 restaurants, including the famous paparazzi magnet, the Ivy. All are clustered within walking distance of each other—rare for L.A.

Directly across from the Pacific Design Center, this public library is filled with resources in a floor-to-ceiling glass multistory building. They also have an impressive children's library and LGBTQ+ book collection. Park in the nearby city parking complex.

Cultural information and local exhibits about sugar, weaving, shells, and poi-making highlight this small museum-style resource center in Waimea Town. Shop counters offer Island-made items, Niihau-shell jewelry, photographs of Kauai, children's books, and snacks. Lei-making and music sessions happen regularly on the patio, and you can get a map for a walking tour.

Grab a canoe or kayak, or take a 40-minute guided boat tour at this lakeside park on the Intracoastal Waterway. At more than 1,500 acres, it's one of Florida's largest urban nature facilities. Extensive boardwalks traverse mangrove wetlands that shelter endangered and threatened species. At the Anne Kolb Nature Center, there's a 3,500-gallon aquarium, and a 65-foot observation tower showcases the entire park. The center's exhibit hall also has interactive displays explaining the park's delicate ecosystem.

Crowned with a large outcrop of Arkansas novaculite, the summit of West Mountain provides views of Hot Springs, the national park, and the surrounding peaks, including Music Mountain, the park's tallest peak at 1,329 feet. This overlook is the last stop along the West Mountain Scenic Drive before heading back down the mountain. It's a nice place to stretch your legs, with access to Sunset Trail.

This 404-acre city park on the banks of the Eno River boasts a restored mill dating from 1778—one of 32 that once dotted the area. Also on-site are a 19th-century Greek revival farmhouse that was occupied by John Cabe McCown, the onetime owner of the mill, and a museum that showcases early-20th-century photographer Hugh Mangum's pictures of the surrounding area. The Festival for the Eno, held around July 4, includes musicians, artists, and craftspeople from around the region.

Between the Potomac and the Tidal Basin, this park is known for its flowering cherry trees, which bloom for two weeks in late March or early April. It also includes a slew of memorials, including those honoring Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason, as well as the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans memorials. It's a nice place to play ball, picnic, or just relax while admiring the water views.

The library, in the heart of downtown Westerly, also serves neighboring Pawcatuck, Connecticut. The library's Hoxie Gallery holds art exhibitions. Adjacent to the library, Wilcox Park, a 14½-acre Victorian strolling park designed in 1898 by Warren Manning—an associate of Frederick Law Olmsted, co-creator of New York's Central Park—has a pond, a meadow, an arboretum, a perennials garden, sculptures, fountains, and monuments. The Runaway Bunny, a sculpture inspired by the children's book of the same name, is popular with the little ones. A garden market, arts festivals, concerts, and Shakespeare-in-the-park productions are held periodically.

You can almost hear the murmur of passengers and rhythmic, metal-on-metal clatter as you stroll past the old cabooses, railcars, and engines, such as Sante Fe Number 95, that are on display outside the historic Barstow station housing this museum. Inside, the memorabilia includes a train simulator, rail equipment, a model railroad, items from the depot’s Harvey House days, and period dining-car china from railways around the country.

Housed at Hood River's tiny airport (general aviation only), the museum's impressive, meticulously restored, propeller-driven planes are all still in flying condition, and the oldest date back to the 1910s. The antique steam cars, Model Ts, and sleek Depression-era sedans are road-worthy, too. Periodic car shows and an annual fly-in draw thousands of history buffs and spectators.

The permanent exhibits here include oral histories, artifacts, and kid-friendly interactive displays tracing the lives of Native Americans, ranchers, homesteaders, immigrants, and railroad workers who lived in the area from 1880 onward. Native American interpretive programs are also offered. The impressive castlelike building that houses the center, and a gift shop, is almost as interesting as the exhibits. At noon on the third Thursday of every month, there is a historical presentation.

Puffing through dark stone tunnels and along majestic cliffs, this scenic rail excursion allows passengers to relive the glory days of trains in Cumberland and beyond. A 1916 Baldwin locomotive carries you uphill through the Narrows and scenic mountains as a narrator explains the region's history. The journey is 32 mi (3½-hours) round-trip to Frostburg. A 90-minute layover in Frostburg, a college town, allows time for lunch at one of the many restaurants on the city's main street, just up the hill. A diesel engine typically runs on weekdays, with the more popular steam engine saved for weekends. For a fun twist, try dinner and drinks on a murder-mystery train or take the kids on the North Pole Express at Christmastime.

Developed beginning in 1836 and landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers, this 18-acre park is one Portland's oldest preserved spaces. It offers wonderful sunset views in spots, as well as a network of wooded trails, places to sit and people-watch, and paths that pass by the neighborhood's historic homes.

A good place to start is at the head of the Western Promenade, which has benches and a nice view. From the Old Port, take Danforth Street all the way up to Vaughn Street; take a right on Vaughn and then an immediate left onto Western Promenade. Pass by the Western Cemetery, Portland's second official burial ground, laid out in 1829—inside is the ancestral plot of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—and look for street parking.

Dinosaurs, placed throughout the building, are among the prehistoric animal and plant specimens on display at the WWCC Natural History Museum. Species range in age from 67 million to 180 million years old. Don't miss the fossilized fish and the baby alligator. The museum also has rotating exhibits.

By day this historic pier is a good place to stroll—if you don't mind weatherworn wood and sandy, watery paths—and watch surf competitions, as the water here is a popular surf spot. By night visitors and locals—beach bums and surfers among them—head here to party. Weekends see live music.  The pier is also a great place to view launches from Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral.

This 29-acre family attraction has waterslides, water cannons, and waterfalls.

Wet Prong Trail follows a ridgeline to the drainage of the Wet Prong of Buffalo Creek and parallels the creek for much of the trail's length, crossing smaller tributary streams on its way. The trail can be soft and muddy in places, and growth can be dense. At 1.4 miles, Blair Springs Hollow Trail connects. At 3.7 miles McCoy Hollow Trail connects. The trail ends at a junction with Collie Ridge Trail and Buffalo Creek Trail. 4.6 miles. Moderate. Note: Wet Prong Trail forms a 19.1-mile loop with First Creek Trail and McCoy Hollow Trail that can be accessed from either First Creek Trailhead or Temple Hill Trailhead.

A handful of benches and tables near drinking water, a covered kiosk, and restrooms make this a pleasant spot for lunch in the Wetherill area.

A dramatic exterior mural depicting several types of whales welcomes you into a world that is all about these behemoth beauties. Visitors will find models of whales and large whale skeletons, recordings of whale sounds, videos of whales, and information about the plight of the three local orca pods.

This small waterside park sits in the trees 4 miles east of Sitka right off Sawmill Creek Road. Boardwalk paths lead to five viewing platforms and steps lead down to the rocky shoreline. A gazebo next to the parking area contains signs describing the whales that visit Silver Bay, and you can listen to their sounds from recordings and an offshore hydrophone.

Here in the most famous whale-watching town in Oregon, this helpful little information center perched on a oceanfront bluff in the heart of town is a valuable resource, whether you're looking for tips on the latest sightings during the peak winter and spring migratory seasons or you simply want to learn about these amazing creatures. The center is staffed with state park naturalists who regularly give talks and can answer your questions, and there's an observation deck that offers fantastic views—you might see some of the roughly 20,000 gray whales that migrate up and down the coast each year, plus humpbacks, orcas, and a wide variety of seabirds and other sea mammals.

You can float on an inner tube along a gentle river, plunge down one of five waterslides, hang five on the Akua surf simulator, or bodysurf in the large wave pool at Whale's Tale. There's plenty here for toddlers and small children, too.

For those who want the quintessential Gulch photo op, head to artist Kelsey Montague's Instagram-famous mural right off 11th Avenue South. The sprawling 20-foot white wings are filled with little design nods to the Music City like guitars, along with dreamy abstractions that add to the ethereal feeling. There's even a smaller set of wings that are perfect for kids or pets, so everyone can get their perfect shot. The line can get long, especially during the weekends, so this is a great way to kill some time while you're waiting for a restaurant table nearby. 

Now a 75-acre park and living history museum with numerous historic structures and a country store selling snacks, toys, and farm-related gifts, this verdant oasis and still-working farm on Little Cottonwood Creek in suburban Murray was settled in 1898 and is one of the only pioneer-era farmsteads left in the metro area. Activities here include cow-milking, observing the farm animals, tours of the impressive Victorian homestead (which is packed with farming implements and artifacts), and wagon rides and easy hikes on an extensive trail network. A very popular farmers' market is held here on summer Sundays. There's no charge to walk around the property, but tours and various activities have small fees.