79 Best Sights in USA

Anna Maria Island's "Main Street" features numerous upscale mom-and-pop boutiques, including beach-appropriate clothiers, beach-inspired home decor stores, and antique furniture shops. You can also find shops offering items such as quality jewelry and infused olive oil. The Anna Maria City Pier, which overlooks the southern end of Tampa Bay, sits at the end of the street. If you're here in the morning, check out Anna Maria Donuts, which offers made-to-order custom doughnuts, some with interesting ingredients such as sriracha sauce.

A once-abandoned relic of the Industrial Revolution, Pine Street is the heartbeat of Burlington's recently revamped South End Arts District, an enclave of bars, restaurants, breweries, art galleries, and eateries. Start at the intersection of Pine and Maple Street and begin walking south to find a treasure trove of all things art, music, food, and drink. The S.P.A.C.E Gallery and Conant Metal & Light attract artists from within state borders and far beyond, and the Coal Collective hosts weekly food truck celebrations in the warmer months. Early September's annual Art Hop brings even more energy to the bustling scene, with open galleries and live music around every corner. Make sure to stop by The Soda Plant, a small business incubator with over thirty local artisans, artists, and makers inside a newly refurbished 19th-century industrial soda factory, including nationally acclaimed Brio Coffeeworks and a Burlington outpost of Middlebury's Haymaker Bun Co.

Developed on the site of a copper-smelting plant that in the 1990s was demolished and turned into a huge Superfund cleanup site, this thriving mixed-use development on the Commencement Bay waterfront began opening in phases in the late 2010s and now consists of condos, restaurants, shops, a culinary-oriented marketplace, an upscale hotel, and a multiplex cinema. Linear and paved Ruston Way path runs for 2 miles alongside the waterfront, connecting the neighborhood with the city's North End and, by way of a pedestrian bridge, nearly adjacent Point Defiance Park (and the ferry terminal to Vashon Island). The development includes Dune Peninsula, a new waterfront park with beautiful views of the harbor.

North of the Merchandise Mart and south of Chicago Avenue, between Orleans and Dearborn, is a concentration of art galleries carrying just about every kind of work imaginable. Virtually every building on Superior Street between Wells and Orleans houses at least one gallery, and visitors are welcome to stop in. Free tours leave from Addington Gallery at 704 N. Wells on the second Saturday of the month at 11 am; galleries also coordinate their exhibitions to showcase new works typically on "First Fridays" (check the Chicago Gallery News for dates). Although many artists have left this high-rent district for the less expensive, more industrial West Town, there is still a lot to see here, just a 10-minute walk from Michigan Avenue.

Just south of downtown, the city's redeveloped historic waterfront along the Christina draws locals and visitors to its restaurants, sights, and the popular 1½-mile blue-and-white-signed Riverwalk promenade. Businesses and housing have also sprung up in this neighborhood. By the Riverwalk's northeastern end is Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park ( Rosa Parks Dr.), a recreational area that has a statue of abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Thomas Garrett helping enslaved people as they fled to freedom along the Underground Railroad in the state. The Hare Pavilion at the foot of Old West Street hosts events; nearby, away from the river, is Delaware Contemporary ( 200 S. Madison St.), a museum presenting contemporary art exhibits. Also along the Riverwalk, the Delaware Children's Museum ( 550 Justison St.) has interactive exhibits aimed mostly at children ages 8 and under; Riverwalk Mini Golf operates seasonally right nearby. A regional visitor center ( Closed Mon.–Wed.) is at 920 Justison Street, Suite 5. There's parking at a Beech Street lot, at attractions, and on Justison Street. 

On a peninsula within Gloucester’s working harbor, the town's creative side thrives in this neighborhood, one of the oldest continuously working artists' colonies in the United States. Its alumni include Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, Jane Peterson, and Cecilia Beaux. While some venues stay open year-round, expect many to be closed in winter; but no matter the season, it's a picturesque place.

Established in 1559, Pensacola's first permanent Spanish settlement predates St. Augustine's by six years. The site's center is Seville Square, a live oak–shaded park bounded by Alcaniz, Adams, Zaragoza, and Government streets. Roam 14 brick streets past honeymoon cottages and homes amid a parklike setting. Many buildings have been converted into restaurants, bars, offices, and shops that overlook Pensacola Bay and coastal road U.S. 98, which provides access to the Gulf Coast and beaches.

A formerly industrial slice of Northwest, this mini neighborhood epitomizes New Portland, with a walking-scale grid of stylish apartment buildings and repurposed warehouses filled with some of the city’s most hyped restaurants. While Slabtown loosely refers to the blocks stretching north from Lovejoy Street to the Willamette River, most of the action is sandwiched between Northrup and Thurman Streets.

A suburban upscale live-work-play complex hardly seems like a typical recommendation for travelers to go visit. However, there aren't many concepts like Springline, which quickly emerged as a kind of second downtown for Menlo Park (just a 5-minute walk from the actual downtown) after opening in 2023. Several notable San Francisco restaurants and food artisans have opened their first branches outside of the city here, including sushi juggernaut Robin, the outstanding Cali-Italian cuisine of Che Fico Parco Menlo, and the beloved Andytown Coffee Roasters. With palm trees and beautiful fountains, the central plaza area of Springline feels like a vacation even for stressed-out workers in the adjacent offices.

The Bywater neighborhood is home to dozens of alternative art spaces, many of which have banded together under the loose umbrella of the St. Claude Arts District (SCAD). From old candle factories to people's living rooms, this burgeoning scene—centered around St. Claude Avenue and nearby streets—produces some of the most intriguing and innovative work in the city, with several major artists and arts organizations. In addition to galleries, several independent theater spaces have sprung up as well, offering venues for live performances, magic and burlesque shows, fringe theater, and more. There is also a monthly art market and occasional gallery crawls. Check the website for an updated events calendar.

This block of gorgeous 1890s Georgian and Italian Renaissance Revival homes earned its nickname in the 1920s from less-affluent Harlemites who felt its residents were "striving" to become well-to-do. Some of the few remaining private service alleys, used when deliveries arrived via horse and cart, lie behind these houses and are visible through iron gates. Note the gatepost between Nos. 251 and 253 on 138th Street that reads, "Private Road. Walk Your Horses." These houses were built by the contractor David H. King Jr., whose developments also include Madison Square Garden and the Washington Arch. When the houses failed to sell to white people, the properties on these blocks were sold to Black doctors, lawyers, and other professionals; composers and musicians W. C. Handy and Eubie Blake were also among the residents. If you have the time, detour a block north to see the palazzo-style group of houses designed by Stanford White, on the north side of 139th Street.

Standing on the bluff of Sugar Hill overlooking Jackie Robinson Park, outside the slightly run-down 409 Edgecombe Avenue, you'd never guess that here resided such influential African Americans as NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. In 1946, Langston Hughes reportedly called it one of Harlem’s “most fashionable addresses." And farther north at 555 Edgecombe (known as the "Triple Nickel"), literary icon Zora Neale Hurston and jazz musicians Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and others lived, wrote, and played. It's also here that, for more than 25 years, musician Marjorie Eliot has been hosting jazz concerts in her apartment (3F) at 3:30 pm every Sunday. Farther down, at No. 345, you can't miss the Benzinger House with its flared mansard roof. Amid all this history, the modern-looking Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling, at 155th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, gathers local families for programs that encourage the creative spirit of children.

In 1925, prominent real-estate developer Fred F. French was among the first Americans ever to buy up a large number of buildings—most of them tenements—and join the properties into a single, massive new complex. He designed a collection of nine apartment buildings and two parks in the "garden city" mode, which placed a building's green space not in an enclosed courtyard, but in the foreground. French also built a 39-by-50-foot "Tudor City" sign atop one of the 22-story buildings, best viewed from the eastern end of 42nd Street. The development's residential towers opened between 1927 and 1930, borrowing a marketable air of sophistication from Tudor-style stonework, stained-glass windows, and lobby-design flourishes. Tudor City has been featured in numerous films, and its landmark gardens—sometimes compared to Gramercy Park, only public—remain a popular lunch spot among office workers. The neighborhood, which is near the United Nations, was designated a historic district in 1988.

Cast-iron fences, Victorian-era town houses, a bubbling fountain, and a grassy area all add up to one of Boston's most charming slices of a neighborhood.

This neighborhood is located in the southeastern part of Somerville. Used by the Union Army during the American Revolution, today it's home to numerous restaurants, shops, and bars and is considered one of the area's most under-the-radar hot spots. The Union Square Farmers Market is held on the plaza every Saturday from mid-May through October.

Uptown and KONO (Koreatown/Northgate) is where nightlife and cutting-edge art merge. Dozens of galleries cluster around Telegraph Avenue and north of Grand Avenue into KONO, exhibiting everything from photography and installations to glasswork and fiber arts. The first Friday of each month, thousands of people descend for Art Murmur ( oaklandartmurmur.org), a late-night gallery event that has expanded into First Fridays ( www.oaklandfirstfridays.org), a festival of food trucks, street vendors, and live music along Telegraph Avenue.

Restaurants with a distinctly urban vibe make Uptown/KONO a dining destination every night of the week. Favorites include outstanding cocktails and contemporary Colombian dishes at Parche ( 2295 Broadway); the deservedly world-famous spicy fried chicken sandwiches at World Famous Hotboys ( 1601 San Pablo Ave.); some of the East Bay's top New York–style pizzas at Mama's Boy ( 15 Grand Ave.); the terrific Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican cooking of Calabash ( 2300 Valdez St.); a fantastic burger and cups of soft serve at Lovely's ( 2344 Webster St.); and sushi hand rolls offered by Yonsei Handrolls ( 1738 Telegraph Ave.).

Toss in the bevy of bars and there's plenty within walking distance to keep you busy all evening, such as Drake's Dealership ( 2325 Broadway), with its spacious, hipster-friendly beer garden; excellent cocktails and Japanese whisky paired with a suave setting and hi-fi vinyl soundtrack at Bar Shiru ( 1611Telegraph Ave.); and The Punchdown ( 1737 Telegraph Ave.), a nationally-recognized wine bar and bottle shop.

The once heavily industrialized Valley neighborhood in northwest Providence has been transformed into a destination for the arts, nightlife, and shopping in recent years. Pioneers in this revitalization include the Steel Yard—a working foundry that offers public programs—as well as the Waterfire Arts Center and, on Chalkstone Avenue, the Los Andes restaurant. The Industrious Spirit Co. (ISCO) is the first distillery to open in Providence since Prohibition and has a tasting room and courtyard in a former steel factory. Across the street is Buttonwoods Brewery and its Screaming Unicorn kitchen, making a short stretch of Sims Avenue a busy nightlife destination, especially on weekends. The Providence Flea market and Providence Farmers Market also call the Valley home.

Located just northeast of downtown Woodinville and comprising the largest concentration of the town's wineries and tasting rooms, the Warehouse District lacks curb appeal—it's mostly a warren crisscrossed by rows of single-story industrial buildings with garage-door facades and, occasionally, outdoor seating areas. Still, this is where many of the smaller and most innovative vintners in Washington are creating outstanding wines, many with very limited releases. Some standouts are Adrice Wines, Damsel Cellars, Efeste, Obelisco, Patterson Cellars, Quiddity Wines, and Tinte.

Tampa's Latin quarter is one of only a few National Historic Landmark districts in Florida. Bordered by I–4 to the north, 22nd Street to the east, Adamo Drive to the south, and Nebraska Avenue to the west, it has brick-paved streets and wrought-iron balconies. Cubans brought their cigar-making industry to Ybor (pronounced EE-bore) City in 1886, and the smell of cigars—hand-rolled by Cuban immigrants—still wafts through the heart of this east Tampa area, along with the strong aroma of roasting coffee. Former cigar factories and social clubs have been transformed into boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and nightclubs. Nevertheless, it can also be seedy and rowdy at times.