North America Things to Do

  The Bean in Millennium Park
by riorich55
 
  • The Bean in Millennium Park
      The Bean in Millennium Park
    by riorich55
  •   The Breakers
    by PALLINA
  • Irvine Global Festival, California
      Irvine Global Festival, California
    by marinarena
  •   Canada Place
    by GentleSpirit
  • Totem poles
      Totem poles
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Most Viewed Things to Do in North America

51.

Times Square   New York City

Times Square, New York City

 328 Reviews  At least once in your life, you have to see Times Square. The cacophany of lights and sounds and constant movement can be overwhelming to the senses. There is definitely an energy here - and a sense... 

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52.

Fremont Street Experience   Las Vegas

Fremont Street Experience, Las Vegas

 94 Reviews  If you're not staying in Downtown Las Vegas, jump on The Deuce (the bus that runs the length of the stip) and get off at the last stop which is Fremont Street. This is where you will find some of the... 

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53.

Bourbon Street   New Orleans

Bourbon Street, New Orleans

 67 Reviews  Bourbon Street is the core of New Orleans' nightlife. It is a street that runs the length of the historic French Quarter, and is lined with bars, nightclubs, and souvenir shops. For parents traveling... 

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54.

Golden Gate Bridge   San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

 306 Reviews  The Golden Gate Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world and one of the major symbols of the United States. Walking across the Bridge on a clear day gives you some different -- and... 

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55.

Walt Disney World   Orlando

Walt Disney World, Orlando

 236 Reviews  You can rent a personal watercraft and explore the Village Lake. There are Sea Raycer's for one to two persons and can be rented for 30, 45 or 60 minutes. Driver must be 18 or over and have valid... 

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56.

Michigan Avenue   Chicago

Michigan Avenue, Chicago

 107 Reviews  it is a nice way to unwind here after a hectic walking tour of millenium park during the spring and summer and autumn why? since the huge ice skating rink is replaced by a huge Park Grill Outdoor... 

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57.

CN Tower   Toronto

CN Tower, Toronto

 274 Reviews  Let the elevator take you to to the top of (what was once) the tallest free standing structure in the world and you'll have a great view of Toronto and Lake Ontario. The CN Tower is 1,815.4 ft feet... 

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58.

Universal Studios   Los Angeles

Universal Studios, Los Angeles

 160 Reviews  We went there on Monday, in December. Weather was not bad and it wasn't full with crowds. Preferred parking fee was 20$ and entrance was 77$ (You can come back again, it is one year fee) It opens at... 

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59.

Southernmost Point   Key West

Southernmost Point, Key West

 65 Reviews  I must admit that I felt a bit of nostalgia as we reached the area known as Southernmost Point at the bottom of Whitehead Street. There isn't much there besides a huge marker always crowded with... 

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60.

Stanley Park   Vancouver

Stanley Park, Vancouver

 194 Reviews  If you are driving through the park you will most likely drive by Prospect Point, which is a little bit higher up in the park. From up here you have a great view over the Lions Gate Bridge, North... 

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61.

Old Montreal   Montreal

Old Montreal, Montreal

 208 Reviews  The only outdoor skating area in Montreal just opened in the Old Port of Montreal. =) If you are courageous enough to bear the cold and want to enjoy the outdoors, this is for you! Bring your whole... 

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62.

Faneuil Hall / Quincy Market   Boston

Faneuil Hall / Quincy Market, Boston

 91 Reviews   Faneuil Hall is a fun marketplace to visit, full of life and busyness. People come here to shop, have lunch, catch up with friends or just watch the people. There are food vendors and restaurants as... 

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63.

Chichen Itza   Cancún

Chichen Itza, Cancún

 89 Reviews  It´s a couple of hours by car from Cancun, but I think that it's impossible to skip its visit. Chichen-Itza it's popular worldwide, and it would be silly not to visit it, being so close. So, have... 

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64.

Balboa Park   San Diego

Balboa Park, San Diego

 117 Reviews  Balboa Park is just northeast of downtown. It is a beautiful piece of land with vast expanses of lush green lawns, many trees and blooming flowers. At this park there are hiking and biking trails,... 

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65.

Pike Place Market   Seattle

Pike Place Market, Seattle

 179 Reviews  Pike Place Market is a fascinating place to walk and shop. The market has an interesting history. Back in 1906 Seattle citizens were outraged by the cost of certain produce most notably onions. They... 

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66.

Pearl Harbor   Honolulu

Pearl Harbor, Honolulu

 90 Reviews  At 7:55 a.m. Pacific Time on 7 December 1941, some 360 Japanese war planes descended on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This heinous, preemptive attack which took place while peace... 

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67.

Liberty Bell   Philadelphia

Liberty Bell, Philadelphia

 63 Reviews  OK, you can't really touch it, but you can get pretty darn close to it and have your picture made with this American icon. The line to get into the building which now houses the Bell was wrapped all... 

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68.

Beaches/South Beach/Art Deco District   Miami

Beaches/South Beach/Art Deco District, Miami

 84 Reviews  pictured is the dock across collins ave from the fontainbleau hotel. this non descript mooring has some significance in the history of miami beach. in the 1960's the houseboat from the televison show... 

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69.

NASA Johnson Space Center   Houston

NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston

 64 Reviews  If you go to Houston, you have to visit the Space Center! After all, Houston is where NASA-Johnson Space Center is located. That's where the astronauts train and where NASA curates the lunar rocks... 

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70.

Malecon   Puerto Vallarta

Malecon, Puerto Vallarta

 20 Reviews  One of the most touristy, but truly beautiful things to do in Puerto Vallarta is to take a walk along the Malecon. Local artist display their paintings, there is often a sandcastle competition on the... 

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71.

Ocean Drive   Miami Beach

Ocean Drive, Miami Beach

 20 Reviews  Ocean Drive is the epicenter of cool. But it's also the epicenter of thuginess. This area really attracts all types, and many who come here don't fit the wealthy, pretty South Beach stereotype. Ocean... 

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72.

5th Avenue   Playa del Carmen

5th Avenue, Playa del Carmen

 11 Reviews  If you want to go shopping, Playa del Carmen is the place for you. Look for the 5 th avenue, a street with more than a mile long filled with shops, cafes and restaurants. You can also catch the ferry... 

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73.

Riverwalk & Riverwalk Mall   San Antonio

Riverwalk & Riverwalk Mall, San Antonio

 97 Reviews  To me famous San Antonio Riverwalk was just like taking a nice walk along the town's area that is bordering the San Antonio River. But yes, there one can indeed find out how San Antonio is a romantic,... 

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74.

Zocalo   Mexico City

Zocalo, Mexico City

 84 Reviews  Undoubtedly Mexico City’s most well known landmark and top of the list on the “must see” list. Considered by Mexicans to be the heart of Mexico City, this enormous plaza surrounded by gorgeous... 

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75.

Place Royale & Le Petit Champlain   Quebec

Place Royale & Le Petit Champlain, Quebec

 72 Reviews  The oldest commercial area in North America ! This is one of the nicest area of town. Pedestrian streets lined up with nice restaurants and shops. The area was in bad shape until the 70s when the... 

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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Interesting mid-west US cities

by Bwana_Brown

Business trips have taken me to some of the smaller cities in central America – interesting yet OTBP locations. The northern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was impressive with its effective use of the Milwaukee River as a tourist draw. Because it flows through the city centre, an amazing amount of work went into making this a great area to stroll, view, eat and relax in. I ended up there on the Saturday night of my arrival, sitting outside at the Rock Bottom Brewery patio while watching all the activity. The river is alive with boats of all sizes motoring up and down the waterway and pulling in to dock at the various restaurants. As evening fell, the strings of lights along the river combined with lights highlighting the tops of nearby buildings like stately City Hall gave the area a festive atmosphere. The City Hall building was built in 1895 in the Flemish Renaissance style, with only a...

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You are in the Western plains now

by Bwana_Brown

Once away from the mountains, the centre of North America is relatively flat for a thousand or more miles, providing its own kind of beauty. This field of hay bales beside the highway north of Vermilion, Alberta looked so nice stretching off to the horizon that we just had to stop for a photo! I am not sure if the harvesting process was totally finished when we were there, but we saw these bales left on the fields like this, or sometimes piled all in a row in the field or again stacked high beside the barns in many farms. In the great heartland of America, it was a pleasure to drive the secondary highways of Kansas. Although even the main highways were good, the speed limit keeps you moving along and you have to be on the watch for the traffic. Once on the 'back-roads', I could set the cruise control at 50-55 mph (80-90 kph) as per the local speed limits and just enjoy the passing...

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Wilderness adventure in Idaho & Montana

by DaveFreeman

I was blown away by the amazing things to do up in the Pacific Northwest. We found a company who hooked us up with a tracker and a photography guide. We got to pick morel mushrooms and then cook with an elk ranch. That area is still very private and has not yet been bit by hoards of tourists. We even got to do some things that were so out of the box. I highly recommend it! Idaho and Western Montana is a great place for family adventures. We also ATV'd into some amazing areas. Contact a company in CD'A called TMI Tours or seek out the local tourism offices. It is a treasure.

The Canadian Rocky Mountains

by Bwana_Brown

The number one geological attraction in North America has to be the Rocky Mountains. I have visited them on both sides of the Canada-USA border and have always been impressed by their majesty. The Canadian portion of the Rockies includes five UNESCO National Parks, including Jasper, Banff and Waterton Lakes in Alberta; Glacier, Yoho and Kootenay in British Columbia and Kluane in Yukon Territory. This 2004 view of Banff National Park brought our car to a standstill as we simply had to get out for a proper look! Castle Mountain, although not overly tall at 9390 feet (2860 m), is actually the first mountain of the main Rocky Mountain ranges that you will encounter when entering them from the east. Glacial action has worked at the mountain over the centuries, leaving a reddish mountain that seems to rise up in steps, with castle-like peaks. In addition to smoothing off the entire mountain,...

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San Diego – now you are on Mexico’s doorstep!

by Bwana_Brown

The city of San Diego, with supposedly ‘perfect’ weather year-round, is located just south of Los Angeles and only a few miles from the Mexican border. I spent a few days there in early 2003 and, if I had to pick a favourite activity for San Diego - it would be the Hotel del Coronado. It is the largest all-wooden building in the USA, constructed in 1888 as a luxury hotel on the Pacific Ocean. We only had a short time to tour parts of the hotel on our Trolley tour of the city but, what I did see was amazing! The opulence of the dark wood interiors, the well manicured grounds, the fantastic ocean view, etc. This location has been used by various Presidents to host visiting royal guests and I would say that it was definitely up to the task!The Hotel del Coronado also had a large expanse of beach, looking out towards Point Loma where the Spaniards first landed on the west coast in 1542. The...

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Newfoundland – a world of its own!

by Bwana_Brown

Newfoundland & Labrador, ‘where the land meets the sea’ is Canada’s easternmost province, and what a unique spot it is! In summer 2001, my wife and I decided that it was high time we made a trip to the island of Newfoundland to see what all the fuss was about. With fantastic rugged scenery, whale watching and two UNESCO World Heritage Sites very close to each other, we decided that a trip up along the westernmost shores of the island's Northern Peninsula would make a great holiday. On our way up the west coast we spent some time in Gros Morne National Park, one of the UNESCO sites and home to the fjord of Western Brook Pond, carved by glacial action during the Ice Age. This is the view as our tour boat began to enter the 2300-ft (700-m) cliffs of the fjord and the 2nd photo gives another perspective as one of the boats heads back out, after passing a floating dock where hikers in the...

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Saskatchewan – home of the Canadian Mounties

by Bwana_Brown

Most people who travel to Canada would like to see members of the famous red-coated Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the 'Mounties'. However, even living in Canada, it is not all that often that you see Mounties decked out in their 'dress' scarlet uniforms, since they are designed for horse-riding instead of today's more mundane police duties! However, if you happen to be in any good-sized town or city on November 11, you just might have your chance because this is when the country comes to a standstill for two minutes at 11 AM in remembrance of Canada's war dead over the decades. In 2006, it was a beautiful sunny day and quite mild for November in eastern Canada as the ceremonies wrapped up with a march-past.In 1999 we were able to visit the western ‘home’ of the Mounties in Regina, Saskatchewan to attend the graduation of one of our sons-in-law. The 2nd photo shows one of their practise...

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The Appalachian Mountains

by Bwana_Brown

One of the great natural wonders of eastern North America is the Appalachian mountain range, stretching for 1500 miles (2400-km) between northern Georgia, USA and Newfoundland, Canada. Although not nearly as rugged as the younger Rockies of the west, the Appalachians have their own softer beauty, having survived being ground down by the continental Ice Sheets in long ago times. The highest peak tops out at 6700-ft (2000-m) but there are many at 3000-ft or higher. I enjoyed this typical ‘smoky’ view of the mountains in Great Smoky Mountains National Park of eastern Tennessee in 2002 while on a business trip. According to Wikipedia, the name derives from “… the natural haze that often hangs over it. As in the neighboring Blue Ridge Mountains to the east, hydrocarbons produced by trees and other local vegetation—as well as higher humidity—produce a bluish cast to the sky, even over short...

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Florida – tourist ‘hot spot’ of the east

by Bwana_Brown

Florida is a tourist ‘hot spot’ in eastern North America as people flock there for both the sun and theme parks. On one of our trips, we decided to see what Saint Augustine had to offer! It turned out to be a good choice, since this oldest permanently European inhabited city in continental USA is full of interesting things. It was first 'discovered' by the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Ponce de Leon, who sailed north from the island in 1513. St. Augustine was established in 1565, in response to French incursions into this territory claimed by Spain. Although the city was never taken in combat, a British attack in 1702 resulted in a close call, leading to the realization that more fortifications were needed south of the city. As a result, Fort Matanzas was built 1740-1742 on a small island off Anastasia Island, located so it was out of range of cannon fire from any ocean-going British...

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The strange Ouachita Mountains

by Bwana_Brown

In mid-November, 2002 I had a week-long business trip to Dallas, Texas so I was able to take advantage of my early arrival on Saturday to spend a weekend in seldom heard of southeastern Oklahoma. It was there that I was amazed to come across the Ouachita Mountain Range, the highest one in North America between the Rockies and the eastern Appalachians. My wife and I had a very enjoyable cruise along its Talimena Scenic Drive, which winds for about 40 miles along the ridge of the Winding Stair Mountains (part of the Ouachitas). The road was in excellent condition and is the only road built in Oklahoma just for the sake of enjoying the scenery! It was very nice being able to see for miles off both sides and there are numerous scenic lookouts where one can pull over for a more relaxed view. Earlier in the morning, we stopped at Robber's Cave State Park, also located in these mountains,...

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Top 3 Hotels in North America

Casablanca Hotel  New York City

 1 Review and 1901 Opinions  This is a Hotel /Bed and Breakfast. It is a oasis in the middle of Times Square. It is quiet inside... 

 Hotels in New York City

Argonaut Hotel - A Kimpton Hotel  San Francisco

 4 Reviews and 1844 Opinions  There's no doubt this hotel, provides a level of luxury and convenience, that many travellers will... 

 Hotels in San Francisco

Four Seasons Las Vegas  Las Vegas

 8 Reviews and 1181 Opinions  Definitely one of the best hotels in Las Vegas where I found everything what I want. The hotel is at... 

 Hotels in Las Vegas

Questions and Answers

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Q:  Are there, like in many European countries, limits for the amount of cash you can legally bring with you in and out of the... 

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A: For Canada, if you bring in more than $10,000 CAD (or equivalent in other currency) you will need to declare it to customs but there is no limit. There is a box on the... 

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North America Members Meetings

Mar 16, 2012 
St Patrick's Weekend Meet.
Aug 11, 2012 
2012 VT Seattle Meet: Bremerton and Return
Aug 11, 2012 
2012 VT Seattle Meet: Opening Registration
Aug 11, 2012 
2012 VT Seattle Meet: Ferry Trip to Bremerton

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