While nothing beats a U.S. roadtrip for experiencing America's wide-open skies and stunning diversity, unless you have tons of time it's better to look for cheap flights, rail passes, and travel deals that might include reduced hotel prices or cheap accommodation in the U.S.
Once that's set, explore to your heart's content. Visit New York and San Francisco to experience America's melting-pot variety of diverse cultures, arts, and cuisines. Los Angeles is the movie capital, while Las Vegas is also a must-see. Austin, Texas, is young at heart and features a hip music scene, and New Orleans beckons with its charming and historic French Quarter. Chicago is famed for its stunning architecture by great American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Louis Sullivan. Boston is another student capital thanks to seemingly dozens of colleges, schools, and universities. As the nations capital, Washington DC is power central and you can get an inside view of the workings of government. America's natural beauties are legendary, too, from the Grand Canyon and California's redwood forests to Native American cliff-side ruins in Colorado, to the Rocky Mountains, the mighty Mississippi River, and the fantastic beaches of North Carolina, New York's Long Island, and Rhode Island and Massachusetts. If you can land a travel deal to experience the wild beauties of Alaska or Hawaii, you'll be warmed by friendly hospitality, too.
From West to East, great choices of cities to hit include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, and New York. In San Francisco, ride a streetcar and admire the gorgeous San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. For macabre good times, check out the notorious prison Alcatraz (now thankfully closed), where gangsters and bad guys like Al "Scarface" Capone were once locked up. Visit Disneyland (California) or Disney World (Florida) for other fun activities in the U.S.
Some of the top American museums include the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is beautiful and balmy year-round, making it a perfect spot for Spring Break. You can check out the homes of the Stars in the Hollywood Hills and also jump into the breathtaking surf at Malibu.
In Chicago, take a youth tour offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. New York has delicious food and world-class shopping, and in Washington, DC check out the White House, the Washington Monument, and bars in tony Georgetown.