New Orleans

Louisiana is located on the Gulf of Mexico between Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and large parts of the state were formed by the Mississippi River with its delta. You travel here for the bayous and swamps and the distinctive culture of Cajuns and Creoles, which extends far beyond New Orleans.As the only US state, Louisiana is divided into Parishes instead of Counties, 64 in total. West of Baton Rouge lies the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest swamp area in the USA. Interstate 10 crosses it on the 29.3 km long Atchafalaya Basin Bridge; alligators and the Louisiana black bear live in the swamp.Further west lies Acadiana, the region of descendants of the Acadians expelled from Canada, with Lafayette as its center. The capital Baton Rouge boasts the tallest capitol in the USA at 137 m. On the west bank of the Mississippi in Vacherie stands the Oak Alley Plantation, whose mansion was built by enslaved people from 1837 to 1839.

Florida is the peninsula in the southeastern USA, between the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, bordered north by Georgia and Alabama. Visitors come for its approximately 2,170 km of coastline, subtropical to tropical nature, and space and colonial history.To the south, the Everglades National Park preserves over 6,100 km² of the largest tropical wilderness in the USA, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. Southwest of Miami, the Florida Keys string together across 42 bridges to Key West, located about 150 km from Cuba. Roughly 110 km further west lies Dry Tortugas National Park with Fort Jefferson; Biscayne is the state's third national park.On the Atlantic coast, the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island showcases the Space Shuttle Atlantis and a Saturn V rocket. In the northeast, St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is recognized as the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement on the North American mainland. Inland, around Orlando, you'll find major theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.

Holbox is a narrow island, approximately 40 kilometers long, off the north coast of Quintana Roo, between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. In its only village, golf carts and bicycles travel over sand roads instead of cars. The island belongs to the Yum Balam protected area and is known for its shallow beaches, flamingos, and the summer whale shark season.

Mérida, capital of the state of Yucatán in the northwest of the peninsula, was founded in 1542 on the ruins of the Maya city T'hó. You come here for the colonial center with churches, plazas, and colorful townhouses, for the Yucatecan cuisine, and for a rich, often free cultural program in the plazas. The city is also a good base for excursions to Maya sites like Uxmal, to cenotes and haciendas.

The Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico comprises the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Campeche. It is flat, covered by scrubland, and has few rivers; water flows underground through limestone and emerges in thousands of cenotes. Here lie the great Maya sites, the colonial cities of Mérida and Campeche, and the Caribbean coast from Cancún to Tulum.