United States

Proud, historic and unexpectedly alive with greenery, Washington DC is much more than the linchpin of governmental machinery; it’s a cultural hotbed of free museums and monuments.

New York may hog the limelight in the global theatre but don’t forget that it’s Washington DC that sits backstage pulling the strings. Ever since 1760, when a freshly presidential George Washington picked this leafy spot on the banks of the Potomac to be the nerve-centre of his new country, the city’s embodied US society in microcosm – brimming with pride and patriotism, hugely multicultural, and rife with high drama. Tourists horde in their hundreds to catch a glimpse of the astonishing dome of the Capitol building, the – somewhat underwhelming – White House, and the countless monuments and memorials dedicated to great men of yesterday who nurtured the country from troublesome colonial outpost to global superpower.