America, state by state

New England in miniature: seaport towns, ivy, apizza, and a serious October.

Best: May · June · September · October

Small on the map, long on beach: the shoulder months are the whole secret.

Best: May · June · September

Lobster boats, granite coast, and a season that is shorter than you think.

Best: June · July · August · September

Crab season, Chesapeake sailing, and wild ponies, minus the mid-Atlantic swelter.

Best: May · June · September · October

Revolutionary Boston, Cape Cod summers, and an October that runs on witches and leaves.

Best: May · June · September · October

The White Mountains deliver New England's biggest scenery, and the calendar decides whether you get foliage, powder, or blackflies.

Best: July · August · September · October

The Shore is the show, and September is when locals finally get it back.

Best: June · July · August · September

One state, two trips: the city that never closes and an upstate that absolutely peaks in fall.

Best: May · June · September · October

Founding history, two great food cities, and mountains that go gold in October.

Best: May · June · September · October

The smallest state packs 400 miles of coastline, Gilded Age mansions, and a serious food city into a long weekend.

Best: June · July · August · September

The foliage benchmark every other state gets measured against.

Best: June · July · August · September

Gulf beaches, civil rights history, and football Saturdays, if you dodge the swelter.

Best: March · April · May · October

Ozark rivers, a bathhouse row, and a world-class art museum hiding in plain sight.

Best: April · May · October · November

Winter is the product; summer is the fine print.

Best: November · December · January · February

Savannah's squares, Blue Ridge trails, and wild barrier islands, timed around the humidity.

Best: April · May · October · November

Horses in April, bourbon in October, and the world's longest cave in any weather.

Best: April · May · September · October

Mardi Gras to Jazz Fest is the golden stretch; summer is the price of all that magic.

Best: February · March · April · October

The blues was born here; spring and fall are when to come hear it.

Best: March · April · May · October

Mountains on one end, the Outer Banks on the other, and two different best times to see them.

Best: May · June · September · October

Charleston charm and wide Atlantic beaches, best enjoyed before the humidity moves in.

Best: March · April · May · October

Music City, Memphis soul, and the most visited national park in America.

Best: April · May · September · October

Four centuries of American history with the Blue Ridge on one side and the Atlantic on the other.

Best: April · May · September · October

America's newest national park headlines a state that is almost entirely mountains.

Best: May · June · September · October

Chicago's lakefront summers, Lincoln's Springfield, and a surprise canyon country downstate.

Best: May · June · September · October

Race day in May, dunes all summer, covered bridges in October.

Best: May · June · September · October

State fair legend, river bluffs, and small towns that punch far above their weight.

Best: May · June · September · October

Tallgrass prairie, cowtown history, and skies that do most of the talking.

Best: April · May · September · October

Freshwater coastline for days, an island without cars, and a summer worth waiting for.

Best: June · July · August · September

Ten thousand lakes, a wilderness you paddle, and a state fair that stops everything.

Best: June · July · August · September

Gateway Arch, two great food cities, and Ozark lakes, best on either side of summer.

Best: April · May · September · October

The flyover joke misses the point: Nebraska hosts one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in North America.

Best: March · May · June · September

The least visited state rewards the few who come, especially when the badlands glow in September.

Best: June · July · August · September

Roller coasters, rock and roll, and three big-league cities that peak from May to October.

Best: May · June · September · October

Route 66, cowboy culture, and a spring sky you should respect.

Best: April · May · September · October

The Black Hills pack monuments, badlands, and buffalo into one of America's best road trips.

Best: June · July · September

Supper clubs, two Great Lakes, and a summer that earns every festival.

Best: June · July · August · September

Perfect desert weather exists here, just not in the months most people have off.

Best: March · April · October · November

Las Vegas runs all year, but the desert around it absolutely does not.

Best: March · April · May · October

High desert, deep culture, and an October sky full of balloons.

Best: April · May · September · October

Everything is bigger, including the gap between the right months and the wrong ones.

Best: March · April · October · November

Two peak seasons, two completely different trips, and a mud season nobody warns you about.

Best: January · February · March · June

Sawtooth peaks, wild rivers, and half the crowds of the states next door.

Best: July · August · September · January

Big Sky Country is really two trips: a short, glorious summer and a long, powdery winter.

Best: July · August · September

Five national parks and the self-proclaimed greatest snow on Earth, on opposite ends of the calendar.

Best: April · May · September · October

Yellowstone, the Tetons, and fewer people than any other state to share them with.

Best: June · July · August · September

A place so seasonal that picking your month decides what trip you are actually taking.

Best: June · July · August

Five states wearing one name; September is the month that flatters all of them.

Best: April · May · September · October

Always 80 degrees somewhere; the variable is price, not weather.

Best: April · May · September · October

Wait out the rain and Oregon hands you one of the best summers in America.

Best: July · August · September

Three national parks, one coffee-fueled city, and a dry season worth planning your year around.

Best: July · August · September