Los Angeles is a sprawling Southern California city and the center of the nation’s film and television industry. Near its iconic Hollywood sign, studios such as Paramount Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers offer behind-the-scenes tours. On Hollywood Boulevard, TCL Chinese Theatre displays celebrities’ hand- and footprints, the Walk of Fame honors thousands of luminaries and vendors sell maps to stars’ homes.
Sint Maarten, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is a country on the southern part of a Caribbean island shared with Saint Martin, a French overseas collectivity. Its natural features span lagoons, beaches and salt pans. The capital, Philipsburg, has cobblestone streets and colorful, colonial-style buildings lining its Front Street shopping area. The port is a popular cruise-ship stop.
Long Beach is a coastal city and port in Southern California. Moored in its Queensway Bay, RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner and museum ship. The waterfront Aquarium of the Pacific features touch tanks and a shark lagoon. Modern and contemporary works are on display at the Museum of Latin American Art. Rancho Los Cerritos is a 19th-century adobe home and museum set in expansive gardens.
Monument Valley, a red-sand desert region on the Arizona-Utah border, is known for the towering sandstone buttes of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The park, frequently a filming location for Western movies, is accessed by the looping, 17-mile Valley Drive. The famous, steeply sloped Mittens buttes can be viewed from the road or from overlooks such as John Ford’s Point.
Side is a resort town on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast. An ancient port city, it's known for long beaches and Greco-Roman ruins. In the center are the remains of the 2nd-century Antique Theater, which seated up to 15,000. The white marble columns of the Hellenistic Temple of Athena stand near the harbor. Other sites are sprinkled throughout, with finds housed at the Side Museum, a restored Roman bath complex.
Orange County is a region in Southern California. It's known for Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort, a huge complex of rides, restaurants and shops. Nearby, in Buena Park, is Knott's Berry Farm, a large theme park. Cities with surf beaches include Huntington Beach, with its surfing museum. Newport Beach's boat-filled harbor sits opposite Balboa Peninsula. Laguna Beach has tide pools and oceanfront Crystal Cove State Park.
Alanya is a resort town on Turkey’s central Mediterranean coast (also known as the Turkish Riviera). Its wide beaches lined with hotels include Cleopatra Beach, where the Egyptian queen reputedly swam. Alanya Castle, a giant Seljuk-era fort turned open-air museum, stands on a rocky bluff above the beachfront, alongside red tile–roofed Ottoman villas and the octagonal Red Tower, a symbol of the city dating to 1226.