A low peninsula state of the southeast United States between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico— The state of Florida is bordered by Georgia and Alabama.
Juan Ponce de León discovered and settled on the peninsula on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1513, which is known as Pascua Florida in Spanish. ‘Florida’ is a Spanish adjective that means flowery.
Florida was one of the Confederate states during the Civil War, and it was admitted as the 27th state of U.S. in 1845. Florida is officially nicknamed as “the Sunshine State.”
Tallahassee is the capital and Jacksonville the largest city of Florida. FL is the abbreviation of Florida. Destin, Jacksonville, Key West, Miami, Naples, Tampa, Saint Petersburg, Hialeah, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood are the jewel cities of Florida.
Destin is commonly known as ‘The World's Luckiest Fishing Village’. Jacksonville or J-Ville is dubbed as “Where Florida Begins”. Key West is known as the Southernmost City. Miami is nicknamed as the “Magic City”. Orlando is widely known as “The Imaginary City”. Tallahassee is popularly dubbed as “Tally-Ho” or “The Hill” and Tampa is nicknamed as “The Cigar City”.
Florida has a highly flourishing tourism industry. The sunny weather and hundreds of miles of beautiful beach attracts the tourists from all parts of the world. Florida has become the most desired destination for beach vacations and golf vacations.
Florida is home to Walt Disney World, an amusement park near Orlando, and many other theme parks. The Walt Disney World Resort with four theme parks, numerous water parks, exquisite Florida hotels, shopping centers are major tourist attractions of the state.
The state is also home to the Kennedy Space Center. St. Augustine, located on the coast of Northern Florida, is the oldest city in the United States, settled in the sixteenth century by Spain.
Climate— Florida is a peninsula state, so the state has temperate and humid subtropical climate, however the extreme tip of the state has true tropical climate. Generally Florida has relatively dry winters, dry autumns, hot-wet springs and wet summers. The state experiences average 300 days of full sunshine a year.
Florida is under the threats of hurricanes during the Hurricane season that lasts from June 1 to November 30. The state has been hit by a record four disastrous hurricanes uptill now.
Traveling to Florida— Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Miami International Airport, Orlando International Airport, and Tampa International Airport are major international airports of the state of Florida.
The secondary airports of the state include Jacksonville International Airport, Palm Beach International Airport, and Southwest Florida International Airport. The state also have regional airports at Daytona Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Gainesville, Key West, Melbourne, Naples, Panama City, Pensacola, Tallahassee and Orlando Sanford International Airport.
Florida Department of Transportation maintains interstates, state highways and U.S. Highways of the state. Florida's interstate highway system contains 1,473 miles (2,371 km) of highway.
Florida, Orlando is the southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto Train. Orlando is also the eastern terminus of the Sunset Limited that travels across the southern United States via New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio to its western terminus of Los Angeles. Additionally two Amtrak trains (the Silver Star and the Silver Meteor), which operate between New York City and Miami, serve Florida.
Las Vegas, popularly known as ‘the America's Playground,’ is a city of southeast Nevada near the California and Arizona borders. One of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States, Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada.
Las Vegas’ economy is mainly based on its hotels, gambling, entertainment, theme parks, resorts, and tourist-oriented industries. The hotel industry collects the bulky part of the revenue of the city. The city is also known for gaming equipment manufacturing and as a commercial hub of a ranching and mining area.
Officially nicknamed as the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World,’ the city of Las Vegas is a major tourist center known for its casinos. Some of the most notable casinos located downtown include Golden Nugget, Four Queens, Horseshoe, and Fremont St. Casino.
The city of Las Vegas is widely known for its nightclubs, casinos, boxing championship matches, entertainment enterprises, music, sports, gambling, and amusement centers. The city is known for its vivacious & vibrant nightlife.
Las Vegas has earned several other nicknames, such as the “City of lights”, “Glitter Gulch”, “Sin City” and “Lost Wages”.
The major attractions of the city of Las Vegas include the campus of the University of Nevada, Nellis Air Force Base, Hoover Dam, and Museums including ones devoted to natural history, old neon signs from the strip, the entertainer Liberace, atomic testing etc. The Stratosphere Tower is the country's tallest observation tower.
Climate— Las Vegas, with hot summers, mild winters, abundant sunshine year-round, and very little rainfall, has typical Mojave Desert climate. The temperature is high in the months of May, June, and September, with July and August, with very low humidity. July through September, the Mexican Monsoon often fetches s enough moisture from the Gulf of California across Mexico and into the southwest to cause afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Showers occur less frequently in the spring or autumn.
Winters are cool and windy. The majority of Las Vegas' annual rainfall comes from January to March. The winter snow is usually visible from December to May on the mountains surrounding Las Vegas, but it seldom snows in the city itself.
Traveling to Las Vegas— McCarran International Airport in Paradise, Nevada provides the majority of commercial flights to the Las Vegas valley. One of the busiest airports in the United States, McCarran airport serves private aircraft, domestic and international passenger flights, and freight/cargo flights.
The city of Las Vegas is also served by Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach bus service. CAT Bus service is a popular mean of public transportation among locals and tourists with various bus routes covering a large portion of the valley.
The traditional intercity bus carriers, including Greyhound; many charter services, including Green Tortoise, and several Chinatown bus lines, provide Intercity bus service to Las Vegas.