Texas Travel Video Guide

Texas Travel Itinerary

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Still cherishing the memory that it was from 1836 to 1845 an independent nation in its own right, TEXAS stands apart from the rest of the United States. While its sheer size - eight hundred miles from east to west and nearly a thousand from top to bottom - gives it a great geographical diversity, is firmly bound together by a shared history, culture and ideology. Independence is key to the Texan mentality, from the overriding distrust of government - any government - to the absence of unionized labor. As the old anti-litter campaign put it, "Don't mess with Texas."

Preconceived ideas about what exactly is "Texan" are soon shattered. It's actually one of the most eclectic and cosmopolitan states in the Union and each of the major tourist destinations has its own distinct character. Hispanic San Antonio , for example, with its Mexican population and historic importance, has a laid-back feel absent from the big-city neurosis of Houston or Dallas , while trendy Austin revels in a lively music scene and intellectualism found nowhere else in the state.

Regional differences are vast. The swampy, forested east is more like Louisiana than the pretty Hill Country or the agricultural plains of the Panhandle , and the tropical Gulf Coast has little in common with the mountainous deserts of the west. Changes in climate are equally dramatic: snow is common on the Panhandle, whereas the humidity of Houston, in particular, is only made bearable by nonstop high-power air conditioning.

One thing shared by the whole of

Texas is the constant boasting - everything has to be bigger and better than anywhere else. Such chauvinism is tempered both by a delight in self-parody and by the state's melting pot of cultures. The much-cited Texan friendliness is not imaginary; to be unwelcoming would simply be unpatriotic. Texas is, after all, named for a Native American word meaning friend, tejas , and a visit here, especially to the Panhandle or the Hill Country, is not for those who want to be alone.

Your Tips For Texas

• Alaska USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  No other region in North America possesses the mythical aura of ALASKA ; even the name - a derivation of Alayeska , an Athabascan word meaning "great land of the west" - fires the imagination. - USA
  

• Mid-Atlantic USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  The three Mid-Atlantic states - NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA and NEW JERSEY - stand at the heart of the most populated and industrialized corner of the US. - USA
  

• Rockies USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  Exploring the Rocky Mountain states of COLORADO, WYOMING, MONTANA and IDAHO could literally take forever. - USA
  

• Great Lakes USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  Swept by tumultuous storms and traversed by fleets of oceangoing tankers, the interconnected Great Lakes form the largest body of fresh water in the world; Lake Superior alone is more than three hundred miles from east to west. - USA
  

• New England USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  The six New England states of MASSACHUSETTS, RHODE ISLAND, CONNECTICUT, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT and MAINE like to view themselves as the repository of all that is intrinsically American. - USA
  

• Great Plains USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  THE GREAT PLAINS , stretching west of the Mississippi through OKLAHOMA, MISSOURI, KANSAS, IOWA, NEBRASKA and SOUTH and NORTH DAKOTA , are lumped together in the popular imagination as an unappealing expanse of unvarying flatness and conservative "Middle American" values, a huge national joke to be passed through as fast as possible. - USA
  

• Texas USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  Still cherishing the memory that it was from 1836 to 1845 an independent nation in its own right, TEXAS stands apart from the rest of the United States. - USA
  

• Capital Region USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  The city of WASHINGTON DC and the four states of VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND and DELAWARE constitute a cross-section of the nation. - USA
  

• South USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  As Mark Twain put it in 1882, "In the South, the [Civil] war is what AD is elsewhere; they date everything from it. - USA
  

• Louisiana USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  Swathed in the romance of pirates, voodoo and Mardi Gras, LOUISIANA is undeniably special. - USA
  

• California USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  Publicized and idealized all over the world, CALIFORNIA really does live up to the myth. - USA
  

• Florida USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  Brochure images of tanning flesh and Mickey Mouse give an inaccurate and incomplete picture of FLORIDA . - USA
  

• Southwest USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  The four sparsely populated Southwestern desert states of NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, UTAH and NEVADA are extraordinary, unforgettable and unique. - USA
  

• Hawaii USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  The islands of HAWAII , with their volcanoes , palm-fringed beaches , verdant valleys , glorious rainbows and awesome cliffs , hold some of the most spectacularly beautiful scenery on earth. - USA
  

• Pacific Northwest USA Travel Videos
  USA Travel Itinerary
  The Pacific Northwest states of WASHINGTON and OREGON , while similar in climate, topography and generally liberal politics, are quite different in their attitude toward expansion and progress. - USA