The twin-city Urbana-Champaign is a typical American town. Roughly a third of the 100,000 inhabitants are students. So you can imagine that this city depends heavily on the students and that nearly everything is student-orientated.

Urbana-Champaign as a city has not really much to offer - the only thing that is worth-mentioning is the University Campus and its facilities. For instance, if you are interested in culture, visit the Krannert Center for Performing Arts (the Krannert Center presents some 350 performances each year, including professional artists from all over the world, and University of Illinois productions; performances range from classical music, ballet, opera, and theater to jazz, folk, and world music, modern dance, contemporary theater, and family events), the Natural History Museum, the World Heritage museum, or the Krannert Art Museum.
There are also possibilities for sportsfans to satisfy their needs - just go to Assembly Hall and watch one of the uncountable events, there. The Assembly Hall hosts basketball games (watch the University Team - Fighting Illini - playing against another university team), ice shows, and wrestling tournaments, but also concerts, operas, ballets, symphony orchestras, among other events. You might also want to go to Memorial Stadium, home of the University's Football Team.
If you feel like getting active yourself and do something for your health, you just have to go to the IMPE (Intramural Physical Education Building). It provides facilities, equipment and programming for the leisure needs of University students, faculty, and staff. IMPE is the largest sports facility on campus with indoor and outdoor pools, tennis, racquetball, handball, squash, and basketball courts, a running track, locker and shower facilities, saunas, and much more.
If you like to do some other kind of physical exercise, visit the Illini Union. On the lower level, there a bowling lanes, a billiard room, video games, but also a food court and several dining areas.
You might also want to visit one of the 49 public parks and recreation centers Urbana and Champaign house. If you are thinking of a picnic, nature walk or even a class, check with the Champaign and Urbana Park Districts.
Watching a movie in Urbana-Champaign is also no problem - there are a whole bunch of cinemas scattered around and in the city (for example, the Co-Ed Theater, the New Art Theater (shows foreign films); there are also several other movie theaters in downtown Champaign, and in some of the major shopping centers). Furthermore, the University's IUB (Illinois Union Board) Program Office sponsors weekend movies in the Foellinger Auditorium Theater at the South End of the Quad.
Another alternative in the evenings are the various campus bars (for example, on Green Street or on Daniel Street). If you just like to have a yummy lunch or dinner, indulge yourself in one of the (international) restaurants, Urbana-Champaign has to offer.

To sum up, I would recommend you to stroll around the Campus area and explore its beauty - for example, the Quad, various parks, or all the great buildings.

While staying in Urbana-Champaign, you might listen to one of the various radio stations (e.g., Mix 94.5, 107.1 The Planet) or read some local newspapers (e.g., the News Gazette, Daily Illini).

Concerning shopping, Urbana-Champaign will definitely satisfy your needs - Market Place Mall (it's the area's largest shopping center, including various department stores), Wal-Mart, Super Kmart, Meijer, etc.

To reach all those mentioned destinations, you can use the local public transportation system (busses, cabs, ...) or your private means of transportation (car, bicycle, motorcycle).

So, if you ever visit Urbana-Champaign, enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of this nice student town. Some may consider Urbana-Champaign as a boring small town, where you don't have the possibilities/facilities as in a big city, like Chicago, for instance; however, on the other hand, Urbana-Champaign is sort of a familiar town - all I can say is that I liked this city very much, and I'm sure that I will return to it some time.

Before I start writing about Chicago, also known as "The Windy City", I'd like to mention that Chicago is my most favorite city in the whole world - its unique charm, the fabulous skyline of Downtown Chicago, great Navy Pier, breath-taking Michigan Avenue, the bustling Loop, fantastic views from Hancock and Sears Tower of the city, ... - I think I could go on forever like that. As you see, I'm very prepossessed when talking about this city. But believe me, Chicago is definitely a must-see city!!!

Chicago has overtaken the entire northeastern corner of Illinois, running north-south along 47 kilometers of the southwest Lake Michigan shore front. The city sits at the center of a web of interstates, rail lines, and air-plane routes; most cross-country traffic swings through the city.

Inhabited first by Native Americans and then by westbound settlers, Chicago was a burgeoning commercial center by the mid 1800s. With the growth of the railroad industry, the town became America's meat-packing hub, drawing millions of immigrants who acquired a few vast fortunes and countless broken dreams. Machine politics flourished, blurring any line between organized government and organized crime.

In October 1871, wide parts of the city were destroyed by the great fire. Nevertheless, 22 years later the city was able to host a remarkable World Fair.

During the time of Prohibition (1919 - 1933), the city was tyrannized by Gangs, often in cooperation with corrupt Police and administrative officers. The most famous racketeer was doubtlessly Al Capone. Also Jazz music experienced during the 1920s its flowering time in Chicago.

Today, Chicago is one of the most frequented metropolis of the western hemisphere.

Chicago's sights range from well-publicized museums to undiscovered back streets, from parks and beaches to towering skyscrapers. The tourist brochures, bus tours, and the downtown area reveal only a fraction of Chicago. As a famous art historian once said, "no one will learn the city of Chicago without using their feet". - I couldn't agree more!

In 1764, a French fur trapper named Pierre Laclède set up a trading post on the western bank of the Mississippi. A natural stopover, St. Louis, the "River City", gained prominence as the U.S. raced into the West ("Gateway to the West"). Today, St. Louis is one of America's largest inland trading ports.

There's a lot to do and see in St. Louis (Laclède's Landing, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Union Station, Busch Memorial Stadium, City Hall, St. Louis Cathedral, Missouri Botanical Garden, Anheuser-Busch Brewery, Old Courthouse, Old Cathedral, etc.) but the Gateway Arch - the nation's tallest monument (190 meters, that's twice the size of the Statue of Liberty) symbolizes the "Gateway to the West" - is probably the most eye-catching one.

Florida, the "Sunshine State", is one of the most important focuses of U.S. and international tourism. Long, white beaches and natural swamp areas, colorful coral reefs, huge entertainment parks, and the space center at Cape Canaveral make a Florida vacation a tremendous experience.

During Spring Break Oli and I made an one-week round-trip around Florida visiting various spots in the Sunshine State.
Fort Lauderdale, often dubbed the "Venice of America", with its total of 260 km artificial waterways lined with beautiful palms, its ten thousands of resident yacht bases, countless water sports, and with its 10 kilometers long dreamy beach attracts every year tourists from all over the world.
Long a popular setting for TV shows and movies (just remember "Miami Vice"!), Miami's Latin heart pulse to the beat of the largest Cuban population outside of Cuba. Many small communities distinguish Miami's residential areas: from little Havana, a well established Cuban Community, to Coconut Grove, an eclectic intellectual enclave turned stylized tourist Mecca. Nearly 8 million tourists populate the city every year - to experience this "Hollywood of the East Coast" in all of its star-studded, bikinied gusto.
The Keys (from the Spanish word cayo - reef, cliff) stretch some 320 sun drenched kilometers from Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas, encompassing innumerable islands, reefs, lakes, bays, and beaches. From the largest island, Key Largo, to the tip of Key West, they are linked by 43 bridges scattered along the 200 km Overseas Highway. As traveling along, one will come to appreciate the green and white mile marker telling how far one has come, and how much farther one has to go.
Key West has known the best of times. It was America's richest city per capita in 1889. It has also known the worst of times. It declared bankruptcy in the 1930s. Through it all, Key West has retained its status as one of the world's most intriguing cities. Key West's tantalizing temperatures once inspired such acclaimed writers as Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Frost.
Encompassing the entire tip of Florida and spearing into Florida Bay, Everglades National Park, the third largest national park after Yellowstone and Death Valley, spans 1.6 million acres of one of the world's most beautiful and fragile ecosystems. A host of species found nowhere else in the world inhabits the saw grass, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs: American alligators, dolphins, sea turtles, and various birds and fishes, as well as the endangered Florida panther, Florida manatee, and American crocodile.
Orlando, that's the center of the most visited regions in the world, around 10 million tourists flood the city every year. Disney World, Sea World, and Universal Studios are instrumental to this run.
Cape Canaveral is known for Kennedy Space Center, where all of NASA's shuttle flights take off.

As one of the United States's oldest cities, Boston has deep roots in early America and a host of memorials and monuments to prove it. Most of Boston's 18^th- and 19^th- century historic sites are connected by the Freedom Trail, which begins at Boston Common and ends at Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, taking the visitor through the varied neighborhoods that characterize the city.
However, Boston is not only a historic city but also a city with modern elements (like the John Hancock Observatory or the Prudential Tower), and the biggest college town (Cambridge, Harvard University, MIT) in the world.
Most of the sights are best to be explored by foot. Boston bills itself as "America's Walking City", and walking is by far the easiest way to get around.

Cape Cod was named in honor of all the codfish that the English navigator and Jamestown colonist Bartholomew Gosnold caught in the surrounding waters in 1602, when landed on this peninsula in southeastern Massachusetts.
This small strip of land supports a diverse set of landscapes - long, unbroken stretches of beach, salt marshes, hardwood forests, deep freshwater ponds carved by glaciers, and desert-like dunes sculpted by the wind.

Nowhere in the U.S. is the beat of urban life more hammering than in New York City. Crammed into tiny spaces, millions of people find themselves in constant confrontation. Perhaps because of this crush, the denizens of New York are some of the loudest, pushiest, and most neurotic in the world, although they may also be the most vibrant, energetic, and talented as well. Much that is unique, attractive, awe-inspiring, and repulsive about the Big Apple is a function of the city's scale - too big, too heterogeneous, too jumbled, and too exciting.
Anyone visiting New York City for the first time needs boundless energy and the stamina of a long-distance runner. Both large and small screen have provided powerful images of New York that make it seem reassuringly familiar. But only by being there can the visitor experience the unique vitality and legendary pace of "the city that never sleeps". There are a thousand things to do and see, with something to marvel at around every corner. The Statue of Liberty, the street vendors selling their hot dogs and salted pretzels, the canyons of skyscrapers, the swirling crowds of New Yorkers going about their business, all welcome the visitor to their city - called with affection and pride "The Big Apple".

William Penn founded the City of Brotherly Love with his band of Quakers in 1682, after it served as a colonial hub for 100 years. It was Ben Franklin who made this town, however; as Michelangelo is to Rome, so Franklin is to Philadelphia.
Before Philly lost U.S. Capital status to Washington, D.C., the First Continental Congress met here in 1774, at which Virginia delegate Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia - that's America's most treasured historic site, but Philadelphia is also famous for its soft pretzels and cheesesteaks. It as well offers world-class shopping experiences, and top restaurants.

Patapsco, the Indian name for Baltimore, may have meant "backwater", but Baltimore has earned its place in history; here, Francis Scott Key penned the national anthem and entrepreneurs constructed America's first umbrella factory.
The famous Inner Harbor is only one of the city's many treasures, one can also explore beyond its boundaries.

Washington - a "city of magnificent distances" - was designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant in 1791. He envisioned a 400 foot wide "Grand Avenue" (the Mall), with the Capitol on one end and an equestrian statue of George Washington on the other. The statue would be aligned on a north-south axis with the President's House (White House). A mile long commercial corridor (Pennsylvania Avenue) would connect the Capitol with the Executive Mansion. Avenues named for states traverse the city diagonally. Grand circles named for prominent Americans occur where an Avenue meets lettered and numbered streets..
Today, two discrete cities of Federal Washington and Local Washington coexist in the District. Federal Washington, the town of press conferences, power lunches, and Monica gossip, is what most visitors come to see. The other part of Washington, the so-called "second city", consists of a variety of communities, some prosperous, others overcome by drugs and crime. Some parts of the second city are remarkably cosmopolitan, but beyond the gleaming Northwest quadrant, in areas where few visitors venture, are communities of poverty and broken dreams.

Around 21 million people visit the capital of the US every year. Therefore, you have to plan your visit accurately - the three most visited attractions are the National Air & Space Museum, Union Station, and the National Museum of Natural History. However, don't assume that you need to follow the crowd - go at your own pace, see what you want to see, and if you don't get everything, come back for another visit :-)