Tacoma

Tacoma needs 1 day: touring LeMay - America's Car Museum, the largest automobile museum in the United States with over 350 vehicles on display, and walking across the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a blown-glass walkway by the city-born artist, the same afternoon. June-September brings the clearest weather, with views of Mount Rainier on clear days. It's cheaper than Seattle, just 50 km to the north. Its port was key to trade with Asia from the late 19th century, and it still keeps the historic Union Station district -a former rail terminal converted into a federal courthouse, with a copper dome inspired by Les Invalides in Paris.