ILLINOIS (USA)

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Chicago

The mid-Western American state of Illinois offers on one hand the giant, bustling city of Chicago, and on the other the experience of small-town America. Most of the state is covered in rich farmlands, dotted with agricultural communities and half a million acres of state parks. Tucked away in the rolling hills are some Amish communities carrying on their traditional rural way of life without modern conveniences.

The metropolis of Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan in the north is the focus for most visitors, with its amazing collection of museums and high class shopping areas. Travellers who venture downstate, however, can find plenty of diversions, particularly those interested in history or outdoor activities.

The state capital, Springfield, 200 miles (322km) south of Chicago, is a city with a small-town atmosphere, revelling in its fame as having being the home of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President, who practised law here and was laid to rest in the local Oak Ridge Cemetery after his assassination.

Visitors seeking life in the open air are drawn to the expanse of natural beauty in south Illinois where the Shawnee National Forest offers hiking, biking, camping, and fishing opportunities in serene woodlands.

Nearly everything in Illinois revolves around Chicago , the largest and most exciting of the Great Lakes cities. At the state's northeastern corner, on the shores of Lake Michigan , Chicago has a skyline to rival any city's, plus a gamut of top-rated museums, restaurants and cafés, and innumerable bars and nightclubs paying homage to the city's strong jazz and blues heritage. Seventy-five percent of the state's twelve million population live within commuting distance of Chicago's energetic center, which controls the bulk of the state economy - Illinois is the third largest agricultural producer in the US. The sole exception to the endless flat prairies elsewhere is far to the south, where the forested Shawnee Hills rise between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

The contrast between the quiet rural hinterlands and the buzzing urban center could hardly be greater. That said, Illinois does hold a few places to head for, though, apart from a couple of mildly exciting college towns, most are of historic rather than current interest. First explored and settled by the French, in 1763 the area that's now Illinois was sold to the English. Granted statehood in 1818, Illinois remained a distant frontier until the mid-1830s when, after a series of uprisings, the native Sauk were subjugated and settlers began to arrive in sizable numbers. Among these were the first followers of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, who established a large colony along the Mississippi at Nauvoo. The Mormons met with suspicion and persecution and, after Smith was murdered by a lynch mob in 1844, fled west to Utah.

Because Chicago is the site of O'Hare Airport (the world's busiest), as well as the hub of the national Amtrak train network, you're likely at least to pass through it. If you plan to spend time in the rest of Illinois, Amtrak, numerous commuter railroads and, to a lesser extent, Greyhound, make getting around on public transportation feasible, and cycling is generally easy on these endless flat plains.

Half a dozen interstates fan out across the country from Chicago. The famous Chicago-to-LA Route 66 has been defunct since the 1960s, though I-55 southwest to St Louis, followed by I-44 and I-40, follow its general route.