North America

North America has 23 sovereign states, and Greenland belongs to it geographically. The Rocky Mountains form the western spine, continuing south as the Sierra Madre ranges of Mexico, while the Appalachians rise in the east and the Great Plains fill the interior. The Mississippi–Missouri system drains much of the United States, and the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River link the Canada–US border country to the Atlantic. Coasts meet the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Subregions are usually taken as Canada and the United States, Mexico, Central America (Belize to Panama) and the Caribbean, an island arc running from the Bahamas and Cuba down to Trinidad and Tobago. Scale is the main planning issue: Canada and the United States are among the largest countries in the world, so a coast-to-coast trip crosses several time zones, while the Caribbean is split into many separate island jurisdictions.

Most pre-colonial sites you can visit sit in Mexico and Central America. Chichen Itza in Yucatán, Mexico, is a Maya city dominated by the Temple of Kukulcán and was inscribed by UNESCO in 1988. Palenque in Chiapas and Teotihuacan, north-east of Mexico City, are also in Mexico; Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras are further Maya cities. In Mexico City, the Templo Mayor marks the centre of Aztec Tenochtitlan beside the Zócalo. In the United States, Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Illinois, is a World Heritage Site with Monks Mound, and Mesa Verde in Colorado preserves Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. Colonial history appears in Old Québec (Canada), the colonial zone of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and Old Havana (Cuba). L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, records Norse presence. Independence Hall in Philadelphia, United States, ties to 1776, and Haiti's Citadelle Laferrière to the revolution that ended in 1804.

Long-haul traffic funnels through Toronto Pearson (YYZ), New York JFK, Atlanta (ATL), Miami (MIA), Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW), Vancouver (YVR), Mexico City (MEX), Cancún (CUN) and Panama City's Tocumen (PTY), where Copa Airlines connects Central America and the Caribbean. Between countries, flying is the default: Volaris and Viva Aerobus link Mexico with the United States, and WestJet and Flair cover Canada. Overland, the US–Canada–Mexico borders are crossed by road and coach, and the Pan-American Highway runs through Central America to Panama. Coach lines such as Tica Bus run across Central American borders. Amtrak and VIA Rail operate the main intercity passenger trains in the north, though the network is thin compared with Europe. Ferries serve Playa del Carmen–Cozumel, the British Columbia coast and many Caribbean island pairs. Distances make flying necessary for coast-to-coast journeys, for Alaska and the Canadian north, and for most island hopping in the Caribbean.

Seasons differ sharply by latitude. Canada and the northern United States have cold winters, with daytime highs around or below 0°C from December to February, and mild summers from June to August at roughly 20–28°C. The US Southwest is very hot in July and August, often above 38°C, so spring and autumn suit it better. Mexico City and the Central American highlands are cooler, around 20–25°C by day, with a dry season from November to April and rain from May to October. Coastal Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean are warm all year at about 26–32°C; the Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November and peaks from August to October. Holiday peaks include Christmas and New Year, US spring break in March, Semana Santa in March or April, Canadian and US summer holidays in July and August, and Día de Muertos on 1–2 November in Mexico.

Currencies are national in the three large countries, but the Eastern Caribbean dollar is shared by several Lesser Antilles states, and El Salvador and Panama use the US dollar in daily life. Plugs in the US, Canada, Mexico and most of Central America are types A and B at about 120 V. English is enough across most of Canada and the United States, Spanish is essential in Mexico and Central America, and French matters in Québec and Haiti. Traffic drives on the right in the three large countries, Central America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, but on the left in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.

• Greenland, the world's largest island, is geographically part of North America.
• Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.
• Cahokia's Monks Mound is the largest prehistoric earthwork in the Americas.
• Mexico City stands on the site of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.
• The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across Panama.