John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints


Other US Territories

The United States of America consists of the forty-eight contiguous states (the "lower 48") including the District of Columbia, plus the states of Alaska and Hawaii, and the following other territories. This list may not be complete.

American Samoa AS

American Samoa consists of a group of seven islands in the southern Pacific Ocean and is officially described as being an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Guam GU

Guam is an island in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. It is officially described as being an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Guam has its own design of vehicle licence plate, similar in generic design to that of American states. It has a white background with the wording "Hafa Adai" and "Guam U.S.A." in pale green, together with a solid silhouette of the island's map in the same colour. Delfina Quintanilla Anderson kindly emailed me to say that "Hafa Adai" means "Hello" in Guam.

Official tourism office:

Guam Visitors Bureau (checked Jan-99); tel (US) 1-800-US-3-GUAM (1-800-873-4826)

Commonwealth of Northern Marianas MP

The Mariana islands are in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Japan. The Northern Mariana Islands are a US Commonwealth. One source quotes the ZIP code for the Northern Marianas as being 96950.

Federated States of Micronesia FM

The Federated States of Micronesia consist of a number of islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It isn't too clear to me whether the Federated States of Micronesia are a separate country or part of the USA.

Palau

Palau consists of over two hundred islands in the Pacific Ocean. Palau was previously a United Nations trust territory administered by the United States but has been an independent country since 1994 and is therefore no longer part of the USA.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico PR

Puerto Rico consists of a large island and several nearby small islands situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is officially described as being a commonwealth of the United States. In December 1998 an initiative that would have begun the process of making Puerto Rico the United States' fifty-first state was defeated by voters on the island when it received only 46.5% support.

Puerto Rico has its own design of vehicle licence plate, similar in generic design to that of American states. It has a white background with the wording "Isla del Encanto" (Spanish for "Island of Charm") in black, plus a red coloured drawing of a castle wall and turret.

Puerto Rico Tourism Company tel (US) 1-800-223-6530 or 1-800-866-7827.

US Virgin Islands VI

The US Virgin Islands are a group of three larger islands and fifty very small islands in the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies, situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Whereas road traffic in Canada and all other parts of the USA drives on the righthand side of the road, I believe that in the US Virgin Islands road traffic drives on the left.

Official tourism office:

U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism (checked Jan-99); tel (US) 1-800-372-8784.

Two Geographical Curiosities

More trivia regarding US state and Canadian province borders can be found here.
Canals, Islands, Lakes, Rivers and Waterfalls

Pacific Northwest Geographical Features

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Most recently modified 21-Sep-03