Finding unspoiled landscapes and getting away from the holiday crowds is easy - just head for Maine. The "Pine Tree State" is vast, as big as all of the other five New England states put together. It has mountains and valleys, lakes and rushing rivers guarded by those signature pine trees.

The stunning coastline is peppered with lighthouses, a Maine trademark. Here, the Atlantic surges past thousands of little islands to crash onto granite rocks and is often likened to the Atlantic coasts of Cornwall, Ireland or Scotland.