America Hotels

Hotels in the Americas are often required for people who require short term accommodation in the region. The north, south and central American continents cover a massive region. Some there is massive variety of reasons why some would want to stay a hotel in the Americas. Some may live in one of the nations of the Americas and may want to stay at a hotel in one of the nations of the continent. Some may want to travel to one of the nations for a vacation, study, work, sports or a entertainment event. So they may require short term accommodation and a hotel can provide that. Some tourists may want to visit one of the major cities or the major landscapes that America has. Some may want to see the coast or the mountains or desert regions. Numerous tourists may want to see the architecture and historical landmarks. Many may want to see the rivers, and lakes, and seas of the region. Some may want go boating or sailing. Many want want to tour the different nations of the region. Some may want a large hotel or a small hotel. Some may want a hotel that has good views and good scenery. Some may want a hotel that has access to the the major tourist attractions. Some tourists may want a luxury hotel or a cheap hotel. Many will want a hotel that is large or small.

The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3 per cent of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area).. The Americas may instead be referred to as America however, America may be ambiguous, as it can refer either to the entire landmass or to the United States of America.

South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent Gondwanaland around 135 million years ago (Ma), forming its own continent. Starting around 15 Ma, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in a series of volcanoes along the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central America filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By 3 Ma, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.

Archaeological finds establish the widespread presence of the Clovis culture in North America and South America around 10,000 BCE. Whether this is the first migration of humans into North America and South America is disputed, with alternative theories holding that humans arrived in North America and South America as early as around 40,000 BCE.

The Inuit migrated into the Arctic section of North America in another wave of migration, arriving around 1000 CE. Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into North America, Viking settlers began arriving in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly thereafter. The Viking settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland by 1500.

Large-scale European colonization of the Americas began shortly after the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed most of the inhabitants of North America and South America, with a general population crash of Native Americans occurring in the mid-sixteenth century, often well ahead of European contact.

North America is the third largest continent with an estimated population of around 460 million, ca. 24,346,000 km² (9,400,000 square miles), (if Eurasia is excluded), and the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere.[1]. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and South America on the south, and the Arctic Ocean on the north. Canada covers most of the northern half of North America (much of which is sparsely populated). Alaska, the largest state of the U.S.A., occupies the northwestern part of the continent.

North America consists of all the mainland and related offshore islands lying north of the Colombia-Panama border according to most sources, or the Panama Canal according to a few. Anglo-America can describe Canada and the USA together, while the northern part of Latin America comprises Mexico, the countries of Central America, and the Caribbean. (For more, see Americas (terminology)).

Its natural features include the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains (the largest mountains in the east), the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi, Missouri, Rio Grande, and St Lawrence rivers.

Climate is mainly determined, to a large extent, by the latitude, ranging from Arctic cold in the north to tropical heat in the south. The western half of North America tends to have wilder and wetter climate than other areas with equivalent latitude, although there are steppes (known as "prairies") and deserts in the "United States Southwest" (Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas), along with the Mexico states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

The east coast of America resembles the opposite coasts on the other side of the Atlantic. The vast majority of North America is located on the North American Plate, with parts of California and western Mexico forming the partial edge of the Pacific Plate; the two plates meet along the San Andreas fault.

The continent can be divided into four great regions (and sub regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico and its long plateaus and cordilleras fall largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf.

The western mountains have split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the Coast Ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin (a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts) in between. The highest peak is Mount McKinley/Denali in Alaska.

Geographically, South America is generally considered a continent forming the southern portion of the American landmass, south and east of the Panama-Colombia border by most authorities, or south and east of the Panama Canal by some. On rare occasions, South and North America are considered a single continent or supercontinent, while constituent regions are infrequently considered subcontinents. Geopolitically and geographically, all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is generally considered a part of North America alone and among the countries of Central America.

South America became attached to North America only recently (geologically speaking) with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama some 3 million years ago, which resulted in the Great American Interchange. The Andes, likewise a comparatively young and seismically restless mountain range, run down the western edge of the continent; the land to the east of the Andes is largely tropical rain forest, the vast Amazon River basin. The continent also contains drier regions such as Patagonia and the extremely arid Atacama desert.

The South American continent also includes various islands, most of which belong to countries on the continent. The Caribbean territories are grouped with North America. The South American nations that border the Caribbean Sea – including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana – are also known as Caribbean South America.

The geographical structure of South America is deceptively simple for a continent-sized landmass. The continent's topography is often likened to a huge bowl owing to its flat interior almost ringed by high mountains. With the exception of narrow coastal plains on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, there are three main topographic features: the Andes, a central lowland, and the extensive Brazilian and Guiana Highlands in the east.

The Andes are a Cenozoic mountain range formed (and still forming) by the continuing collision of the American and Pacific tectonic plates. In their northern and central reaches the Andes are quite wide and contain extensive plateaux such as the Altiplano and a number of major valleys such as that of the Rio Magdalena. These contain three of the world highest capitals: Bogotá, Quito and highest of all, La Paz, Bolivia (SUCRE is the capital of Bolivia). The southern Andes have been eroded by the Patagonian Ice Sheet and are much lower and narrower. There are a number of large glaciers in the northern part, but from 19° to 27°S the climate is so arid that no permanent ice can form even on the highest peaks. Permafrost, however, is widespread in this section of the Altiplano and continuous above 5,600 metres (18,373 ft).

The climate of the coastal belt west of the Andes shows violent contrasts, including two of the world's wettest regions in the Colombian Chocó and southern Chile and the world's driest desert, the Atacama between around 5° and 30°S. This dry area is cooled by the Humboldt Current and upwelling, giving rise to the largest fisheries in the world. There are two small transition zones between the perhumid and perarid regions: around Guayaquil with summer rain, and the Mediterranean climate region of central Chile. Both these regions have highly erratic rainfall strongly influenced by El Niño events, which bring major floods. In contrast, the high plateaux of the Andes are drier than normal during El Niño episodes.

The very fertile soils from the erosion of the Andes formed the basis for the continent's only pre-Columbian civilization: that of the Inca Empire, and are still a major agricultural region. The Altiplano also contains many rare minerals such as copper, tin, mercury ore and, in the Atacama, nitrates. East of the Andes in Peru is what is regarded as the most important biodiversity hotspot in the world with its unique forests that form the western edge of the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest.

East of the Andes is a large lowland drained by a small number of rivers, including the two largest in the world by drainage area - the Amazon River and the more southerly Paraná River. The other major river of this central lowland is the Orinoco River, which has a natural channel linking it with the Amazon. Most of this central lowland is sparsely populated because the soils are heavily leached, but in the south is the very fertile pampas of Argentina - one of the world's major food-producing regions where wheat and beef cattle are pre-eminent. The natural vegetation of the northern lowlands are either savanna in the northern llanos and southern campos, or tropical rainforest throughout most of the Amazon basin. Efforts to develop agriculture, outside of fertile floodplains of rivers descending from the Andes, have been largely failures because of the soils. Cattle have long been raised in the llanos of northern Colombia and Venezuela, but petroleum is now the dominant industry in the northern lowlands, making Venezuela the richest country in the continent.

The eastern highlands are much older than the Andes, being pre-Cambrian in origin, but are still in places extremely spectacular and rugged, especially in the wet tepuis of Venezuela, Guyana and Roraima. The Amazon River has cut a large valley through a former highland, and to the east is a relatively low plateau comprising the Nordeste and Southeast regions of Brazil. In the north of this region is the arid sertão, a poor region consistently affected by extremely erratic rainfall, and the humid zona da mata, once home of the unique Atlantic Rainforest with many species not found in the Amazon, and now a centre for sugarcane. Further south, the main land use is coffee, whilst São Paolo is the economic heart of the continent with its industry.

South of about Santa Catarina, the highlands fade out to low plains in Uruguay.

East of the Andes in Argentina, there are a number of rugged, generally dry sierras, the highest of which is the Sierra de Cordoba near the city of that name. Argentine Patagonia is a Paleozoic plateau now heavily dissected by rivers flowing from the Andes.


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