most tourists opt for the most well-known city, usually the largest city, +the country’s capital city, and usually the city that’s most crowded with tourists – and crowded with its native population, too! Those cities are usually the main focus of tourism in a country and too often – the only city visited in a country. For years, I’ve been recommending new great sites in familiar, heavily visited cities. Now I’m offering an alternative: visit the country’s usually less crowded second city and spend a few days there.

If you’ve already visited a city that’s a very popular tourist destination that you know very well, and you want a complete change, you can even skip the main city altogether and just visit a totally (new to you) city for totally new experiences in that country or state. Or do both as I’ve done, going on 15 years in this column; visit new sites and special new exhibits in that city you love and then continue your touring visiting another city – one that’s totally new to you – for great new sightseeing experiences in both.

How to define “Second Cities”
Second Cities are defined in many ways- in terms of population, culture (museums and theaters), nature (parks and zoos) and even food and wine. There’s also another topic that excites many travelers – re-living a country’s history through its historic sites – especially for cities that relate to American history such as London and even Paris. (Yes, I do a “Jefferson in Paris Tour” visiting Jefferson’s beloved Hotel de Salm directly across from the entrance of the Musee d’Orsay, which is also the Museum of the Legion of Honor and Jefferson’s model for the south facade of the White House.)

Before we travel around the world let’s look at us in the US. New York City almost has it all. It’s America’s first city in many ways – population, commerce, museums, theaters, music (classical, Broadway, to jazz) and parks and zoos. New York City is a world-class city that should not be missed. However, as New York City expanded, many of its historic sites became “history.” New York City is also a 24/7 “city that never sleeps” – unless you visit its cemeteries.

Pennsylvania’s “first” city, Philadelphia, can easily be visited as a “Second City” to a NYC visit – or as a great destination on its own. It’s the “Birthplace of America” with Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center (museum), and many more historical sites associated with the founding of America. And if the actual historic sites aren’t enough, there’s the new Museum of the American Revolution by Robert AM Stern, one of my professors at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture.

I love Philadelphia for yet another reason, it reminds me of Paris – which was deliberate city planning. Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway was inspired by the Champs Elysees and the square in front of the Free Library is a spellbinding copy of the Gabriel buildings, the backdrop of Paris’ Place de la Concorde. If you couldn’t get enough of Paris’ Rodin Museum, get down (up or across) to Philadelphia to visit America’s Rodin Museum. The great Philadelphia Museum of Art just doesn’t have great European paintings, it also has exhibits associated with culture in the other direction, Hollywood – The Rocky (Balboa) Statue and the wedding dress of “America’s Princess” – Grace Kelly.

America’s “Second City,” in terms of population is Los Angeles. Entertain this thought: Los Angeles’s culture is based on entertainment, which travels around the world on TV and movie screens. Since many people don’t want to drive on their vacation some might consider Los Angeles “The Pits,” In only one way LA is “The Pits.” It has a site that makes natural history museums, history. LA has the “La Brea Tar Pits” – a site in which animals, people and plants were swallowed up 10,000 years ago by the earth. And you can see them today in LA’s great George C. Page Museum.

If you want to gamble, you go to Las Vegas. If you want to see great architecture, go to the Gamble House (yes, that Gamble from Procter & Gamble) in elegant Pasadena just 10 miles and a world away from Los Angeles. The Gamble House defines the simple but elegant style, “Arts & Crafts” movement espoused by the great Frank Lloyd Wright. While NYC has America’s greatest museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (where I started as an intern in college) Pasadena probably has America’s greatest museums per population (NYC 8,300,000 versus Pasadena’s 122,000). The Norton Simon Museum is one of the world’s great small museums, on par with NYC’s Frick, London’s Wallace Collection and Paris’ great Jacquemart Andre.

Being a comedy professor and working in television, every time I’d visit LA I’d visit (not just pass) Pasadena to visit an exhibition at its fantastic Norton Simon Museum. (For comedy it’s Neil Simon, for art it’s the Norton Simon Museum.) If you love the Old Masters such as Raphael, Giorgione and Botticelli, you can’t miss the Norton Simon, which, despite its relatively small size, has three Rembrandts and a painting by Marie Antoinette’s favorite painter, Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. And one of my favorite artists, whose paintings duplicated the realism of photographs just as cameras were first coming on the scene. The great (and should be much better known) Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres.

Even though Pasadena is not in Los Angeles, my favorite hotel in Southern California, The Langham Huntington, an elegant early 20th-century deluxe European style hotel, is well known around the world. Not just for its luxury but as a double in many Hollywood movies and TV shows for well-known late 19th-century bastions of luxury that could not travel to Hollywood, If you plan on being in Pasadena January 1st – you’d better reserve a room there ASAP. While NYC has the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, Pasadena holds the annual New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade.

And if that’s not enough, hop on a bus for a 20-minute ride or take a 10-minute Uber to the Huntington Hartford Library, Art Museum and Botanic Gardens in nearby San Marino. Although both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson wrote their most famous manuscripts in Philadelphia, many of their most famous letters and papers are in the Huntington Library, including Jefferson’s architectural drawings for his magnificent home, Monticello. When it comes to paintings, two of the most famous paintings, not just in America, but in the world, which are instantly recognizable even to people who know nothing about art, are paired together in the same room at the Huntington Hartford Art Gallery –Gainsborough’s “The Blue Boy” and Thomas Lawrence’s “Pinkie” a young lady attired in a flowing pink late 18th-century dress. Unlike the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens or the Bronx Botanic Gardens, you can visit the Huntington Hartford’s Botanic Gardens to see flowers in bloom year-round – even in winter.

Nothing beats visiting the Japanese gardens at the Huntington Hartford – except visiting Japanese gardens in Japan, where I created and led tours for the AARP even before I was old enough to become a member, but they let me lead it anyway. While everyone should visit Tokyo, Japan’s “First City” – its capital and largest city – my favorite city in Japan, by far, is ancient Kyoto. Indeed, even if you have business solely in Tokyo, it’s worthwhile to spend a week in Kyoto for the beauty of its gardens and museums.

A new trend is emerging in American architecture – wood used in construction of skyscrapers. (A wooden skyscraper is even planned for Chicago.) Don’t knock wood, visit it. And the two places to visit it in Japan are the great cities of Kyoto and Nara, each with many UNESCO World Heritage sites – made of wood. On my second trip to Japan, I skipped Tokyo altogether and spent a wonderful week in Kyoto. My favorite site in Kyoto and all of Japan is Sanjusangen-do, which is Japan’s longest wooden building dating back to the 13th century. However, what makes it special is 1001 bronze life-size Kannon (statues). Imagine 1001 Rockettes lined up in rows at the Radio City Music Hall. (And that would mean after their performance they’d also be lined up at the bathrooms around the block.)

If you’ve been to Tokyo, and want to vacation in Japan, make Kyoto your “First City” and Nara – a “Second City.” Nara is between Kyoto and Osaka and has the world’s tallest wooden structure Todai-ji with a humongous Buddha awaiting inside. Todai-ji makes Sanjusangen-do look new. It dates from the eighth century. Many people spend just a few hours in Nara; it’s worth at least an overnight stay. So, bite the bullet (train) and spend at least a night at the perfect hotel, the Marriott Hotel Nara – with modern architecture that hints at the Ancient Japanese temple style – even with a similar overhanging roof.

I’ve also created and led press trips to China for CNTO (China National Tourist Office) and Starwood Hotels to both Beijing and Shanghai. Shanghai China’s “Second City” is a great city for great architecture, record-breaking high 21st -century skyscrapers and 20th-century Art Deco in and around the Bund. However, when visiting Shanghai, a must-see Second City is the “Venice of China” and “The Garden City of China” in one —Suzhou. Imagine if every building in Venice had a garden. It’s also the “Pisa of China” with a tower that leans like the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” and there’s even a relationship to Paris. The architect of the Louvre’s Pyramid, I.M. Pei comes from Suzhou. His ancestral home with garden is there as is the new sensational very-well visited Suzhou Museum, which Pei designed.

Since this column is about “Second Cities,” it becomes apropos to do a second “Second Cities” “Been there, HAVEN’T Done That” travel column taking us between the US and Asia – Europe, here I come (yet again)! So look for it in the next issue of JAX FAX.