North America has a different kind of castle story and it's more about star-shaped forts and stone walls built to guard harbors and trade routes than about medieval towers.
Some are old colonial forts on the coast, with cannons still pointing at the water. Others are mansions built a century ago to look like castles, or fortified towns with walls you can walk around. The continent is huge, with cold northern coasts, dry desert borderlands and warm tropical islands, so the feel of a visit changes a lot from one fort to the next and so does the size of the crowd.
The North American part of our list goes from harbor defenses to grand stone houses. Pick what fits your trip, since a short stop at one old fort can be as satisfying as a whole day at a bigger site and the continent has plenty of both.
