Yosemite national park
EASTERN CALIFORNIA
Some 900,000 visitors flock to Yosemite National Park in an average July. By January, that figure has fallen to just 26,000, making winter a wonderful time to visit, not just for the lack of crowds but also for the added splendor that snow lends to the landscape and the ice-sharp clarity of the mountains on crisp, blue-skied days. Join rangers on guided snowshoe hikes, sit in a warm shuttle bus on a drive around the park, or just curl up in front of the fire at the Ahwahnee Hotel, a national historical landmark
NEPAL
The Annapurna Sanctuary is a magnificent mountain-ringed glacial basin situated above 13,000 feet (4,000 m) in the heart of the Himalaya. Sacred to the local Gurung people and unseen by outsiders until the 1950s, it has become a popular trekking destination, largely because it serves as the base camp for climbers tackling the peaks of the sur- rounding Annapurna range. But no technical skills are required for the multiday trek up to the camp, nor for the increasingly popular day hikes in and around the sanctuary.
Zanzibar
AFRICA
The gods have been kind to Zanzibar, an exotic archipelago of numerous tiny islands and two large ones—Pemba and Unguja— just of the East African coast. They have blessed it with a climate and soils that favor the growing of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper—which is why the islands are often known as the “Spice Islands.” On many places around the coast, they have been kinder still, creating long, palm-shaded beaches of powdery white sand, teeming coral reefs, and placid, warm turquoise seas.
Big Sur
COASTAL CALIFORNIA
No one seems quite to agree on its precise boundaries, but there’s no mistaking the wild grandeur of Big Sur, 90 miles (145 km) or so of precipitous central Californian coastline that combines a sublime maritime beauty— clifs that plunge straight into the ocean, Pacific sunsets, crescent beaches, hidden coves, dunes, and wave-lashed headlands— with breathtaking views and a habitat-rich hinterland of soaring redwood forest, rich riparian woodland, gentle pasture, mountain wilderness, and chaparral-covered hills.
Iguaçu falls
The great wall
CHINA
On its own, a wall would not be much to cele- brate—but a wall that measures over 5,000 miles (8,000 km) in length and marches majestically across mountains, plains, and valleys? China’s Great Wall is not one wall from one era, nor is it, strictly speaking, a continuous wall. Its earliest reaches probably date from the seventh century b.c. The majority of the present structure dates from the 14th-century Ming dynasty, compris- ing 3,889 miles (6,259 km) of wall, 223 miles (359 km) of trenches, and 1,387 miles (2,232 km) of natural barriers like rivers and mountains.
Some claim it was the source of the legend of Atlantis, while others say it caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete. What is sure is that the volcanic eruption at the heart of the Aegean 3,600 years ago, one of the most powerful in history, had the happy efect of creating the collapsed cal- dera that makes up Santorini. It is an island painted in vivid colors: the white of clif-top villages, the green of tiny vineyards, the black of ancient lava, and the encircling sapphire of a sparkling sea.
Reference:
- National Geographic Special - The World’s Most Beautiful Places
- Pic: National Geographic Kids
- Pic: Orbitz
- Pic: Switch Back Travel
- Pic: Much Better Adventures
- Pic: andbeyond
- Pic: lonelyplanet
- Pic: kqed
- Pic: misstourist
- Pic: localadventurer
- Pic: Wikipedia
- Pic: tripsavvy
- PIc: SBS TV
- Pic: Greek Reporter
- Pic: Visit Greece
- Pic: Trip Advisor