Iceland - it was like being on another planet. I’ve traveled quite a bit and I’ve never seen any other place quite like Iceland.
100%!! I went to Iceland this year and I constantly felt like I was traveling between alien worlds. I loved it.
The Scottish highlands are amazing in their rugged wildness.
Oia in Santorini is beautiful but full of people.
Gozo island off Malta has stunning blue seas.
Despite my grandparents being Maltese, I’ve never been lucky enough to visit. One day…
Its flipping lovely!
This is a tough, tough question.
I’ve been lucky enough to have traveled a little, so have seen a few beautiful places. I can’t choose between;
The Norwegian fjords - Sailed here while working aboard a cruise ship. You just can’t wrap your head around being on a boat and surrounded by actual mountains. We were there for the spring snow melt, so the waterfalls were astonishing.
Florence - Almost certainly the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. Full of tourists, yes, but the buildings themselves are bona fide works of art. Good gelato too.
The Grand Canyon - I feel almost obliged to list this because to see it with your own eyes is something else. We got there just in time for sunset, when everything turned the most vibrant shade of orange. Trouble is, I just couldn’t comprehend what I was looking at. Like, I knew it was the Grand Canyon, but it just so big that it may as well be an infinite view.
Palaiokastritsa (Corfu) - Corfu is a generally beautiful island, but Palaio has a monastery atop a steep hill that’s 100% worth the walk. You can sit there in the little cafe drinking an ice cold drink, just gazing out over the Ionian Sea, or you can turn around and look across the dramatic hills.
I’ve never had an experience quite like emerging out from between those sheer, blocky Florentine buildings onto the piazza and seeing the white-and-green face of the Cathedral. Genuinely staggering piece of architecture.
The Alps - driving up those alpine hairpins as a car nut fuses the amazing views with amazing roads, absolutely breathtaking
The West Coast of the US has some of the breathtaking places: Moro Rock, Mt Shasta, Sequoia National Park, Lassen National Park, just to name a few. If you ever visit the US, skip the fancy stuff and explore the nature!
Adding to the area:
Point Lobos.
For me it has to be the remote Patagonian Icecap, 3 days from any human habitation. Our tiny cluster of tents encircled by protective snow walls and just miles and miles of glacier stretching away west as far as the eye could see. Jagged mountain peaks to the north and south. I never once thought about the mortgage
Maybe Milford Sound, NZ. It’s all >500m cliffs with waterfalls on either side of glass smooth black water.
Milford Sound, if you are brave enough, check out the full 10k*4k version. There is a kayak on the bottom left for scale.
Almost ten years ago, I went to hike in the Alps with a friend. We came an evening at a refuge, and went a little further above to look at the view. I’ll always remember it. Right in front of us was the part we climbed with the small refuge, then the mountain still going down. Then the valley which we couldn’t see, and on the other side an enormous glacier, completely pink due to the sunset. This was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen
Ha Long Bay. I’ve never seen a landscape like that in my entire life.
Wailua Falls. The trail is definitely closed to the public, but there are a few spots at the top where the gates have been opened up and obviously used to hike down to the bottom. So that’s what we did and it was easily the most beautiful hike I have ever done. Also the sketchiest since it is super steep and covered in wet mud. But once you’re at the bottom, there is nothing more amazing than just staring at the water fall to the bottom and run through the rocks. Breathtaking is an understatement.
The Grand Canyon. Despite it being clichéd, the thing looks so incredible that it doesn’t even look real. I was like a kid in a candy store the first time I walked up to it.
Sunset looking out at the desert at Burning Man. Just the sun, the mountains, and the endless sky. Nothing like it.
Amalfi coast in Italy. No question. Pictures speak for themselves.
