Your "Most beautiful places"

[Huston55]

Aruba?? Beautiful place?? Don't ge me wrong, we love it and go to Aruba every year for 2 weeks, booking next year's vacation the minute we get back home! But beautiful... ... nah!

My list includes Bryce for beauty and Dazu (China) and the Egyptian pyramids for absolutely stunning.

+1

Aruba is a flat, unremarkable desert island with a couple of decent beaches, a resort or two, and a really good marketing campaign.

If it's beautiful Caribbean islands you want, St. Barts, St. Martin and Antigua are much, much better in every way.

 

[TrvlBug]

+1

Aruba is a flat, unremarkable desert island with a couple of decent beaches, a resort or two, and a really good marketing campaign.

If it's beautiful Caribbean islands you want, St. Barts, St. Martin and Antigua are much, much better in every way.

Yes and no. Aruba certainly doesn't have the physical beauty you would expect, however, it has another beauty for us and that is the ability to totally relax and de-stress and do some jewelry shopping . And if you have a chance to talk to many of the other visitors who go there year after year, Aruba is something special.

 

[anethum]

I'm just seeing this thread now, but I was very pleased to see Na Pali (Kauai) mentioned by several folks, including the OP. I've traveled a lot (about 35 countries, mostly by bicycle), visited all 50 states, most Canadian provinces, and Na Pali is near the top of the list for sheer beauty. I'm somewhat surprised it's "merely" a state park, as opposed to a national park.

I was also pleased to see Sigiriya (in Sri Lanka) mentioned. It's a unique and breathtaking sight, both from a distance as well as on top of the massive rock.

Other favorites of mine:

Redwood Nat. Park. Those of you who only know Muir Woods would be even more blown away by the much larger trees and much more extensive forest in the national park. Similarly the equally impressive redwood forest of Avenue of the Giants, which I believe is state parkland.

Other favorite National Parks: Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone, Olympic, Glacier, Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier, Yosemite

Lake & volcano region of south-central Chile. Hiking up Villarica volcano and looking into the caldera of the active volcano was amazing (and probably dangerous, in retrospect). Also the boat traversing magnificent Lake Todos los Santos, and biking near Osorno volcano.

the forests (both cloud & tropical lowland) of Costa Rica

Parts of the South Island of New Zealand, though the North Island is not too shabby either, and is very different.

Favorite cities in terms of beauty & aesthetics:
Paris
San Francisco
Penang (Malaysia)
Luang Prabang (Laos)
Oaxaca (Mexico)
Guanajuato (Mexico)
Venice (touristy but undeniably beautiful)
Prague

 

[Free To Canoe]

Just came back from Forillon National Park in Quebec and it will be going on my top 5 list. It astounding that 1000 foot cliffs go into the ocean on the East coast of North America.