Must-SeeWhere to Go in August
601 places at their best in August, plus 10 festivals and seasons worth timing a trip around.
Festivals and Seasons in August
Must-See
Worth a DetourBurning Man
A temporary city of art in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Tickets are hard to get, and you bring everything you need.
Worth a DetourEdinburgh Fringe
The world's largest arts festival, taking over the city each August.
Worth a DetourPalio di Siena
A wild bareback horse race around Siena's main square, every July and August.
If You're NearbySturgis Motorcycle Rally
Half a million bikers roar into a tiny Black Hills town every August, for the world's largest motorcycle rally.
At Their Best in August
Ranked by how worth the trip they are. Filter by kind of place, or switch between tiers.
Must-See
Must-SeeAngel Falls and Canaima
The world's highest waterfall, nearly 3,000 feet, falling from a tabletop mountain. Reached by plane and canoe.
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Must-See
Must-SeeBanff and Lake Louise
Canada's first national park, where turquoise glacial lakes sit below the Rockies. Lake Louise and Moraine Lake are the great views.
Must-See
Must-SeeBen Nevis and Glen Coe
Britain's highest peak above Fort William, near Scotland's most dramatic valley.
Must-SeeBerchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest
Königssee's fjord-like lake, and Hitler's mountaintop retreat.
Must-SeeBergen and Flåm Railway
Wooden Bryggen wharf, and the world's steepest standard-gauge train.
Bermuda's South Shore
Pink-sand coves and turquoise water, with the old British town of St. George's.
Must-See
Must-See
Must-SeeBorobudur and Yogyakarta
The world's largest Buddhist temple, with Prambanan's Hindu spires.
Must-SeeBwindi Impenetrable Forest
Trek to see endangered mountain gorillas, an unforgettable encounter. Permits are limited.
Must-SeeCapri and the Blue Grotto
A glamorous limestone island in the Bay of Naples, with its glowing sea cave.
Must-SeeChamonix and Mont Blanc
The birthplace of alpine sport, with a dizzying cable car up the Aiguille du Midi.
Must-SeeChicago
The birthplace of the skyscraper, on the shore of a lake the size of a sea.
Must-SeeCiudad Perdida
The Lost City: a four-day jungle trek to the terraces of the Tairona people.
Must-SeeCliffs of Moher and the Burren
Huge sea cliffs, and a strange limestone landscape.
Must-See
Must-SeeCrater Lake National Park
America's deepest lake, startlingly blue, in the caldera of a volcano that erupted 7,700 years ago.
Must-SeeCusco and the Sacred Valley
The old Inca capital, with colonial churches on Inca walls, Sacsayhuamán, and the terraces of Ollantaytambo and Pisac.
Must-SeeDenali National Park
North America's highest peak over six million acres of wilderness, with grizzlies, moose and caribou along the park road.
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Must-SeeEdinburgh
A castle on a volcanic rock, the Royal Mile and the world's largest arts festival.
Must-SeeElla and Nuwara Eliya
Tea hills and the Nine Arch Bridge, on one of the world's most beautiful train rides.
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Must-See
Must-SeeGardens by the Bay and Marina Bay
Glowing Supertrees and a cloud forest under glass.
Must-See
Must-SeeGlacier National Park
Jagged peaks and turquoise lakes along the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Must-SeeGobi Desert
Singing dunes, flaming cliffs full of dinosaur fossils, and two-humped camels.
Golden Circle and Reykjavík
Gullfoss, Geysir and Þingvellir, close to the world's northernmost capital.
Must-SeeGrand Teton National Park
Jagged peaks rising straight out of lakes and meadows, just south of Yellowstone and easy to pair with it.
Must-SeeGreat Barrier Reef
The world's largest coral system, reached from Cairns and the Whitsundays.
Must-See
Must-SeeGrindelwald and the Eiger
An Alpine village right under the Eiger's notorious north face.
Must-See
Must-See
Must-SeeIlulissat Icefjord
Giant icebergs calve from one of the world's fastest glaciers and float past a small town.
Inca Trail
Four days on stone paths, by cloud-forest ruins, ending at the Sun Gate. Permits sell out months ahead.
Must-SeeInside Passage
Alaska's great cruise route, past glaciers, whales and fjords and through old gold rush towns, from Vancouver or Seattle.
Interlaken and the Jungfrau
Waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen and Europe's highest railway station.
Must-See
Must-SeeIssyk-Kul and Karakol
A vast, high lake, with Karakol's trekking and Jeti-Ögüz's red rocks.
Must-SeeJasper and the Icefields Parkway
One of the world's great drives, 144 miles of glaciers and peaks between Lake Louise and Jasper.
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Must-See
Must-SeeKandy and the Hill Country
The Temple of the Tooth, and the Ella train through tea hills.
Must-SeeKashmir: Srinagar and Gulmarg
Houseboats on Dal Lake and Mughal gardens, with high-altitude skiing at Gulmarg.
Must-See
Must-SeeKenai Fjords National Park
Tidewater glaciers crash into the sea, watched by whales, puffins and sea lions, on boat tours from the little town of Seward.
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Must-See
Must-SeeKruger National Park
One of Africa's great parks, and easily self-drive, with luxury private reserves next door.
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Must-SeeLa Paz
A high city in a canyon, crossed by cable cars, with witches' markets and Death Road biking nearby.
Must-See
Must-See
Must-SeeLake Garda
Italy's largest lake, with Sirmione's castle and Malcesine's cable car up Monte Baldo.
Must-See
Must-SeeLake Titicaca
The world's highest navigable lake, with the floating reed islands of the Uros and Taquile's weavers.
Must-SeeLauterbrunnen and Mürren
A valley of 72 waterfalls, with a car-free cliff-top village above it.
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Must-See
Must-See
Must-SeeLoch Ness
Scotland's deep, dark, monster-haunted loch, with Urquhart Castle on its shore.
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Must-See
Must-SeeMaasai Mara
Big cats, and the wildebeest river crossings from about July to October.
Must-SeeMachu Picchu
The Inca citadel on a cloud-forest ridge, among the world's great sights. Timed tickets are limited.
Must-See
Must-SeeManaus and the Brazilian Amazon
Jungle lodges and river trips from a rubber-boom city with a famous opera house.
Must-See
Must-SeeMedellín
A city that remade itself, with its cable cars and the street art of Comuna 13.
Must-See
Must-SeeMontreal
French-speaking, bohemian and full of food, from bagels to smoked meat, with an old port and huge summer festivals.
Must-SeeMontserrat
A sawtooth mountain with a Benedictine monastery and its Black Madonna, near Barcelona.
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Must-SeeMount Fuji
Japan's perfect sacred cone, seen from Hakone and the Five Lakes, or climbed in summer.
Must-SeeMount Kilimanjaro
Africa's highest point, at 19,341 feet, a non-technical but tough climb.
Must-See
Must-SeeMount Rushmore
Four presidents carved into a granite mountain in South Dakota's Black Hills, with Badlands National Park nearby.
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Must-SeeNiagara Falls
Three waterfalls on the Canadian border; the boat into the spray of Horseshoe Falls is the one thing not to skip.
Must-SeeNiagara Falls, Ontario
The Canadian side gets the full-on view of the Horseshoe Falls.
Must-See
Must-SeeNorwegian Fjords
Geiranger and Nærøyfjord are among the world's great views, by boat or road.
Must-See
Must-SeeOlympic National Park
Three parks in one: glacier-capped mountains, the mossy Hoh Rain Forest and wild Pacific beaches with sea stacks.
Must-SeePantanal
The world's largest tropical wetland, and the best place to see jaguars.
Paramaribo
A wooden Dutch colonial center, where a mosque and a synagogue stand side by side.
Must-SeeQuebec City
North America's only walled city north of Mexico, with stone streets, a castle-like hotel and a real French feel.
Must-See
Must-SeeQuito
The best-preserved colonial center in Latin America, high in the Andes, close to the Equator line.
Must-SeeRedwood National and State Parks
The tallest trees on Earth, some over 370 feet, in misty groves along California's far north coast.
Must-SeeReykjavík
The world's northernmost capital, with Hallgrímskirkja, music and thermal pools.
Must-SeeRiga
The world's greatest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings, and a huge market.
Must-SeeRing of Kerry and Killarney
A classic coastal loop, by Killarney's lakes and the Dingle Peninsula.
Must-SeeSabah and Mount Kinabalu
Southeast Asia's great climb, with Sepilok's orangutans and Sipadan diving.
Salar de Uyuni
A blinding white salt flat, which turns into a giant mirror after rain, on a multi-day jeep tour to colored lagoons.
Salento and the Coffee Region
Green farms, Salento's colored houses, and the giant wax palms of Cocora Valley.
Must-SeeSan Sebastián and Bilbao
A perfect bay, with Europe's best pintxos bars, and the Guggenheim's titanium curves nearby.
Must-SeeScottish Highlands and Skye
Glencoe, Loch Ness and the wild Isle of Skye, on the North Coast 500.
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Must-See
Must-SeeSigiriya and the Cultural Triangle
A palace on a giant rock, with Dambulla's cave temple and Polonnaruwa's ruins.
Singapore
Gardens by the Bay's Supertrees, Marina Bay Sands, and UNESCO-listed hawker culture.
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Must-See
Must-SeeSouth Coast and Jökulsárlón
Skógafoss, black sand at Vík, and icebergs drifting to Diamond Beach.
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Must-See
Must-SeeSt. Pierre
French bakeries and euros, a short ferry from Canada, with a Prohibition-era past.
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Must-See
Must-SeeThe Cotswolds
Honey-stone villages, like Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water, in rolling countryside.
Must-SeeThe Dolomites
Pale, jagged peaks that glow at sunset, with superb hiking and skiing and a Tyrolean feel.
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Must-SeeTre Cime di Lavaredo
Three limestone towers, the emblem of the Dolomites, circled by a famous day walk.
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Must-See
Must-SeeUluru
A giant, sacred red rock in the desert, sacred to the Anangu people. Don't climb it; it's banned.
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Must-SeeVancouver
A glassy city between mountains and the sea, with Stanley Park, fine Asian food and skiing an hour away.
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Must-SeeVolcanoes National Park
Dian Fossey's mountain gorillas, on steep bamboo slopes. Permits are costly.
Must-See
Must-See
Must-See
Must-SeeYellowstone
Half the world's geysers, plus bison and wolves you can actually see.
Must-SeeYogyakarta and Prambanan
Java's cultural capital, with towering Hindu temples and Mount Merapi nearby.
Must-See
Must-SeeZermatt and the Matterhorn
The world's most famous peak, above a car-free village.
Worth a DetourAbisko and Kebnekaise
The King's Trail, Sweden's highest peak and some of Earth's best aurora skies.
Worth a DetourAcadia National Park
Granite coast, carriage roads and Cadillac Mountain on Maine's Mount Desert Island.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourAletsch Glacier
The Alps' longest glacier, in full view from Eggishorn and Bettmerhorn.
Worth a DetourAntelope Canyon
A narrow slot canyon of swirling, glowing sandstone near Page, Arizona. Entry is only with a Navajo-led tour.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourArequipa and Colca Canyon
A white-stone city under a volcano, near one of the world's deepest canyons and its soaring condors.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourAstoria and Cannon Beach
Oregon's northern coast, with the huge Haystack Rock, Lewis and Clark's winter camp, and The Goonies' town.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourBariloche and the Lake District
A Swiss-style town of chocolate shops on a big lake, with the Seven Lakes Road.
Worth a DetourBay of Fundy
The world's highest tides, rising as much as 50 feet, with Hopewell Rocks and whale watching.
Worth a DetourBlack Forest
Dark hills and cake, Baden-Baden's spas, and Freiburg.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourBoundary Waters Canoe Area
Over a million acres of lakes and forests with no roads, explored by canoe. America's most visited wilderness.
Worth a DetourBrittany and Saint-Malo
A walled corsair port, wild coasts, and Carnac's thousands of standing stones.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourCabot Trail
A coastal loop around Cape Breton Island, with Celtic music and fall color.
Worth a DetourCaño Cristales
The river of five colors, red with plants at its best from about July to November.
Worth a DetourCape Cod
Dune-backed Atlantic beaches, lighthouses and lobster rolls, the classic New England summer.
Worth a DetourCarlsbad Caverns National Park
A vast limestone Big Room, one of the largest in North America, reached by trail or elevator, and hundreds of thousands of bats at dusk.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourChoquequirao
Machu Picchu's sister, far larger and almost empty, reached only by a multi-day trek.
Worth a DetourChurchill
The polar bear capital of the world, reached by plane or train, with beluga whales in summer.
Worth a DetourCody and the Buffalo Bill Center
Buffalo Bill's town: five great museums under one roof, a nightly summer rodeo, and the eastern road to Yellowstone.
Worth a DetourColorado Springs
Red-rock towers at Garden of the Gods, a cog railway to the top of Pikes Peak, the Air Force Academy chapel and the US Olympic museum.
Worth a DetourCooperstown
The Baseball Hall of Fame, in a lovely lake village. A pilgrimage for any fan, and pleasant even if you're not one.
Worth a DetourCopacabana and Isla del Sol
The Bolivian side of Titicaca and the sacred island of the Inca.
Worth a DetourCornwall
Sandy coves and fishing villages, St. Ives and the Eden Project, with Tintagel's legends.
Worth a DetourCortina d'Ampezzo
The Dolomites' most glamorous resort, a Winter Olympics host in 1956 and 2026.
Worth a DetourCosta Brava and Dalí's Figueres
Rugged coves, medieval Girona, and Dalí's theater-museum.
Cotopaxi and the Avenue of Volcanoes
A perfect snow cone, and the crater lake of Quilotoa.
Worth a DetourCourmayeur and the Aosta Valley
Italy's side of Mont Blanc, with the Skyway cable car, castles and Roman Aosta.
Cuenca
A handsome colonial city of blue domes, near the Inca site of Ingapirca and El Cajas's lakes.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourDa Nang and the Golden Bridge
A walkway held by giant stone hands, in the hills above a beach city.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourDeath Road
A bike ride from high Andes to jungle on the world's most notorious road.
Worth a DetourDevils Tower
America's first national monument, a fluted rock tower sacred to the Lakota and other Plains tribes, ringed by an easy trail where prayer cloths hang in the pines.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourDoor County
Wisconsin's Cape Cod: a thin peninsula of cherry orchards, lighthouses, fish boils and small harbor towns.
Worth a DetourDuluth and the North Shore
A steep port city on Lake Superior, the start of a stunning road of waterfalls, lighthouses and agate beaches.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourFernando de Noronha
A protected island chain of spinner dolphins and Brazil's finest beaches. Visitor numbers are limited.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourFrench Pyrenees: Gavarnie and Pic du Midi
A vast glacial amphitheater, and an observatory on a peak with a cable car.
Galway and Connemara
A lively music town, wild bogs and the Aran Islands.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourGeneva, Lausanne and Montreux
Lake Geneva's Alps views, with the romantic Chillon Castle, and Lavaux vineyards.
Worth a DetourGlendalough and Wicklow Mountains
A monastic round tower in a lake valley, an hour from Dublin.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourGoing-to-the-Sun Road
An engineering marvel through Glacier National Park, climbing to 6,646-foot Logan Pass above waterfalls and hanging valleys.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourGros Morne and L'Anse aux Meadows
Newfoundland's fjords and bare mantle rock, and the only confirmed Viking settlement in North America.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourHuaraz and the Cordillera Blanca
The tropics' highest range, with the Santa Cruz Trek and the blue Laguna 69.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourIbiza
The world's clubbing capital, with quiet coves and a walled old town.
Worth a DetourIndiana Dunes National Park
Tall sand dunes and Lake Michigan beaches, with the Chicago skyline in the distance, an hour from the Loop by train.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourIquitos and the Peruvian Amazon
The largest city you can't reach by road, and the gateway to Amazon lodges and river trips.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourIsle Royale National Park
A wild island in Lake Superior with moose and wolves, reached only by boat or seaplane. One of the least visited parks.
Worth a DetourJackson Hole
A Western town of elk-antler arches, at the gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone, with some of America's steepest skiing.
Worth a DetourJacobite Steam Train and Glenfinnan
A steam train over the curving viaduct seen in the Harry Potter films.
Worth a DetourJotunheimen and Galdhøpiggen
The Home of the Giants, with Norway's highest peaks and the Besseggen ridge.
Worth a DetourJuneau
The only US state capital you can't reach by road, between mountains and the sea, with a glacier just out of town.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourKitzbühel
A medieval ski town, home of the Hahnenkamm, the world's most feared downhill race.
Worth a DetourKoh Samui and Koh Tao
Beach resorts, Koh Phangan's Full Moon Party, and cheap diving.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourLake Como
Grand villas and small ferries on a lake below the Alps, with Bellagio at its center.
Worth a DetourLake District
England's finest hills and lakes, the land of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.
Worth a DetourLake Maggiore and the Borromean Islands
Palace islands with terraced gardens, on an Alpine lake shared with Switzerland.
Worth a DetourLake Tahoe
A deep blue alpine lake ringed by peaks: beaches and hiking in summer, ski resorts in winter.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourLandmannalaugar
Rhyolite mountains in every color, with hot springs, on the Laugavegur trail.
Lençóis Maranhenses
White dunes with blue rainwater lagoons, from about June to September.
Worth a DetourLittle Bighorn Battlefield
Where Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors destroyed Custer's 7th Cavalry in 1876. It's a solemn place on the open plains.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourLoch Lomond and the Trossachs
Britain's largest lake, with Ben Lomond above it, close to Glasgow.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourMackinac Island
A car-free Victorian island in Lake Huron since 1898, with horse-drawn carriages, fudge and the Grand Hotel's 660-foot porch.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourManali and Spiti Valley
Himalayan adventure base at the start of the high road to Spiti's cliff monasteries.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourMauna Kea
Hawaiʻi's highest and most sacred mountain, a summit above the clouds with world-class observatories, unforgettable sunsets and some of the clearest night skies on Earth.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourMount Kailash and Manasarovar
The holiest mountain in four religions, circled on foot by pilgrims.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourMount Rainier National Park
A glacier-covered volcano with wildflower meadows in late summer, a day trip from Seattle.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourMount Shasta
A lone snow-capped volcano held sacred by local tribes and a magnet for seekers of every kind, with alpine lakes, wildflower meadows and the springs of the Sacramento River.
Worth a DetourMount St. Helens
The volcano that blew its top in 1980, killing 57 people, with a huge crater and a recovering blast zone to see close up.
Worth a DetourMount Titlis and Engelberg
A revolving cable car up to a glacier, above a monastery village.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourNagano, Hakuba and the Snow Monkeys
Macaques in hot springs, a 1998 Winter Olympics host, and big Alpine skiing.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourNanga Parbat and Fairy Meadows
A high pasture beneath the world's ninth-highest mountain.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourNewport
Gilded Age summer palaces of the Vanderbilts and Astors, a clifftop walk and a historic harbor full of yachts.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourPeak District
Britain's first national park, with Chatsworth House and stone villages.
Península Valdés
Southern right whales, elephant seals and penguins, and orcas that beach themselves for prey.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourPictured Rocks and the Upper Peninsula
Painted sandstone cliffs above Lake Superior's clear water, best from a boat or kayak, in Michigan's wild north.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourPortillo and Valle Nevado
Southern-summer skiing at South America's best-known Andes resorts.
Worth a DetourPortofino
A tiny, painted harbor on the Italian Riviera, beloved of the yachting set.
Worth a DetourPotosí
Once among the richest cities in the world, thanks to silver mined from the Cerro Rico. Mine tours are grim.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourRainbow Mountain
Mineral-striped slopes above 16,000 feet, a hard day trip from Cusco.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourRocky Mountain National Park
Trail Ridge Road climbs above the tree line to alpine tundra, two hours from Denver. Elk are everywhere in fall.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourSan Juan Islands
Green islands in the Salish Sea, reached by ferry, with orca whale watching, kayaking and small friendly towns.
Worth a DetourSäntis and Appenzell
Painted village houses and cheese, with the Aescher cliff inn nearby.
Sardinia
Some of the Mediterranean's clearest water, with the stone towers of the Nuragic people.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourSaxon Switzerland and the Bastei
Sandstone towers linked by a stone bridge, close to Dresden.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourSequoia and Kings Canyon
Groves of giant sequoias, including General Sherman, the largest tree on Earth by volume.
Worth a DetourSeven Rila Lakes
A chain of glacial lakes, with Rila's Musala, the Balkans' highest peak, nearby.
Worth a DetourSinaia and Peleș Castle
A royal mountain resort with a fairy-tale palace, below the Bucegi peaks.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourSkellig Michael
A monastery on a sea rock. Seen in Star Wars. Boats are few and booked early.
Worth a DetourSnæfellsnes and Kirkjufell
Iceland's most-photographed mountain and the Journey to the Center of the Earth glacier.
Worth a DetourSnowdonia and North Wales
Wales's highest mountains, with Conwy and Caernarfon castles.
Worth a DetourSnowy Mountains and Kosciuszko
Australia's highest peak, and its ski fields at Thredbo and Perisher.
Worth a DetourSpanish Pyrenees and Ordesa
Deep canyons beneath Monte Perdido, in Spain's oldest national park.
St. George's and the Royal Naval Dockyard
A 1612 English town and a huge old naval fortress.
Worth a DetourStromboli and the Aeolian Islands
Volcanic islands off Sicily. Watch Stromboli's eruptions at night from a boat.
Worth a DetourSucre
A dazzling white colonial capital, with dinosaur footprints on a quarry wall nearby.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourThe Eastern Sierra and Mount Whitney
Highway 395 along the Sierra's wall, past the highest peak in the lower 48, Mono Lake's towers and Mammoth Lakes.
Worth a DetourThe Finger Lakes
Long glacial lakes, gorges and waterfalls in upstate New York, with America's best Rieslings.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourTheodore Roosevelt National Park
Colorful North Dakota badlands where a grieving young Roosevelt ranched, with bison, wild horses and prairie dogs.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourTofino and Pacific Rim
Wild surf beaches and old-growth rainforest at the far end of Vancouver Island.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourToronto
Canada's biggest and most diverse city, with the CN Tower, great museums, and neighborhoods from around the world.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourTriglav
Slovenia's national symbol and highest peak, a climb every Slovene is said to make.
Worth a DetourTrollstigen and Åndalsnes
A road of hairpins up a wall of mountains, by the Romsdalseggen ridge.
Worth a Detour
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourVal Gardena and Seceda
Ladin villages under the jagged Seceda ridge, one of the Dolomites' great views.
Worth a DetourVictoria and Butchart Gardens
A tidy, flower-filled capital on Vancouver Island, famous for the Butchart Gardens and for whale watching.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourVoyageurs National Park
A water park on Minnesota's Canadian border, explored by boat, with houseboats, wolves and northern lights.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourWarner Bros. Studio Tour London
The sets, costumes and props of the Harry Potter films.
Worth a DetourWhistler
North America's largest ski resort, a scenic drive from Vancouver, with a mountain-to-mountain gondola.
Yasuní and the Ecuadorian Amazon
One of the most biodiverse places on Earth, with canoe trips and Indigenous-run lodges.
Worth a DetourYoho and Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls, just over the divide from Banff.
Worth a DetourZagori and Vikos Gorge
Stone villages and arched bridges, by one of the world's deepest gorges.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourZakynthos and Navagio Beach
The famous shipwreck cove below white cliffs, plus sea turtles.
Worth a DetourZell am See and Kaprun
A lakeside town under a glacier, with skiing almost all year.
Worth a DetourZipaquirá Salt Cathedral
A cathedral carved in a salt mine, 200 meters underground, near Bogotá.
Worth a Detour
If You're NearbyAlgonquin Park
Canoe country in the Ontario woods, with moose and wolf howls.
If You're NearbyAlpe d'Huez
The Tour de France's most famous climb, with 21 hairpins, above a sunny ski town.
If You're Nearby
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyAmerican Samoa
The only US national park south of the Equator: rainforest cliffs and coral reefs, in a living Samoan culture.
If You're NearbyAnchorage
Alaska's biggest city, with mountains at the edge of town and roads and rails to Denali and the Kenai Fjords.
If You're NearbyApostle Islands
21 islands in Lake Superior, with sandstone sea caves and old lighthouses, off the pretty harbor town of Bayfield.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyAtlantic City and the Jersey Shore
America's first boardwalk, casinos and saltwater taffy, on the long sandy Jersey Shore.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyBahá'í House of Worship
A lace-like white dome on the shore of Lake Michigan, the oldest surviving Bahá'í House of Worship in the world and open to people of every faith, north of Chicago.
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If You're NearbyBear Butte
A lone mountain on the edge of the Black Hills, sacred to the Lakota and Cheyenne, where the summit trail passes prayer cloths left by those who come to fast and pray.
If You're NearbyBeartooth Highway
A 68-mile road climbing to nearly 11,000 feet between Montana and Yellowstone, called the most beautiful drive in America by Charles Kuralt.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyBend
A sunny high-desert town with many breweries, skiing on Mt. Bachelor and volcanic lava fields, at the edge of the Cascades.
If You're NearbyBethel Woods (Woodstock)
The field in the Catskills where the 1969 Woodstock festival took place, with a museum of the festival and the 1960s, about two hours from New York City.
If You're NearbyBlock Island
A small island of stone walls, bluffs and Victorian hotels, a world away from Rhode Island's mainland.
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If You're NearbyBozeman and Big Sky
Montana's boom town: dinosaurs at the Museum of the Rockies, Big Sky's ski slopes and the gateway to Yellowstone.
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If You're NearbyBrasília
A planned 1960 capital shaped like an airplane, with Oscar Niemeyer's modernist buildings.
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If You're NearbyBuffalo
Half an hour from Niagara Falls, with Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House and the original Buffalo wings.
If You're NearbyBurlington and Lake Champlain
Vermont's small lakeside city: a walkable street, a bike path on the water, and Ben & Jerry's and the Shelburne Museum nearby.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyByodo-In Temple
A replica of a thousand-year-old temple in Japan, set against the green cliffs of the Koʻolau Mountains on Oʻahu, with koi ponds and a peace bell to ring.
If You're NearbyChapada Diamantina
Tabletop mountains, caves with blue water, and Fumaça Falls.
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If You're NearbyChimney Rock
Twin rock spires above an Ancestral Puebloan great house in southwest Colorado, where the moon rises between the pinnacles every 18.6 years.
If You're NearbyCleveland
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Lake Erie and a top art museum that's free to enter.
If You're NearbyCocos Island
A remote, liveaboard-only island famous for schools of hammerhead sharks.
If You're NearbyCoeur d'Alene
A lakefront resort town in the Idaho Panhandle, with a floating golf green and a 25-mile lake.
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If You're NearbyDavos and Klosters
Europe's highest city, known for skiing and the World Economic Forum.
If You're NearbyDeadwood
An 1876 gold rush town, where Wild Bill Hickok was shot at the poker table holding aces and eights, in the Black Hills.
If You're NearbyDenver
The Mile High City and gateway to the Rockies, with Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the foothills.
If You're NearbyDetroit
Motown, a revived downtown and the Henry Ford museum of American innovation in nearby Dearborn.
If You're NearbyDrumheller and the Dinosaur Badlands
A great dinosaur museum and a hoodoo-filled badlands, with Dinosaur Provincial Park nearby.
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If You're NearbyFort Ticonderoga
A star-shaped stone fort on Lake Champlain, taken by Ethan Allen in 1775, whose cannons freed Boston.
If You're NearbyGarmisch and the Zugspitze
Germany's highest peak, reached by cogwheel train and cable car.
If You're NearbyGates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley
America's two most remote national parks, far above the Arctic Circle, with no roads, no trails and migrating caribou.
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If You're NearbyGran Sasso and Abruzzo
The Apennines' highest peak, above the vast Campo Imperatore plateau.
If You're NearbyGreat Basin National Park
A remote park with a glacier-carved 13,000-foot peak, ancient bristlecone pines, marble caves and very dark skies.
If You're NearbyGuatapé
A candy-colored town, and a giant rock with 740 steps, on a day trip from Medellín.
If You're NearbyHalifax and Peggy's Cove
A salty Atlantic port with a star-shaped fort, the Titanic's graves, and a famous nearby lighthouse.
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If You're NearbyHoge Veluwe and Kröller-Müller
A forest park you cross by white bicycle, leading to Van Gogh paintings.
If You're NearbyHomer
The end of the road on the Kenai Peninsula, with a 4-mile spit, halibut fishing and fly-in bear viewing.
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If You're NearbyIron Gates and Đerdap
The Danube's great gorge, with Lepenski Vir's prehistoric village.
If You're NearbyIsle of Wight
England's holiday island, with the Needles and Queen Victoria's Osborne House.
If You're NearbyJericoacoara
A sandy-street beach village among the dunes, famous for kitesurfing.
If You're NearbyJesuit Missions of Chiquitos
Painted wooden mission churches in the lowlands, with baroque music still performed.
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If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyJostedal and Briksdal Glaciers
Mainland Europe's largest glacier, with blue arms reaching valley floors.
If You're NearbyJurassic Coast
Durdle Door, and 185 million years of cliffs, with fossil-hunting on the beach.
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If You're NearbyKatahdin and Baxter State Park
Maine's highest peak, the northern end of the Appalachian Trail, in a huge roadless wilderness.
If You're Nearby
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyKirtland Temple
The first temple of the Latter Day Saint movement, dedicated in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, east of Cleveland, and now shown on guided tours.
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If You're NearbyKuelap
The walled mountaintop city of the Chachapoya, reached by cable car, near the tall Gocta Falls.
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If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyLake Clark National Park
Bears on the beach, two volcanoes and turquoise lakes, a short bush-plane flight from Anchorage.
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If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyLake Placid
The village that twice hosted the Winter Olympics, and the 'Miracle on Ice', in New York's vast Adirondack Mountains.
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If You're NearbyLassen Volcanic National Park
A little Yellowstone in Northern California, with steaming vents, mud pots and all four kinds of volcano.
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If You're NearbyMadidi and Rurrenabaque
Community-run Amazon lodges in one of the world's most diverse parks.
If You're NearbyMadison
A lively college and capital city on an isthmus between lakes, with a great farmers market, cheese and Frank Lloyd Wright's home nearby.
If You're NearbyManu National Park
One of the most biodiverse places on Earth, from cloud forest down to the jungle.
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If You're NearbyMilwaukee
Breweries on Lake Michigan, the Harley-Davidson Museum and a winged art museum by Calatrava.
If You're NearbyMinneapolis
A city of lakes on the Mississippi, the Walker Art Center, and the Mall of America next door.
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If You're NearbyNantucket and Martha's Vineyard
Two summer islands off Cape Cod: cobblestones and gray-shingled whaling houses on Nantucket, and gingerbread cottages on the Vineyard.
If You're NearbyNew Vrindaban and the Palace of Gold
A Hare Krishna community in the hills of West Virginia, home to the ornate Palace of Gold and its rose gardens, built by hand by devotees in the 1970s.
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If You're NearbyNorth Cascades National Park
'The American Alps': jagged peaks, over 300 glaciers and the startling turquoise of Diablo Lake, along a spectacular summer highway.
If You're NearbyOcean City
Maryland's classic beach town, with a three-mile boardwalk, crab feasts and Assateague's wild ponies next door.
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If You're NearbyOttawa
Canada's capital, with a Gothic Parliament and great national museums, and the Rideau Canal, which turns into a skating rink.
If You're NearbyOuter Hebrides
White sand beaches and the Callanish Stones, at Scotland's Atlantic edge.
If You're NearbyPaklenica and Velebit
Canyons and Croatia's biggest mountain range, above the Adriatic.
If You're NearbyPark City
A silver-mining town turned ski resort, long home of the Sundance Film Festival, with North America's largest ski area, 35 minutes from Salt Lake City.
If You're Nearby
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyPicos de Europa
Limestone peaks close to the sea in green northern Spain.
If You're NearbyPortland
Food carts, Powell's City of Books and rose gardens, with the Columbia River Gorge an hour away.
If You're NearbyPortland
A small port with one of America's best food scenes per capita, cobbled Old Port streets and the most photographed lighthouse in Maine.
Prince Edward Island
Red-sand beaches and farms, home of Anne of Green Gables and of lobster suppers.
If You're NearbyProvidence
A compact college city with a strong food scene and summer WaterFire bonfires on its rivers, near Newport's mansions.
If You're NearbyPuy de Dôme and the Auvergne Volcanoes
A chain of extinct volcanoes in central France, climbed by rack railway.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyRehoboth and Delaware's Beaches
The "nation's summer capital" beach towns: Rehoboth's boardwalk, historic Lewes, and tax-free shopping.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyRoskilde and Viking Ships
A fine museum of real Viking longships, with a royal cathedral.
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If You're NearbySalt Lake City
Temple Square, ski resorts within an hour and the gateway to Utah's national parks.
If You're NearbySan Agustín
Mysterious statues over 1,000 years old, with Tierradentro's tombs nearby.
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If You're NearbySaratoga National Historical Park
The 1777 American victory that brought France into the war, often called the Revolution's turning point.
If You're NearbyScotts Bluff, Chimney Rock and Carhenge
The great landmarks of the Oregon Trail, and a Stonehenge built of old cars, on the Nebraska High Plains.
If You're Nearby
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyShrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
A hilltop Catholic shrine above La Crosse, Wisconsin, with a stone church, a rosary walk, Stations of the Cross and a candle chapel on 100 wooded acres.
If You're NearbySitka
The old capital of Russian America, with onion domes, Tlingit totems and bears in a rescue center.
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If You're Nearby
If You're NearbySleeping Bear Dunes
Towering sand dunes 450 feet above Lake Michigan's clear blue water, among Michigan's lovely wine-country towns.
If You're NearbySochi and Krasnaya Polyana
A Black Sea resort, and the mountains of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
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If You're Nearby
If You're NearbySun Valley and the Sawtooths
America's first destination ski resort, where Hemingway lived, and the wild Sawtooth Range nearby.
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If You're NearbyThe Berkshires
Massachusetts's green western hills, with Norman Rockwell, Tanglewood, MASS MoCA and Edith Wharton's house.
If You're NearbyThe Hamptons and Montauk
Long Island's wealthy beach towns, with white sand and mansions, ending at Montauk's old lighthouse.
If You're NearbyThe Palouse
Rolling wheat hills that glow green and gold in late spring and summer, a favorite of landscape photographers.
If You're NearbyThe Thousand Islands
Nearly 2,000 islands in the St. Lawrence River, with a heartbreaking castle and the namesake salad dressing.
If You're NearbyThe Yukon and Dawson City
A preserved Klondike gold-rush town, under the midnight sun or the northern lights.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyTouro Synagogue
The oldest synagogue building in the United States, dedicated in 1763 in Newport, and the congregation to which George Washington wrote his famous letter on religious freedom.
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If You're NearbyValdez
A fishing port in a ring of snowy mountains, with a stunning road in, and Columbia Glacier's great ice cruises.
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If You're Nearby
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If You're NearbyWind Cave and Jewel Cave
Two of the world's longest caves under the Black Hills, with bison on the prairie overhead.
Wisconsin Dells
The 'Waterpark Capital of the World', a giant family resort town set among sculpted sandstone cliffs on the Wisconsin River.
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park
America's largest national park, bigger than Switzerland, with an abandoned copper-mining town you can tour, and huge glaciers.
If You're NearbyYorkshire Dales and Moors
Stone walls, waterfalls and heather, with the Brontës' Haworth nearby.
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