German Christmas Markets
Mulled wine and carved toys, from late November.
485 places at their best in December, plus 3 festivals and seasons worth timing a trip around.
Mulled wine and carved toys, from late November.
Worth a DetourThe ball drop at midnight. Crowds wait in pens for hours with no bathrooms, so many people watch from a party nearby.
If You're NearbyRanked by how worth the trip they are. Filter by kind of place, or switch between tiers.
Must-SeeRamesses II's colossal rock temples, moved piece by piece to escape a rising lake.
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Must-SeeSwim and climb into a Maya sacrificial cave, with crystal skeletons. By guided tour only.
Must-SeeRock-cut temples and Buddhist paintings, with the monumental Kailasa Temple.
Must-SeeLaid-back reef islands with Hol Chan's sharks and rays, on golf carts.
Must-SeeThe world's largest religious monument, with faces of Bayon and jungle-clad Ta Prohm.
Shoal Bay and Rendezvous Bay have powder sand and calm water, and a quiet, upscale scene.
Must-SeeIcebergs and penguin colonies, on the classic expedition from Ushuaia.
Must-SeeA ruin-studded colonial town between three volcanoes. Holy Week here is famous.
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Must-SeeA perfect volcano cone above hot springs, a waterfall and a lake.
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Must-SeeThe Western Hemisphere's largest barrier reef, and a famous deep blue sinkhole.
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Must-SeeAmerica's largest private home, George Vanderbilt's 250-room French-style chateau in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Asheville.
Must-SeeA historic port, with the Nidhe Israel Synagogue, and George Washington's only foreign house stay.
Must-SeeA huge British fortress called the Gibraltar of the West Indies.
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Must-SeeIslamic Cairo's mosques, Khan el-Khalili bazaar, and the Grand Egyptian Museum's Tutankhamun treasures.
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Must-SeeA walled Spanish city of bougainvillea balconies on the Caribbean, with Rosario Islands offshore.
Must-SeeA moated old town of temples, with ethical elephant sanctuaries and Yi Peng lanterns.
Must-SeeThe great Maya city and its stepped pyramid, El Castillo, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
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Must-SeeA huge mountaintop fortress built by formerly enslaved people after the Haitian Revolution, among the Americas' great monuments.
The Lost City: a four-day jungle trek to the terraces of the Tairona people.
Must-SeeA cobbled Portuguese-Spanish colonial town, a short ferry from Buenos Aires.
Must-SeeThe Maya world's finest sculpture, with a hieroglyphic stairway and scarlet macaws.
Must-SeeAmong the most biodiverse places on Earth, where guides are required.
Must-SeeTasmania's emblem, above Dove Lake, at the start of the Overland Track.
Must-SeeOne of the hottest places on Earth, with bright sulfur springs and a lava lake.
Humayun's Tomb, Qutb Minar, the Red Fort and Old Delhi's chaotic food streets.
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Must-SeeThe giant stone moai of Rapa Nui, on one of the most remote islands on Earth.
Must-SeeArgentina's trekking capital, under the sharp granite spires of Mount Fitz Roy.
Must-SeeWorld-class waves on the Pacific coast, known as Surf City.
Must-SeeThe only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest System, an hour from San Juan, with waterfalls and tree frogs.
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Must-SeeA big king penguin colony at Volunteer Point, with albatross on Saunders Island.
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Must-SeeDarwin's islands, with giant tortoises, marine iguanas and fearless sea lions. Live-aboard or island-hop.
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Must-SeeSikhism's shining holiest shrine, feeding 100,000 people a day for free.
Must-SeeA memorial to the Atlantic slave trade, off a lively capital.
Regularly called one of the world's finest beaches, with soft sand and clear water.
Must-SeeA colorful Spanish colonial city on a huge lake, with hundreds of tiny islets.
A long beach, near the world's first underwater sculpture park.
Must-SeeA strip of restaurants and barbecue stands called lolos, and a great sweep of beach.
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Must-SeeA famous pink-sand beach, with pastel cottages and golf carts.
Must-SeeCrumbling colonial squares, the seaside Malecón, classic cars and live music day and night.
The Star Ferry, Victoria Peak's view, and dim sum, with Lantau's Big Buddha.
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Must-SeeQuiet houseboats through palm-lined canals, with Munnar's tea hills nearby.
Must-SeeThe funky end of the road, closer to Havana than Miami, with Hemingway's house and its six-toed cats, and the nightly sunset party at Mallory Square.
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Must-SeeGlass igloos, reindeer, huskies and the official home of Santa.
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Must-SeeTutankhamun's tomb, Karnak's giant columns and Hatshepsut's temple.
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Must-SeeJets pass just above the sand on their way to land. It can be dangerous behind the jets.
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Must-SeeA city that remade itself, with its cable cars and the street art of Comuna 13.
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Must-SeeTurquoise water, pastel Art Deco hotels and Cuban coffee, with the Everglades an hour away.
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Must-SeeHanging bridges through misty forest, with quetzals and zip lines.
Must-SeeA relaxed capital, with a long seaside promenade and steak in the Mercado del Puerto.
Must-SeeA hard hike to the world's second-largest hot spring, through rainforest.
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Must-SeeThe flat-topped mountain that inspired The Lost World, on a multi-day trek.
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Must-SeeA restored Georgian naval dockyard that's still working. See the sunset from Shirley Heights.
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Must-SeeMexico's food capital, with mole and mezcal, a beautiful colonial center, and the Zapotec hilltop city of Monte Albán.
Must-SeeClimb a terraced waterfall that runs right into the sea, and visit Nine Mile, Bob Marley's birthplace.
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Must-SeeAn exquisite Maya city in the jungle, where the tomb of the king Pakal was found.
Must-SeeSee huge ships locked through at Miraflores, or take a transit yourself.
Must-SeeA restored colonial quarter facing a skyline of glass towers.
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Must-SeeA wall of ice that cracks and crashes into a lake near El Calafate. Walkways bring you close.
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Must-SeeThe last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, with the Sphinx, on Cairo's edge.
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Must-SeeNorth America's only walled city north of Mexico, with stone streets, a castle-like hotel and a real French feel.
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Must-SeeReef diving, among the Caribbean's cheapest, on the Mesoamerican Reef. Utila has whale sharks.
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Must-SeeIsland-hop by charter boat among 60 islands, with Foxy's bar on Jost Van Dyke.
Must-SeeGreen farms, Salento's colored houses, and the giant wax palms of Cocora Valley.
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Must-SeeA 500-year-old walled city of blue cobblestones and huge Spanish forts, with big Atlantic beaches and great nightlife.
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Must-SeeThe first European city in the New World, with the Americas' oldest cathedral.
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Must-SeeA volcano that buried the capital in the 1990s, seen from a safe viewing point.
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Must-SeeAn island that's about two-thirds national park, with Trunk Bay's snorkel trail, sugar-mill ruins and steep green hills.
Must-SeeStand in the sea among friendly stingrays, then relax on a famous beach.
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Must-SeeA hotel carved from ice, huskies, and Sami reindeer country.
Must-SeeThe Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, and the Blue Mountains nearby.
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Must-SeeNight markets, Taipei 101, and the National Palace Museum's imperial treasures.
Must-SeeThe white marble tomb Shah Jahan built for his wife, beautiful at dawn, with Agra Fort nearby.
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Must-SeeA vast ancient city an hour from Mexico City, with the Pyramid of the Sun on its Avenue of the Dead.
Must-SeeHuge granite boulders forming grottoes and pools on the sand.
Must-SeeTwin volcanic spires rising from the sea, with a drive-in volcano and hot springs.
Must-SeeGiant Maya temples rising above the jungle canopy, with howler monkeys at dawn.
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Must-SeePatagonia's great park, with granite towers, glaciers, and the W Trek. Book refuges long ahead.
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Must-SeeWhite sand, Caribbean water, and a Maya town on a cliff, with freshwater sinkholes called cenotes inland.
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Must-SeeOne of the world's oldest living cities, with its ghats on the Ganges and fire ceremonies at dusk.
Must-SeeGreen valleys with odd limestone hills, and farmers growing Cuba's tobacco.
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Must-SeeRainbow gables along Handelskade, a floating bridge, and the Americas' oldest synagogue in use.
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Worth a Detour
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Worth a DetourAn overnight climb to watch Fuego erupt beside you. Tough and thrilling; go with a guide.
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Worth a DetourHalf-timbered villages on a wine road, with Strasbourg's huge cathedral. Superb at Christmas.
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Worth a DetourCactus desert, sea caves and a Natural Pool, on the wild north side.
Worth a DetourHummingbirds on a veranda, and scarlet ibis flying into a swamp at dusk.
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Worth a DetourA Swiss-style town of chocolate shops on a big lake, with the Seven Lakes Road.
Worth a DetourAtlantic surf crashing against the giant mushroom rocks.
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Worth a DetourA whaling and boatbuilding island, and the exclusive Mustique next door.
Worth a DetourDesert, mountains and the Rio Grande canyons on the Mexican border, with some of the darkest night skies in the country.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourA high-altitude capital, with the Gold Museum, old La Candelaria, and Monserrate.
Worth a DetourHighland coffee farms and quetzals, with a climb where you can see both oceans on a clear day.
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Worth a DetourA hippie village among dunes, with no roads, a lighthouse and sea lions.
Worth a DetourSpain's Atlantic islands, with Teide volcano and Lanzarote's black lava fields.
Worth a DetourMexico's big resort strip on the Caribbean, with a short ferry to laid-back Isla Mujeres.
Belize's two great Maya cities, one deep in the jungle, one reached by a hand-cranked ferry.
A remote road through Patagonia, past the Marble Caves of General Carrera Lake.
Quieter sister islands, with the world-famous Bloody Bay Wall.
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Worth a DetourShore temples and rock carvings, near South India's largest city.
Worth a DetourThe country's most famous market, around a church where Maya rites still go on.
A misty island of stilt houses and shingled UNESCO-listed wooden churches.
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Worth a DetourA vast Gothic cathedral, with Roman remains and lively carnival.
A perfect snow cone, and the crater lake of Quilotoa.
Worth a DetourThe Three Valleys, the world's largest linked ski area.
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Worth a DetourA tiny island with Flamenco Beach, often ranked among the world's best, and rusting Navy tanks on the sand.
Worth a DetourSmall coves like Kenepa, with superb shore diving and a national park.
Worth a DetourSalt flats, dunes and colored canyons in the hottest, lowest place in North America. Go between November and March.
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Worth a DetourDolly Parton's theme park in the Smokies, with mountain crafts, great coasters and live country and bluegrass music.
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Worth a DetourA vast slow river of sawgrass where alligators, manatees and wading birds are easy to see from boardwalks.
Worth a DetourAkbar's perfectly preserved red sandstone capital, abandoned soon after it was built.
Worth a DetourA protected island chain of spinner dolphins and Brazil's finest beaches. Visitor numbers are limited.
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Worth a DetourSalt-trading history, wall diving and winter humpback whales.
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Worth a DetourDry-forest coast, with Tamarindo's surf, Nosara's yoga and Santa Teresa nearby.
Worth a DetourMineral cliffs like frozen waterfalls, with natural pools near Oaxaca.
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Worth a DetourA golden sandstone living fort, with camel safaris into the Thar.
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Worth a DetourThe Pompeii of the Americas, a Maya village buried by ash about 600 AD.
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Worth a DetourThe Death Railway bridge, with Erawan's waterfalls nearby.
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Worth a DetourWhere Apollo launched and rockets still do: a Saturn V, the shuttle Atlantis and, with luck, a launch.
Worth a DetourTemples covered in exquisite, and famously erotic, carvings.
Worth a DetourReggae's home, Marley's house, and the sunken pirate town of Port Royal nearby.
Worth a DetourIndia's cultural capital, with the Victoria Memorial and a fantastic Durga Puja.
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Worth a DetourBlack lava fields and vineyards, with César Manrique's architecture.
A leftist university town with a huge cathedral, and volcano boarding on Cerro Negro.
Worth a DetourSouth America's food capital, with ceviche, a colonial center, and clifftop Miraflores.
Worth a DetourThe du Ponts' country: America's greatest garden, Winterthur's vast decorative arts collection, and the Wyeths' art.
Worth a DetourDesert meets sea at the famous rock arch, with gray whales in the lagoons further north.
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Worth a DetourTowering carved gateways, with Thanjavur and Mahabalipuram nearby.
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Worth a DetourThe Yucatán's elegant capital, near the finest Puuc Maya architecture at Uxmal.
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Worth a DetourMillions of monarchs cluster on fir trees each winter, after flying from Canada and the US.
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Worth a DetourIndia's dream city, with the Gateway of India, Elephanta Caves and Art Deco.
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Worth a DetourColonial pink buildings, a pirate past, and the Atlantis resort.
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Worth a DetourMaya Bay, of The Beach, is limited and sometimes closed for recovery.
Worth a DetourA riverside capital, with a Royal Palace and the grim Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng.
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Worth a DetourAn adventure town under an active volcano you can climb, when it's safe.
South America's glamorous summer resort, with the giant hand on the sand.
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Worth a DetourOne of the best chances to see a wild tiger, among ruins.
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Worth a DetourThe prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years, a ferry ride from Cape Town.
Worth a DetourA complete medieval walled town, on a road linking the Alps with Franconia.
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Worth a DetourThe heart of Afro-Brazilian culture, with a colorful old town, capoeira and drums.
A cool highland colonial town with Maya villages nearby, and Sumidero Canyon.
Worth a DetourHike to a sulfur crater lake, looking over a bright blue caldera.
Worth a DetourThe cradle of son music and of the Revolution, with the San Pedro fortress.
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Worth a DetourThe Step Pyramid, the first in the world, with the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur.
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Worth a DetourAustralia's highest peak, and its ski fields at Thredbo and Perisher.
Worth a DetourThe birthplace of modern skiing, with big terrain and famous après-ski.
Worth a DetourAmerica's oldest city, founded by Spain in 1565, with a coquina stone fort and narrow old streets.
Worth a DetourThe largest Virgin Island, with handsome Danish towns, rum distilleries and the famous reef at Buck Island.
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Worth a DetourThe busiest Virgin Island: a Danish colonial port with hillside steps, plus the world-famous curve of Magens Bay.
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Worth a DetourJungle meets boulder-strewn beaches on the Caribbean. It closes for periods each year.
Worth a DetourThe heart of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, with the six-spired Salt Lake Temple, the domed Tabernacle and its famous choir, and free gardens and visitor centers.
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Worth a DetourPigeon Point's beach, and the Western Hemisphere's oldest protected rainforest.
Worth a DetourThe largest adobe city in the Americas, and the painted Moche temples of the Sun and Moon.
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Worth a DetourThe world's southernmost city, for the Beagle Channel and penguins, and the main port for Antarctica.
Worth a DetourHigh, snow-sure skiing in a historic village by the Vanoise national park.
Worth a DetourA hilly port of painted houses and old funiculars, with Neruda's La Sebastiana.
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Worth a DetourA sleepy island of wild horses and empty beaches, home to one of the world's brightest bioluminescent bays.
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Worth a DetourThe sets, costumes and props of the Harry Potter films.
One of the most biodiverse places on Earth, with canoe trips and Indigenous-run lodges.
A cathedral carved in a salt mine, 200 meters underground, near Bogotá.
If You're NearbyThe biggest island, with deep blue holes and the third-largest barrier reef.
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If You're NearbyThe Philippines' summer capital, with Sagada's hanging coffins beyond.
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If You're NearbyThe Cold War invasion site, now good diving next to the Caribbean's largest wetland.
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If You're NearbyAn 18th-century Moravian settlement that's now a World Heritage Site, and the old rust-belt steel town around it.
If You're NearbyA park that's 95% water, just south of Miami, with coral reefs, mangroves and an old shipwreck trail.
If You're NearbyA 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.
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If You're NearbyA walled pirate-era port, and a giant, deep-jungle Maya city.
If You're NearbyThe old French colonial capital and a cruise line's beach, and the Sans-Souci Palace.
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If You're NearbyA mysterious rock garden of huge coral carvings, built alone by a tiny Latvian immigrant for his lost love, with no one watching.
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If You're NearbyThousands of hand stencils, 9,000 years old, in a Patagonian canyon.
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If You're NearbyA Scottish-founded town, near albatross and penguin colonies.
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If You're NearbyAn island city of 40-plus beaches, Brazil's surf and party favorite in summer.
If You're Nearby'Venice of America', with 165 miles of canals, broad beaches, the world's yachting capital and Everglades airboats on its doorstep.
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If You're NearbyAmerica's far western outpost, where the day begins: Chamorro culture, Tumon Bay's beaches and major World War II sites.
A candy-colored town, and a giant rock with 740 steps, on a day trip from Medellín.
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If You're NearbyCool mountains, rafting, and the Caribbean's highest peak.
If You're NearbyA sandy-street beach village among the dunes, famous for kitesurfing.
If You're NearbyIndia's oldest national park, with tigers in the Himalayan foothills.
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If You're NearbyA Bavarian-themed village in the Cascades, with lots of Christmas lights and great river and rock hikes nearby.
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If You're NearbyA volcanic island of lagoons, forest and seabirds, off New South Wales.
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If You're NearbyA university town and one of the world's longest, highest cable cars.
If You're NearbyThe "White Dove of the Desert", a gleaming 18th-century Spanish mission on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation south of Tucson, still serving its community.
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If You're NearbyPink stone colonial grandeur, and an island lake town famed for its Day of the Dead.
If You're NearbyThe world's oldest commercial rum, and the local tradition of tiny bright rum shops.
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If You're NearbyElegant Gulf beach towns, with a famous pier, and Sanibel's seashells and its wildlife refuge up the coast.
If You're NearbyThe oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase, with Creole plantations on Cane River, meat pies, and a famed Christmas festival.
If You're NearbyA medieval center, the Nazi rally grounds, and Germany's top Christmas market.
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If You're NearbyFlorida's old-money island, with Henry Flagler's Gilded Age mansion, and very fancy shops on Worth Avenue.
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If You're NearbyDesert resorts, the Desert Botanical Garden and a base for Sedona and the Grand Canyon.
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If You're NearbyTwo easy-to-reach crater views, near the capital. Reservations and closures vary.
If You're NearbyPuerto Rico's elegant southern city, with a striped red-and-black firehouse and one of the Caribbean's finest art museums.
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If You're NearbyKitesurfing, a cable car, and the 27 Waterfalls of Damajagua.
If You're NearbyA Pacific resort with old town charm and jungle-covered hills, on Banderas Bay.
If You're NearbyA German-settled lake town under the perfect cone of Osorno, on the crossing to Bariloche.
A windy Strait of Magellan port, with a big Magellanic penguin colony nearby.
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If You're NearbyThe Caribbean's great surf town, on the island's west coast, with winter waves, whale-watching and famous sunsets.
If You're NearbyA beach island of the Western Pacific where one of the Pacific War's bloodiest battles was fought.
If You're NearbyMysterious statues over 1,000 years old, with Tierradentro's tombs nearby.
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If You're NearbyChe Guevara's tomb, with a huge statue, and his armored train derailment.
If You're NearbyFlorida's culture coast: John Ringling's circus museum, an art museum and a quartz-white beach, on the Gulf.
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If You're NearbyA sugar railway, turned into a train journey around the island.
If You're NearbyA volcano hike and the falls and film sites of the Pirates movies.
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If You're NearbyGulf Coast beaches, the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg and Busch Gardens.
If You're NearbyOne of the world's most-visited holy sites, on a hilltop in Andhra Pradesh.
If You're NearbyOff the resort map, with the Black River's crocodiles and YS Falls.
If You're NearbyA desert city between the two halves of Saguaro National Park, known for its Sonoran-Mexican food.
The Caribbean's first long-distance trail, and Kalinago territory, home of the Indigenous Caribs.
If You're NearbyWhere Washington crossed the icy Delaware on Christmas night 1776 and turned the war around.
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