The wide-open ones
Lake Louise, Niagara, the Lycian coast. Go for the landscape; the dinner reservations come second.
Pine-shaded resort town pressed between Tahtalı Mountain and the Mediterranean. The pebble coves are uncommonly clear; the Lycian Way starts here.
A small bay village south of Marmaris, reached by a winding road through pine forests and one short tunnel. The water is the color the brochures lie about.
The planned capital — Greek architect Doxiadis laid out the grid in the 1960s, the Margalla Hills did the rest. Cleaner, greener, and quieter than any city of two million has a right to be.
Pacific city pressed between ocean and Coast Mountains. The most beautifully sited big city in North America. Granville Island, Stanley Park, and a dim sum scene that doesn't quit.
Canada's first national park. Lake Louise's turquoise, Moraine Lake at sunrise, the Icefields Parkway running 230 kilometers north to Jasper. Mountains the way the brochures promise but rarely deliver.
Three falls, half a billion liters per minute, mist that soaks you from a hundred meters away. The Canadian side is where you stand.