Absolutely breathtaking! How about you, Deb?

my first. Grand Tetons would be my second and the Bahamas would be my third.

I had the pleasure of being on the main island for three months in 1979. Made many friendships that endure. The small villages in the mountains and along the coast were beautiful. Most of all, the warm and welcoming people!

I had the pleasure of living there for five years in the late 90s.

I hope it still is.

crew included. 4 Russians, 2 Dutch and me-American. Mostly ate on the boat including several meals of fresh caught mackerel sashimi !!

That's like slumming compared to your trip.

My parents summered in the south shore of Nova Scotia. By far the most beautiful view was from the front lawn of the farm my mom grew up on in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. It looked down into a valley with a river and drumlins.

Tahiti and Bora Bora...sailing in the Lofoten Islands in Norway above the arctic circle....crossing Beartooth Pass on my trusty BMW R-75. ......PCH on my older R-50, ........Nova Scotia coast on a BMW R-100, ....... Hiking on Athabasca glacier.........Taos and Sangre De Cristo Mountains...... Leningrad in Winter (-20F)....


OK.. that will do for now..

I wanna go to Mexico, but not the beaches, not anywhere hot or anywhere tropical. I wanna go Mexico City or maybe Guanajuato etc. I wanna go for the architecture, history, hills and mountain air. But then I read that giardia is a big problem and I don't wanna get that particular parasite at my age. Also Montezuma's revenge is still around! (I thought they got rid of it, but they didn't. They don't have it at the resorts, but everywhere else it tends to prevail. They treat water, but contaminated storage is the issue. It isn't as easy as "drink bottled water". It's don't eat salads, don't eat cheese, don't eat soups, don't drink the coffee, don't drink mixed drinks )

My daughter and son in law went mountain/rock climbing not too far from Monterrey. They really liked it, but I would think that area would be just as hot as Texas in the summer. They went in the winter.

It's located about 1 1/2 hours from Sydney.
The mountains are magnificent.

We were there on a misty and overcast day, which made it all the more "haunting".

(There is a blue haze that surrounds them, which is caused by the scattering of light by oil droplets from the eucalyptus trees in the area).

north of Sydney (Forestville) and have spent a fair amount of time in the Blue Mts.

From Basel across the Swiss Alps and along Lake Lucerne and then south through southern Switzerland to Milan, Italy. Wow, that trip was spectacular. My nose was glued to that train's big picture window for that whole trip.

But, that was just one trip of a few hours. Of all the places where I have actually spent some time, my favorite is Amsterdam and the Netherlands. I swear to God, that whole country is literally picture-postcard pretty.

I have pictures, but I can't figure out how to attach them to this posting. They're right here on my hard drive, but I can't find an "Attach" button or "Add Picture" option or anything like that. Many times here on DU I've wanted to include pictures but just can't figure out how to do it.

— Ron

with posting pictures. I don't know how to post from YouTube.

Then bused back to Milan.
Spectacular.

Even more beautiful from out in the water looking back at the beach with those Jurassic Park mountains with 3-4 visible waterfalls.

And it’s a living thing; that boggles the mind. Best snorkeling on earth. Saw a green sea turtle, and thankfully no box jellyfish!

I'll have to go with "The End of the Road" on Kauai, passed Hanalei. The only way forward is by boat or foot. It was considered a Sacred place for Hawaiians before the White Man took over. I cry for all the development that has happened since my mom lived in this very special part of the island of Kauai.



My 2nd pick will have to be just about anywhere in Yellow Stone. I've only visited, but I was in Awe.

I've been to the Grand Canyon (hiked down and spent the night, fished in the Colorado (didn't catch anything). But as beautiful as deserts are, they are not my favorite.

More my speed is the fantastic Redwood Forests on the west coast. I lived in 2 wonderful places that were surrounded by Redwoods, in my younger years in a magical place called La Honda (not to be confused with La Hoya), and then more recently Mill Valley (not far from Muir Woods). Both in the Bay area.

Long ago we lived near the border of Arizona/New Mexico/Utah/Colorado. My mothers bf was a Forest Ranger. (he is the one who taught me to fish) I loved it there, but again, a little too dry there. I used to go to Florida for the summers to stay with grandparents. That was nice too. Very flat there! I loved the Ocean, but I do love mountains (I think my favorite to look at are the Grand Tetons)

I could go on, there is no end to the beauty of our world. I live in Napa now. Kind of too hot in summer for me, and way too dry. It is pretty though. Lots of wildlife around my house.

This is reminding me I need to get out more and see it!

I haven't done a lot of travelling in my life- I'm not into "big" trips. Having said that, I LOVE road trips and boy do I have the best places to go...I live in Redondo Beach (in the South Bay area of L.A.) so ANY direction I go can be beautiful. Over the Christmas holidays a friend and I went to Solvang (just a couple of hours north of L.A.) and it felt like we were in a Hallmark Movie.

My favorite place is probably Big Sur. It's breathtaking........

And what your want to see.

Iguaza is probability misspelled

I was stationed at Hahn AB, Germany from 84 - 86. While looking for a place to live, I checked out an apartment in the town of Zell along the Moselle River. This was in the spring and the town was bursting with flowers blooming from flower boxes decorating the the homes and business. It was picture perfect.

Another spot in Germany was between Hahn AB and Ramstein AB. I was sitting in the back of a military bus headed back from Ramstein AB and we were in a "mountainous" area with steep, rocky hills and woods. The area was wilderness with no houses or buildings in sight. I happened to look out the back window and saw on the top of an outcrop of rock, about a hundred feet high, a herd of deer with a buck "posing" at the edge of the cliff over looking the terrain. I looked like a scene from a movie or a nature documentary. I've never forgotten that picture and my regret about it is I didn't have a camera to take a picture.

One thing I loved about Germany is they were serious about taking care of their environment. Driving through the countryside you'd come upon a lot of beautiful scenes.

Yellowstone is amazingly gorgeous, as are the Grand Tetons.

We traveled in Spain. The most beautiful/breathtaking thing we saw was the Caves of Altimira. It was a highlight indeed!

Any beach, any good snorkeling and unpolluted scenery are all wonderufl

Thank you for sharing with us.

"Our schoolmaster used to take a nap every afternoon," related a disciple of Soyen Shaku. "We children asked him why he did it and he told us: 'I go to dreamland to meet the old sages just as Confucius did.' When Confucius slept, he would dream of ancient sages and later tell his followers about them.

"It was extremely hot one day so some of us took a nap. Our school master scolded us. 'We went to dream land to meet the ancient sages the same as Confucius did,' we explained. 'What was the message from those sages?' our school master demanded. One of us replied: 'We went to dream land and met the sages and asked them if our school master came there every afternoon, but they said they had never seen any such fellow.'".

with majestic Molokai in the background.

Glacier National Park comes a close second.

One time in Monument Valley, just after a sudden rainstorm, with a deep, dark blue-black sky, we saw a brilliant triple rainbow (all 3 were equally bright) perfectly arched between the Mitten Buttes! It took my breath away!
I am lucky enough that I have seen some of the beautiful paces already mentioned in these posts. Here are some more: North Dakota Badlands, dozens of places along my beloved Oregon coast, Crater Lake, Brighton Utah ski area in summer wildflower season, Mt. Rainier Nat’l Park, multiple parks along Lake Superior near Duluth, Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC.

It is breath-takingly beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice.

I was there in March of 2021 and posted about it at the time.

I had this shot super enlarged and it is on my living room wall. An absolute mirror flat calm.

when the sky is cloudless and clear blue, the lake color is stunning. If you go in mid to late August, it is still wildflower season all over the various trails. There is also a trail to see the Pinnacles. A good place to get a good photo of the whole lake is to hike up to the Watchman Lookout.

When I saw it, I experienced for the first time the phrase "beathtakingly beautiful." Literally drew in my breath and stopped breathing momentarily.

Besides that, I see beauty in many ordinary, lesser known places. Sunsets on Lake Erie. Fresh snowfall creating an isolated winter wonderland on Presque Isle peninsula at Erie, PA. The architecture of old buildings in Buffalo and in quaint, small villages in PA. The colors of the Appalachian foothills in autumn. Azalea and lilac blossoms in spring.

I have not traveled much, only to a few places in the US and Canada. Charleston, SC and nearby beaches, DC, Richmond, VA, NYC, St. Louis (arches and Mississippi River), Phoenix and desert, WVA mountains, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, Windsor, Ontario, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Tampa and outlying areas, Savannah, GA.

Saw some interesting sights in those places, but, for beauty, the Shenandoah Valley and lesser known places mentioned above are what stand out in my mind.

your travels with us. and yes the Shenandoah Valley is breathtaking .

but usually saw her when she drove north to Erie, since that's where the rest of the family lived. My memories of Pittsburgh are filled with hills. Hills everywhere, higher than in the Erie area.

My husband and I decided to drive to Wheeling with another couple one day after going to Pittsburgh. Alas, it was still early spring. We got caught in a snowstorm in the WVA mountains. Very scary on narrow mountain roads with near zero visibility and no place to pull off the road.

The water is actually this color

and frankly there is beauty everywhere.

I drove a truck up from Phoenix to Fairbanks back in October of 2019 and the Yukon was spectacular.

Near Kluane Lake on the Alcan HWY;



Fog below and overcast above.








We drove on a thousand miles of roads that looked like this;



I was in Anchorage in 2022 and went down the Turnagain Arm. This was taken from the top of the Gondola at the Alyeska Resort. The sun spilling onto the waters despite the clouds trying their best

Last edited Mon Jan 13, 2025, 04:51 AM - Edit history (1)

Meeting up w a friend in Flagstaff, AZ: we rented a car and visited the high desert of the Navajo & Hopi Nations.

The various colors, the sculpturalness of the rock formations are breathtaking! We slept overnight in sleeping bags in Monument Valley. We woke up at 3AM w when the moon had set, and the Milky Way spanned, and glittered above us!

The Grand Canyon after 3PM when the sun's angle brought out the warm, glowing colors.
This, and above was all was part of a 2 week vacation by off & on bus riding that I saved up for.

Resting in a hamock between 2 palm trees just east of San Juan looking at the ocean. While not clear bc of the waves churning up the sands; the colors!

Bright teal, turquoise water close by, with a brighter green in the interior arc of the waves. Colors I wanted to see, since seeing photos of tropical waters in my ?20s.
Even further out into the ocean was a vivid medium dark blue! Not like the duller blue up here in NYC down by Brooklyn. This was a gift vacation.

A cousin took me up by motocyle into The Rockies west of Denver. We stopped at Echo Lake (10,000 ft +). When we looked north, north east- blued by distance, and snow capped was part of the mountain range of The Continental Divide. Being a bit of a geography buff, wow!
My 2nd Big saved up for vacation.

My other gifted vacation was to Switzerland... we flew right past the misty Alps heading into Geneva.
But I was more excited to see them from a distance of about 60-ish miles from the little picturesque village near the French border about 1 1/2 hours north of Geneva where my relatives lived.

Magical times! ✨️🥰✨️

Farm in the Monongahiala Valley in West Virginia. Early in the morning when the night mist hitting the heat of the sun and disappearing from the mountains in the distance. It turns all colors from the prism effect. And then poof. Loveliest and magical sight I've ever seen.

Particularly the west coast and the islands.

Germany & Scotland, for sure
😎

So many beautiful islands and beaches.

Lived and traveled all over the World, and for me it’s the incomparable Plitvice National Park in Croatia.

The mountains in American sector of Sinai peninsula M.F.O. peacekeeping mission which was created by president Carter the views absolutely breathtaking.

The sunrise and sunsets even doing the days just beautiful. Actually even the lowlands close to Red Sea were beautiful we would bag patrols call in fake sit reps like we was patrolling.

And we’d leave one man guard the weapons and radio and we’d skinny dip in Red Sea( years later was watching documentary about Red Sea and sharks we never thought of that )

And the Bedouin children were a hoot Deb we’d bring kids into our O.P. feed them cheeseburger spaghetti we had a kitchen we ate well and teach them play baseball thinking back we was all 18-19 except for senior command.

your service, but for your humanity.

Magical place.

I can't put my finger on any pics of it right now though. I was there just about 10 years ago today. Wish I was right now, tired of freezing!

• The view from the top of Pike's Peak
• The Alps, mostly looking to the east from eastern France or Geneva areas.
• Angel Falls
• Sequoia National Forest
• Taking off to the west out of Seattle on a cloudy day, we broke though the clouds to bright sunlight and Mt. Ranier is brightly sunlit sticking up through the clouds. Since we had to turn to come back east, we see it twice, at 2 different altitudes. Saw it a few times. It was gorgeous & impressive each time.

The views are luscious and the earthy smell of rich, oxygenated soil is so intoxicating. It brings tears to remember what may have been an ancestral home had it not been for the great continental slit.

in an other worldly kind of way. The Hebrides.

In and around Corolla. They just wander around the beach and into the marshes. Beautiful Spanish mustangs from shipwrecks that happened over 400 years ago. They are the official state horse.