Angkor Wat
The Cliffs of Antrim in Northern Ireland
Colosseum
Canterbury Cathedral
Crater Lake
Golden Gate Bridge
Himachal Pradesh
Varanasi
Hong Kong
I thought the Taj Mahal was a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful, but it’s a mausoleum so to me it was just like looking at a large headstone.
Being in the home crowd of 81,000 people for a football playoff game has a feel of electricity and hugeness that that will never come across on TV.
Being on an Aircraft Carrier and seeing the planes land is something you have to feel rather than ever see to ever appreciate it.
Or the stars at night at sea on a blacked out ship. With no light pollution of any kind or ground, I was at a loss for words and still am as to the magnitude and magnificiance of it.
I love what has been posted so far. Can I take the discussion in a slightly different direction?
Watching a musician perform a beautiful complex piece of music live - when you know that the piece is hard and the artists are stretching themselves technically *and *touching emotions - that is just amazing…
Seeing a really good Broadway show. There is nothing that can capture the thrill of the live performance and the audience.
THAT’s an example of what I am trying to describe. The magical quality of performance and interaction with an engaged audience…especially if the thing being performed is truly hard to pull off, like a B’way show or a technically complex musical piece…
I agree completely with this.
Also: Times Square. It’s really really really really big and shiny. I mean, S!H!I!N!Y!
Although I’m not a WWII or history buff by any stretch of the imagination, about 10 years ago I had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial, and I have to tell you, all these years later it still chokes me up when I think about it. It’s impossible for me to explain what it feels like to be there when you hear exactly what went on there that day, but just, wow.
I’ll second this one. I was able to get right up-close-and-personal with a tiger in N.C. once. Fortunately (and smartly!) I wasn’t aggressive acting, and Kitty wasn’t hungry, and was in a mellow mood.
I’ll add aircraft carriers to the list.
In '88 I was flying home from Germany, en route to Ft. Hood, Tx. Our fist stop was in Philly. Due to a twist of good fortune, I was sitting up in the “hump” of the 747, and had a window seat. As we were on final descent, I was looking out the window and thought, “Hey, we just passed the airport.”
Then, what I was looking at sunk in.
Pictures just don’t capture the mass these things have.
On a similar note: you just don’t appreciate MBT’s like the Abrams, Challenger, etc., unless one rolls by at/about 20-25 mph. You can feel the almost subsonic rumble in your gut.
There are a few places that stick out in my mind that I’ve been to in my 33 years on earth.
- Alaska - When I walked outside at the airport, that fresh air hit me and opened up my lungs so fast. It smelled sooooo good and was so clean. Then we rented a car and went driving and we got into the mountains and I have to tell ya, these mountains are so grand and huge, you have to literally stick your head OUT of the car window to see the tops of them. Moose were walking on the side of the road, oh yeah, that’s another thing that is bigger in person, a moose. They’re BIGGER than horses !
Alaska is literally breathtakingly beautiful. I went charter fishing and caught Halibut too and that was also one of the biggest fish I have ever caught, seen or eaten. Absolutely one of the most beautiful places on earth and I highly recommend Alaska to everyone, but in the summertime of course.
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The North Shore of Hawaii. Stunning. Spiritual. Beautiful. The Hawaiian Islands live up to the hype. I’ve been to all of them and Maui and Oahu are the best, period. But the North Shore struck a chord in me. It was just so serene and peaceful. If I had to pick a place to live my dying days, it would be The North Shore. Please, do yourself a favor and go there if you have never been. There are flowers growing ON THE TREES for shit’s sake ! lol
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The Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. Went through there when I was 14 and it knocked the wind out of me it was so breathtaking. Absolutely insane at how quiet it was out there. Fresh, slow and BIG are the three adjectives that best describe this place. Check them out if you already haven’t.
Times Square after dark, like at 3:00 in the morning. Crowds and lights. The City that never sleeps really doesn’t.
I take it you mean the North Shore of Oahu. Hawaii, as you know, is also an island with a north shore, but not the one you’re probably referring to. Although the Waipi’o Valley is stunning in it’s own right.
Ditto the battlefields at Antietam.
Also Chartres Cathedral more than lives up to its reputation.
From a slightly different perspective…
The first time I went to see thoroughbred racing I was stunned at just how powerful those horses seemed coming down the stretch. You just don’t get that from a screen.
Even more so the I first time attended the Indy 500 and they dropped the green flag. Holy crap that’s loud and fast!
It was pretty impressive seeing Goya’s “The Naked Maja” and “The Clothed Maja” right next to each other. Even more impressive was his Family of the Infante don Luis.
Sitnam mentioned Angkor Wat. I was impressed by many of the ruins of Angkor, especially Angkor Thom and Bayon.
The Sagrada Família in Barcelona and Notre Dame de Paris also impressed me.
The Duomo in Florence.
From the shear size, to the amazing level of detail (every square inch seems to have a face on it), it’s a marvel.
Thirded. There was a cold, clear December night in Juneau way out in the 'burbs that I hope I’ll never forget. And the aurora borealis put on the best show I’d ever seen a few months later.
Unless the island lies atop the North Pole, don’t they all have a north shore? 
I am VERY scared of heights, and circumstances dictated that I walked up the stairs…one of the most terrifying things EVER.
I will agree that St. Peters in The Vatican was VERY impressive. I say it was the single largest structure that I have ever been in in my life.
A B-52 in real life is just massive. It’s inspiring that we can get this thing to fly.
The northern lights dancing across the sky.
Newgrange, not so much the outside, but being inside it, and looking up, and then being in there when the lights go out.
The Iwo Jima Memorial. I always thought it was just a statue. It’s fucking HUGE. I had no idea how huge it actually is.