In our travels we’ve encountered some attractions that have disappointed, some that were interesting, and some that really knocked it out of the park. What did you experience that went above and beyond your expectations? Here are some of ours:
Tapas tasting excursion in Barcelona: We learned how to order tapas and set up the rest of our trip so we never had a bad meal. The cocktail at each of the 4 stops didn’t hurt, great group of people, great way to set up our trip.
Guided backcountry ski day in Austria: Descending off a solitary alp for nearly 5000’ of untracked powder on a blue bird day. I’ve only done one other guided ski day and frankly it paled in comparison to this one.
Vatican Museum Friday night tour: Special limited access to the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel. While we weren’t alone, we had quiet, uninterrupted time in the Pope’s Church and unfettered access to the whole museum without crowds.
The tour of Himeji Castle in Himeji, Japan. Everything about it was amazing, including the walk down the main street from the train station to the castle, the grounds of the castle, and the interior of the building. Topping it off was finding and eating at a sushi place along the route that specializes in fugu, which I had been unable to find in Tokyo and Kyoto during that same trip back in the fall of '08.
Just walking around Sydney, seeing the Opera House and botanical gardens next door, and the circular quay with all the ships and boats. Walking across the Harbor Bridge to the park on the other side. What a beautiful place. It reminded me of European city combined with San Francisco.
At one point I was going to walk somewhere at night and I asked a friend if that was safe. She sort of laughed and said, “Oh, yes. Sydney is a safe city.” I’m not generally a fearful person and have never been a crime victim. But coming from the United States it was a very different vibe, knowing that people considered Sydney safe enough to laugh kindly when asked about it.
Touring Masada in Israel. Taking the tram up and being able to see the (many) outlines of the Roman camps. Seeing those cliffs, and understanding the feeling of invulnerability those heights could have entailed. And knowing it wasn’t to be so.
Seeing the recovered and restored mosaic tiling and remnants of the pleasure palace it would once have been, along with the incredible hydro-engineering that captured and stored water in the midst of desert terrain so that people and fountains could thrive in such isolation.
It’s an incredible place, reflecting the many eras, pleasant and less so of the location.
The Kite Festival in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Northern India.
It is not at all a city that is set up for tourism, but I did expect my hotel to have some clue where the main event was. But no. We missed it.
The next day, a holiday, we were walking through the old town, and some people shouted down to us to join them, from the top of a rickety four story building. Everything in the old town would not meet modern building standards but up we went, through the kitchen, the lounge, the bedroom and the second bedroom - this house is around 7 or 8m², tiny but tall, and each had a steep staircase to the next level.
We got to the top, and everyone, literally everyone in the neighbourhood was on their roof flying kites. They glue glass to the strings to cut down other kites. It was incredible, thousands of kites dueling in the sky.
Being Gujurat, our hosts offered us a shot of rum. Alcohol is illegal in that province so we had to duck down so the neighbours on the roof top next to us about 2m away could not see us drinking. Also, I speak no Gujurati, and the kids could barely speak English. Their mum provided food, but she could only communicate in signs. And Gujurati food is amazing.
So the kite festival itself failed but wow, the afterparty really rocked.
One of the trips we bought on our recent Rhine cruise was to the Tech Museum in Speyer, Germany.
Just a few blocks from where we docked. I expected to like it, but not as much as I did. It has train locomotives on the wall, lots of old cars, lots of old firetrucks, lots of old planes (including a real 747 in the courtyard) a glider from the late 19th century, a reproduction of the Wright flyer, and the Russian space shuttle, which flew in space.
In 2018 we went to the Grand Canyon in early November, on a beautiful, sunny day, when there were very few tourists. All that I expected it to be. My wife had been before with the kids, on a day so cloudy and misty that you couldn’t see across to the other side or to the floor.
I remember our guide telling us about how the forum was the central area for commercial activities and that it used to be the busiest place of the town. And all the while, I was looking at Mount Vesuvius looming just a few kilometers away. Life and death in a single glimpse.
Venice. Yes, it’s overwhelmed with tourists but it’s still truly stunning. What struck me the most was the atmosphere. Eerie little streets, water everywhere, no cars. At one point there was a thunderstorm and I was sitting on the terrace of restaurant right next to a canal. I remember being mesmerized by this image of the black, pouring rain falling into the green, still water of the canal. That was pure poetry.
Most recently, I’d say the Cappella Palatina, also in Italy. The man ahead of me in the queue gasped loudly when he came in. I didn’t, but I definitely shared the sentiment. Breathtakingly beautiful.
I wandered the main areas of Pompeii for a couple of hours, looking at the preserved ruins from behind the various guard rails and protected paths. This was amazing enough and I was happy.
Then I took a side street and started exploring, following a maze of alleys further and further from the crowds, and I found myself standing in the middle of a house, totally alone. No railings, no protective glass. There were original paintings on the walls, faded but discernible. I could walk right up to them and touch them, though of course I didn’t.
The viscerality of deep history has never been as powerful for me as it was in that moment. I stood there, silent, awed, for probably ten minutes. Just astounding.
Yes, agreed. There was a small undercurrent of sadness in recognizing that it’s effectively a dead city, a huge open-air museum with no industry and no real life beyond catering to the hordes of tourists; but the staggering reality of the place, the art and architecture and the history and the layout of streets co-existing with the canals, more than made up for it. Absolutely one of my favorite destinations.
When I saw the title of this thread, ‘Venice’ was the first thing that came to mind. You’re right in that it’s basically a huge open air museum now, but there’s just nowhere like it on earth. The reality really does live up to the pictures, just being there and walking through the streets feels surreal, particularly if you wander off the beaten path away from San Marco. It took me 3 visits before I finally forked out for a gondola ride, assuming it was super tacky/not worth it, and I could not have been more wrong - the gondolas take you down waterways which are inaccessible by foot. And taking a water taxi to the airport is straight out of James Bond!
Machu Picchu. Yeah, you’ve seen the picture of it, but sometimes pictures don’t do it justice and this is one of those times. Being there and seeing it set on a mountain top surrounded by a deep canyon and framed by taller, mist-covered mountains was awesome in every sense. Walking the stone trails to Sun Gate and Inca bridge did not dissapoint. Yes, it’s busy but once you are roaming around the grounds it’s no bother.
Alaska Railroad. I was not sure what to expect but it was great. We did the Gold Star service which provides an upgraded, dome-roofed car, bar with two included drinks, and patio out back. We were fortunate to have really nice weather so I spent plenty of time out on the back patio watching the wild Alaska scenery pass by, in comfort. It was not possible to have your eyes open and not see something incredible.
A more obscure one we did before our cruise out of Venice this summer: Postojna caves in Slovenia, the largest cave system in Europe. You take a ten-minute tram ride from the entrance, then walk more than a mile through the caves, then ten minutes on the train back. Amazing.
Imagine wandering through formations like this (with more variety) for more than 90 minutes. (Click to see the whole image.)
California route 1, known as “the coastal road”, runs from Leggett all the way down to Interstate 5 at Dana Point. It is 655 miles or so of beauty with the Big Sur mountains to the left and a shear drop off to the Pacific below. I strongly recommend brunch at Nepenthe’s. The food is excellent and view fabulous!
Berlin, near Checkpoint Charlie.
Driving a Trabant car from the old East Germany.
It really impressed on me the inability of communism to compete with the western world.
The Trabant was the only car ever sold in communist Germany. Unchanged and unimproved for 40 years, from the end of WWII till the fall of the Berlin wall.
It’s basically a riding lawnmower, poorly built and covered with a fiberglass roof. It can seat 4 people, but it doesn’t come close to being what we would call a car.
Taking a guided tour while driving a Trabant , I didnt just hear about history, I felt it and experienced it. With a maximum speed of 40 mph.
Gardens at Kew in London
Kukenhof in Netherlands
Forbidden City in Beijing
Florence, the whole damn place
Venice, ditto (though we were there 25 years ago before it was flooding so badly and overrun by cruise ship passengers)
The Eiffel Tower (kid is obsessed with engineering)
The Louvre (better 25 years ago than 5 years ago)
Acadia National Park
Monterrey Aquarium
Pebble Beach Drive
The Everglades
World of Harry Potter (kid at age 11)
Test cricket at Lords in London
Oxford walking tour
The US Open tennis tournament
My wife and I went to Ostia (ancient port outside of Rome), early one morning; and nearly had the place to ourselves.
It was very much as you as you described - it still stands out in my mind.
I once took a whirlwind Mediterranean cruise and it was one marvel after another.
La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona. It was closed to visitors at the time we visited, but I was in awe of how it dominated the landscape. It reminded me of a great big alien insect hovering over the city. Not like any building I have ever seen before, and I had never seen anything that provocative in a church. I got a good look at the exterior and I think it’s so cool how the cathedral has changed over time, and is this endless work in progress.
The Amalfi coast, Positano, Italy - A charming town with a lot of stairs. We went out into the lagoons via speedboat and swam around in the crystal blue water. You could see Mt. Vesuvius at a distance.
Santorini, Greece - Santorini just knocked my socks off. I was attracted by the history, as that group of islands was once a giant volcano that blew out its center. We climbed part of the volcano. But the thing that really got me about Santorini was how pure and clean and hot the air was. I felt healthier just breathing there. I later went to the archeology museum in Athens and they had artifacts from the volcanic eruption recovered from Santorini. I loved being that close to ancient history.
Dubrovnik, Croatia - This was a real surprise to me, as I’d never heard of the place. The quaint city is surrounded by an ancient wall, and you can walk along the top of it, looking out over the sea, which is the purest blue-green I’ve ever seen. You could see down into people’s backyards, their laundry hung out to dry, their kids playing in the streets. It was cool.
