I’ve loved every destination I’ve been to, for different reasons. Here are a few of them:
No other mentions of Yellowstone? The wildlife, the canyon, or the thermal features would any one of them be enough justification for a visit, but all three are right together.
Have you ever been to you?
The thermal features are indeed impressive: the pictures don’t do justice to the variety of size, color, and flow of the thermal features. I haven’t experienced the wildlife since I was only there once, but I’ve been quite impressed with the wildlife in Rocky Mountain National Park (lots of elk, one moose, and countless small curious mammals). The canyon was nice but it’s more like a mix of the Grand Canyon of Arizona combined with Niagara Falls but only 1/5 as splendid in either way. I walked to the decent Fairy Falls and that was okay too but there are dozens like it in New York.
Don’t get me wrong it’s definitely worth seeing at least once, but it’s not in my top 10 list of outdoorsy destinations I’d go to given the chance.
When it comes to ruins, I really enjoyed my visits to the three units of Salinas Pueblo National Monumentand Pecos National Historic Site in New Mexico.
Speaking of New Mexico, one of the coolest places I visited on my roadtrip last year was the psychedelic artist collective/funhouse in Santa Fe called Meow Wolf. It was established with an initial grant from George RR Martin.
I definitely loved Paris. Also NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington DC.
For somewhere less known, I found Fredericton, New Brunswick to be a wonderful city – more like a small town than a provincial capital. I also was very impressed with the Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy; you could actually see the tide going in and out.
Most of my favorite places to visit involve lots of snow, so I’m not sure I can help you here.
But, if I had to make a list:
[ul]
[li]Hokkaido, Japan[/li][li]Ankor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia[/li][li]Annapurna Circuit, Nepal[/li][li]Kicking Horse Resort, British Columbia, and Banff, Alberta[/li][li]Canyonlands National Park, and Moab Utah[/li][li]Glacier National Park and Whitefish Montana[/li][li]Wind River Range, and Grand Tetons, Wyoming[/li][li]Baxter State Park, Maine[/li][li]Dolomites, Italy[/li][li]Amalfi Coast, Italy[/li][li]Loire Valley, France[/li][li]Lech, Austria[/li][li]Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts[/li][li]Quebec City, Quebec[/li][li]Killarney National Park, Ireland[/li][li]Koh Samui, Thailand[/li][/ul]
My favorites, in no particular order:
*Costa Rica -no need to go to San Jose, particularly, but the mountains and beach areas are gorgeous
*Maui - Particularly the Road to Hana
*Great Smoky Mountain National Park - just drop me anywhere
*A Caribbean white sand beach
*Montevideo, Uruguay - lovely city
Highway to the sun, Glacier National Park.
Even better if you are on a motorcycle.
And the park is beautiful. Have always seen bears there.
For camping Many Glacier campground.
No, but I’ve been to Paradise.
My favorite place is wherever I’m going next.
Every time I go somewhere, I usually end up falling at least half in love with some city or venue other on my trip (and trying to figure out if it’s possible for me to move there), so there’s lots.
Place not already mentioned in the thread:
The world is an amazing and beautiful place.
I’ll try to distill it down to a short list.
Likoma Island, Malawi/Mozambique.
Singkep Island, Indonesia
Fogo Island, Newfoundland
Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
Puerto Montt, Chile
Sikkim, India
Isfahan, Iran
San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico
stop here, before the list gets too long.
I also have to add the Douro River valley in Portugal, which is a big wine producing region. When the vineyards turn to fall colors, it’s visual overload.
Hm, I personally found the Yellowstone Canyon much more impressive than the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is just too big: You can’t encompass it. It’s a cliff, and then way over there, there’s another cliff.
And Glacier is also quite impressive. I wish that I could have seen it back in the day, when it still had, you know, glaciers, but the mountains are still amazing. Nowhere else have I felt the weighty majesty of mountains the way I have in Glacier.
Forgot to mention, not someplace I “visited”, but I flew over, on a bright clear sunny day, that big glacier on the southeast coast of Greenland, calving hundreds of arena-sized icebergs into the sea. Nobody else on the plane saw it, they all had the shades down, to watch a movie or their phone. The most awesome thing I’ve ever seen .
A few off the top of my head:
Avon, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Chama, New Mexico
Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Canyonlands/Moab, Utah
Mendocino, California
Grand Tetons, Wyoming
St. John’s Newfoundland
Paris, France
Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, France
Chamonix, France
London, UK
Dundee, Scotland, UK
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Mana Pools, Zimbabwe
Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe
Some strongest memories:
Worlds highest established “ski resort”. I killed it! You can read my review from a while back on the site.
Lake Crescent in Washington State. I have a photo of me and Mom swimming – my favorite activity with my favorite person in my favorite place. 
If you were to book a trip to the uk, you could rent a car and visit some amazing towns.
These are a list of my favourite places, in no particular order.
The cities include,
London
Bath
York(my favourite)
Chester
Oxford
For areas of beauty, wonderful drives, and the option to hike I’d suggest,
The Peak District, with cute little towns like Castleton, Buxton, Matlock bath, and Bakewell. Lots of walks available in this area, along with cave tours and cute little pubs to relax.
Snowdonia is very beautiful, lots of cute little towns along the way. Haven’t spent much time there, but I’d recommend it…down the list.
The Cotswold area is spectacular! Bath would be included in this list, but there are some amazing drives, some adorable little towns, and the area is quite lovely in a very British way. Thatched roofs, little yellow cottages(because of the limestone predominantly used in this area) and some great castles.
All of Scotland.
My absolute favourite place to visit is Rome. We go at least 2 times a year. At Christmas we took a little trip down to Sorrento from Rome for a few days, which was lovely. We’ve also been to Venice a couple times, Florence, and Cinque Terre, which are all quite beautiful, but we always go back to Rome.
To be fair, we love visiting cities. We enjoy the history and culture and architecture. We also enjoy a lively nightlife and being surrounded by lots of people.
12 years ago, I spent 6 weeks exploring the U.S. Southwest, mostly Utah and Arizona. Of course the Grand Canyon (both north and south rims and the mule ride down to the bottom), Arches, Canyonland, Horseshoe Canyon, Capitol Reef, Zion, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Mesa Verde, Petrified Forest, Natural Bridges, Canyon de Chelly, the Meteor Crater, and a handful of other places.
More recently I spent 6 weeks exploring Southern France: Bordeaux, Biarritz, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Perpignan, Montpellier, Nimes, Arles, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, St-Tropez, Frejus, St-Raphael, Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Eze, Menton, Grenoble, Lyon and the Principality of Monaco.
Other favorites: Hawaii, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Venice, and Vienna.