The Smithsonian. I didn’t get to go into every building, but I went into Natural History, Air and Space, the National Art Gallery, and the Arts and Industries building. (I remember seeing the inaugural gowns the First Ladies wore in one building but can’t say which.) It really would take months of dedicated visits to see all there is to see there. I hope to be able to do so one day.
I’m amazed that this got suggested. It’d be at the top of my list of least living up to the hype.
For my suggestions, there’s many cathedrals which I feel are fully capable of fulfulling expectations. Notre Dame in Paris, if you can mentally block out the chaos around you. Durham if you can’t.
Everything in Paris, nothing in New York City. Well, mostly. Times Square was pretty cool. Notre Dame was crap on the inside. Chairs? Chairs in a church? Maybe it’s a European thing; I’ve only ever seen pews. It was also discouragingly dim.
Devil’s Tower. When I first saw it in the distance, I had to pull over and take a picture…it commands the landscape for miles and miles. I hiked the trail around the base early one morning, and had it all to myself. So peaceful and quiet, with the giant fallen-off pieces scattered in the forest, and the monolith filling the sky above…just magical. No alien spaceships, though, dang it.
I’d add the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Extraordinary building.
Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji are both very impressive in their own right. Ginkakuji especially never fails to fill me with a sense of quiet wonder.
Others have mentioned them, but I have to second them -
The Colosseum in Rome. You can see what it might have been in its heyday. I stood there trying to envision one of those staged sea battles and just marveled at their ingenuity.
St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. I think this is part of what makes the Sistine Chapel so disappointing - walk into this place and oh my god… the ceiling arches so far overhead, the building seems to go on forever, there are huge columns everywhere with carvings everywhere on them.
The Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington DC. It starts as a little wedge of polished black granite along the sidewalk, and as you walk, it gets a bit taller, and names start to be carved in. And you walk, and it grows and grows and grows until it’s over your head and the names just keep coming and coming and the wall keeps going. I nearly broke down crying.
Mt. Haleakala in Maui. Mist in the crater, a chilly wind at the top when the temps at the bottom are in the 80s. A friend of my father-in-law actually went hang-gliding off it in the early morning hours - I just can’t imagine what an experience that was.
The Golden Gate Bridge. Don’t drive. Park and walk across. Take your time to appreciate it.
Yosemite Valley. Unfortunately part of the hype is the crowds so get up off the valley floor, or walk around late at night (see those lights thousands of feet up a sheer rock face? Climbers camped out on their portaledges), or go in the winter (it’s staggering).
Agree with everyone else on the war memorials. The Korean War memorial at night is absolutely spooky, and the Vietnam War memorial made me cry (both the real one in DC and the travelling half-size version).
I had seen thousands of pictures of the Statue of Liberty, all my life. I saw it from the plane as we approached the airport. I thought, well, it’s pretty neat, I guess. I wasn’t sure it was worth spending half a day to get there and back. I was wrong. My wife talked me into it, and we went. Standing at the base of the big green lady was breathtaking. In walking around the base, I heard several languages spoken, through tears.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, smack dab in the middle of Indianapolis, is very cool. The base, with four massive fountains, is crawling with statuary groups depicting Civil War imagery. Surrounding that is the brick-paved traffic circle. A square limestone obelisk rises from the base up to an observation deck, topped by a female figure, with a sword and some other thing. Underneath it all is a cool, if shopworn, museum about Indiana’s troops in the Civil War.
My vote is for the Vietnam memorial although it’s difficult for me to go there.
I get the same melancholy feeling as at Custer Battlefield.
All those guys, and for what?
Sorry, I misread the OP- DID live up to the hype.
The Smithsonian exceeds hype. I went to the Natural History Museum to see the Hope Diamond which was the least impressive part of the place; I could spend two weeks in that museum alone without getting bored.
Salt Lake City is a must for anybody with an interest in the American West or religion- the entire city- but particularly Temple Square and the Beehive House.
Monticello is worth driving several hours out of the way for as it’s a one-of-a-kind experience historically, architecturally, and scenically.
Amish Country- I grew up on a cattle country with old women who made quilts and thought “Yawn” at the thoughts of spending time there, but it’s absolutely absorbing.
No one’s mentioned Mount Rushmore yet?
On our recent driving trip around the country we stopped in South Dakota and visited Mount Rushmore.
Driving up the highway was an exercise in anticipation. When we finally turned the corner and saw it off in the distance, I had to stop and catch my breath.
It’s an incredible sculpture. And if it seems small to you, go down the back way, and stop at the viewpoint turnout. You’ll see Washington’s face on the mountain and it will set it all in perspective for you.
I grew up on Kilauea just a few miles from the where the lava was erupting. There are three moments that stand out sharply in my memory.
- One day, when the current eruption started back in 1983, we came back home and there was a new, pitch black hill on the horizon. Not a small one but a huge hill off beyond the trees.
- We were able to get very close to the huge fountains and you could hear them. The only way I can describe it is that it sounded like rock spewing forth.
- At the same time Mauna Loa started erupting. At night seeing these red glowing streams of lava one to the west and another to the east, it felt so primeval. Like there might be dinosaurs hiding behind any tree.
At no other place on earth that I’ve been has the land felt so alive nor have I been so affected anywhere else I’ve been.
I concur with the Grand Canyon and add the Great Plains. You never feel so lonely and so small then when you’re standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on the Great Plains.
Bath, specifically the baths. It was all I could do to keep myself from jumping into the pools. They looked so relaxing.
The Cliffs of Moher. An absolutely terrifying place. I’m surprised a tourist doesn’t fall off every few minutes. Of course my Mom and her boyfriend had to walk up to the edge. shudder
The Colonial Williamsburg Royal Governor’s Mansion (and grounds) also lives up to the hype, IMO. The inlaid floors alone are gorgeous, not to mention the gardens and the rest of the house! I want to go see it again someday.
OK, despite the direct opposite thread, I’m throwing these out.
Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Yosemite, Sequoia Nat’l Park, Death Valley, Niagara Falls, New Orleans, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, the Smithsonian, London, Stonehenge, Scottish highlands, Dublin and the Book of Kells, Barcelona, Prague, Krakow, Tallinn, Stockholm, Fjords of Norway, Amsterdam, Paris, the Louvre, the Coliseum, the Acropolis, Bangkok, Angkor Wat, Bagan, Luang Prabang, the Great Wall, Three Gorges, Sydney, Uluru, Great Barrier Reef, Milford Sound, Capetown, Namibia dunes, Sossusvlei, Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, Zanzibar, Serengeti, Ngoro Ngoro Crater, Parc De Volcanoes, Angel Falls, Amazon River, Quito, Machu Picchu, Torres Del Paine, Iguaçu Falls and SANTA BARBARA!
I’m from the Niagara Falls area, and I still get all spazzy about it when I bring visitors there. Likewise with the Empire State Building, I will bring guests with the notion that I have to be a good hostess, and then once I get there, I’m all HEY YOU GUYS THIS BUILDING IS REALLY TALL! I swear, sometimes I feel like the Memento guy, because I’m surprised all the time by stuff I’ve already seen.
I was also blown away by the South Dakota Badlands. It was like being in an alien landscape. I was lucky when I was there, because they had just had an usually wet season, so the Badlands were in full bloom, but still with all the rocky outcroppings. Gorgeous and surreal. I was also in the part that isn’t in the actual managed national park area, so it was especially desolate and wild and all-around cool.
I’m of two minds about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. When I first got there, I was not expecting the giant tourist mall built up around the thing and had a “oh, whatever” reaction. But when I went up in the tower, I got excited again, HEY THIS TOWER IS LEANING A LOT - THEY AREN’T KIDDING! And they didn’t have any especially high guard rails or anything. That was quite a few years ago, however.
The little known, but fascinating Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Truly one of the most amazing scenery I’ve ever seen.
The Eiffel Tower. I mean, yes, it’s impressively tall, but what’s more impressive is the grandiose steampunky ironwork.
Piazza San Marco in Venice. The first time I went there was very early in the morning and I was just blown away by it. I’d seen it in a gazillion paintings, but it was just so very grand and peaceful.
I remember the first time I saw this, I was on my motorcycle going to it and saw it between a couple of hills. I stopped as well to take a picture. I stayed longer then I was planning on staying, but it was well worth it. I climbed up to the base of the tower, and would really like to climb the thing, even though I’m not into rock climbing.