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[travelmonster]

The 10 Most Beautiful Places on Earth
by www.SixWise.com

Few things compare to the beauty of nature, and the earth is home to countless enchanting, serene and beautiful places. You surely have your own favorites, whether they are larger-scale locations or as simple as the rock garden you created in your backyard or the tree-lined street you grew up on.

Below are our choices for the top-ten most beautiful on a larger scale (and admittedly we haven't been everywhere!) ... be sure to share YOUR choice for the most beautiful physical place on earth at the end of this article!



1. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Carved by millions of years of water and wind, the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring 5,000-feet deep, 277 miles long and 18 miles wide. Probably the United State's most well-known national park, the Grand Canyon is home to plateaus, hills, gorges, trails and the Colorado River, all set in one of the most impressive backdrops imaginable.

If your jaw doesn't drop when you first witness the Grand Canyon, it likely won't drop anywhere.


2. Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii

Located in south Kauai, Hawaii, Poipu Beach is a collection of beaches with golden sand and gentle surf, perfect for swimming, snorkeling and relaxing. Depending on where you are, you can experience water only inches deep (Baby Beach), incredible snorkeling with tropical fish, Hawaiian Monk Seals, and further up the coast Spouting Horn, a spout of seawater forced 50 feet into the air by a lava tube.


3. Ninh Van Bay, Nha Trang, Vietnam

This bay, overlooking the South China Sea, is still relatively untouched and very private. Its beach is accessible only by boat, and the bay is known for its coral reefs, white sand, rock formations, streams and scenic mountains in the background.


4. Arches National Park, Utah

Home to the most natural arches in the world, Arches draws visitors to its stunning balanced rocks, fins and pinnacles, sandstone arches and other rock formations, located in a "high desert," 4,085 to 5,653 feet above sea level.


5. Blue Mountain Peak, Jamaica

The highest point in Jamaica at 7,402 feet, from which you can see much of the island, as well as Cuba and Haiti. The mountains are surrounded by a mist, giving them their blue hue, and are home to vast numbers of butterflies, birds and flowering plants. They're also located in the heart of Jamaica's coffee country, which grows the world-famous Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee.


6. Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tanzania

Covering some 8,300 square kilometers, the NCA is a unique blend of wildlife, natural landscapes and archaeological sites. It has volcanoes and rifts, a crack in the earth's crust that can result in steep cliffs, over 20,000 large animals, and the volcanic Ngorongoro crater, 7,264 feet above sea level.


7. Mount Fuji, Japan

Japan's highest mountain, at 3,776 meters, is a favorite place to watch the sunrise, so it's not uncommon for hikers to climb all through the night and early morning to reach the summit in time. As its near-perfect shape suggests, Mount Fuji is actually a dormant volcano (it last erupted in 1708) that is regarded as a sacred mountain.


8. The Florida Keys and U.S. 1

Traveling down U.S. 1 from Key Largo to Key West, you are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. The stunning views of the water, with nothing to obstruct the view (the highest point is 18 feet above sea level), lends the surreal feeling of walking on water and the humbling experience of just how big and powerful the oceans are.


9. Napa Valley, California

This California wine country offers breathtaking views of expansive vineyards, rolling hills, and green, lush countryside -- some of the most serene settings in the United States.


10. El Yunque Rainforest, Puerto Rico

Located in eastern Puerto Rico, El Yunque is a mountainous, semi-tropical rainforest with many rivers, waterfalls, pools and streams that provide a sanctuary for wildlife, including the Puerto Rican Parrot, lizards, crabs and tree frogs, and plant life like giant ferns, orchids and bromeliads.


Does anyone have any to add or any that they think shouldn't be on this list?

[sianeth]

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays, Australia

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

although I will of course have to go all to the places on the list to consider their worth

[travelmonster]

I saw your photographs of Plitvice Lakes, Croatia - it does look beautiful, I want to go there some day.

I'm going to Ngorongoro for a few days in October, so I'll get some pics of that.

[sianeth]

Awesome!

Yeah some of the pics on google image searches are amazing... persuaded me that I had to go!

[rbisset]

that's a very USA orientated list. I wouldn't class the Grand Canyon as a beautiful place at all! It's just a big hole in the desert!!

[travelmonster]

Its all down to perspective I guess - I've been to the Grand Canyon and thought it was beautiful - then again though, natural beauty is the thing I cherish most.

[ScottWoz]

For natural beauty, I've gotta say New Zealand. It's the stuff off fairytales..

[travelmonster]

I can't wait to get to New Zealand, it looks truly beautiful - and nearer the time, I would like your advice on a few things!!!

[ScottWoz]

Anytime and always..

[travelmonster]

[starlagurl]

Awesome!

Yeah some of the pics on google image searches are amazing... persuaded me that I had to go!

Holyyyyyyyyyy crap that's amazing

[travelmonster]

Looks wonderful doesn't it. Definitely somewhere I'd like to go.

[exploreamerica]

I have made it to half of those on the list...so far.


That picture of the waterfalls is amazing!! Did one of you take that with your camera or was it copied from a professional site? Absolutely terrific.
Will you also tell me where that is?


Thirdly, I must disagree completely with that hole in the ground comment for the Grand Canyon. Every time I lay my eyes on the Grand Canyon something overtakes my entire body. Everything slows down and I am entranced with the beauty before me. Every minute that I view it I see a different view as the sun constantly changes the color of that "hole in the ground". On top of its immense beauty, it is a place of adventure and activity that make it even more rewarding. I am an avid whie water rafter and hvae proably done around 30 rivers all over the world, but the adventure of the Colorado and the feeling of being completely lost to the entire world inside of that canyon was something I feel I will never achieve again. I have also hiked down and up in one day (one damn long day) and the feeling of accomplishment and the fact that it was done in a place of beauty will stay with me always.


Finally, I am jealous of you Scott (for maybe one million reasons) and I wish one day to see the beauty of New Zealand as I have heard from anyone who knows just how amazing it is.


Another finally...how about Swutzerland? Sure Switzerland deserves to be mentioned when it comes to beauty.

[sianeth]

No I didn't take the photo! Its from vagabondish.com, not sure who took it. But I went there pretty recently, and it does actually look exactly like that, absolutely unreal! My pictures are here if you wanna see, don't feel like they do it all justice though!
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...18280/tpod.html

Its Plitvice Lakes in Croatia - as soon as I saw that photo I wanted to go!

And also, I love Switzerland, it is absolutely gorgeous, but just the whole place in general I feel, not sure I can pinpoint one spot.

[exploreamerica]

Your pictures are terrific too. How did you get the aerial views?

On a separate note, how do you insert your pictures? I don't know if you have ever seen any of my pages but always use the weave program, but I never see anyone else insert that way. Your way looks much better. I spend hours on Scott's site and I know he inserts the same way as you.

Probably within seconds of my posting this Jaques will read it in his TravelPod bat cave and help me once again with one of these technological issues but I was just curious because it is a nicer way of displaying.

Back to Switzerland, Davos and Closters are a start and Trumelbach Falls was terrific.

[sianeth]

Takes a bit longer, but if you have the time I think its worth it.

I replied to someone in another thread in the support forum about how I do it...

To be fair - you don't really need to know html, you just copy and paste someone else's code and then add in your photo links.

If you ever want to see the code for any web page, click View on your top toolbar, and then Page Source, and it will come up.

Then copy the code you want and add your own stuff in... magic.

So if you wanna put photos in... This is the code that allows people to click on the smaller photo and have it pop up fullsize in another window...

<a href="PAGE LINK HERE"><img height="PHOTO HEIGHT HERE" src="PHOTO LINK HERE, JPG" alt="PHOTO TITLE HERE"></a>

To vary the size of the photos, mess around with the img height... changing the height will also alter the width in proportion, automatically.

So this is an example of code I recently used in one of my blogs...

<a href="http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/sianeth/9/1212685920/border-crossing.jpg/tpod.html"><img height="150" src="http://images.travelpod.com/users/sianeth/9.1212685920.border-crossing.jpg" alt="Border Crossing"></a>

This is the entry if you wanna see how it turns out:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entri...web_UID=sianeth

Hope this helps - let me know if there's any probs etc.

[sianeth]

Sorry, missed your other question the first time round... the waterfalls are down in a valley, the aerial views just come from climbing up to the top.

The view on the vagabondish picture I posted above must have come from a boat or helicopter or something because there wasn't anywhere you could see the falls from that angle when I visited.

[exploreamerica]

thank you and thank you

[kili-kelly]

Ngorongoro is beautiful, but I think that other places like Big Sur would rate higher in my mind. A place that stays in my mind is in Partenkirchen, Germany named Partnachklamm. I got up in the middle of the night to hike to Blue Mountain Summit to be there in time for sunrise. The weather was beautiful the whole way up until the last half hour. The fog was so thick I could not even see my hand in front of my face. I stayed there as long as I could (colder than you would imagine and in clothes drenched in sweat from the hike) but had to give up and head back down. About half way down, I did get some good views eventually.

[rdtogg]

You should also check out Guilin, China. I'm going for the first time in August. In China its considered the most picturesque city in the country. There are Chinese sayings along the lines of "Guilin's scenery is the best under heaven." The countryside there just looks amazing.