Portofino,Italy

Portofino is a small fisherman village in Italy

Portofino is an Italian fishing village, and upmarket resort famous for its picturesque harbour and historical association with celebrity visitors.

Portofino is a small fisherman village, which is sheltered by the sea. This landscape looks incredibly attractive especially in the evenings when its time for the sun to set. The best thing about this landscape is that its not too large and all beaches are at most a walk away. Moreover, the most notable thing about Portofino is its lifestyle. Hence, it is appreciated by artists and visited by Hollywood stars and millionaires. There are some tourist shops for casual browsing as well as posh boutiques from some of the most well known designers of the world.

Similarly, dining options have as much of a variety. Tourists could opt to eat simple Italian food as well as go for fine dining. It’s extremely important for tourists to remember that dinner doesn’t begin until 8pm in Portofino and the weekends tend to get busy so if you want to eat at a specific place over the weekends, you’d have to make reservations in advance. A lot of people associate wine with Italian food and the fact that this place is known for some unique wine cannot come as a surprise. But non-alcoholic beverages and soft drinks are readily available as well.

Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, US

Built as a marketplace and meeting hall in 1742, Faneuil Hall is a popular tourist attraction in Boston. The building was mostly burnt down in a fire in 1761, but it was rebuilt the following year, and later expanded in 1805. Today, Faneuil Hall consists of three buildings: North Market, Quincy Market, and South Market, which feature a variety of shops and restaurants. While sometimes criticized as a tourist trap, the Quincy Marketplace Colonnade offers stalls full of merchants selling locally produced food and goods, homemade treats, coffee, and more.

The site, sometimes known as the “Cradle of Liberty,” is operated as a Boston National Historic Park. It was the site of several historic speeches and is just one stop along the Freedom Trail.

In addition to the shops and restaurants, live entertainment is commonly seen throughout the year, and includes jugglers and mimes, acrobats, magicians and musicians, as well as many festivals.

Space Center Houston

Johnson Space Center, Huston

Space Center Houston is the visitor center of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, which is NASA’s center for spaceflight activities. The Space Center is open to the public, displaying many artifacts and exhibits that educate visitors about the history and accomplishments of NASA. The Space Center is one of Houston’s biggest attractions, and was designed with the assistance of Disney Imagineers, helping make it an interactive and educational center for people of all ages.
Some of the important space artifacts housed at Space Center Houston include the Mercury 9 and Gemini 5 capsules, Apollo 17, and the Lunar Rover. Soon the space shuttle Explorer mockup will join these other artifacts at the Houston Space Center.
Other attractions in the Space Center include theaters that show films about spaceflight adventures and shuttle launches, and exhibits with displays of famous astronaut spacesuits, artifacts from spaceflights, and spaceship hardware.

The NASA Tram Tour takes visitors on a tour of the actual working Johnson Space Center for a behind-the-scenes look at the technology and equipment development facilities as well as astronaut training facilities. The Kids Space Place is a space-themed play area with interactive exhibits that let visitors explore space, including a demonstration of how it feels to be in space.

Yosemite National Park in USA

Yosemite National Park in USA

Yosemite was one of the first wilderness parks established in the United States, and today is the third most visited in the country with about 4 million annual visitors. Yosemite offers scenic landscapes, giant sequoias, and outdoor adventures like hiking, climbing, camping, and kayaking. While Yosemite has many waterfalls to check out, Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in North America at 739 meters (2,425 feet). Half Dome is a famous landmark of Yosemite National Park, which visitors can climb the 8.2 miles to the top.

Churche of Chiloe in Chile

Churche of Chiloe (UNESCO World Heritage) in Chile

The Churches of Chiloé are a group of churches located in the  Chiloé Archipelago within Chile, constructed from native wood, in a fusion of indigenous and European cultural traditions. The ecclesiastical architecture used in the Churches of Chiloé stems from the tradition from the Jesuit Peripatetic Mission of the 17th and 18th centuries, and later in 19th century carried on by the Franciscans.

The Churches of Chiloé exemplify the blending of nature and architecture, with the use of natural materials to remain in harmony with the natural landscapes. Jesuit missionaries of the Society of Jesus arrived in the Chiloé Archipelago around 1608, sending members to evangelize to the native people and eventually began constructing these churches for its missionaries. The structures the Jesuits built were in the tradition of the indigenous people, using materials and methods found in the region, whose people were farmers and fishermen. The Jesuits were expelled in 1767, and the missionary work was taken over by the Franciscan order, until colonial rule ended.

Over 100 of these churches were constructed, though only 50 to 60 remain today. The churches are built along the shores of Chiloé Archipelago, which stretches from Chacao Canal to the Corcovado Gulf. The architecture is remarkable for the porticos, tower façades, and hints of Classical, Renaissance, and Baroque architectural styles, incorporating the indigenous traditions as well.

Cueva de las Manos in Aegentina

Cueva de las Manos or Cave of hands in province of Santa Cruz, Argentina

Cueva de las Manos, meaning “cave of the hands” in Spanish, is a series of famous paintings on the walls of caves. Located in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina, the cave paintings date back to between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago, and were created by the hunter-gatherer people who resided in Patagonia. These communities were some of the earliest in South America, making this site very important. The caves were inhabited by several waves of people, though the most recent of these were probably ancestors of the Tehuelche people around 700 CE.

Archaeologists have found that the cave dwellers used pipes carved from bones to spray paint the cave walls, using their hands as stencils to create hundreds of silhouettes of their hands in varying shades of red, purple, yellow, and brown. Most of the hands are left hands, suggesting that the artists were right handed, and painted their own hands.

There is also art featuring humans and animals in hunting scenes, with the indigenous guanacos and rheas, as well as abstract designs like shapes and zigzags. The hunters are depicted using bolas, their traditional hunting weapons.

Bryce Canyon National Park in USA

Bryce Canyon National Park at Utah in United States

Bryce Canyon National Park in southwestern Utah is one of the best places to understand the tremendous force Nature is. At the heart of the national park is the Bryce Canyon, a collection of huge domes or amphitheaters dug out by the multitude of short-lived streams that crisscross the region. The largest and most striking among these is the Bryce Amphitheater which spans over six square miles.

The rock spires that have been formed by the erosive effects of water and wind on the sedimentary rocks of this region are called the hoodoos. Over a million visitors head to the Bryce Canyon Park each year. While most of them come here to take a hike down the rugged trails, there are also the daring sorts who take a horseback rides down the canyon and commune with the wilderness.

The national park is located at the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, the peaks tower at a height of about 8,000 to 9,000 feet from the base of the canyon. The western tableland is thickly forested while the eastern ridges feature a sharp bare drop straight to Paria Valley, 2,000 feet below.

Covering an area of over 35,835 acres, the Bryce Canyon National Park provides visitors spectacular views of the red, orange and white stone formations and of the breathtaking sunrises and sunsets that can be witnessed here. For millions of years, the rocks of the canyon have expanded and contracted to the frost and the steam giving birth to a stunning landscape and a coveted tourist destination in Utah.

Lago de Atitln in Guatemala

Lago de Atitln Guatemala

A crater lake (and an endorheic lake, meaning it does not flow into the sea), Lago de Atitln is the deepest lake in Central America, with a maximum depth 340 meters (1,115 feet). The lake is surrounded by the Maya people, whose towns offer a view into the local culture.

Three volcanoes loom over the southern bank of the lake, called San Pedro, Tolimn, and Atitln. The Atitln Lake formed after a volcanic eruption 84,000 years ago, its name meaning “at the water” in the local Nahuatl language. The volcanoes have left rich soils that are great for the cultivation of typical Central American crops, including coffee and squash, and support a variety of wildlife.

 Visitors to the lake can participate in many types of water activities, including swimming, diving, and kayaking. Other activities include tours of the volcanoes and hikes around the lake, and experiencing the local culture and markets in the towns.

Monument Valley in USA

A Picture from The Monument Valley at Arizona, United States

Monument Valley is a sweeping but desolate landscape within the precincts of the Navajo Indian Reservation on the Utah-Arizona border. The Monument Valley represents the quintessentially American West with the towering mesas and buttes breaking the monotony with bright reds and flaming oranges. Monument Valley has been extensively filmed and is the favorite backdrop of most Hollywood Westerns.

The sandstone buttes that interrupt the terrain reach up hundreds of feet, the largest rising over 1,000 feet from the ground. The region is itself part of the Colorado Plateau and the general elevation is between 5,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level. A drive or a horse-ride through the 17-mile will take you through some of the most spectacular parts of Monument Valley such as the Hunts Mesa and the Mystery Valley.

Overnight camping trips, hot air balloon flights, and small airplane flights are often available over the peak tourist season from May through September. The eroded sandstone cliffs, the ancient cave dwellings, and monuments take visitors into a long forgotten time

Amazon River in Brazil

The Amazon River – Second Largest River in the World

The Amazon River, located in South America, is the second longest river in the world. It flows through Guyana, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru traversing a distance of about 4,000 miles or about 6,400 kilometers. While for the major part, the river runs through dense rainforests, some populous and large cities have sprung up on its banks. The largest among these cities is Manaus in Brazil with a population of over 1.7 million people. The Central Amazon Conservation Complex along the Amazon Basin is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.

The Amazon basin rainforest is one of the most bio diverse places on earth and is home to a number of freshwater species including over 3,000 different fish species. The world’s largest variety of electric fish, the Amazonian manatee, the black caiman, and Amazonian river dolphins live in the Amazon River. Going by drainage, the Amazon River is the largest in the world. It is so large that the river and its tributaries contain 20% of the planet’s freshwater supply. The river rises to about 30 feet during the monsoons, its rich alluvium settles in the surrounding floodplain soils, while the water fills up the lakes and lagoons through its course. The river drains over 7,381,000 cubic foot of water into the Atlantic Ocean each second.

During the monsoons, the width of the Amazon River can reach over 30 miles (50 kilometers). With over 1,100 tributaries, it comes as little wonder that the Amazon is called The River Sea. The Amazon basin rainforests are known for the various medicinal herbs and minerals available here. While the uses of many of these are known to the indigenous tribes, researchers from across the world are discovering more and more beneficial substances here.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial in USA

Mount Rushmore National Memorial at South Dakota,USA

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial on Mount Rushmore is located near Keystone in South Dakota, USA. It is one of the most iconic monuments representing the United States internationally. Set against the impressive granite background of the Black Hills the huge sculptures of America’s four iconic United States presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln – stand out in a rare display of historic grandeur.
These 60-foot high carvings, 500-feet feet up the hills, were sculpted by the well-known Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and later by his son, Lincoln Borglum. The Mount Rushmore Memorial covers 1,278 acres and is about 5,725 feet above sea level.

The idea of creating the sculpture was the brainchild of Doane Robinson, a well-known South Dakota historian. Robinson believed that a mammoth carving on the Black Hills in South Dakota would attract much tourist interest in the state. He worked with John Boland, President Calvin Coolidge, Congressman William Williamson, and other leaders to secure funding. Needles was the site initially suggested to house these mammoth monuments. Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor, however believed that Mount Rushmore was a better choice due to its excellent quality granite. Robinson had initially envisaged it to feature local western heroes such as Lewis and Clark, and Buffalo Bill Cody but once again Borglum stepped in and suggested that the sculpture be given a Pan-American focus.

Construction work started in 1927, and the sculpture was completed in 1941. Gutzon Borglum’s death in March 1941 left the sculpture to an uncertain fate but his son Lincoln Borglum took over till the end of work in October 1941. Nearly three million visitors are known to visit Mount Rushmore annually.

The construction of the sculpture at Mt. Rushmore cost $989,992.32 in all. The cave behind the sculpture is called the “Hall of Records” and was initially intended to house the historic relics associated with the monument but could not be completed due to lack of funding. Mount Rushmore has been over seen by the National Park Service since 1933, even as the sculpture was being constructed