To ask what tourist sites you’ve visited that met or exceeded expectations?

This thread is really making my feet itch. September is such a tying-you-down month when you have kids!

The Lincoln memorial in Washington DC (Washington in general really). I was there on memorial weekend so it was v busy but is massive and built for crowds so it didn't hamper the experience, unusually. It just looked exactly like it was supposed to, if you see what I mean.

I live in London but every time I see the Rosetta stone I am blown away. Just imagining being the person who found it and slowly realising it was the key... to human civilization. Like the best puzzle ever.

Prague, Rome, Venice, Salzburg, Bruges.

Cappadocia.

The Pont du Gard. We did a tour and unexpectedly got to walk through the narrow Roman water channel at the very top, with 2 feet of limescale on each side.

Mont Blanc - just so big and beautiful. Apparently one of the most 'prominent' mountains in the world, including the Himalayas, as it's so much higher than its surroundings.

Would love to visit the American West canyons, national parks, deserts when DC is older and I feel brave enough to spend all the money! Also Corsica, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, NZ, central America...😄

The Old City of Sana'a (Yemen) was incredible when DH and I visited about 22 years ago. Babylon (Iraq) was also amazing as was Persepolis (Iran). The Winter Palace (Russia) was beautiful, but not quite as awe-inspiring.

Obviously you can't go to any of them anymore, but it was incredible.

The Houses of Parliament. Absolutely gorgeous inside. We booked the audio-guided tour and walked around at our own pace, ended up spending over 2 hours there - it was so informative and fascinating!

I did a helicopter flight over the Canadian Rockies in April. Absolutely humbling and brought tears to my eyes.

Also the Grand Canyon, couldn't tear my eyes away and driving through the tunnel in Yosemite and seeing the valley for the first time.

Venice
Bhutan
The landscapes of Iceland (I was a bit underwhelmed by Reykjavik)
Easter Island - so many small, but interesting archaeological sites and a couple of great beaches.

Vermeer’s view of Delft and Girl with a Pearl Earring in the Mauritshuis in Den Haag. Blew me away.

Niagara Falls (I know the town is tacky but the boat ride was great).

Top of the Rock, NY at dusk.

Monastery of the Jeronimós, Lisbon.

Canadian Rockies though busy.

The drive through glencoe, stunning.

Taj Mahal is one of mine too. I’ve seen a million pictures of course and it did feel a bit like somewhere you just have to tick off your list of sights…but WOW. I was quite overcome. We were there for dawn and while it was still busy you could find quieter spots quite easily.

On a similar theme of “it’s one of the wonders of the world, obviously it’s going to be impressive!” - The Great Wall of China. You think you know what you are going to see but the actual experience of seeing it blew me away. I don’t know exactly how (we went early, it was a miserable rainy day, we might have gone to a slightly less popular spot or a less popular time of year?) but there wasn’t another soul there. I’ve seen so many pictures when it is thronged with tourists and I was so glad to be able to take it all in without being jostled by 100s of others.

Finally - Yosemite National Park was one of the most jaw dropping natural environments I have ever seen.

I love history so am perhaps easy to please! My top ones are Ephesus, the Parthenon (first thing in the morning, before the crowds), the Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, the Terracotta warriors in Xian ... and the best by far was Borobodur (I could go on 😂)

A couple of China ones:

The Great Wall at Mutianyu. Spectacular views and walking and very few other visitors when we went. The other more famous section near Beijing, Badaling, can also be nice, but it’s harder to avoid by crowds (as it’s more convenient to get to).

The Terracotta Warriors: Seeing the 6000 warriors, horses etc in the biggest hall is incredible and awe inspiring.

Petra
Was there at sunset so it was just pure Arabian nights, magical.

The Golden Temple, Amritsar. It was busy but with pilgrims not so many like us just tourists.
For us it is extra memorable, it was the original building before the Indian Army shelled it. Bastards!

Seville Cathedral, incredible to think of the work which went into it .

Grand Canyon. When we went down in the helicopter I felt like I was travelling back to when the dinosaurs were around.
Great Wall of China also stunning. You can see it wiggling off into the distance.
Minack Theatre in West Cornwall is adorable.

Lake Superior from the Canadian side. I walked down a tiny sliver of sand with the lake on both sides. It was so massive, it's hard to believe it's a lake.
When I got to the end of the sand bar the water went from pale blue to dark in about a foot and something big swam in front of my toes. Absolutely amazing. Very few people about. It was around 35 years ago now.

Another vote for the Grand Canyon. I didn't even want to go - "It's just a valley after all" - and then I saw it

Also Venice and Paris; so many sights are a disappointment when you finally get to see them, but these are the two places which were exactly as I'd always imagined them

The Alhambra for me too. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited and on the day I was there the smell of the roses just helped towards the specialness of it. I hope to go again.

A cemetery in Thailand on a tour to the Death Railway. We were a small group of 6 . Two ladies from Manchester, us and a German couple who remained by the minibus.
it was so quiet. The inscriptions on the gravestones were so moving. Some of them probably had no real idea what the men had gone through and maybe few had had the chance to visit the graves. I felt quite privileged to be able to do so.

Bryce Canyon in Utah.

The Grand Canyon was amazing but I expected it to be, iyswim. Whereas I knew nothing about Bryce and when I saw it for the first time, it was so unexpectedly breathtaking.

I went there as a child (about 7?) and it made a huge impact on me. I remember when we went back to school and had to draw pictures of where we went for our summer holidays everyone else drew beach scenes and I attempted to draw this abbey on a hill and everyone laughed at it . I really want to go back, and my DH has never been, but I'm also worried about it being too busy and being ruined for me.

Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt. We went in 2017; tourism had plummeted, we had the entire place to ourselves. I’d wanted to go since I was a really little girl- it was so good I cried!

Taking the 30-40 minute panoramic Mont Blanc cable car across from the top of the Aguile du Midi in Chamonix to Pointe Helbronner in Italy. It’s stunningly beautiful and so peaceful - especially of you get the car to yourself (max 4)

Chichén Itzá, Mexico
it was incredible

Petra in Jordan. Again, especially the day we spent exploring ourselves a little away from the central area. Just incredible.