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

I have three: the Sistine Chapel, the blue mountains in Australia and the penguins on Phillip Island. The latter was nearly spoilt by some Chinese tourists taking photos of the penguins even when there were many announcements both in English and Chinese telling people not to as it hurts their eyes, however on balance I think it's still worth it.

Baan Dam museum Thailand

Da Nang night market near dragon Bridge Vietnam

Marakesh market at night

Tulemben Liberty ship scuba diving Bali

Chaing Mai water festival Thailand

Drift scuba diving along enormous coral walls in warm seas

Northern lights

Scottish landscapes & weather

Glow worm caves New Zealand & Hells Gate geyser site

Tinguley museum

Egypt historic sites

Too many to mention !

The Vatican. 9pm. Dark and rainy so no one around. The rain made everything shiny and it was just stunning.

I’m not well travelled at all, and can only dream of going to some of the places mentioned so far, but my favourite place that blew me away was the Alhambra in Grenada.

Flying over Angel Falls in Venezuela was the most amazing sight ever for me (although flying back to the airport in a small 8 seater plane in torrential rain was the most terrifying experience ever).

Venice, Florence, Lake Como, etc. I think despite how busy it can be, it's difficult to not find Italy absolutely stunning.

Delphi. You have to go up early before the crowds. It's like nothing else I've ever experienced.
Capri, away from the crowds it's just beautiful.
The Palatine hill in Rome.
Venice, most of it.
The French riviera - mostly not that expensive, and away from the big name places beautiful and full of French people on holiday in the summer.

The Wild Atlantic Way. It never stops being a feast for the eyes. Sunset at 10pm in June in Galway is something you have to witness.

The Duomo in Milan. You come out of the metro station and it’s just there and it’s breathtaking.

Phoenix Park in Dublin. A park that size in the middle of a city and the deer just roaming around.

I do have to mention St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, both absolutely stunning!

DH & I had a four day child free trip to London and decided to visit places we hadn’t been to. It allowed us to really soak up the atmosphere, no rushing around due to dc being bored!

I felt quite emotional after seeing so many events from these two beautiful buildings. So much history in both too.

Also loved our tour guide around Highgate Cemetery, would definitely go again.

I was coming in to say Westminster Abbey! We spent about 4 hours there, it was amazing. Yes, busy but still far more extraordinary that I was expecting.

The Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an.
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Abu Simbel and Karnak Temples, Egypt
Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

I’d love to see these! We went to the standing stones in Lewis which were amazing. We were the only ones at one visit, but when we went again we were surrounded by American tourists taking pics and videos ‘for the ‘gram’ 😆

A bit more local but

The Kelpies in Scotland
Northumberland beaches
National Gallery in London - one picture - Whistlejacket

And a bit further away

Chicago - the whole city. Loved it all, especially the waterways, cityscape and the L

The UK has lots of gems.
Mull and the islands near it - such wonderful wildlife. The outer Hebrides, especially north uist and south Harris.

This year we’ve been constrained in where we could go by health issues but were delighted by Conwy - lovely town encircled by its wall with a magnificent castle and a very interesting Tudor courtyard house, nice shops and places to eat, little harbour, shore walk.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Definitely worth the stifling heat and 3am rise.

Glen Coe and The Outer Hebrides (Lewis and Harris), Scotland. We were there for 10 days in perfect weather (unheard of), otherworldly.

Tokyo. The sheer size is hard to comprehend, total culture shock, such an interesting place.

The Charleston glow worm caves in South Island NZ. This is less touristy than Waitomo but still an attraction. Tubing in the pitch black whilst seeing thousands of glow worms twinkling above you was quite something.

Sunrise at Fountains Abbey.( Ripon Cathedral is pretty impressive too). I was invited to a special event at Fountains, especially for sunrise.

I cried in the Mezquita in Cordoba and St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest. I was also really moved in the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. I'm not particularly religious but that was the greatest sense of faith experienced.

Walking into Rovinj, the first evening, took my breath away.

And Anne Frank’s house! Quite bare, nobody visiting spoke at all. It was such an emotional experience. My usually unmoved teenage DS was so interested and involved.
When we returned home we saw the stage play and that was similar, nobody spoke leaving the theatre.

Watching the sun rise over Machu Picchu.

Agree with Ephesus, loved it so much we’ve been twice and we were lucky enough to visit Pamukkale in the early 90s when you could walk freely around! Bloody slippy though!

Yes - eg if you want to see Knossos, stay in Heraklion and get the bus there to arrive for opening. We were second in, hardly anyone else there for a good hour or so till the coaches started rolling in.
The museum in Heraklion is very good too - we wandered round for hours, circling back to gaze at those wonderful wall paintings.

A common denominator seems to be places when they’re quieter with fewer tourists (either because of the timing or because numbers are restricted).

I've been to so many it's hard to pick one, but I agree with this. Dawn at Machu Picchu for example - very quiet as most tourists haven't arrived yet. But one of my favourites was Abu Simbel, which most people see at a time overrun by tourists. But we were on Lake Nasser and the only boat tied up at the dock overnight there. Went to the sound and light in the evening, but next morning we got on the site as it opened. Literally the 40 of us were swamped by the place and we got to wonder through the chambers and corridors at liberty pretty much alone. Magical.

Krakow Salt Mine. Absolutely incredible.

Ancient standing stones on Orkney ( older than Stonehenge) and free. There was no else there when I went and there’s a nearby ancient settlement to explore. I found it fascinating. It really drew me in.

Alcatraz in San Francisco. We were there for a couple of days and decided it would be somehting to do for a few hours, but it was genuinely amazing! They had an audio guide that you listened to on headphones that was narrated by the former governor, wardens and inmates etc and some of it was spine tingling!

On the boat over to the island we were sat next to an old man and what we thought was his daughter so we were just chatting away to him about our holiday, where we're from etc. After we did the tour we went to the gift shop and he was there doing a book signing - his own book about his time as an inmate on Alcatraz!

Petra
Cairo pyramids
Grand Canyon
Niagra Falls

You can look at pictures and videos but you don’t get the full impact until you see sights like that yourself. They’re awe inspiring.

The cloud forest in Costa Rica. I knew it would be enchanting, but it was SO magnificent. Took my breath away.