Among the most beautiful places in the world, you’ll find black-sand beaches and blue ice caves, granite peaks and glacial ice, the City of Light and a city carved in stone. They include both Mother Nature’s handiwork as well as beauty crafted by human hands. And though this list is an ode to earth’s biggest blockbusters, some of the sights are so perplexingly pretty (mountains that seem to float, an ancient citadel that sits more than 7,000 feet above the sea, tunnels made entirely of bamboo) that you might suspect we’ve slipped in picks from other planets—we swear we haven’t.
Keep this list handy for planning your next bucket-list adventure. Here are 21 reasons to plan a trip and soak up some truly superlative sights.
