"wooooooowwwwwwww"
Starting at age 10 the first time I saw Mt Rushmore.

What has made me say it since:

Preah Khan with the light just right and no one else around.
the Scavi Tour.
First boat ride on the Mekong River, in Lao.
Seville during La Feria, the dancing, the bullfights.
Swimming in the water, looking at Dubrovnik.
David.
Munich to Budapest on the overnight train in heavy snow.
Hale-Bopp Comet sighting in Courmayeur.
Upper meadows at Yosemite National Park in the springtime, circa 1973.
Nurnberg Christmas Market on a snowy evening.
Hall of Mirrors, Palace at Versailles.
Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.
Amalfi.

the price of gas in Norway....!

Wow

First look into the south rim of the Grand canyon

Staring up the face of the Wickersham wall, Mt Denali(McKinley), while also watching a grizzly mom and cubs meander down the mountainside about 100 yds away

Sunrise at the top of Haleakala

Angkor Wat at sunset

Full moon rising over Hanalei Bay, Kauai

Aloha!

I forgot to add...Vietri...Amalfi Coast Italy...1979. Happy Travels!

I mean...1977. Happy Travels!

Oooh... My wows...

-London, every time! Tower of London is a special "wow" of its own.
-Venice
-Sydney, specifically the Opera House and Harbour Bridge
-The Whitsunday Islands, Australia
-Amsterdam
-Maui, especially the Road to Hana

Happy Travels!

Cruisinred just reminded me, Capri was a big Wow. It's where I first fell in love with the Mediterrenean.

I'm amazed at the number of Wows for Paris. It seems to be quite a winner.

My original post described recent experiences. Many of you have related experiences over the last 3 or 4 decades. So I will relate my own "wow" experiences long past:

1970
Visiting and singing in the great cathedrals and churches of England with my church choir: Westminster Abbey, Canturbury Cathedral, King's College Cambridge and several others.

1980
Backpacking through Europe: hiking to the snow line at Grindelwald, Switzerland, motor biking around Corfu, Greece, visiting the Nazi prison camp at Dachau outside of Munich, Germany

1984
First trip to Asia - Hong Kong

1988
First safari in Kenya

1990
Honeymoon - Hawaii, especially our helicopter tour over the Big Island.

1995
Second safari in Kenya (with Jeane this time)

1998
Antalya, Turkey - buying rugs at prices far below those in Istanbul and with none of the hassle.

Wows, really wows:
Bali - inland
Siem Reap
Crete
Athens
Zermatt
Hong Kong
Singapore
Shirakawa-go/Gokayama
Grand Canyon
Cappadocia (so long ago I can't spell it anymore)

Wows, so so wows:
Bangkok
Kyoto
Tokyo
New York
Valeko Turnovo, Bulgaria

Not wows at all:
Paris
Naxos, Greece
Bali - beaches

One more -

1992
Snorkeling at Cozumel and flying to Chichen Itza.

1993
Our mule ride into the Grand Canyon should be on the list of wows as well. (The not wow would be the saddle sores I ended up with!)

I've been to Paris twice - in honor of Bob, I will mention that the D'orsay would be high on the list. However Needham Common would not be...

Wow locations:
Kyoto
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Bay of Kotor, Montenegro
Rome
Berchtesgaden/Bavarian Alps

Not Wowed at all by:
Florence

I've been to many places that have been amazing but not necessarily "wow" amazing.

Tracy

rhkkmk, d'orsay museum. Funny you mention that. Several years ago, went there with several friends and their kids. For the life of them they could not pronounce the name. It will forever be called the Doris Day Museum.

WOW- reading EKSCRUNCHY's food reports!

i forgot venice X 3.....capri in the late 60's

While I've been there/done that on 6 continents with most of the above "WOW's", I agree with Craig that the mule ride down the Grand Canyon has to remain one of the great adventures in life. (Yes, I've done the slow boat down the Mekong, seen Ankor Wat, etc., etc). Until you've experienced the canyon on a mule or hiked it, you truly can't compare it to anything else!! For what's it's worth, I'm 59 and did the trip when I was 23 before I had ever left the USA.

Ok so now we are going back decades so here goes:

NON WOW:
Living in New Jersey thru my college years.

WOW:
Landing in (and moving to) San Francisoc. The plane left Newark (what a cesspool that place is) and I saw oil refineries then as I approach SF I saw the Golden Gate!

Wows:
-Mirror Lake Highway in Utah
-Sonoma, Napa, Coastal region from San Francisco to Mendocino
-brownstones architecture in Chicago
-Kauai
-Daintree rainforest in Cairns, Australia
-rice fields in Bali
-Paris, more wow with every visit (been there 5 times)
-eastern end of Crete
-Egypt: Luxor and Hurghada (first time scuba diving in clear sapphire blue water with 200 ft visibility)
-All of Switzerland
-Florence, Lake Como, Bergamo, Capri, Amalfi Coast, Ambrosiana Museum in Milan, Italy
-Coullioure and Carcassonne, France
-Amsterdam, especially from canal tour, great architecture
-Bruges
-Yangzte river cruise, Old Town Shanghai, Beijing, China
-the British museum in London
-the Caribbean especially Saba, Playa St. Martin in Cozumel (only that beach), St. Bart, Eleuthera.
-Bora Bora


Biggest wow: white water rafting in Nepal on the way from Kathmandu to Chitwan jungle and Pokhara. Elephant ride to hunt (with camera) black rhinos in the Chitwan jungle.

not wow:

Athens
Pisa
Germany (so far)
Bangkok
Karachi, Pakistan (Big Not Wow!!)
Nassau, Bahamas
Papeete, Tahiti
St. Thomas

picnic & kiss @ La Tour Effel @ 18
Swan Lake performed outside the Louvre
Rome then and now
Venice X3
lucy vincent beach- chilmark, mass.
yosemite
Utah mountain wildflowers
Lake O'hare- Canadian Rockies
Sailing into Bora Bora
Snorkeling off ocean reef in Fiji
Bangkok
Southern shore of Crete

NOT WOW:
Palermo, Sicily
London with no $$$
Moorea
Athens (just a short stay)

Wow:
Siam Reap
Railey Beach-including a private day on a junk beach hopping and snorkling with a chef on-board
The service at The Oriental Bangkok
Sunrise at Haleakala
Hana Maui
Lake Powell on a houseboat
Driving the PCH from SF to San Diego
Skiing in 3 feet of powder at Grand Targhee after a 6 hour drive from hell in a blinding snowstorm

Not:
Paradise Island

WOWS
The beaches of Anguilla

The first sight of Venice after exiting the train station

Interlaken, Switzerland

Frieberg, Germany

The Romantic Road, Germany

Dingle, Ireland

The North Coast of Ireland

Muir Woods and Highway 1, N. Coast of California

The Golden Gate Bridge

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado

Islands off the coast of Washington State & Pueget Sound

Top Wows
Alaska (the entire state)
Bagan (Mynamar)
Bago (Mynamar)
*Myanmar as a whole was wow-able back in 1996
Canadian Rockies
Florence
Grand Canyon
Kanchenjunga (Sikkim, India)
Mongolia (but not Ulan Bator)
Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona
Taj Mahal (India, but see below)
Tianshan mountains (Urumqi, China)
Varanasi
Venice
Yangshuo (China)


Thailand will always be special - my first trip to Asia

Absolute Least Favorite Places (not really 'not wows' - more like **shudder** **avoid at all costs**)
-Agra (India)
-Siliguri (W. Bengal India)
-Surathanni (Thailand)
-Zhengzhou (China)