Maldives...whether I was sitting at the beach or snorkelling in the clear waters, the isolation I experienced was humbling. Selfish as it sounds, I hope it remains as untapped as it was 10 years ago when I first went there.

For a place outside the USA, never having been to New Zealand, Asia or the Middle East, I would have to say for me it's a boat trip down the fjords of Norway -- that has stayed with me for 31 years.

OTOH I was also blown away by our trips to Yellowstone NP and the NP's of Utah -- all are spectacular and otherworldly to me.

Biggest WOW?

My teenage son's room

But seriously...so many places...so little time

The Great Wall at Mitanyu(sp) is really great!
The Grand Canal in Venice
The Apachie Trail in Arizona
Asissi
The fiords of Norway
and dont kill me but the first time I saw Epcot many years ago

BIGGEST WOW- VENICE NO DOUBT

1. Valley of the Ten Peaks and Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada.
2. Cathedral Grove, B.C.
3. The Himalayas.

Places that literally took my breath away:
Standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon
Walking into St. Chappelle in Paris
Standing beside Iguazu Falls
Sailing beneath the Statue of Liberty at night
Walking the walls of Dubrovnik
Viewing the Pieta in St Peters, alone

And sadly, after looking at this view my entire life, my first glimpse of the NY skyline shortly after 9/11.

The WOW trinity: the Giza pyramids, the temples of Angkor & Macchu Picchu.

difficult to say... the world is full of WOW... Petra in Jordan, Jerusalem, Venice, Brasil, just to mention a few

The Grand Canyon
St Peters
Cesky Krumlov
"David"
The Swiss Alps
... only to name a few!

For me, the Grand Canyon moved me to tears the first time I saw it. I'm not the crying type, but I misted up real good when I saw that. The approach to the South Rim is great because you don't see it, you park your car, and BAM. There it is. Big as life, and even bigger. No photo can ever be taken that shows the magic and wonderment of that great hole in the ground.

Yellowstone National Park, where I was last week, still makes me feel the true spirit of the wild west and great things America has to offer...particularly when you get up and see it in the early mornings before everyone else does, and when the wildlife is out in abundance.

But if there's one place that broke my heart and made me say WOW at the same time, it was TURKEY. A member of NATO, and waiting for entrance to the EU, Turkey is full of wonderous sites, people who want to know you, and want so badly to be part of the Western world, even though they are content and rightfully proud of their Muslim heritage. For me, hearing the Call to Prayer in the wee hours of the morning in Izmir, where foreigners are rare enough that you're stared at like you're Julia Roberts, changed my life forever.

Paris is another city that has huge "WOW" factor. I'm going back for a second visit in September, this time for a full week and taking my Mom and Aunt with me for their first-ever trip to Europe...I told them they can't die on me til they see Paris, and thank god they agreed to go. I am intentionally going to the airport to ride into the city with my Mom, just so I can see the face of someone who's never seen Paris see it for the first time. It's like meeting Santa Claus.

Jules

Tokyo for the sheer WOW factor. Not my favorite place, but . . . WOW!

Definitely the Ellis Island memorial:

Share a Memory

We arrived on Ellis Island about noon on Thursday.

Have you ever been there? It is a FASCINATING place. I was thinking about it all the way on the ride down to NY and on the ferry. By the time the boat pulled up, I had a gigantic lump in my throat. I kept telling myself I could handle this like a tourist ........like all those other people on the boat.

*
Some background........

My father was packed and ready to come (from Sicily) to America in 1920
(age 3) with his mother, father and baby sister. When they got to the port to depart, it was discovered that he was sick with influenza. He was taken away from his parents and left behind with his grandmother while the other 3 went on to America. He remembers the incident as if it were yesterday.........that total feeling of abandonment, fear and terror. He spent 3 years with his grandmother and grew to know her as his own mother.

One day, with no warning, his father arrived from America to take him "home". He once again was forced to abandon the "mother" he knew and go on to a new life. He never saw her again.....she died in Sicily before he was grown. He remembers the journey by ship, which took about 10 days and standing on the deck staring at the Statue of Liberty upon entering NY harbor. He also remembers being given his first ever taste of chocolate there and getting his first pair of shoes.
*
The ferry passed the Statue of Liberty along the way to Ellis. I glanced up at her and tried to imagine seeing her after 10 days at sea.......after 10 days of missing my life and my family........not knowing where I was going and what would happen. It's a gentle look on her face.......one that would perhaps comfort you in the event that the first sight of land had not offered some actual feeling of security.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day with a great breeze that even made NY Harbor seem like a beautiful place. The New York skyline was glistening across the bay - intense and striking.......almost surreal. We entered the main floor at Ellis and were greeted by an exhibit of a huge pile of suitcases, steamer trunks, satchels, and cartons...which had been collected from remnants left behind when the building was abandoned in the 1950's. Another exhibit displayed an entire room full of "possessions" that some immigrants took with them for their trip to America. The collection included ALL sorts of things...from clothes...to books...to sewing machines and musical instruments...to games and photos.

What would YOU take if you were going away forever???

The place seemed FILLED with spirits to me....much akin to a graveyard........I couldn't help but feel ALL of the emotions that must have flowed through this place....the dreams and hopes and fears of these people who came here. It was sad and happy all at once.

We proceeded up to the "great hall" on the second floor, which was the large room where immigrants were held for hours or days to be processed for acceptance. The building is incredible.... completely renovated to it's original condition......glorious architecture......wonderful detail, etc.

I stood there for a long time.......I couldn't stop myself......I thought of my father in his little wool coat, cap and his first pair of shoes. I thought of my grandmother and grandfather who have been dead for years now.......and how much I missed them. I thought of what passions in their lives brought them to this place.........what promises they dreamed about in the quiet of the night........what fears they had to put aside to find the promise.......it completely overwhelmed me. I wanted to have them there.......and hug them.........and tell them I'm all grown up now ........."I understand".

I put my sunglasses on........told myself I was doing OK.......and headed out to the rear of the building in the sun.........to the "Wall of Honor". We circled around it a few times.......stainless steel panels with thousands of names inscribed. When I finally found Panel #77........my heart was pounding and the tears were flowing. THERE it was: Carlo & Giovanna Chimi, Francis J. Chimi and Maria Chimi.. (grandparents, father, aunt)..........I just stared and stared............my head was swimming.........I kept thinking about what if these simple, poor people from a simple, poor place had not done this thing???........

What if they had not had that dream of promise nor had the courage to act on it? At what moment exactly did my grandfather encircle his young wife with enough love to reassure her to carry her two babies to an unknown place an ocean away?

I thought about my visit to Sicily, to lovely Castanea….. the view of the ocean from the hillside......the scent of the lemons ..... the chilling sea breeze...... What dream did they envision as they glanced to the mainland?....... What an interesting, wonderful, sad and amazing family fabric has been woven because of that dream............including myself, my children and my own ability to dream.

I guess in some strange way........I found America at that very moment

Dorgal. Thankyou for that posting. I guess "Wow" is an appropriate response
Hoggy

Dorgal's post is certainly the biggest "WOW" in this thread.

Dorgal what a beautiful post. You made me cry this morning. We look for wow's in far away places and yet they are right here across the river.

It has to be Venice - a city floating on the water, with hundreds of small bridges, magnificent palaces, gothic churches and no traffic - the most unique city in the world

Galapagos Islands.

Since I am still exploring the world little by little, I must say that everywhere I've gone has been a WOW. From my hometown of NYC, along the coasts of the US, and everything in between, to the beautiful countries of Taiwan and Japan, to the European countries I've visited thus far (there's more to come!!!), to even Africa. All of my travels have taken me to a WOW place.

2 weeks from now, I will be visiting new WOWs like Milan and some Mediterranean cities. I also look forward to going back w/my mom to our WOWs, Venice, Florence, Rome, and sharing them with my dad and uncle.

:)

Dorgal
You should submit that to a newspaper. It was eloquent!

Oh yea I thought Momument Valley was pretty WOW!

I can't believe Niagara Falls- the Canadian Horseshoe- was not mentioned yet. It is both breathtaking and unforgettable. A place that's like a magnet for thoughts and soul.
My biggest WOW so far...

Just to add something not yet mentioned here - My waking view from our hotel balcony of the mist-enshrouded monasteries of Meteora,Greece, clinging to the upper reaches of towering rock monolithes - Wow ... how could something like that ever be built in such an inaccessible place! Now you can drive up, but when it was built, the only way up was a rope ladder.

waking up in the serengeti to see a pride of lions watching the tents.

India does knock u sideways - u can see the Taj Mahal in so many photos but when u see it in reality - its amazing.

One of my greatest memories is getting the train from Delhi up to the Punjab -and watching India role by....

Peru - getting to the Sun Gate and gazing down on Machu Picchu....

But think it has to be Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia -12000 sq kms of salt at 4000m up in the Andes..WOW....

The terracotta soldiers in Xi'an, China were amazing. What an amazing discovery and think about the amount of work put into building each soldier. And no soldier is the same.

Having recently traveled in the Middle East, I'll second the mention, above, of the ancient city of Petra, in Jordan.
It's all a wow, especially the Treasury building, about 140 feet tall, not built, but hand-carved out of the rock.


for a picture:

http://nabataea.net/treasury.html

My biggest "Wow" was on the Kalalau Trail, Kauai, Hawaii, looking up AND down at the Na Pali Cliffs! Incredibly beautiful, and amazing to believe that people lived their entire lives on these cliffs.

There are two that stick out in my mind:

1. St. Peter's in Rome. I have never seen anything like that in my life. I couldn't get over how tall and ornate everything was. It blew me away.

2. And a little closer to home, eating in the Eagle's Eye restaurant (highest restaurant in Canada) on top of a mountain near Golden BC last week (you take a Gondola to the top), staring out over the tops of the Rockies. We were so high up that you looked across the mountain tops, not up at them. It was amazing....

Hearing all these other "wows" makes me yearn to go visit each and every one...we're going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon this December and I'm expecting a major "wow" there too!

Machu Picchu meets all of your criteria for a WOW place. From the moment I saw a photo, I knew it was a place that I needed to go. Our experience there was made even more unforgettable by staying overnight at the far-less-than-WOW Hotel Machu Picchu. The hotel was definitely nothing special, but staying there provided the opportunity to re-enter the Machu Picchu site after hours on a full moon night. A group of "sacred site" pilgrims and their "shaman" could be heard off in the distance chanting. It was simply magical.

We just got back - the Grand Canyon.

MY

In China, the Li River in Guilin. The boats and mountains, Spectacular.

I'm with P_M on this one....Red Square at about 10:30 pm. That was one week ago tonight. It was hard to do anything but stand there and say, "wow!"

U.S.N.R.you speak for over a million soldiers,though many we have lost, TRUELLY you were part of the greatest generation in this country.My entire family 6 uncles and one aunt served in the big one .Most our gone and that makes me very sad, but I am glad I can thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you did and I am sure all you sacrificed in your life makes us damn lucky , bless you.

After reading dorgal's post. My choice is meaningless.

Oradour-sur-Glane, the french village whose entire population was murdered by the Nazi's near the end of the war. Without a population, it was turned into a memorial, and appears as it did on the day of the massacre. A little known site, that drew several wows from me.

topping
this is more recent - it may be what you are looking for

A flower shop in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Simple as that. A flower shop in a city that suffered major destruction through decades of wars.

A beautiful, <b>(wow)</b> sighting for me.

A simple sign of hope for the future.

For natural wonders, the Okavango Delta gets my vote for a WOW and for a man-made wonder, the Taj Mahal-no picture captures it's beauty.

Well, nowadays, one has to say Baghdad or Babylon. Until a couple of years back not bad places, but wow!... just look at what's happened to them since.

It's not a single place, because every trip we take we find at least half a dozen Wows. I think it is that the world has become so accessible to so many so quickly. At the turn of the century, my great-grandparents (and great-great-grandparents) were only just coming to America from Sweden and Germany. It took them months to get here, and then more travel to get to Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin (respectively). Now we can be there overnight.

It's amazing that I am able travel from the US and meet up with people I already know in England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Macedonia, Shanghai and South Africa. (I haven't met them all yet, but no reason to believe why not.) I think this world is the biggest WOW there is, and I appreciate everyday that we have the means and ability to be awestruck by a sight, sound, scent, or experience nearly anyplace on earth.