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TIME:2024-04-30 15:19:19 Source: Internet compilationEdit:style
Many of us have had the good fortune to visit some of the great wonders of our planet — perhaps the
Many of us have had the good fortune to visit some of the great wonders of our planet — perhaps the Pyramids, Taj Mahal or Great Wall of China, or terrific natural spectacles like the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls.
There is just one problem: the number of tourists who descend on these showstoppers. There are many more marvels to be seen that are just as impressive but less busy or commercialised.
From majestic landscapes and ancient ruins to an art deco gem, here’s our top ten less-visited wonders of the world, and how to experience them.
Recently featured on BBC Two’s Wilderness With Simon Reeve, the Coral Triangle is so rich with fish and coral that scientists have dubbed it a ‘species factory’. Stretching across the Pacific from the Philippines to Bali and the Solomon Islands, its bullseye is a remote corner of eastern Indonesia known as Raja Ampat.
Here you can go exploring on a phinisi (traditional wooden sailing boat), with ample time to snorkel, dive and visit island communities.
Caracol is the largest of many magnificent but rarely busy Mayan ruins sprinkled across Belize, a still barely discovered English-speaking country in Central America that is slightly larger than Wales. Some 1,300 years ago this was a flourishing city with 150,000 residents, now its lofty temples and broad plazas are a junglewrapped home for toucans and black howler monkeys where you can sit in peace contemplating the candle-ends of history.
Clinging to the borders of Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, the Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland on the planet and home to a thrilling wildlife that includes giant otters, the maned wolf and the gorgeously blue, 3ft long hyacinth macaw. It has the greatest concentration of caimans (crocodiles) in the world plus around 5,000 jaguars.
With its towering run of jagged karst pinnacles, Ninh Binh is as dramatic a sight as the better-known Halong Bay, but doesn’t come with hordes of trippers. Two hours south of Hanoi and bordered by rivers, farms and temples, it’s best discovered by bike or by gliding downstream on a sampan.
Only an hour’s drive from Las Vegas, the Valley of Fire State Park is an overlooked natural wonder that can’t fail to amaze. Get ready for swirling red sandstone formations that look like streaky bacon, 4,000-year-old rock carvings and hiking trails to suit all levels.
Set at just over 12,000ft, the gargantuan Potala Palace in Lhasa dates from the 17th century and has over 1,000 rooms housing a wealth of Buddhist treasures. The adventurous way to get there is on the world’s highest railway which runs across the stark Tibetan plateau from Xining, covering 600 miles with hundreds of bridges built over the permafrost.
The Namib Desert is believed to be the oldest in the world, barely inhabited by humans but with a remarkably adapted wildlife that includes elephants, lions, rhino and, on the smaller side, geckos. The chance to climb colossal sand dunes, meet the indigenous Himba and explore the shipwreck-strewn Skeleton Coast make this a must for romantics and wilderness-lovers.
Rebuilt in the 1930s after an earthquake, Napier is a genteel port in New Zealand that has close to 150 colourful and well-preserved art deco buildings that are a joy to explore. Decorated with sunbursts and fountains, they include a theatre with original neon and chrome fittings and a bank adorned with stylised hammerhead sharks. Framing this, the Hawke’s Bay region is famous for its beaches, wineries and food.
Steaming waters that boil like a witches’ cauldron lie at the heart of the mountainous Caribbean isle of Dominica. At 230ft wide and set at an altitude of 2,600ft, the bubbling grey lake offers a rare glimpse of the earth’s violent interior and is one of many scenic thrills in the World Heritage-listed Morne Trois Pitons National Park, which also has impressive forests, waterfalls and birdlife.
Australia's immense and empty northwest corner has become an exciting destination for expedition cruises voyaging between Broome and Darwin. Highlights include natural wonders that are a result of extraordinary tides, such as the Montgomery Reef which appears to rise from the ocean, and the Horizontal Falls, where huge volumes of water get squeezed through cliff passages.
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