Highlights?

[N13]

Started thinking about the high points of my travels - as opposed to the sexual highlights of my life - and came to the conclusion that one of my greatest thrills was when I realized that I was standing on The Great Wall of China! A fantastic realization for who was once a little boy in a small town (albeit totally surrounded by Los Angeles).

 

I have been very lucky that in my years after 40 I have been able to travel to wonderful and magic places all around the world. That I get to live in the dream city of my youth (Manhattan) is the icing on the cake!

 

You?

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Crater Lake was the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have visited. I was visiting my aunt in Oregon and she suggested we go for a picnic. After a nice lunch, she decided we had time for a drive to her favorite spot and there we were. An unexpected delight.

[N13]

Crater Lake was the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have visited. I was visiting my aunt in Oregon and she suggested we go for a picnic. After a nice lunch, she decided we had time for a drive to her favorite spot and there we were. An unexpected delight.

 

In the USA, I agree, with Zion National Park coming in a close second.

[Beancounter]

Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania. Mountains of the Moon in Uganda. The grandeur of the Mississippi River at Montrose, Iowa. Mother Earth is unparalleled.

[+ Eric Hassan]

Valley of Fire in Nevada took my breath away. There are also some amazing views on either side of the Hoover Dam, especially the Nevada side as you head towards the Dam.

 

And, like @N13, I love living in Manhattan - there's a beauty here that isn't just about what you can see.

[+ Charlie]

To Crater Lake and Zion I would add Uluru (Ayers Rock), and flying across the green forests and mighty rivers of Siberia for hours on a cloudless day. However, nothing can beat the feeling I experience every day when I look out my bedroom window and across my pool to Mt. San Jacinto towering 11,000 feet above Palm Springs; right now the sun is shining on the snow on the crags along the top of the mountain.

[+ WilliamM]

Many. But, the best was flying from Brasila to Miami during daylight with no clouds to block the Amazon River and the Brazil's rain forests.

 

2nd place: Stockholm. I had enough time to explore the entire city in 2011, including taking trips out to the Baltic Sea.

 

3rd place: My brother introducing me to the wolves of Yellowstone National Park by name. He's worked at Yellowstone for many years. The wolves can be easily seen only through a very good telescopic LENCE.

[BasketBaller]

I've had more exciting and rewarding trips, but my travel highlight remains a trip I and a friend took to NYC when we were 17. Our folks trusted us to go alone, and we took the train from DC. We walked from Penn Station to Herald Square where we sat to orient ourselves. This was 1993, so it was far scruffier than it is today. But I remember sitting there, thrilled at being on my own in the city. And just as I was thinking that, the statue of Minerva and The Bellringers began to chime the hour. I've been more beautiful places and had more wonderful experiences, but that moment's unforgettable. And I never go to NYC without sitting for a few minutes in Herald Square, which now has an upscale little coffee kiosk.

[+ WilliamM]

On an entirely different level, seeing Judy Garland perform at the height of her vocal power before 14,000 thousand people when I was a freshman in college in 1961.

[N13]

Streisand in Central Park!

[+ glennnn]

Dawn in Paris from the steps of Sacre Coeur in 1968. Sunset over the Grand Canyon any day. Snowfall while on the top of the Empire State Building in 2008. Fall in Zion Canyon. So many others. Gods, I've been lucky!

[+ glennnn]

This is a great thread and so needed right now. Thank you @N13.

[BasketBaller]

Snowfall while on the top of the Empire State Building in 2008.

That reminds me of another New York moment. Standing with my then-fiancee on the Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera House at intermission of La Boheme, watching snow fall on Lincoln Center Plaza.

[+ glennnn]

That reminds me of another New York moment. Standing with my then-fiancee on the Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera House at intermission of La Boheme, watching snow fall on Lincoln Center Plaza.

 

A very sweet recollection from a very sweet man.

[+ WilliamM]

Christmas away from hime: Vietnam 1968; Germany 1972; Australia 1998; Malibu, CA 2000.