World's best travel experiences 400 extraordinary places

National Geographic addresses the popular and subjective topic of the best places to visit around the world. Andrew McCarthy (editor-at-large, National Geographic Traveler) writes the foreword to this compilation of destination descriptions, and National Geographic photographers provide many of the numerous illustrations. Organized broadly by category (i.e., "Wild Places," "Urban Spaces," "Paradise Found," "Country Unbound," "World Wonders"),Ålocations are depicted by a photograph accompanied by a few rhapsodic paragraphs and a couple of useful websites. Some places, such as New York City and Tuscany, receive lengthier coverage. Throughout the book there are side features: "In the Know" touches on a relevant topic, such as Sydney slang or dogsledding in Greenland; "Best of the Best" details particular sites, such as Mount Krakatoa in Indonesia and the mosques of Timbuktu (now known as Tombouctou); various luminaries, including Gore Vidal and Anna Quindlen, share short personal experiences in "Places That Changed Me"; and "Best of the World" highlights the requisite top-ten lists, covering diverse subjects like volunteer animal rescue and unusual scuba-diving sites. VERDICT Readers will dip into this book for inspiration for future travel as well as for fuel for beautiful daydreams.-Janet Clapp, N. Clarendon, VT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The best place in the world? It's a big, brash, bold question. And the answer is easy--there are lots of them. For me, it's the crowded and chaotic suq in Marrakech, and that remote beach on the tiny atoll of Fakarava in the South Pacific. The rocky Burren in the rural west of Ireland, with the late day sun lingering over the Aran Islands, is the best place in the world. And so is my own backyard--New York City's Central Park. What my best have in common is the ability to excite, to arouse big passions that allow--that demand--bold declarations: This is the best. My best is different from yours. Mine is different today than it was last year, and I bet it will be different next year. It's as subjective as a sunset, but we all know the feeling when a place, or a moment, takes our breath away and fills us with that feeling of connection, or that sense of discovery, or rediscovery; feelings of being lost, and then found--these are the experiences I search out while on the road. Flipping the pages of this book I can't help but feel that excitement, that hope and sense of renewal. It makes me want to say, Yes--yes to possibility and adventure. Yes to places I've been, and to those I'm yearning to see--the pyramids of Egypt, the Galápagos, Petra, Nepal. The best is a movable feast--the sweeping vistas of Patagonia to the back alleys of Barcelona; Costa Rica's wild Osa Peninsula to the canals of Venice; Vancouver's glass- and mountain- filled skyline to the gardens of Versailles. And the best is in the details--where to learn acupuncture in Beijing, or kayak the Cook Islands, or track down the best macarons in Paris. They're all here. From the Amazon to Zanzibar, the world's best have been assembled. With some of the premier voices in writing--Mark Twain and Goethe, Paul Theroux and Jan Morris, Bill Bryson and Gore Vidal--and tapping into the finest of the National Geographic Society's legendary photography, the World's Best Travel Experiences are at your fingertips. Say yes . --Andrew McCarthy, National Geographic Traveler magazine Editor at Large Excerpted from World's Best Travel Experiences: 400 Extraordinary Places by U. S. National Geographic Society Staff All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.