Where in the world shall we all go to hide? Ok, maybe not to hide, but to find a little peace and tranquility. Let's spin a globe and see where our fingers land? Sounds like a plan right? If only life could be that easy. There are many specifics to take into account when planning vacation travel and one that tends to be overlooked is population. Certain destinations sound alluring and glorious but you have to ask yourself.... how many people are also heading there? Possibly too many. A crystal sand beach is fabulous, but are you sharing it with ten thousand other people. The issue of tourists is always one to take into account. When too many tourists are mucking about they can ruin many a good time. Just ask anyone visiting or LIVING in New York City and Los Angeles.
Let's see who had some ideas a Redditor recently posed the question.... What beautiful place have you visited that isn't a mainstream tourist destination that you recommend people visit?
Above & Beyond....
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Carrick-a-Rede It's a little coastal trail and rope bridge on the coast of Northern Ireland. It's often overlooked by tourists that go to the amazing Giant's Causeway. In my opinion, Carrick-a-Rede is just as much of a must see. Such beautiful scenery.
A Quiet Kingdom
Lesotho.
It's a small independent kingdom, bordered entirely by South Africa.
It's a gorgeous country. Mountainous, green. People travel on horseback, there are always shepherds in the valleys, their songs echoing across the mountains.
After the big crowds in Johannesburg and/or the big national parks, Lesotho is extremely tranquil. A great country.
When in Spain
Zaragoza in Spain, plenty to do and see without the crowds of bigger tourist cities.
Fun fact about Zaragoza: when the space shuttle was launching it had scrub landing sites scattered around the world. This required the runways could handle the weight and length along with telemetry. Zaragoza was the one set up for use for the last series of launches. When the shuttle would climb to too high an altitude they would announce "negative Zaragoza" meaning they could not scrub to there.
But if they had... 6 people would've crossed from Florida to Spain in about 20 minutes and for only a billion dollars.
The Hills
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The Scottish Highlands and the Flint Hills in Kansas They are both seriously, breath taking and beautiful.
As a KCMO guy I have to say I hate Kansas, but I think the Konza three loop trail outside Manhattan saved my life while going to K-State. A beautiful hilly place in a terribly flat world.
Off the Coast....
A little Island off the coast of Cambodia called Koh Rong. I would worry about people ruining it, but, last time I was there the Chinese were going to build a small airstrip, so it probably already is.
Sticking with the Cambodia theme, Battambang is a beautiful little city that I don't think most westerners consider visiting when seeing Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat. Awesome sights and art. And obviously amazing food.
To the Tapirs....
Tapir Valley Nature Preserve, Bijagua, Costa Rica.
While Costa Rica has many areas that are "mainstream tourist destinations," this isn't one of them. Created to leave it as natural as possible, they have limited numbers of persons per day. It's easy to see elusive tapirs here, as previous visitors can testify. For birders, three are several hundred species living here, mostly due to the variety of habitats. It is adjacent to Tenorio National Park.
Looks like Hawaii.....
Lamu, Kenya: 14th century island city, Islamic stone architecture (no cars on the island because the streets are too narrow), bioluminescent algae, amazing beaches.
Diani beach, Kenya: looks like Hawaii.
Sipi Falls, Uganda: views of the plains, beautiful waterfalls.
Edit to add: white sand beaches of Malawi.
Cheap Russian
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Vladivostok is the last trans-siberian railway city in Russia and the borders are North Korea, China and Japan. If you want to rest in the beach in an european-style city in Asia and eat delicious asian and Russian food for a cheap price then come here.
Seeing Monkeys....
I went to the Osa Peninsula and stayed at Lapa Rios in 2017 and it was one of the most beautiful and magical places I've ever been!! Seeing monkeys and parrots in the SAME tree blew my mind and pretty much fulfilled all expectations of tropical paradises I imagined when I was younger. I mean, I saw a scarlet macaw fly by my bathroom window while I was on the toilet. Probably the most memorable poop I'll ever take.
Go Gothic
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A city in the north of Poland called Gdansk. It's an old Hansa port full of Gothic churches, stone cobbled streets, beer gardens on the banks of canals and quirky artists. I don't know why it isn't more popular.
I'm here right now and it is absolutely jammed with Polish tourists. But from what I hear, it's only like this in summer. I know what you mean though. I went from never hearing about it to thinking it is one of the most beautiful European cities period.
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I'm on the fence about high school. I want to hate it, but nostalgia haunts me. I saw a lot of violence, there is that.
We were on CNN.
don lemon nodding GIF by Red Table TalkGiphy"They started charging us for ketchup in the cafeteria. Most of the school boycotted cafeteria lunch and brought all manner of condiments from home. We were on CNN. They eventually caved." ~ Ash3Monti
No one liked him.
"I was big into drama club and musical theatre when I was in high school. There was a girl in the drama club in her freshmen or sophomore year who was super nice and everyone loved her. Her older brother on the the other hand, was a complete and total douchebag. No one liked him."
"He always made inappropriate comments or jokes and no one liked to be around him. One night, he was driving him and his sister back from school when he took a steep curve going around 100 mph. He lost control and hit a telephone pole. His sister died instantly and he was in a coma for a few weeks but ultimately survived."
"Myself and my friends in the drama club were devastated. She was one of the sweetest girls you'll ever met and we all loved her. A year or two later, the brother messages my sister and tries to use his sister's death as leverage to get laid. F**k you, you piece of crap." ~ FearTheKeflex
Bribes
"Guidance counselor was taking bribes to change grades (Both money and sexual favors). Invited one male student over to his house. Had the student tie him up and hang him by chains in his basement "dungeon." Student was homophobic and while the counselor was tied up, bludgeoned him to death." ~ monthos
H2O Issues...
"This is not that extreme, but it's still disgusting. We have drinking water taps instead of fountains. One parent was suspicious of whether they were cleaning the tanks or not. So they made an announcement that the tank was being cleaned every single day."
"A lot of us didn't believe it, so a group of boys decided to see for themselves if it was true or not. So they put a dead frog in the tank when there was no one around. I don't even know where they found the frog but they swear they didn't kill it. Anyway the frog was there for a few weeks. And obviously the water started tasting weird."
"After the teachers got multiple complaints, they opened the tank and found the frog. The boys were punished, but they fired back with the fact that they lied about cleaning the tanks. They were still punished, because they proved it in a disgusting way. They could've put literally anything in the tank, but they chose a dead frog." ~ R00mTemperature
The Quad
Acds2 Look Away GIF by Anime Crimes DivisionGiphy"A worker doing stuff on the roof. He fell off. Landed in the 'quad' at lunch. A large piece of machinery fell and squished his head. Like a cartoon, only funny. Like 150 Kids saw this." ~ LordInventus
Threats
"The Latin kings gang threatened my cousin and his friends and they had 10 squad cars guarding the whole school and dismissed us the same day early." ~ Terrykrinkle
“it’s gonna blow”
"I had just moved in from Egypt to the states in my senior year of high school. A teacher thought it would be funny to fold a bunch of papers and wrap them in duck tape to make it look like a bomb and threw it my direction and went under his desk saying 'it’s gonna blow.' Everybody started laughing and I was so clueless then I just laughed along. It infuriates me to this day that I didn’t call him out on it or report him." ~ ezzabousaif
Go Fish
"Someone somehow made a bomb threat on a Swedish fish candy. Like one single piece. I don’t know how it happened but he got arrested." ~ ts_13_
Masternid
"A couple weeks before graduation, this kid hacked into the school system and put a Hitler quote and a Boston bomber reference in the senior quotes for the yearbook. One of the affected parties was a trans girl, and we're still not sure if it was a targeted act because of that."
"Administration didn't find out until the entire senior class had received their books. Some people turned theirs in to get their pages replaced, but some kept it because it was a 'limited edition item' or some stupid sh*t like that. Kid got arrested and charged with cybercrime, since he hacked everyone in our school system's school passwords."
"He was so close to graduating too, but got expelled like two weeks before he could. Looked like a rat too. It was all over the news, and everyone in the state of CT basically knows about this now. Got out on bail for $5000." ~ kocorpsie
Season 3 What GIF by On My Block
"Apparently one student brought drugs to school and was selling it to her friends. A completely unrelated student caught on and stole the drugs while everyone else was in class. She was caught snorting the drugs in the bathroom by the group selling the drugs and got the crap beat out of her."
"We also had a recently graduated student murder his parents for insurance money . He hid the bodies in a chicken coop and told everybody they were on vacation. It wasn't until 7 months later the bodies were found by the landlord because the rent was late." ~ randomgenericcow
Enjoy high school, at least try too. Maybe if more kids do that, it wouldn't be so insane.
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