If you can’t make up your mind on taking a Euro-trip across mainland Europe or a road trip to the western U.S., why not combine the best of both worlds? This road trip includes whale watching, idyllic landscapes, beaches, cliffs and castles, and plenty of regional specialty foods and drinks, like edible seaweed and cockle soup. The route is called the Wild Atlantic Way and gives tourists a chance to experience the world’s longest coastal touring route in the world...

Hot air balloons fill the sky in Cappadocia, Turkey. (Afonso Salcedo) Taking photographs from a hot air balloon is not as easy as it looks. Photographer Afonso Salcedo discovered this while he was trying to snap some shots in Cappadocia, a place he describes as “the interior alien desert landscape of Turkey.” “The main challenge was trying to not fall off the balloon, fighting some vertigo feelings of hovering in the air at a high altitude with no real sense...

More than 1,200 feet beneath the Tennessee ground lies Ruby Falls, the largest and deepest waterfall open to the public in the U.S. Ruby Falls is located underneath Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tenn. The waterfall is a 145-foot drop over 1,000 feet underneath the mountain’s surface. Hundreds of gallons of water rush over the falls per minute. The Ruby Falls website says the falls is estimated to be 30 million years old. Lookout Mountain has many limestone caves and winding...

A Gurung village lies among the steep foothills of the Himalayas. (Andrew Newey) Gathering honey is always a difficult task, but the Gurung Tribe of the Nepalese Himalayas have kept their ancient tradition of honey hunting on cliffs alive for thousands of years, which requires balance, know-how and serious guts. Photographer Andrew Newey visited the Gurung people in a remote hilltop village in central Nepal’s Kaski district and documented a three-day autumn honey hunt. Using rope ladders, tribal elders climb...

For most of the year, the Rio Cano Cristales in Colombia looks like any normal river. But for a brief period of time during the year, between the rainy season and the dry season, a beautiful species of plant called Macarenia clavigera turns bright red and populates much of the water. The river is nicknamed “the river of five colors” because of the red plants, the yellow and green sand, the blue water and all the shades in between. (MORE:...

Most tourists heading out to the American West to explore frontier towns and vast wildernesses stop by parks like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite and Bryce Canyon. But all those caravans are missing one of Utah's best-kept secrets: Capitol Reef National Park. The spectacular geologic formations that characterize the park are part of the Waterpocket Fold, a wrinkle in the earth created by underlying faults that extends for almost 100 miles, says the National Park Service. The uplifted ridges have...

An arist's rendering of future versions of the Airlander. (Photo: Hybrid Air Vehicles) (Airlander) Imagine if your next vacation involved boarding a monster airship for a three-week sail around the world with stops on top of a glacier and in the middle of the desert. No, it’s not a plot of a steampunk fantasy flick, but a real-life marvel of modern aviation technology that could become the future of air travel in just a few years. Meet the Airlander, a...

Old Mill in Eastern Bavaria, Germany. (Photo by Kilian Schönberger) For generations, people believed the European countryside was populated by elves and fairies, goblins, witches and wizards. While those characters might be no more than myth and legend today, the eerie forests and foggy fields they populated continue to enchant modern dreamers. Kilian Schönberger is a German photographer and geographer who said he someday hopes to shoot a cover story for National Geographic. For now, he brings his viewers into...

Brownfield's souvenir and outdoor store in Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park, Colo. suffered damage from the devastating floods on September 2013. The Colorado mountain town was cut off for days by the massive flooding. (Estes Park News) In September 2013, the Rocky Mountain resort town of Estes Park, Colo. was ravaged by the state's worst flooding in almost 50 years. Roads were washed away, businesses were flooded, and homeowners displaced. For a town that relies heavily on tourism — Estes...

The world's biggest tea drinkers are found in Turkey and Ireland, but one of the world's biggest tea producers is hidden off the southern coast of India. For a foreign and fragrant vacation, consider visiting the tea plantations of Sri Lanka. With a warm climate, a number of tropical forests, and fields upon fields of tea, coffee, coconuts and cinnamon, it's no surprise Sri Lanka is sometimes called "the nation of smiling people." Sri Lanka is the third largest exporter...

Galapagos Islands For the traveler who's seen it all and done it all, who feels a bit blasé about discovering the world, Natural World Safaris recently proposed a new kind of venture. The 111-day tour will cover 12 countries, multiple continents, and bring the participants close to some of the world's most magnificent endangered species. The only catch? It's $1 million for two people. The trip includes plenty of luxuries, including first class flying to and from the destinations and...

'Trains at Night' is a photo series that consists of large scale strobe lighting of trains in America's northeastern landscape. (William Gill) Photographer William Gill brings locomotives to light in his stunning photo series on trains cruising through the night sky. “Railroads are not particularly remote nor are they rare – they pass through most sizable towns in America. However, they have been pushed from the center of life to outside the periphery,” Gill says on his website. Gill, who...