Great Destinations of a Lifetime

Images from North America, South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific over a little over 220 pages that will give you an idea of some of the beauty around the world that you haven’t seen, and another view on some that you may have seen.

Beginning with a gorgeous view of Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, Canada, high in the Rocky Mountains, the turquoise shade of the water reflecting the peaks of the mountains in the distance, the tall fir trees and the lights glowing in a building near the lake’s shore. Following is another Canadian site, in Alberta - Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, the colourful doors, and homes of St. John’s, an early 16th century fishing village in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. A stunning photograph taken in Hudson Bay, Canada of a Polar bear, with a background of snow – white on white on white. Spectacular. From there head south to California, where you’ll see the Pacific Highway winding through Big Sur, and a gorgeous photograph of El Matador Beach in Malibu, and then along to Joshua Tree National Park, and a sight I have never seen – Zabriskie Point, another stunning view – before heading to Yosemite Valley, and a view of Yosemite Falls. The beauty of the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area, as well as Lower Antelope Canyon in Arizona, and, of course, the Grand Canyon. Off to Wyoming, you’ll find Devil’s Tower, as well as the Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, which is quite a colourful sight. From Bryce Canyon, to the setting sun in Outer Banks of North Carolina, to Kauai, Hawaii and the gorgeous Na Pali Coast, some of these places I’ve seen in person, and these photographs more than do them justice.

The pyramids of Teotihuacan, Mexico are a reminder of days when things were built to last, and did. The colourful buildings of Guanajuato, Mexico stand out against the mountains behind them, while the waters of Tulum, Yucatan offer the brilliance of the sky and waters balanced by the vision of the Temple of the Wind God set above its shores. The Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica seems like a vision from a fairy tale, while the Fortuna Waterfall in Arenal Volcano National Park offers the only relief from an abundance of green.

One of the most breathtaking photographs is of Perito Morino Glacier in Argentina, 97 sq. miles of vision that combines the stark white to dark blues in the veins of frost covered ice against the turquoise waters near the shores of green grass and flame coloured leaves on the trees. The waterfalls, the movement of the water captured, the mist, the green all around. The beaches. The wildlife.

From beginning to end, from Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Brazil, Marble Cave in Chile to the amazing designs found in the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni, the beauty of Bolivia, the Nazca Lines and Machu Pichu, and the colourful Vinicunca – also known as the Montaña de Siete Colores in Peru – which resembles a rainbow of seven colours shaped into a long range of mountains. In this section are also some photographs of Equador, including ones of the Galápagos Islands.

Not to be missed are the photographs of Europe, which include Blue Lagoon, the Vatnajökull Ice Cave, as well as the Aurora Borealis in Iceland. One of my favourite shots taken was of a small red holiday cottage on Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden. Stonehenge, Castell y Gwynt in northwest Wales, Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland, and a place I have visited, and loved – Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. In France, the Sénanque Abbey surrounded by the lavender grown by the monks is a vision of tranquility and beauty. The Cliffs of Étretat another portrait of the beauty found in nature. The beauty found in the Orcia Valley in Tuscany, Italy, the Black Forest in Germany and the Punkva Caverns of the Czech Republic. The majestic European Bison in Białowieża National Park, Poland. Lake Baikal in Russia is stunning in its simplicity and perspective, a lake that holds more water than all of the US lakes combined.

The Benxi Water Caves in China and the Takachiho Gorge in Japan are visions of places and times hard to imagine. The photograph of Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, shot above the clouds while travelers walk on the jagged, barren surface of the summit, breathtaking.

Then off to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Uluru before heading to Bora Bora, followed by Champagne Pool in Waiotapu, New Zealand a brief hop to Easter Island in Chile, and ending in Milford Sound in New Zealand.

As Louis Armstrong once sang, ”What a Wonderful World.”


Pub Date: 14 Oct 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Amber Books Ltd / Amber Books

#GreatDestinationsofaLifetime #NetGalley

This is another of these coffee table books featuring places we all might want to visit at some time in our lives. There’s some crossover here with a another book I recently read and reviewed from the same publisher and author (Wonders of the World) but the focus here is on where we might want to visit for that dream holiday or adventure.

The first thing to say is that the photographs are gorgeous! There are actually very few places featured here that I’ve visited, just a handful of European destination and a couple of obvious spots in California and Australia. For the most part I found myself scribbling away trying to compile a short-list of future destinations from the stack of options here.

If you like dreaming of fantastic places to visit or you’re thinking of planning a trip but you don’t know where to go then this book is a great place to start. Or just have it handy to browse through from time to time, it might just spark a desire to visit somewhere you’ve never previously heard of – it did for me.

What an absolutely stunning book this is. Every photograph could be framed and on display. Various destinations of the world are divided by continent. Each location has a brief description . Such a calming and beautiful book to have on display and dip into. In stressful times as we are currently in and when travel is so limited I felt like I had been on a relaxing holiday whilst leafing through this book. I will definitely be purchasing more copies of this book as a gift for friends and family. Probably the nicest example of its kind that I have come across.