As a follow up to The World’s Most Amazing Creatures and Where to Find Them, we’ve sourced some awesome bucket-list activities for each destination. Now you can plan a trip magical enough for master Potter himself!
Icebergs by MemoryCatcher CC0
Visiting the Canadian Arctic – The icebergs in the Canadian Arctic are formed from snowflakes that fell from the sky 15,000 years ago! Tours are available so you can see these titanic beasts up close and marvel at their sculptural beauty created by the formidable forces of nature.
Visiting Japan – Japan is home to the weird, wonderful and unusual. While the bright lights and novel attractions may command your attention, don’t miss out on Japan’s natural beauty spots such as Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, a stunning forest of the tallest bamboo imaginable!
Visiting Madagascar – Make sure you take a trip from Morondava to Belo Tsiribihina. Along this dirt road stand ancient and huge Baobab trees. Each tree is over 800 years old, and has a circumference in excess of 150 ft.
Visiting Argentina – The sight of 300 waterfalls at Iguazu falls is truly stunning. The river flows through Brazil, but takes it’s final path along the Argentinian border. Expect a lot of noise, and on a sunny day a lot of rainbows too.
Iguassu Falls, image courtesy of battered-suitcase.com
Visiting the Gobi Desert – The landscape here is eerily alien, and best appreciated on a tour. Travel by camel and stay in a ger for a truly nomadic experience. If that sounds too much like hard work, Jeep tours across the dunes are available too. The eagle eyed traveller might even stumble across some dinosaur eggs if visiting the North west!
Visiting the Bay of Bengal – If you are looking for a truly surreal experience, you could attempt visiting North Sentinel Island, don’t expect to make landfall though. It is said to be one of the most isolated places on Earth, inhabited by people who want nothing to do with the outside world. There have been reports of the hunter-gatherer islanders warding visitors off with a barrage of arrows.
Visiting Central China – Choices choices! What crazy things aren’t there to see in Central China? The Tianmen Skywalk is certainly a unique thrill – walking on a glass path 4,700 ft up a mountain will definitely make you feel like you have wizardry skills – but we think the hanging Temple of Hengshan has more magical appeal. This 5th-century temple is improbably built into the side of a cliff, in fact, it looks like it was “magicked on”.
Visiting the South Pacific Ocean – Easter Island sits in the South Pacific Ocean and is home to the famous eerie oversized heads known as moai. Rano Raraku is the site where these giant statues were carved, and you’ll find hundreds still here in various states of completion.
Moai at Rano Raraku. Image courtesy of Sunvil Latin America
Visiting South East Asia – The Plain of Jars sounds like something straight out of a JK Rowling novel, but it is actually one of the most mysterious attractions in South East Asia. Head to Xieng Khouang and you’ll be met with a bewildering sight… thousands of huge stone jars rising out of the landscape.
Visiting Indonesia – Kelimutu volcano has three crater lakes that are truly spectacular to see. One is blue, one is green and the other is red! The combination of colours and jaw-droppingly beautiful vistas makes this one of the top destination spots for magical experiences.
Visiting Central America – The Monteverde Cloud Forest is home to some stunning and rather strange flora and fauna, but that isn’t the only reason you should head here. It is the only place in the world where you can straddle the Continental Divide, with one foot in the Caribbean and the other in the Pacific!
Visiting the Mediterranean Sea – Get your diving gear on and head to the seabed to find a world of magical wonders! In Abu Qir Bay, divers discovered the sunken Egyptian city of Thonis-Heracleion. The huge statues, hieroglyph covered tablets and endless artefacts took on an otherworldly charm illuminated by the divers lights.
Visiting Australia – If the conditions are right, lakes in Australia literally glow at night! Bioluminescent bacteria last visited Gippsland Lakes on a grand scale in 2009. Now you have to visit the centre of the lake in the summer months to appreciate a feint blue hue as you splash about in the water.
Visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo – Nyiragongo Volcano contains the world’s largest liquid lava lake. Now we think this is more Lord of the Rings than Harry Potter, but it is a breathtakingly magical sight none the less.