In our weekly Q&A installment, we asked The Greatist Team and readers what’s the coolest place they’ve visited. Here’s what they had to say:
Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. What makes Arches so unique is there is nothing on earth that resembles this park. It’s a naturally-made sculpture garden; thousands of years of erosion have created sandstone arches that seem to appear chaotically amongst a stretch of flat, red land. I understand how it can be understood as a spiritual sanctuary: it’s so peaceful, yet so bizarre. — Laura Schwecherl
The coolest place I’ve ever been is Parc Guell in Barcelona, Spain. It’s a beautiful park designed by Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudi. It has the longest park bench in the world made of tile mosaics and great statues of iguanas scattered throughout. It’s absolutely amazing there. — Jenn Carmona
City Museum in St. Louis! It’s an awesome place where the imagination is the only limit to the amount of fun you can have. There’s so much to see— tree houses, a parkour area, a shoelace factory, and a ferris wheel and an awesome slide on the roof. They’ve even mounted a bus to the top of the building so the person in the driver’s seat can get a top-notch look over St. Louis. If a more traditional museum is your thing, they have that, too. From a room full of doorknobs to walls painted with murals. — Kelli Kerkman
I visited Bethlehem in Palestine last Christmas. It was amazing to finally experience in person a place that I’ve read and learned so much about, whether in a religious context or in the news. The friendliness, warmth and hospitality that I encountered was really something I hadn’t expected but distinguished the place from others I’ve visited. Being so close to much more heavily touristed areas in Israel and the broader Middle East made it that much more interesting. It’s somewhere I’d love to go back to for a longer amount of time sometime soon. —Kissairis Munoz
Herculaneum. Located along the Amalfi Coast, Herculaneum was buried by the same eruption as Pompeii in 79 A.D. by pyroclastic flows. But better preserved than Pompeii, Herculaneum sports artifacts like wooden doors, original bed frames, brothel order menu mosaics, and statues of a drunk Hercules (see photo). Truly captures some of the best and worst of ancient Roman culture—and since much of it is still to be excavated beneath the modern city, you feel yourself descending into the past. — Cris Magliozzi
I’m gonna have to say the Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria. While I was studying abroad we lived and studied in this famous palace, which the house in the Sound of Music was modeled after. (It’s also where all the outdoor scenes were shot.) It was absolutely gorgeous inside and out! — Kelly Fitzpatrick
Center court at Madison Square Garden! A Globetrotter stole my purse and I had to do a series of embarrassing things to get it back, including dancing with Big Easy and kissing his sweaty wristband. My 15 minutes of fame… — Jordan Shakeshaft
About a year ago, I was lucky enough to visit Spain with two of my closest friends. Our first stop was Santiago de Compostela, a city best known as the destination for an annual religious pilgrimage. All day long, hundreds of people arrived by bike at the enormous cathedral in the city’s center. Coincidentally, we showed up just in time for a medieval festival, so we spent much of our time there weaving through crowds of Spaniards dressed as knights. For a small city, it’s a fascinating place. I’d love to go back. — Shana Lebowitz
Cassis in the south of France. Gorgeous white sand beaches, perfect crystal clear blue waters, and ancient rock formations (they call them calanques) make for one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world. Plus, the most amazing fresh fish straight from the sea and produce (and Rosé wine, of course) from the nearby hills make it not only beautiful, but delicious, too! — Kate Morin
