50 Obscure and Amazing Places to Visit in 2017 - Atlas Obscura Lists
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50 Obscure and Amazing Places to Visit in 2017

Where to take your wanderlust this year.

by Atlas Obscura
50 Places

It’s a new year—maybe you’ve resolved to exercise more, or follow your dreams this year, but all of us should resolve to do more exploring. With now more than 10,000 incredible hidden wonders shared in the Atlas, the possibilities for inspiration are vast. We combed through the collection to compile 50 of our favorite destinations for the year ahead, from the world’s only surviving pilgrimage tattoo business to the 20-foot slash in the trees along the entire U.S.-Canadian border. 

Some of the places on this list are opening for the first time in 2017; in other cases, this will be your last chance to visit them. Some are celebrating an anniversary this year, and some relate to topics that will follow us into the new year, from politics to creepy clowns. Others are places we recommend visiting simply because they are really, really wonderful. Here’s to making 2017 a year of exploration.

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Tokyo, Japan

Mushizuka at Kan'ei-ji Temple

Close to Tokyo’s Ueno Park, the Kan’ei-ji temple is a quiet pagoda far removed from the hustle and bustle of the park’s top tourists draw. The Buddhist temple is home to a remarkable monument: a simple engraved stone that is a memorial to the souls of dead insects. It was built to console the spirits of the flies, crickets, and grasshoppers that were killed during a 19th century anatomical study of insects.
Added by ilbonito
Jerusalem, Israel

Razzouk Ink

The Razzouk family tattoo parlor has been inking religious pilgrims in the Middle East with marks of faith for 700 years. Evidence of such tattoos dates back at least as far as the 8th century in Egypt and the 6th century in the Holy Land, when early tattoos self-identified indigenous Christians in the Middle East and Egypt. Later, as the faithful came to the Holy Land on pilgrimage, the practice expanded to offer these travelers permanent evidence of their devotion and peregrination.
racheldoyle Added by racheldoyle
London, England

The Imperial War Museum London

In 1917 the British War Cabinet voted to create a national museum that would record the horrific events still taking place. The museum’s original First World War exhibit continues to be its most affecting, refurbished coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War. Most of the entire ground floor of the old hospital is now given over to the “war to end all wars.”
Luke J Spencer Added by Luke J Spencer
Havana, Cuba

Los Jardines de la Tropical

All of the great parties in Havana could not stop this Spanish-style estate from falling into a picturesque state of decay. Built in the late 1800s by the Herrera family, owners of La Tropical brewery, this Cuban pleasure garden is now a somewhat abandoned gem on the outskirts of Havana.
juncodesign Added by juncodesign
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Čolina Kapa Astronomical Observatory

The haunting ruins of this military fortress-turned astronomical observatory sit on a Sarajevo mountaintop. It was once the only facility of its kind in the area, and remains an important symbol of Sarajevo. The white building still looks over the city from Mount Trebević, though today the walls are crumbling and decrepit. Without Čolina Kapa, astronomy is virtually nonexistant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the fact that the study of the stars reaches back to the 15th century in the region.
michelle Added by michelle