Places David Plotz Wants to Go

The 320-year-old tree that greeted General Lafayette and rerouted an interstate highway.

Natural cathedral designed by Italian artist Giuliano Mauri.

Who is this marble man, perpetually creeping up the steps of his own mausoleum?

Stroll through a wonderland of stupendous moss-covered trees.

A diverse, expansive nature preserve in northeastern Kansas.

Once the largest unsupported dome in the world, beating out the Pantheon and St Peters in Rome.

These mechanical goats first battled it out in the year 1551, all because of an overcooked deer.

A mini Wrigley Field for mini baseball players.

Money made from smuggling sugar helped create this wondrous rock maze in honor of the Prussian Queen Louise.

Super-heavy Nazi architectural experiment.

This punny mirror of another Wisconsin attraction is exactly what it sounds like.

Dedicated to the art and science of glass in equal measure, this space is as much laboratory as museum.

Better known as the "Body Farm," this unique research facility has been studying how human bodies break down since the 1980s.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

This burial pyramid in central Ireland is thousands of miles and thousands of years away from its Egyptian inspiration.

Perfectly preserved ancient monastery in an impossibly dramatic location on a rocky island in the Atlantic.

This floating garden in the sky is straight out of a fairy tale, but the real thing is nothing short of magical.

On the Oregon coast is a natural hole that seems to be draining the sea.

A quaint village in Western New York named after Alexander Hamilton's beloved sister-in-law.

Caves full of Buddhist statues, incredible rock formations and a deserted lagoon.

Where America’s first doomsday cult awaited the end of the world.

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.

Thousands of narrow alleyways in an ancient medieval city make up what's believed to be the world's largest car-free urban zone.

The floor of the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas is entirely covered in sand.