Places samalot Wants to Go

In Portugal, a secluded stretch of untouched natural beauty hides at the bottom of a steep hill.

An early work of the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, these swimming pools blend into the beach.

This fairy-tale, neo-Gothic church in the Azores is a world of magical realism.

A garden in Lisbon filled with giant porcelain creatures.

This gaping hole in the middle of a remote mountain lake looks like a portal to another dimension.

Houses are tucked between, on, and underneath giant boulders.

Ring the bell to enter a bar that looks equal parts museum and old curiosity shop.

The stunning interior of this Gothic church is covered in ornate gold details.

This charming candle shop has been in business since 1789.

This small chapel is built of human bones and decorated with a golden skeleton.

A 16th century chapel decorated with bones, skulls, and entire bodies hanging from the wall.

These eerie outliers of the lightning bug family glow a mysterious blue color.

Bioluminescence in the reefs of the Maldives causes the sea to glow like a starry night sky.

Anna Anderson spent most of her life claiming to be the lost Romanov child Anastasia.

Bigfoot prints, Feejee mermaids, and haunted dolls on display in a tiny North Carolina town.

A cement mixer-turned-kaleidoscope in downtown Norfolk offers different views of the city.

Organisms normally seen under a microscope decorate this church.

In a rural Japanese town that has committed to sustainable practices, even the hotel is made from recycled materials.

Two dozen pinball games hidden away inside a most unlikely location.

An otherworldly musical haven in The Big Easy.

This historic "City of the Dead" lies prominently in the center of New Orleans' famous Garden District.

Giant busts of 42 U.S. presidents sit, crumbling in a field in Virginia.

A home built with marble tombstones from the graves of 2,200 Union soldiers buried in a Virginia cemetery.

The skeletal white beams stand as a monument to religious dissent.