Places samanthahale Wants to Go

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.

This underground oasis is one of North America’s most fascinating prehistoric places—and you can scuba dive in it.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

Steaming blood-red hot spring from hell.

Folklore says this medieval fortress was plopped atop a portal to hell to trap the demons below.

This meticulously extracted nervous system allegedly came from a 19th-century custodian who donated her body to science.

Colorful lights and mirror-like brine pools create trippy illusions within the historic mine.

Giant animal sculptures are created with the rice straw leftover from the fall harvest each year.

There's an exclusive Beefeaters pub hidden in the Tower of London.

Some of the world's largest letters are carved into the limestone bedrock of the Nullarbor Plain.

With its peeling paint and faded sign, this theater-turned-recycling plant is a nostalgic relic of 1950s Americana.

This narrow canyon has been carved by the river over thousands of years into spectacular and curious forms.

Reaching the "Church in the Sky" requires scaling the cliff face of a sandstone pinnacle with a 650-foot drop.

The unusual lighthouse looms over waves of prairies with no sea in sight.

The painter of "The Scream" is laid to rest under a stoic bust of himself in the humble corner of an Oslo cemetery.

A collection of the specialized tools used to construct Japan’s beautiful architecture.

An eclectic collection of artifacts from the Wild West is preserved in a remote fictional pioneer town.

A meandering boardwalk across the bogland leads to a "stairway to heaven" with sublime views.

Enormous, fluffy dogs frolic around this museum dedicated to a legendary Saint Bernard.

It's clear this abandoned Art Deco gem was no ordinary cleaners.

This sublime architectural marvel is a rare example of an expressionist church.

A quirky assortment of musical marvels from around the world.

Far from the shore, this sandy victim of the Skeleton Coast looks like it was plopped in the middle of the desert.

Reproductions of nine banned oil paintings coyly hidden behind a curtain in a New Mexico conference room.