Places SamS Wants to Go

Four hundred granite steps were built into this massive rock by the National Park Service.

Captain John Smith thought these cliffs were amazing in 1608 but sharks thought so 20 million years before him.

England's oldest surviving hedge maze has been confusing visitors for over 300 years.

The twists and turns of this serpentine maze are over 170 years old.

A peace symbol in Northern Ireland is among the world's largest hedge mazes.

With over 12,000 different species of plants, this botanical garden is Japan's oldest and most diverse.

The world's oldest continuously operating airport was founded by the Wright Brothers.

A lawn full of retired spacecraft on display at one of NASA's first research labs.

This small and serene place for quiet reflection on Staten Island was built in China based on the gardens of the Ming Dynasty.

This stunning French estate was so lavish that it landed its original owner in jail for the rest of his life.

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

These Japanese gardens are blankets of light for dark winter nights.

The towering figures were created from the cemetery's fallen old-growth trees.

Franciscan monks created a facsimile of the Holy Land for North Americans who couldn’t afford the trip overseas.

Largest Roman Catholic church in North America.

An overlooked oasis of quiet on the grounds of Washington's monumental basilica.

A historic estate packed with George Washington's heirlooms, and its own nuclear bunker.

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.

Two thousand artifacts from around the world collected by one woman who loved to travel.

Bask in the 19th century grandeur of an eccentric Freemason millionaire's private gardens.

Gardens representing parts of Asia, Europe, and the Mid East are tucked away among the Soviet-style buildings in East Berlin.

A 98-room castle in the middle of Toronto that bankrupted a 19th century electricity multimillionaire.

Philadelphia boasts one of the best — and most often overlooked — traditional Japanese gardens in North America.

This lovely ancestral home inspired the author D.H. Lawrence, and features a tunnel made out of a living willow.