Places stevebecker Wants to Go

These official units of measurement—including chains and perches—lie hidden beneath tourists' feet in a popular London hub.

A charming 17th-century alley is lined with secondhand bookstores and antiquarian shops.

The perfectly preserved underground rooms where Churchill plotted the war against Germany.

A 300-year-old tea shop that brought tea to the English people, not to mention the Queen herself.

This ornate Victorian marketplace was the setting for Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron in the first ‘Harry Potter’ film.

Palatial mansion estate used in films including "Flowers in the Attic" and "The Witches of Eastwick."

An 80-year-old house built out of newspapers.

One of the oldest used bookstores in the U.S. has been selling antiquarian treasures since 1825.

The only structure left with direct ties to the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.

The floating gallery illuminates the heart of Québec City's arts district.

This former prison now houses a lovely library devoted to Quebec's oft-maligned English-speaking history.

A contemporary fresco movement illustrates the region's rich history.

A 400-square foot model of historic Quebec is the playing field for a state of the art light and sound show.

This steep cable railway has been hoisting passengers in the heart of Québec City for over a century.

This lovely, if imposing, piece of Canadian gothic is possibly the most photographed hotel in the world.

The world’s tallest outdoor lift stretches along the stone pillars that inspired the floating mountains in the movie “Avatar.”

A total of 999 stairs lead visitors through a massive hole in a mountain known as the Gateway to Heaven.

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

This vertical pinnacle in China was the inspiration for the floating mountains in the movie “Avatar.”

This bar is home to what's likely the oldest living jazz band in the world.

This psychedelic tourist trap is a leisurely descent into madness.

One of the last few places in Manhattan that employed a pneumatic systemic keeps it on display.

Wall Street has a new heroine, a bronze statue of a small but fierce girl.