An Introduction to the Coolest Places in the World

So what are the coolest places in the world?

It's a question we have been asked a thousand times. After travels to 70 countries and hundreds of the world's most amazing and unique places, we wanted to share our thoughts. Along the way, we shot five hundred thousand photos, travelled a couple million miles and with a little prodding from friends, we finally decided to write a book & blog that answers that question. It is both unscientific and highly biased – we have just ranked what blew us away. Specifically, we have ranked the top 45 Coolest Places in the World.

So who are we? One of us is an internet entrepreneur and photographer whose photos have been seen in over 5,000 publications and includes the New York Times and the Washington Post. Our other blogger is a hardcore traveller and successful equities market maker. Together we have traveled to these seventy countries with friends, girlfriends and ex-friends over the last 12 years. We have been to every place that will be listed here and all the photos are ours.

The primary goal of this blog is to share the best times we’ve ever had and to inspire our workaholic friends to travel to some of these places – at least, to the top 15.


How We Ranked the Sites:
Here’s what mattered:

- Novelty and surprise like with Cappadocia and Easter Island.
- The combination of a stunning place and great history like Registan or Angkor Wat in Cambodia (above).
- Highly unique and very interesting cultures, like the Bhutanese, the Wodaabe and the Shuar Indians of the Amazon.
-Amazing visual beauty like Petra and Myanmar.
- Completely unique and "hard to get access to" situations like dinosaur hunting in Niger, the shipbreakers of Bangladesh, and dancing with a samba school in Carnival at the Sambadrome.
- We chose to rank many great natural areas like the Grand Canyon and Iguazu Falls lower than great cultural and historical places.
- We strongly prefer places and cultures that are very different from the US and Europe.
- We are a generally underwhelmed by sites that are overpromoted and highly commercialized, like the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal, and rank them a lot lower than many people would.


Lessons Learned
We have learned a few lessons along the way:

1) Always get good seat belts in your cars. I have been in six car accidents overseas, including two total wrecks. In Syria, the driver flipped the car at 85 mph and the car went down a hill for 200 feet upside down. I walked away from every accident.
2) Worry much more about the mosquitoes than the terrorists. There are one hundred incurable diseases from the former and your overall risks are extremely low with the latter.
3) Never drink unbottled water, and eat all of your food well done and very hot.
4) Pack plenty of the miracle drug Cipro.
5) Enjoy the moment. Make sure you leave plenty of time to spend with the local people. While the sites are truly amazing, our favorite memories almost always involve the people we’ve met.
6) Remember that surprise is the lubricant of great travel. Don't over-plan.
7) Always bring a Polaroid camera with hundreds of shots, and a frisbee. Everyone loves them, regardless of culture, religion or language.

Happy Travels and by all means, let us know your thoughts and what you think are the coolest places in the world.


Disclaimer: Please note that the photos vary in quality depending on when they were shot, what medium and how they were scanned originally.