Top 5 Places Everyone Should Visit At Least Once

There are certain havens so beautiful, so memorable and so impressive that friends tell us we need to visit them at least once in our lives. Some may be exotic (an African safari, an overwater bungalow in Tahiti or an icebreaker trek to the Antarctic). But others may be closer to home and provide a more realistic chance for a visit soon.

Leave it to teachers to be more practical and focus on the latter. ThinkFives and ESGI polled hundreds of teachers to ask them which vacation they recommend for fellow teachers at least once in their life. Here is their Top 5 List – and all can be reached fairly easily from almost anywhere in the US.

The Grand Canyon is one of the most visited US national parks and every summer, there are star parties in the Grand Canyon with telescopes and free astronomy activities.

You can reach the Grand Canyon from Arizona or Nevada with so many ways to take in its glory, whether that be hiking, mule, kayak, boat or helicopter.

Fun Facts About the Grand Canyon

• The Grand Canyon is bigger than the state of Rhode Island (1,212 square miles).
• You can get an aerial view of the Grand Canyon on the Skywalk, a horseshoe shaped steel frame with a glass floor that projects about 70 feet over the canyon rim.
• Teddy Roosevelt was instrumental in protecting the Grand Canyon. He once said “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
• There are an estimated 1,000 caves in the Grand Canyon and only 335 have been recorded.
• A town in Grand Canyon, Supai Village, is inaccessible by road with a population of just 208.

If you’re planning a trip there, the region experiences two seasons: dry from mid-December through mid-April, and rainy (or wet) from mid-April through mid-December.

It’s also a great place to experience a multitude of foreign cultures like British (Bermuda, British Virgin Island, Bahamas), French (Guadeloupe Saint Martin, and Martinique), and Dutch (Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten).

Fun Facts About the Caribbean

• George Washington slept here. Yes, that’s true. Barbados is one of the few places the former president ever visited outside of the 13 colonies.
• Over 75% of the population in the Caribbean lives on two islands, Cuba and the shared island with the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
• 7 Pot Barrackpore is one of the hottest chili peppers in the world and comes from Trinidad and Tobago.
• Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group owns an entire island in the Caribbean Sea, Necker Island.
• Thanks to its business and banking privacy laws, the Cayman Islands have more businesses (100k) than people (66k).

Since opening its first park in 1955, the Happiest Place on Earth has been a family-favorite for decades. Over 726 million have visited since then, including royalty, such as Kings, Queens and Presidents. 

Disney World opened its doors in 1971 and sprawls over 25,000 acres in Orlando, Florida. In addition to the Magic Kingdom, other parks include Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, two water parks, and 27 themed hotels.

It’s a perfect vacation for children of all ages.

Fun Facts About Disney

• Disneyland’s park admission was only $3.50 when it first opened.
• There is a secret tunnel underground of Disney World. Only guests on the Keys to Kingdom tour are allowed to enter.
• In the parks, visitors are always less than 30 steps from a trash can.
• An estimated 1.65 million sunglasses have been lost at Disney World since it opened.
• Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park is bigger than Disneyland as a whole.

The choices are everywhere. Head south to Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina down to almost any coastal city in Florida (Daytona, Fort Lauderdale, South Beach, Naples, Tampa Bay, Panama Beach, etc.). The water gets warmer and the crowds get bigger.

And while these weren’t on our teachers’ lists, there are some incredible sites around the world.  Consider Tahiti, Bora Bora, Ibiza, the Greek Islands, Bali, Australia, Rio, and the exclusive of all beach islands, the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

For those on a more normal budget, beaches line the coast of California and the Gulf Coast states but we shouldn’t forget the hundreds of lake beaches that dot almost every state in the country. Unless you’re in the heart of Death Valley, a beach is not far from any town. And that’s probably why they are such a popular choice for vacation.

And we didn’t even mention Hawaii because …

Fun Facts About Beaches

• Americans make an estimated 2 billion visits to the beach every year.
• America’s longest beach shoreline is in Alaska.
• The New Smyrna Beach in Florida has the most shark attacks in the world, with a total of at least 320 confirmed shark bites since 1882.
• Wild horses roam the shores of the Assateague Island National Seashore south of Ocean City in Maryland.
• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest sandcastle ever made was constructed in Connecticut, USA, in May 2011. It was 11.53 m (37 ft 10 in) tall.

There are also several one-of-a-kind sites in Hawaii starting with the Na Pali Coast on Kauai. Add to that, the Road to Hana and Molokini Crater in Maui, the Mauna Kea Summit and Observatory on the Big Island and the somber history of Pearl Harbor.

With so much natural beauty, no wonder Hawaii is #1 on our list.

Fun Facts About Hawaii

• Hawaii is made up of 132 different islands.
• Hawaii has the longest life expectancy in all of the U.S.
• Hawaii has its own time zone, the Hawaiian Standard Time, which is 3 hours earlier than Pacific Time in the summer and 2 hours earlier in the winter.
• “Aloha” can mean hello, goodbye, and love.
• There is one sport invented in Hawaii. Can you guess? Well, surfing, of course.

Sources

• https://facts.net/grand-canyon-national-park-facts/
• https://www.caribbeanandco.com/facts-about-the-caribbean-region/
• https://kidadl.com/facts/facts-about-the-caribbean-islands-that-you-will-love

What place do you think everyone should visit once?