5 Unbelievable Spots Around The World You Can Visit

This ain’t no land of Photoshop. These incredible spots around the world earned their fantastical beauty the old-fashioned way: over millions of years and with a little help from erosion, algae, and other environmental factors. From a pink lake to soaring stone towers that inspired a sci-fi blockbuster, these unbelievable spots around the world are worth an ogle, and maybe even a trip.

# Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

People don't usually look at surrealist paintings and think, Yup, art imitates life. But one look at the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia proves otherwise. During the rainy season, when a thin layer of water turns the world's largest salt flat into a vast mirror, Earth and sky seem to blend seamlessly, offering a version of the world usually just seen in paintings.

# Danxia Landforms, China

Not everyone can pull off stripes, but the Danxia hills and mountains of southern China do it with flair. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010, the remarkable terrain stretches across more than 1,000 miles of southeastern and southwestern China. Wondering how a mountain got its stripes? In this case, it's the result of layers of rock reacting to the pressures of the Earth and effects of the environment over millions of years.

# Pamukkale, Turkey

Imagine a world in which you get, all at once, the blinding white of fresh snow and the vivid aqua of tropical seas. Turns out that world is ours, and that place is Turkey's Pamukkale, or cotton palace. A dazzling sight since ancient times, turquoise water fills dozens of terraced semicircular travertine pools. The fresh deposits of calcium carbonate give the warm-water basins their vivid white sheen. The UNESCO World Heritage site also includes mineral forests, petrified waterfalls, and the ruins of Greek temples and baths.

# Lencois Maranhenses, Brazil

In northeastern Brazil, just beyond the Amazon Basin, lie 600 square miles of alternating sand dunes and sparkling rainwater lagoons. You've got to earn that peek at Lencois Maranhenses National Park's striking scenery, though: There are no roads, so the only way to explore is by four-wheel-drive tour or boat. On TripAdvisor (where the park garners rave reviews), past visitors recommend visiting in June or July, when the pools are full just after the rainy season.

# Dead Vlei, Namibia

Dead Vlei. Even if you don't speak Afrikaans, you can sense what the landscape holds. This dead marsh of the Namib Desert is a terrain of contrast and drama, where towering rust-red sand dunes surround a cracked white plain dotted with 1,000-year-old sun-blackened trees. Many visitors explore Dead Vlei as part of a larger excursion to the sand dunes of Sossusvlei.