Canada
Ferryland
Picnic on a headland above a 17th-century colony while icebergs drift past and puffins wheel.
You hike to the lighthouse at Ferryland, Newfoundland, and spread a blanket on the headland. Lighthouse Picnics delivers your gourmet lunch. Below, the 17th-century Colony of Avalon archaeological dig is slowly uncovering a settlement older than most Canadian cities. An iceberg drifts past.
Ferryland on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula has layered its history like geological strata. The Colony of Avalon, founded by Lord Baltimore in 1621, is being excavated beneath the modern village, revealing stone buildings, pottery, and — notably — one of the oldest intact toilets in North America. Lighthouse Picnics, operating from the clifftop beside the working lighthouse, has become one of the most famous outdoor dining experiences in eastern Canada: guests hike to the headland and eat gourmet lunches on blankets overlooking the Atlantic. Puffins nest on the nearby headlands during breeding season. Icebergs drift through between May and July.
Couple
A gourmet picnic on a clifftop lighthouse with icebergs drifting past below — Ferryland's Lighthouse Picnics is one of the most romantic dining experiences in Canada.
Family
The hike to the lighthouse picnic, the archaeological dig, and the puffin-watching give families a full day of discovery in one of Newfoundland's most accessible and rewarding coastal villages.
- Lighthouse Picnics serves gourmet lunches on a clifftop blanket — guests hike to the lighthouse, then eat overlooking the Atlantic with icebergs drifting past.
- The Colony of Avalon archaeological dig has uncovered a 1620s English settlement beneath the modern village.
- Puffins nest on the nearby headlands, visible without a boat during breeding season.
- The 17th-century stone privy unearthed at the colony is one of the oldest intact toilets in North America.
Lighthouse Picnics serves gourmet lunches on a clifftop blanket overlooking the Atlantic.
Fish and brewis — salt cod soaked overnight and served with scrunchions and drawn butter.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.
St Ives
England
Light so luminous it lured a century of painters to this harbour of turquoise shallows.
Tulpar-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Alpine pools at 3,500 metres that mirror a 7,000-metre peak at dawn like shattered glass.
Philae Temple
Egypt
A temple rescued from rising waters, reassembled stone by stone on an island in the Nile.
Cape Dorset (Kinngait)
Canada
The print-making capital of the Arctic — Inuit artists carve stone and stories into polar silence.
Mount Robson
Canada
The Canadian Rockies' highest peak rarely reveals its summit — clouds guard it like a secret.
Thetford Mines
Canada
Open-pit asbestos mines swallowed half the town — the craters remain, eerie and vast.
Clearwater River
Canada
A river so clear the gravel glows twenty feet down through boreal wilderness no road reaches.