Japan
Hakone
Hot spring ryokans perched above a volcanic lake with Fuji framed in the window.
The mountain is always watching. From every onsen pool, every lakeside path, every ropeway gondola in Hakone, Mount Fuji occupies the horizon — sometimes sharp-edged against blue sky, sometimes hidden in cloud, always present. Hakone is Japan's most accessible mountain resort, a volcanic landscape of hot springs, lakes, and forests less than ninety minutes from Tokyo.
Hakone sits within the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 3,000 years ago, and the geothermal activity that created Lake Ashi still powers the Ōwakudani sulphur vents, where black eggs boiled in volcanic pools are said to add seven years to your life. The Hakone Open-Air Museum was Japan's first outdoor sculpture park, displaying works by Henry Moore, Picasso, and Nikki de Saint Phalle against a mountain backdrop. The Hakone Tozan Railway, Japan's oldest mountain railway, switchbacks up the slopes through hydrangea tunnels that bloom in vivid blue and purple every June. The region's ryokan and onsen culture is among the most refined in Japan, with open-air baths overlooking Lake Ashi and the caldera walls.
Couple
Private onsen baths with Fuji views, lake cruise at sunset, and a ryokan dinner in a room that faces the mountain — Hakone is engineered for romantic stays.
Family
The ropeway, the pirate ship lake cruise, the black eggs at Ōwakudani, and the Open-Air Museum keep children engaged while the scenery satisfies adults.
- Owakudani's sulphur vents boil black eggs in volcanic pools — eating one supposedly adds seven years to your life.
- On clear days, Mount Fuji fills the horizon from the ropeway, the lake shore, and the open-air museum.
- Open-air hot spring baths carved into mountainsides overlook Lake Ashi and the forested caldera walls.
- The Hakone Tozan railway switchbacks up the mountain through hydrangea tunnels in full bloom every June.
Kuro-tamago black eggs boiled in volcanic springs — the shell turns obsidian, the taste stays clean.
Tofu kaiseki at lakeside restaurants, each course a study in subtlety.
Queenstown
New Zealand
The town where bungee jumping was born, cradled between a glacial lake and jagged peaks.
Sete Cidades
Portugal
Twin crater lakes, one emerald, one sapphire, fill a volcanic caldera wreathed in Azorean mist.
Silverton
United States
A narrow-gauge steam train delivers you to a mining ghost town at 9,318 feet.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Nikko
Japan
Gold-encrusted shrines hidden in cryptomeria forests where a sleeping cat guards the gate.
Narai-juku
Japan
A kilometre-long wooden post town where the street narrows until the Edo sky disappears.
Yakushima
Japan
Ancient cedar forest wrapped in mist where roots swallow granite boulders whole.
Naoshima
Japan
A fishing island where pumpkins glow yellow and museums burrow underground.