Australia
Springbrook
A waterfall crashes through a cave ceiling into a grotto glowing with thousands of bioluminescent worms.
Water crashes through a cave ceiling into a pool surrounded by thousands of blue-green pinpricks of light. Glow worms — not worms at all, but fungus gnat larvae — string bioluminescent fishing lines from the cave walls. The Natural Bridge at Springbrook turns biology into spectacle.
Springbrook National Park sits in the Gold Coast Hinterland of southeast Queensland, part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. The Natural Bridge — a rock arch formed by waterfall erosion — houses a colony of bioluminescent glow worms (Arachnocampa flava) that light the cave interior with a blue-green glow visible after dark. The park's Antarctic beech trees are remnants of Gondwanan flora, genetically linked to species in South America and New Zealand — evidence of a supercontinent that broke apart 180 million years ago. The Best of All Lookout lives up to its name, providing views from the volcanic caldera rim to the coast.
Couple
A bioluminescent cave at night, rainforest walks by day, and a treehouse stay in ancient forest — Springbrook is nature's light show for two.
Family
The glow worm cave mesmerises kids and adults equally. Short rainforest loops and waterfall pools keep young legs happy between the main event.
- The Natural Bridge cave has a waterfall crashing through its ceiling into a pool of glow worms.
- Thousands of bioluminescent glow worms light the cave walls like a blue-green galaxy.
- Rainforest walks follow creek beds through Antarctic beech forest — Gondwanan species from 180 million years ago.
- Eco-lodges and treehouses sit in the canopy above the Gold Coast Hinterland.
Hinterland cafes serving Devonshire teas on verandas where the subtropical canopy drips after afternoon rain.
Organic produce from the Springbrook Plateau — avocado, macadamia, and finger lime grown in volcanic soil.
Trollskogen (Öland)
Sweden
A forest of wind-warped oaks so twisted they look like a witch's spell gone wrong.
Maryang-ri
South Korea
A five-hundred-year-old forest of camellia trees bleeding red flowers against the grey winter sea.
Cuc Phuong National Park
Vietnam
Millennium-old trees rising above a jungle floor swarming with millions of white butterflies each spring.
Salinas de Porto Inglês
Cape Verde
Women sort salt by hand beside a pink lake on a coastal flat tourism forgot.
Wave Rock
Australia
A 15-metre granite wave frozen mid-break, striped with mineral stains in the middle of wheat country.
Sydney
Australia
Ferries carve blue water between surf beaches and opera sails as cockatoos screech overhead.
Byron Bay
Australia
Dawn surfers, dolphins, and a lighthouse where the continent first catches the sun.
Blue Mountains
Australia
Eucalyptus haze turns a labyrinth of canyons and waterfalls into a blue hallucination.