World's Hottest Tourist Attractions

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Hot spot: Sightsmap allows users to search the map to find the top places in a given area, including the most photographed 1,000 locations in a country

World's Hottest Tourist Attractions: Interactive 'Heat Map' Reveals Top 10 Most Photographed Travel Destinations Across The Globe -- Daily Mail

Anyone who has visited New York will have whipped out their camera to take an obligatory shot of the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty.

And a visit to Paris or Rome isn’t complete without a smartphone selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower or Spanish Steps respectively. But which tourist sights are the world’s most iconic?

An interactive 'heat map' has revealed the top 10 photographed cities in the world - along with which tourist attraction is the most snapped in each location.

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My Comment: Europe is the "hottest spot".

Wonder Lust: Trinity Test Site

Making the pilgrimage to ground zero (Image: Joe Raedle/Getty)

From New Scientist:

AT 15 seconds to 5.30 am on 16 July 1945, the world's first nuclear explosion turned 4 hectares of sand into glass and signalled the start of the atomic age. It happened at the Trinity site in the Jornada del Muerto desert of southern New Mexico.

It's hard to imagine a more isolated, desolate spot. Yet the site, part of the White Sands missile range, is open two days each year to pilgrims to this "ground zero" of the nuclear arms race. Aside from a bus that runs between the blast site and a historic ranch house where the bomb's plutonium core was assembled, visitors have to fend for themselves.

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Now This Is One Big Boat

The Oasis of the Seas off Fort Lauderdale, Fla., one recent evening.
Barbara P. Fernandez for The Wall Street Journal

What It Takes to Keep a City Afloat -- Wall Street Journal

In One Day, the World's Largest Cruise Ship Prepares to Set Sail, with 700 Tons of Supplies, 80,000 Beers, and One Bagpiper

How do you keep more than 6,300 people fed, housed and having the time of their life while floating in the middle of the ocean?

The Oasis of the Seas—the world's largest cruise ship—aims to accomplish that feat nearly every week. Almost five times as large as the Titanic, it has a population during its seven-day Caribbean sailings that is larger than many American small towns—more than 8,600 when it is fully booked and including staff. The Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship, which first set sail last December, is almost as long as five Airbus A380 airplanes, or about four football fields. It has 24 restaurants and its own leafy "Central Park." During the weeklong sailings, about 700 tons of new supplies are needed, all loaded aboard each Saturday. Guests consume about 20 gallons of maraschino cherries and 80,000 bottles of beer.

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Best & Worst Destinations Rated, 2009

Photograph by Andrew H. Brown, National Geographic Stock

From National Geographic:

Still waters in Norang Fjord, shown in an undated picture, reflect the "well-preserved Norwegian rural life" that helped the region take top honors in the sixth annual "Destinations Rated" scorecard compiled by the National Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations.

The center convened an independent panel of 437 experts in fields from historic preservation and sustainable tourism to travel writing and archaeology to assess 133 iconic places around the world.

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