Finding your happy place requires that precise alchemy of location, time and mood. The weather and good company sure help, too. When all the stars align, ultimately, it’s a place where you feel truly at one with yourself and your surroundings. Whether you seek serenity or stimulation, these six mesmerising locations will help you feel restored, inspired and above all – happy.
Trevi Fountain: Rome, Italy
Flip a coin into the Trevi Fountain and make your wish. The romance of Rome is perhaps captured nowhere better than this 18th century Baroque masterpiece, dominating the Piazzi de Trevi. Immortalised in the Fellini classic, La Dolce Vita, the Trevi Fountain is an enduringly alluring spot, and one of the Roman Capital’s most joy-inducing.
Visit it on: Rome Explorer
Alcázar: Seville, Spain
This architectural feat will leave you speechless at its beauty. An intricately constructed Moorish palace compound, Alcázar harmonises Arabic and Baroque styles to create a monumental complex of stately rooms, bath halls and picturesque patios framed by leafy gardens. Pause for reflection at the enchanting Garden of the Poets and feel the history as you weave in and out of Alcázar’s majestic Arabic arches and mosaic-covered columns.
Visit it on: Best of Spain
Cameron Highlands: Pahang, Malaysia
Like an undulating carpet of green velvet, Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands beautifully stretch and ripple across the landscape. A vast patchwork quilt of tea plantations, farmsteads and villages, it offers flawless vistas and a joyfully sleepy pace of life. Sitting 1,542 meters above sea level, Cameron Highlands is also Malaysia’s highest point.
Visit it on: Colonial Malaysia and Singapore
Giverny: Normandy, France
The small, idyllic French village captured Claude Monet’s heart, and it’s easy to see why. Tiny pastel coloured dwellings that resemble dolls houses line narrow cobbled alleyways. Monet’s garden is like nowhere else on Earth; wild and charmingly overgrown, weeping willows gracefully droop into his pond, covered with those famous waterlilies. It’s a serene place for contemplation and reflection.
Visit it on: The Treasures of France Including Normandy
Oia: Santorini, Greece
Oia’s whitewashed churches, cobalt blue domes and vertiginous, sheer cliff faces are instantly recognisable A tangle of small shops and cafes, this Santorini village perches high above the azure Aegean on the island’s northernmost tip, and is witness to the most devastatingly gorgeous sunsets. Sit with an ice-cold glass of Ouzo and drink in the views.
Visit it on: Greek Island Hopper
Los Angeles Cloud Forest: Costa Rica, USA
Costa Rica is home to an abundance of sky-tickling cloud forests, yet Los Angeles is lesser visited and more serene than some of the others. Surrender to the magnificence of nature and immerse yourself fully in a wildlife paradise of misty tree canopies as they echo with the sounds of howler monkeys and sights of hummingbirds and toucans.
Visit it on: Natural Wonders of Costa Rica
Want to find your happy place? Click here to discover a sensational Trafalgar trip.
Image Credits: Main image © iStock/mbbirdy. Alcazar © iStock/555DIGIT. Cameron Highlands © iStock/s-eyekaufer. LA Cloud Forest © iStock/tane-mahuta. Giverny © iStock/Deb22. Trevi Fountain © iStock/rilindh.