Meersburg. Germany

Meersburg, Bodensee Lake. By mattwyn

Spring in Meersburg. By juergen.mangelsdorf

Meersburg is located on the Bodensee, or Lake Constance, on the German/Swiss border. It is surrounded by water and vineyards. This would be a great place to spend some time for an anniversary.

Santorini. Greece.

The Heart of Santorini, a hole in the volcanic rocks of the caldera. By Klearchos Kapoutsis

Big Sur. California. The USA

Big Sur. California. By vgm8383

Big Sur. California. By vgm8383

Big Sur, California, is a place defined by its natural features – mountains and water. Here at the edge of the continent, mountains plunge into the sea with little regard for the tiny ribbon of highway that clings tenuously to the slopes or the thousands of tourists clustered at every turn, taking photographs and chattering about the views.

Lisbon. Portugal.

Lisbon by night. Portugal. By Fr Antunes

The Canadian Rockies. Canada

Canadian Rockies. By paulhami

Saint Paul de Vence. Provence. France

St Paul de Vence, France. By freefotouk

Saint Paul de Vence is a charming hilltop fortified village in Provence, filled with art galleries, boutiques and sidewalk cafes.  It’s hard to find something ugly about this quaint village. A walk through its winding streets reveals elegant fountains, vine-covered stone walls and statues tucked into nooks in the walls.

There are breathtaking views of mountains and sea. Even the ground below is attractive, as the cobblestones are laid into the shapes of flowers. Read more here .

The Seychelles

Praslin Island in Seychelles. By Y.Ballester

Tokyo Bay. Japan.

Tokyo Bay. By Stefan

San Francisco. The USA

San Francisco by night. By Kevin Labianco

Faroe Islands. Denmark.

Faroe Islands. By the spug

The Faroe Islands offer beautiful Scandinavian nature and rugged scenery, great for hiking and exploring – try the fjord of Skálafjørður and the isle of Borðoy.

Travelet has been recommended on Simonseeks.com, a website where a community share their tips on the best places visit. Read their expert pages on Nice hotels.

]]> http://www.travelet.com/2010/02/10-romantic-getaways-to-fall-in-love/feed/ 0 http://www.travelet.com/2010/02/10-awesome-caves-of-the-world/ http://www.travelet.com/2010/02/10-awesome-caves-of-the-world/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:31:12 +0000 travelet http://www.travelet.com/?p=653 If we sit down to count the marvelous creations by God, humans would be the most prolific artifact originating from the supreme mind of the almighty. Why I say so is because designing every cell of our body to form a bigger organ and then coordination between each of them, the cycle of birth, growth and death, all come from the scientist  sitting far away in the skies. And that’s not all, he is an architect of the most wonderful universe and the beauty that surrounds us in the form of sky,stars, the moon,  high mountains, rivers, plants and so on.  Amongst such amazing gifts of God are the deep dark and amazing caves, that have always fascinated the nature lovers with their unique splendor.

There are some caves out there so breathtaking, so astounding in their wonder and their beauty that people take flights just to explore the natural architecture laid down for us to enjoy. So let me take you to a virtual tour of the most beautiful and astounding caves of the world who have existed since the dawn of civilization.

Harrison’s Cave

Image source

The Harrison’s cave are said to be one of the wonders of the world because of their magnificent beauty and amazingly formed unusual stalactites and stalagmites formations. Found in the Caribbean island Barbados, it’s the only cave in the world where running water is found along with color crystal-like formations. Formed by water erosion through the limestone rock, these caves are full of large chambers, lakes, streams and waterfalls. As you may see in the pictures, they are exquisite beyond imagination.

Phong Nha Cave

Image source

Phong Nha Cave is the largest and most beautiful cave in Vietnam and is Unesco’s World Heritage site. The cave is 7729 m long, contains 14 grottos, with a 13,969 m-long Underground River filled with abundant stalactites and stalagmites. The river has widest and prettiest sand banks, containing many fascinating rock formations of the world.

Waitomo Glowworm Cave

Image source

Image source

Located in  North Island of New Zealand, the cave owes its name partially to  the vast  population of glowworms, botanically called the Arachnocampa luminosa that are exclusively found in New Zealand, so definitely worth a visit if you’re ever on holiday there. Around the size of an average mosquito, the hanging larvas of these glowworms emit the bright light to attract pray towards themselves. What is interesting is that the hungry larvas are said to glow brighter than the one with stomach filled. The thousand glowing larvas give a panorama of heavens at night. The blue light is actually a chemical reaction that takes place inside a special capsule in its tail.The limestone formations in the caves are said to be formed when the region was still under the ocean about 30 million years ago.

Cave of the Crystals

Image source

This is the home of the world’s largest known crystals in Chihuahua, Mexico. It is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in limestone rock which is 10 meters wide and 30 meters long and contains giant selenite crystals even 36 ft long, 4 m in diameter and 55 tons in weight. The Naica mountain was filled with high temperature anhydrite gypsum during the volcanic activity that took place million of years ago. The magma heated the underground water dissolving all minerals and on cooling down formed huge selanite gypsum crystals over years.

.

Ali Sadr Cave, Hamadan Iran

Image source

Image source

Ali Sadr Cave is  located about 100 kilometers north of Hamadan, western Iran and is one of the most beautiful caves on the world. The 70 million years old cave contains several large, deep lakes and the stalactites formations hanging from the roof of the cave in different colors doubles its beauty. Taking the shape of cauliflowers, needles and umbrellas, in vibrant colors of red, purple, brown, green and blue, these formations on the cave floor give an exotic view. It is said that Ali-Sadr is the only yachting cave with so clear water that we can see to a depth of 5 meters even in a dim light.

Eisriesenwelt Cave

Image source

Image source

Eisriesenwelt  is a natural limestone ice cave located in Werfen, Austria. Located within the Tennengebirga Mountains near Salzburg, the cave stretches over to 42 kms and is the largest ice cave in the world.

Lechuguilla Cave

Image source

The fifth longest cave in the world, Lechuguilla Cave is located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. It is most famous for its unusual geology like the rare speleothems, rare formations with large amounts of gypsum and lemon-yellow sulfur deposits, and pristine condition. However access to the cave is limited only to the approved scientific researchers, survey and exploration teams rather than holiday makers!

Crystal Cave

Image source

Sequoia National Park, in the U.S. state of California is home of 240 known caves. Crystal Cave is  a marble cave which is park’s second-longest at over 3.4 miles. It is in the Giant Forest region, between the Ash Mountain entrance of the park and Giant Forest. The cave is a constant 9 °C (48 °F), and only accessible by guided tour.

Yellow Dragon Cave

Image source

Image source

The Yellow Dragon Cave is situated on the rear hill of Xixialing in West Lake tourist zone in Hangzhou City.it is actually a yard with half-artificial and half natural scenes. It is simple but very elegant with different kinds of bamboo like the white bamboo, purple bamboo, green bamboo with golden dots, square bamboo and so on.

Velebit caves of Croatia

Image source

The Velebit Mountain is the home of a number of caves named Lukina jama, Slovacka jama, Velebita and Meduza. These caves have some of the world’s greatest subterranean spectacular vertical drops, sure to bring a shudder in the spine.  At the foot of  Lukina jama there are ponds and streams having the largest colonies of subterranean leeches.