Swiss vineyards in a UNESCO heritage site.

A climbing route in the mountains of Italy’s Dolomites, built for soldiers during World War I.

Visitors dip into a variety of pools of what was once ice.

The bizarre visions of H.R. Giger, tucked away in a Swiss medieval city.

On East Burnside, a 24-hour vending machine distributes world-class pastries.

A theme park that suffered massive flooding during Katrina was abandoned, and now proves irresistible to trespassing explorers.

An uninhabited village that preserves and documents rural architecture and an endangered way of life.

A rehabilitation center for confiscated, orphaned, and abandoned chimpanzees.

This enormous "cloth of the conquest" depicts the Norman invasion of England in mind-blowing detail.

An abandoned beach resort in Normandy reclaimed by artists.

Walk 2,300 feet above the ground on the "Troll's Tongue."

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

The convergence of two currents makes this a surprisingly pleasant getaway in the Arctic Circle.

The world's first zoo for microbes collecting the horrible and wonderful things living on and around us.

A curious collection dedicated to human and animal anatomy and pathology.

An explosion of natural color known as "the river that ran away from paradise."

This small collection of rare books was uniquely locked up for safe keeping.

One of the world's largest collections of pathological specimens.

See hundreds of herons and egrets in the heart of the city in this dreamy hidden park.

The macabre collection of Jacques Sirgent, an expert scholar on the undead and all of their trappings.

Head to the mountains to catch a glimpse of Spain's endangered subspecies of brown bear.

This vast, pristine wilderness is home to a rare subspecies of black bear.

The most biologically diverse protected area in Africa is also the most dangerous.

Home to pygmy hunter-gatherers, hundreds of animal and bird species, and the strange okapi, or forest giraffe.