Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place

Modern travellers often find themselves caught in a quandary: Their desire to experience a unique, authentic destination with an unmistakable sense of place collides with the realisation that tourism, including their own arrival, will contribute to change. Visitors, especially temporary ones, can dilute a destination’s uniqueness, resulting in an increasing sameness of accommodation, retail and dining offerings – and a loss of authenticity. We’ve selected destinations that retain their sense of place regardless of visitor numbers, refusing to become victims of their own success.

By Fiona Brutscher

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Barcelona has long been a popular tourist destination. More recently, it has become notorious as a vanguard of the fight against overtourism. The city proudly cultivates its Catalan customs and traditions. Last year, its citizens voted overwhelmingly in favour of political independence from Spain. Wandering the streets, you will discover new aspects of the city’s unique culture at every turn, from the Catalan language spoken everywhere, to local festivities celebrated throughout summer and displays like the castells – human towers – being put on in squares on special occasions. Add to that Antoni Gaudí’s architectural flights of fancy, and you get a very unique destination worth preserving.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Berlin is worth a visit for all the same reasons most of Europe’s capitals are considered unmissable: its monumental architecture, its aura of historical relevance and political authority, coupled with traces of art and culture past and present – there’s something something for everyone. However, the German capital is unique in the way it deals with the scars of its most recent history. The remnants of the border that once divided the city – and the entire country – remain visible, in some places more than in others. The neighbourhoods on either side of the former wall are no longer as different as they once were, but keep your eyes open and you will encounter traces of the division all over town.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Salzburg owes its perfectly picturesque old town to a historic city preservation law passed in 1967, eventually securing the city a spot on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Of course, in German there’s a word for that: the so-called Altstadterhaltungsgesetz ensures that the Austrian city’s medieval and baroque architecture appears unchanged since its days as an ecclesiastical city-state, some 400-odd years ago. Perhaps slightly less significant in historical terms, but important to many Sound of Music fans – many of the film’s locations are still easily recognisable today.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Venice is unique in so many ways: a city filled with beautiful art, opulent architecture and fascinating history, without roads, built on and surrounded by water – and maybe fated to disappear below its surface in the not-too-distant future. All of these factors contribute to the very specific sense of place the city of canals evokes, held together by a tangible sense of melancholia. Even on a sunny day in the middle of a carefree Italian holiday, visitors can be touched by a feeling of sweet sorrow.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Volcanic landscapes often make for amazing scenes of almost extraterrestrial beauty. Iceland is unique amongst them in that the entire country serves as an illustrative example of different aspects of tectonic activity. You can visit volcanoes both active and extinct or dormant, go to an archipelago created by underwater eruptions, explore a town once covered in lava, see unusual landforms, go on tours that take you inside a volcano, or swim between two tectonic plates. All of this and more gave the island the name “Land of Fire and Ice” – and make it seem like something from another planet at times.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Unlike the familiar pattern of gentrification across Europe, locals in the old town of Marrakesh have largely benefited from tourism. Rents within the medina remain lower than in the shiny new suburbs outside the city walls, so artisans and traders tend to live and work in its maze of narrow alleys. Riads, shops and restaurants serving tourists are often hidden and at first glance virtually indiscernible from those frequented by locals. The result is the often intense, sometimes scary, but always memorable experience of getting lost in the middle of a real, living, thriving Moroccan city.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. You wouldn’t know it from visiting the most popular tourist hotspots of Sydney, Melbourne or even Uluru and Cairns, though. Head to the Kimberley for a real outback experience. The wilderness area in the country’s northwest is Australia in a nutshell – wide open expanses, sweltering heat, red dust and long stretches of empty road. The Aboriginal population and land ownership is amongst the highest in Australia, making it a wonderful place to experience and appreciate indigenous culture, but also a refuge for communities wishing to remain autonomous and unbothered by visitors. [Photo: M.c.c.1999/Wikimedia Commons]

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Lettering made up of kanji characters, streetscapes dominated by skyscrapers illuminated with neon signs, crowded footpaths, tiny cars and no street parking – Japanese cities are united in certain features that set them apart from other urban scenes around the world. Hiroshima is a modern Japanese city that looks like others in many ways. Following the devastation of the Atomic bomb attack, it was rebuilt and has grown into a thriving metropolis. Yet the memory of the city’s painful past and near-destruction remains alive in Peace Memorial Park, a touching tribute to those who lost their lives here in 1945. The eerie A-Bomb Dome that survived the blast is a haunting reminder of the city’s horrific history.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

Visiting the Salar de Uyuni isn’t just about the (admittedly excellent) photo opportunities. It’s an extreme experience with the potential to upend your view of reality and expand your understanding of the world and our place within it. Standing on the world’s largest salt flat in Bolivia, the horizon seems close enough to grasp and yet impossibly remote, all at once. During the rainy season, the sky is reflected by mirror-like pools of water on the flat ground, allowing you to indulge the illusion of walking on clouds. The stark landscape is as arid and forbidding as it is open and inviting. Marvel at the sensation of looking at nothing and seeing everything, if your imagination will permit it.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

The Amazon rainforest is known as the earth’s green lung – and that’s exactly what it feels like when you’re inside it. Not only is it dark and humid, but teeming with life, effortlessly making one mere human feel insignificant and small in comparison. 60% of the Amazon is contained within Brazil, the planet’s biodiversity champion. The country is home to 15-20% of the world’s biological diversity, with hundreds of new species being discovered each year. It doesn’t just look green, it will also make you think green, as you consider the value of protecting this unique place.

Special Sense Of Place

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You Are Here: 11 Destinations With A Truly Unique Sense Of Place.

There may be less trees in the forests of California, but what they lack in number, they more than make up for in size. The largest trees in the world dwarf their human visitors in national parks and forests on the West Coast of the USA. Coast Redwoods can grow to over 107 metres and reach almost 10 metres in diameter. They are among the oldest living things on earth, and a close encounter will make you ponder all the things they might have seen in the thousands of years they have been around.