What's Better Than a Water Slide? A Natural Water Slide! - Sliding Rock

Forget Splash Zone, or whatever water park is in your vicinity, this summer. Get your swimsuit-covered butt over to Sliding Rock in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest to experience a natural water slide. Nothing beats slip-sliding down a 60-foot sloping boulder, pushed along by 11,000 gallons of water! Just as at Splash Zone, however, long lines and strict rules still apply. That means no going down head first, troublemaker.

The Germiest Place on Earth - Seattle Gum Wall

Sometimes trippy = germy, and that's certainly the case with the Seattle Gum Wall, at Pike Place Market. What started as just another wall that people would stick their chewed gun onto has turned into a major tourist attraction. At one point, the marketplace decided to completely clean off the wall, removing more than 2,350 pounds of gum, but people immediately began to add to it again, eventually resurrecting the wall to its former glory. Viva la gomme!

Think Outside the Rink - Paterswoldse Meer Lake

I love ice skating but hate going in circles (in the rink, as well as metaphorically). Which is why I'm saving up to visit Paterswoldse Meer Lake in Groningen, Netherlands, where I'll be able to skate as far as my little legs can take me in a gorgeous, natural setting.

Now please excuse me while I work on perfecting my double axle for this trip.

Visit the Home of Dracula - Corvin Castle

If you visit one castle in your lifetime, make it the spectacular and spooky Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Romania. It is one of the largest in Europe and also just happens to be the home of Dracula. Well, technically it was where Vlad the Impaler (Bram Stoker's inspiration for Dracula) was imprisoned for seven years ... but close enough. Don't forget to admire the bear pit, the place where unwanted prisoners were once quickly dispatched.

World's Largest Fort - The Minister's Tree House

Situated off a back country road in Crossville, Tennessee, is the world's largest tree house/hotel, dubbed The Minister's Tree House by the religious man who built it. With 10 stories supported by seven oak trees, the hotel of 80 rooms is made entirely of wood, complete with a church and bell tower on the top level.

If you think this place sounds like a fire hazard, well, the local fire marshal agrees. Even with its firm no smoking policy, the hotel was shut down a few years ago and today stands empty, although the owner is still trying to get it open.

It's Possible to Get a Good Night's Rest on a Plane - Jumbo Stay Hotel

Are you the kind of person who doesn't get a wink of sleep while on a plane? Maybe you should try the Jumbo Stay Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. The hostel is situated in a retired Boeing 457 whose interior was completely redesigned to include 27 guestrooms, a suite in the cockpit, and a café. Plus, the hotel is located right outside a real airport, so you can roll out of bed and catch your actual flight with no worries. It may the closest I'll ever come to flying first class.

Dangling Over the Edge - Swing at the End of the World

Hiking up a mountain in Baños, Ecuador, you might come upon a treehouse and a swing that's unlike anything you'll find in the 'burbs. The treehouse, Casa Del Arbol, is a seismic monitoring station and the swing is a crude contraption hanging on a tree branch -- that flies you over the edge of a canyon, more than 8,500 feet above sea level. At the risk of sounding like your mother, make sure you hold on tight!

Take a Trip Around the World - Verdenskortet

Do you want to see the world but have no time? Verdenskortet in Hobro, Denmark, may be the answer. The attraction features a to-scale map of the world measuring approximately 150 x 300 feet and constructed entirely out of dirt and rocks.

You can walk through all of Asia in just a few steps. Take a rowboat across the Pacific Ocean. Break for lunch at the adjoining cafe ... because even small-scale world travelers need to eat.

Get Lost - Longleat Hedge Maze

You know what they say if you're ever lost in a hedge maze: Just place one hand on a wall, and start walking. You'll eventually get out that way. That's something to keep in mind if you ever find yourself stuck in the Longleat Hedge Maze, otherwise known as the longest hedge maze in the world. It consists of more than 16,000 English yews and 1.75 miles of twists and turns. 

I've always wanted to get lost in an English hedge maze. Until it was time for afternoon tea, at which point I'd want someone to helicopter me out. 

Catch Your Own Dinner - Zauo Fishing Restaurant

Everyone wants their seafood to be fresh. So Zauo Fishing Restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, decided to give the customers what they want: a fishing pole with which to fish out their own dinner. Patrons can fish from their seats aboard a fishing vessel, or if you find that you're simply not an effective fisherman, you can go to a tank full of already "caught" fish and simply point at what you want.

Sounds delicious, if a bit unfair for the fish.

Welcome to Ireland - The Dark Hedges

If I came upon this road flanked by crazily entwined beech trees that look almost sentient, my instinct would be to turn around and run as fast as I could in the other direction. But the intention of the Stuart Family, who planted the trees in the 18th century along Bregagh Road in Northern Ireland, was to create a welcoming pathway leading up to their mansion. To each his own, I guess?

Actually, we can all agree that this scene is beautiful. Creepy, but beautiful. And the name of this place, The Dark Hedges, doesn't really help. Maybe if they called this place The Friendly Trees That Definitely Won't Come Alive, I'd go visit.

Cutest Tower Ever! - Fairview Goat Tower

Goats like to climb things, and the owners of Fairview Wine and Cheese Farm in South Paarl, New Zealand, wanted to make the goats they kept happy, so the solution was simple: build a goat tower. Sounds crazy, but it works. The more than 1,000 goats of Fairview blissfully trot up and down the spiral staircase every day, then produce milk that makes award-winning Camembert.

So the moral of the story is: If you build a goat tower, they will climb it. And make you delicious artisanal cheeses.

Volcano BBQ - El Diablo Restaurant

There's nothing like grilling a piece of meat over a volcano. What? You've never had the pleasure? Then you'd better get down to El Diablo restaurant on the island of Lanzarote in Spain, where chefs barbecue food over a dormant volcano with lava bubbling benignly under the surface of the earth at 750 degrees F. Now that'll give you a good sear.

What about safety, you ask? Well, the last eruption this volcano experienced was in 1824. So of course that means you're perfectly safe. Until you're not.

Zip-lining Over Beautiful ... Las Vegas? - Slotzilla

Zip-lining over a gorgeous Costa Rican rainforest that has rainbows at every turn? Yawn. So two decades ago. Today's generation of zip-liners is looking for a different experience -- and it can certainly be found at the Slotzilla Zip Line in Las Vegas.

Shaped like a giant slot machine and starting at 77 feet in the air, Slotzilla flies you across the Fremont Street Experience at 40 miles an hour, over hundreds of people, and deposits you at the Golden Gate Casino. Now you can satisfy your need for thrills and people-watching all at once. But just remember that what happens on a Vegas zip-line probably won't stay in Vegas, since dozens of people will probably be taking your photo from below.

One Way to Get Over Your Fear of Heights - Brave Men's Bridge

China! It's not enough that you decide to build a 900-foot suspension bridge over between two gorgeous cliffs in the Hunan Province's Shiniuzhai National Geopark, you gotta make it out of glass, too? It's like you're forcing me to go and check out this crazy piece of construction, aptly dubbed Brave Men's Bridge.

Featuring a 600-foot drop, the glass bridge was completed at the end of last year, is the first of its kind, and has already attracted visitors from all over the world, even those who can't bring themselves to walk across the entire thing and resort to crawling instead. Hey, you do what you gotta do.

Playing Dress Up - Princess Diary Café

Americans are so boring. We go into a coffee shop ... and we drink coffee. In Korea, you can go into a coffee shop ... and dress up like a bride! Yes, in addition to sipping lattes at the Princess Diary Café in Seoul, patrons can pay a fee to select a wedding gown, put it on, accessorize to their heart's content, then participate in a photo shoot!

Starbucks, you need to get on this. I've never actually fantasized about doing a bridal dress-up session after having my mocha frappuccino, but now I totally will.

Home, Stimulating Home - Reversible Destiny Lofts

Home is a place where you should be able to relax and feel comfortable. Unless you live in one of the Reversible Destiny Lofts in Mitaka, Japan, where the architecture is designed to constantly challenge your brain and keep you on your toes. The concrete floors feature random bumps. Random ladders, poles and balconies are situated everywhere. Nothing is shaped as it should be, including the rooms themselves. 

The goal of the architects was to design a living space that will keep its inhabitants’ bodies and minds stimulated so that they can live longer. Sort of like an architectural version of Sudoku. I get what the designers were going for, I really do … but I dunno. I think I’d rather be able to shuffle to the bathroom in the middle of the night without tripping over an artfully placed mogul. 

Atlantis is in China - Shicheng Underwater City

I bring news. Atlantis is real, my friends! And it's located in a lake in China. Also, it's not actually Atlantis, but an ancient Chinese city called Shicheng that was purposely flooded with water in the late 1950s to make way for a dam.

The water-preserved city was largely forgotten about until 2001, which was when the Chinese government decided to dive down and explore this historical and architectural goldmine. What they found were beautiful stone buildings, forgotten city streets, an imposing wall that encircled the city, and Chinese mermaids. Well, just kidding on that last one. But wouldn't that be the coolest?

Now You See It, Now You Don't - See-Through Church

Here's a church that won't stay put - not exactly a spiritually comforting notion, but definitely an awesome one architecturally. The See-Through Church of Limbourg, Belgium, is an art installation that was designed to look completely solid from certain angles and like it's dissolving into thin air from other angles. The piece is called "Reading Between the Lines."

So what were the artists trying to say? That art is impermanent? That churches are impermanent? That life is impermanent? Oh, that's deep.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Gently Down the Street - Giethoorn

Streets are overrated, amirite? All that walking around is so tedious and unromantic. Well, in the Dutch neighborhood of Giethoorn, there's an alternative: canals instead of sidewalks. No running across the street to the neighbor's for a cup of sugar - you must row instead!

Dubbed "the Venice of the North," Giethoorn is home to about 2,600 residents, all of whom must feel like they're living in a storybook. I'd move in myself, but don't want to pay what must be a premium for flood insurance.