Discover Unusual Places Around the World With ‘Atlas Obscura (2nd Edition)’

A familiar and oft-visited website, Atlas Obscura has just come out with the second edition of their print book, Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders (2nd Edition). You can spend countless hours perusing their online stories and content, the experiences they provide, the trips they plan, soaking in their treasure trove of hidden wonders. But then crack open their newest book, a revised and updated edition of their bestseller, which includes 100 new destinations and images, 12 new city guides, and a full-color foldout map for a dream world tour. This edition is a fantastic book even if you have the first edition already.

A traveler’s dream, Atlas Obscura covers attractions across the entire world (all seven continents). It breaks our planet down into smaller zones spanning from several to more than a dozen pages highlighting many off-the-beaten-path locations that are worth visiting. This isn’t the travel reference to use for sites like the Eiffel Tower, the Berlin Wall, or the Great Wall of China. Here you’ll find descriptions of the Mechanical Turk; No Man’s Land Luxury Sea Fort; the micronation of the Republic of Kugelmugel; Brutalist monuments of the former Yugoslavia; the last wild apple forests in Kazakhstan; Australia’s Big Things; Chihuahua, Mexico’s Cave of the Crystals; and countless medical museums, crypts, natural sites, oddities, festivals, and other places and things you’ve likely never heard of.

The book’s pages include some maps, a dozen city guides (for large cities around the world), tons of photos, thorough descriptions, tips for how to visit each of the places, their GPS coordinates, and all kinds of bonus suggestions. No book can be as definitive these days as an internet search, but this book complements your online research nicely; much of what is contained herein isn’t likely to be on the first page of search results when you’re researching your next trip. Including some of them in your next itinerary will feed your curiosity and make your trips richer. Even if you still want to visit the major attractions, there are enough spots included in this book…