I bought an Atlas Obscura calendar the last two years and then I thought I’d make my own. I did a lot of research on atlas obscura, trip advisor, the atlas obscura book, the youtube channels top fives and be amazed, plus some personal experience.
Some differences between my calendar and the AO Calendar:
- I had a higher standard for how common a site could be (i.e. Leaning Tower of Pisa and Notre Dame Cathedral) make my list
2 I tried to tie mine to the calendar and various holidays
3 I try to not group regions together and keep you jumping around from day to day
4 Still, I prefer avoiding sending tourists deep into southern hemisphere during the summer months or into the Arctic during winter months and
5 I also accounted for when certain things like ski resorts or hot springs might be open.
I found it to be a fun way to pursue my hobby of gobbling up travel writing and maybe I can make and sell my own calendar some day
I’m wondering if I should post it at once or just have a couple months at a time, so it’s not a huge information dump.
January:
1 Prime Meridian, Greenwich, London, England (New Year’s Day)
2 Fishing Village at Cua Via, Vietnam
3 Shipwreck Lodge, Skeleton Bay, Namibia
4 Fordlandia Former Rubber Colony, Para, Brazil
5 Tempeliakkuon Underground Church, Helsinki, Finland
6 Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages (Inside a restored castle), Paris, France
7 Tianjin Binhana Library, Tianjin, China
8 The Big Fiddle, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
9 Old Route 66, Gallup, New Mexico
10 Plaza of the Three Americas, Mexico City, Mexico
11 Underground Art, Moscow, Russia
12 St Bart’s Airport and Beach, St. Barts, French Colony
13 Red Fort, Delhi, India
14 Restaurant KGB, Cartagena, Colombia
15 Park City, Utah (Sundance Film Festival)
16 Estadio Hernando Siles (World’s Highest Soccer Stadium), La Paz, Bolivia
17 Q’eswachaka Rope Bridge, Apurimac Canyon, Peru
18 Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN, USA (Martin Luther King Jr Day)
19 Sun Valley Ski Resort (Home of America’s First Ski Lift and First Planned Ski Town) , Idaho
20 Predjama Castle, Slovenia
21 Kon Tikki, Oslo, Norway
22 Serkici Railroad Terminal and Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
23 Red Fort, Chandi Chowk neighborhood, Delhi, India
24 KGB Cartagena Bar, Old City, Cartagena, Colombia
25 Lake Hiller, Western Australian Territory, Canada
26 Weekie-Wache Mermaid Show, Florida, USA
27 Winter Carnival, St Paul, Minnesota
28 10 Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes Holme), London, England
29 Eye of the Sahara, Mauritania
30 Grand Hotel, Mbera, Mozambique
31 Havanna, Cuba
February
1 Underground Railarod Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio (Black History Month)
2 Punxatani, Pennsylvania (Groundhog Day)
3 Columbia River George Nat’l Scenic Area, Oregon
4 Waving Girl Statue, Savannah, Georgia
5 The Brando Hotel Complex, Tahiti, Micronesia
6 Dutch Maritime Museum, Amsterdam
7 Amafi Coast Highway, Italy
8 1984 Abandoned Olympic Bobsled Track, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Anniversary of opening of 1984 Olympics)
9 Elliora Caves, Maharashtra State, India
10 Musical Instruments Museum, Glendale, Arizona
11 Djeema el-Fna Market Square, Marrakech, Morocco
12 Dragon Escalator, Yanking District, Beijing, China (Chinese/Lunar New Year)
13 Kaiindy Lake (Death Lake), Kazakhstan
14 Verona, Italy (Valentine’s Day)
15 Robot Restaurant, Tokyo, Japan
16 French Quarter, New Orleans, LA, USA (Mardi Gras)
17 Royal Portugues Cabinet of Reading, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
18 Watimo Worm Caves, New Zealand
19 Mingingo Island, Kenya
20 New Mexico Tech Golf Course, Siccoro, New Mexico
21 Old Gadsby Tavern, Alexandria, Virginia (President’s Day)
22 Karnack Temple Complex, Luxor, Egypt
23 Bagh e Fin, Kashan, Iran (Persian New Year)
24 Domain de la Florida (Florida Town), Saint-Ambrose, Quebec, Canada
25 Sugarloaf Mountain, Brazil (Brazilian Carnival)
26 Totem Poles, Anthropology Museum, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
27 West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
28 Archibald Fountain, Sydney, Australia
*Note these are dates on the 2021 calendar. I started working this a year ago