As Mark Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” By that token, a good portion of today’s America is in serious need of some international travel. America might be an awesome place to live (even with a dummy in charge), but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the world isn’t filled with unbelievable sights and sounds you could never find even if you explored every inch of the United States. The world is magical, fascinating, mysterious, and beautiful, and you’ll never experience one-tenth of that majesty if you spend your life in the United States. Here are some amazing international destinations that you absolutely need to see before you’re too old to travel.
1. See a Polar Bear in Spitsbergen, Norway
In most cases, you’d have to go to a Pole to find a polar bear to gawk at — unless you make a trip to Spitsbergen, Norway, where there are actually more polar bears than people (which pretty much guarantees a sighting).
