Photogenic is not the same as beautiful. Some extraordinary places photograph poorly because the scale does not compress into a frame, and some fairly ordinary ones photograph brilliantly because of colour, symmetry or light. These are the places that reliably deliver an image.

For colour

  • Chefchaouen, Morocco. An entire town painted blue. Shoot the stepped alleys early before the light goes hard.
  • Burano, Italy. Saturated fishermen’s houses on a lagoon island, 45 minutes from Venice.
  • Jodhpur, India. The blue city seen from Mehrangarh Fort.
  • Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. The mirror effect in the wet season, roughly December to April.

For scale and drama

  • Lofoten, Norway. Peaks rising straight from the sea, midnight sun in June and July.
  • Torres del Paine, Chile. Granite towers at sunrise, when they glow briefly.
  • Antelope Canyon and the American Southwest. Light beams in Upper Antelope around midday in summer.
  • The Dolomites, Italy. Tre Cime and Lago di Braies at first light.
  • Zhangjiajie, China. Sandstone pillars in mist.

For architecture

  • Cappadocia, Turkey. Balloons at dawn from a cave hotel terrace.
  • Kyoto, Japan. Fushimi Inari’s torii gates, which require arriving before 7am to photograph empty.
  • Petra, Jordan. The Treasury through the Siq, best in morning light.
  • Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi. Blue hour, after sunset.
  • Prague and Porto. Both extremely forgiving of amateur photography.

For water

  • Plitvice Lakes, Croatia. Overcast days actually work better here than sun.
  • Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, Iceland.
  • Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Karst islands from the Piaynemo viewpoint.
  • Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. Better in mist than in sun.

Getting the shot

  • Golden hour and blue hour. Nearly every location on this list is transformed and most of the crowd is absent.
  • Overcast is not a failure. Waterfalls, forests and colourful towns photograph better under cloud.
  • Include a person for scale. Landscapes flatten without one.
  • Check restrictions. Tripods, drones and commercial photography are restricted at many of these sites, and drone rules vary sharply by country.
  • Be respectful. Several of these are working towns and religious sites, not sets.

See also the most dramatic landscapes on earth.

For the countries with the most of this kind of scenery, see our ranking of the most beautiful countries in the world.