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.