8.2 Top 10%
Europe • Spain
Hitting both sides of Ibiza
Ibiza has two sides, which gives it the huge wow factor. The first - some of the most famous clubs in the world, sensational food…
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Who’s Behind Chasing the Wow?
A personal travel archive built from years on the road. Honest rankings from wow to gash, and packed with travel tips.
Start ExploringMeet the Traveler Behind the Wow
“I started off on a big trip to New Zealand some years ago from the UK, and crash bang walloped my way back home via 18 months in Australia, South East Asia and India. At the very real risk of sounding cheesy, it changed me - I'd got the bug. And it wasn't long before I was planning the next trip. Next came a couple of years living in China, then Canada, London, 10 years in Hong Kong, 6 months in South America, a year in Italy . . . and all the places in between. Throughout, I didn't stop mentally documenting and ranking all the places I'd been to. This site is the result of that mental journey. I hope you find it helpful.”
– Nick
Varied experiences for a Varied Audience
The 20 years has spanned a serious range of experiences - from dirt-poor backpacking to indulgent luxury; from rushed weekend getaways to endless months on the road. And so the website's targeted audience is also varied - anyone looking for a bit of travel inspiration and tips.
A Better Way to Separate Real Wow from Travel Hype
Most travel content makes every place sound unmissable, breathtaking, or bucket-list worthy. But travel doesn't work like that. Some places are extraordinary, some are overrated, and some are simply gash.
Chasing the Wow exists to organise those experiences honestly - with personal rankings, clear pros and cons, and no-nonsense notes from someone who has actually been there and has the breadth for comparison.
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Ranked honestly
Every experience is scored from personal opinion and memory - not sponsored content, no Instagram-fantasy, or mass reviews.
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Structured archive
The 20 years of travel is condensed into a structured system you can browse by destination, category, map, and Wow Factor.
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Real travel tips
Not trying to be the Lonely Planet, but each entry has my high level tips for what I reckon you should do in each place. Some I spent years in, others shorter. Either way there is an opinion!
I hope this helps you find more places with the wow factor
The Rules Behind the Wow
My travel style has changed over the years, but the way I judge a place still comes down to a few simple beliefs: fun matters, crowds change the feeling, context makes culture stronger, and the best experiences are either famous for a reason or genuinely unique.
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Fun Amplifies Everything
A place becomes more memorable when the experience has energy - cycling, diving, boozing, whatever. First time I went to Angkor Watt it was impressive. Cycling it second time round made it truly unforgettable.
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Crowds Can Kill the Magic
A packed 10/10 sight can lose its charm fast. If you can, instead go for the nearby 9/10 that with no crowds. It'll be more personal, more surprising, and way closer to the original feeling you were chasing when you got on the plane.
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Do more Nature. Culture needs context
My Travel Experience scores need either Nature or Culture - hard to have a top experience without either. We typically love time in true nature - we should do more! And cultural experiences need context - you'll get way more out of it when you take the time to understand what you’re actually seeing.
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Famous or Unique — It Needs One
Some places create wow because they are world-famous for a reason; others do it because they feel rare, strange, or unlike anywhere else. Typically need one or the other.
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Countries Visited
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Travel Experiences
The Site’sScores
Every experience on Chasing the Wow is judged in two ways: a more analytical Travel Experience Score (TE) and a more emotional Wow Factor Score.
The TE Score looks at things like fun, crowds, nature, culture, fame, and uniqueness. The Wow Factor is simpler and self-explanatory.
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Travel Experience (TE) Score
The travel philosophy above feeds into the scores. Every travel experience gets a score out of 10 for Fun, Avoid the Crowds, Nature, Culture, World Famous and Unique. They then get added up as Fun + Avoid the Crowds + (best of either Nature or Culture) + (best of World Famous or Culture) and turned into a number out of 10. Yes, a tad analytical.
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The Wow Factor Score
This score factors in just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, I’m using a 5 star rating system.
| Wow Factor | TE Score Range | % of Experiences | What It Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| > 85 | Top 5% | Elite, unmissable | |
| 75 – 85 | Top 20% – 25% | World-class, downsides | |
| 65 – 75 | Top 50% | Meets the Wow Factor | |
| 55 – 65 | Top 50% – 80% | Worth it | |
| 45 – 55 | Bottom 10% – 20% | Meh | |
| Gash | < 45 | Bottom 10% | Gash |
A Few That Still Stick In The Memory
Hand-picked travel experiences from the archive - the kind of places that stayed in memory long after the journey ended.
8.2 Top 10%
8.2 Top 10%
Africa • South Africa
A week in Cape Town
Hard not to be blown away by a first time visit to Cape Town - it just has so much going for it. ✅ The setting…
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8.5 Top 5%
Europe • Italy
Hiking the Dolomites in summer
The Dolomites has the most wow-factor mountain scenery in the world. The mountains around Machu Pichu in Peru and those of Interlakken in Switzerland are IMO…
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