nytraveler

The editors selections include:

Disney World (IMHO a must miss unless you are a small child)

Times Square (as a New Yorker I am embarrassed that they select this tacky place to represent my city) - why not the Statue of Liberty? to represent the new lives we gave to so many immigrants - rather than just a lot of light bulbs????

The Jefferson Memorial in DC - when obviously it should be the Lincoln Memorial (I have nothing against the founding father - but the Lincoln represents so much more)

Others may want to comment on the places selected to represent their parts of the country

Lookin_Glass

you have a link?

Lookin_Glass

me dum dum

fodor's editors picks..... not the brightest bulb am I .

happytrailstoyou

I'm a bright bulb and I don't know where the list is either. Help!

To me, Times Square means Broadway theaters, restaurants, hotels--hustle and bustle. As a metropolitan crossroads, it strikes me as a very New Yorky place. I have spent many happy times there including a New Year's Eve so long ago that the crowd was sparse (but the place was much funkier than it is today).

HTtY

happytrailstoyou

O.K. I found the list.

http://www.fodors.com/news/photos/20...r,-new-orleans

It seems to be as good a list of twenty iconic US places as any other. I've been to all of them but I'm not ready to curl up and die.

HTtY

spirobulldog

I've been to all but 4.
Hmm, My Top 20 Places/Experiences

Not in any particular order

Yosemite
Yellowstone
Arches National Park
Mount Rainier
Crater Lake
Sequoia National Park
Seattle
San Francicso
Portland, OR
Disney
Kenai Fjords Alaska
River Road Plantation Homes near New Orleans
Washington DC
Carlsbad Caverns (specifically, the wild cave tours there)
Rafting the Grand Canyon
Lassen Volcano National Park
Wild Animal Park San Diego (specifically feeding Rhino and Giraffe)
Zion National Park
Bryce National Park
Durango/Mesa Verde (combo zipline/train ride)

Rich

Wow . . we've been to all but 1 . . Portland Head Light, Maine

We'll have to make that one next time we are up North.

We enjoy Disneyworld, been three times and even at 71, look forward to returning next winter. When we visit NYC, we stay in or near Times Square . . gives us a feeling we don't get anywhere else

nytraveler

How can a little hustle and bustle begin to compare with the symbol of what our nation has meant to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here for a new life - political, religious and economic freedom, economic opportunity, a better life for their families????

Times Square is a busy, bright, loud and tacky fantasy. Yes, theater (which can be wonderful) - but no comparison to changing the lives of millions of people.

I suppose we will have to agree to disagree - but I do wonder about the thought put into this by the editors.

HowardR

Sorry, nytraveler, but love or hate Times Square, it is definitely a unique, iconic and profound symbol of New York City....and deserves to be on the list. Get over it already!

Personally, I was most pleased to see the Grand Teton on the list!

HappyTrvlr

At least tney included beautiful Grand Central to balance out Times Square!

happytrailstoyou

Grand Central--another crossroads.

As I understand the text, the Jefferson Memorial was chosen as representative of many iconic sites in DC. Why not the White House? The Capitol? The Washington Memorial?

HTtY

janisj

>>Disney World (IMHO a must miss unless you are a small child)

michele_d

Have seen 13 of the 20.

spirobulldog...That is my kind of list...mostly National Parks. I've done all but four: Seattle, plantations, Carlsbad and rafting GC.

Been rafting in Alaska and that about equals out rafting the GC in terms of adventure, visited the Eisreisenwelt Ice cave in Austria and I can't imagine Carlsbad being anymore beautiful.

I would love to see the plantations and really don't know anything about Seattle so I guess I need to do some reading.

Rastaguytoday

Title should be 20 places to see before you die, only if you want to see them.

spirobulldog

For those Disney Folks--haters or not
I've been to Disneyworld 5 times
Disneyland-2 times
Disney Cruise-1 time

Enjoyed every single visit! I've enjoyed National Parks more, but Disney certainly should be on everyone's "to do list" at least once.

michele_d

We live in So Cal so have been to Disney literally dozens of times and Disney World once. I guess growing up less than hour away from Disney has made me take it for granted.

We know the layout of the park by heart.(You know you have been too many times when you know all the words to the Pirates of the Caribbean song).

I guess I just don't think of it as being special, but I guess it really is. No place in the world quite like it. And we too, enjoyed every single visit...that is why we have been dozens of times!

HappyTrvlr

The worst one, even worse than Times Square, is the cheesy Las Vegas sign. What were they thinking in a country filled with so many incredible treasures, natural and man made?

LSky

Oh come on! Disneyland is something that people should go to just so they can have an opinion on it but should it be on a Top 20 List?

Not imo. More important would be the California Redwoods, Saguaro National Park, Death Valley, for goodness sakes these are things that you can't see anywhere else but where they are.

Las Vegas could replicate a mini Disneyland but it can't grow a Redwood Tree or a Saguaro Cacti.

Maybe we could agree that the person who wrote that to-do list needs to get out more.

gail

I would like to have seen 2 lists - one natural wonders and one with human-created. Hard to compare Golden Gate Bridge or even WDW with the Grand Canyon.

As far as Times Square - does it count if the last time I was there was decades ago when it was a seedy and dangerous place?

Dukey1

There are, IMO, more places than just one statue which represent the changing of people's lives in New York.