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Atlas Obscura offers map to the world's hidden wonders

Curator of path less travelled, website-turned-book Atlas Obscura, encourages explorers to ditch the familiar in search of the offbeat.
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Curator of the hidden world, website turned book Atlas Obscura, encourages explorers to ditch the familiar wonders in search of new ones, like the Carcross Desert pictured above. (Atlas Obscura, Ilene MacDonald)
Q10:47Forget the beaten path with travel guide, Atlas Obscura

Forget the pyramids, Buckingham Palace and the Taj Mahal. Been there, done that.

Ghost cities, banana museums and dragon boogers in California are the real must-see sites according to alternative travel website Atlas Obscura. 

Val-Jalbert Ghost Town, Quebec (Alt-6)

Crowd-sourced and user-generated, the website's purpose was to counter commodified and homogenized tourism says co-founder Joshua Foer. The new book version of the site profiles over 700 places all over the world, Foer joins guest host Candy Palmater to make the case for searching out the stuff that's really special — so special there aren't any postcards for it. 

Midlothian Castle, Ontario (Keith Watson)

WEB EXTRA | Sure, there's stuff to see halfway around the world but wonders exist in our own backyard, Foer says brimming with excitement. All the destinations pictured above are Canadian curiosities. Below is a list of his Canadian favourites mentioned on air. (Warning – click and scroll at your own risk):

  1. The spaceship-looking architecture of the Canadian Arctic.
  2. Yukon's Sourtoe Cocktail.
  3. Manitoba's Narcisse snake orgy, pictured below.
Narcisse snake orgy, Manitoba (All Canada Photos)

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