Worth the admission fee

Sure, it's reasonably expensive to get into the Petra historical site, but it would be a bargain if it was $200. One of the best things about Petra is that while the treasury is crawling with tourists, the site is SO large that it’s really easy to get away from everyone by just climbing up one of the more isolated mountains, or just walking out into the dessert (with some water, of course).

We had heard that this was a must when in Dresden, but the 10 euro entry price seemed high for something we didn’t really know much about it. But, we forked out, and went into what must be one of the best museums in the world. Forget stuffy antiques, this place is full of the most extraordinary treasures from the 1700s which the prince of Saxony had commissioned purely on a whim, and because he loved awesome stuff - like a robotic table centrepiece of a silver centaur which at dinner parties would move at random around the table top and fire a gold arrow at someone. Note: if you ever go near Dresden, go to this place.

Sometimes when a sight is over-hyped too much, you get there and you go “oh, is that it?” The Sphinx is one of those things. The Taj Mahal is not. It’s enormous and so damn amazing that you should save up for an air ticket to India and go and see it. What’s more amazing is that Agra is such a crummy place and is 5 hours drive from Delhi, but STILL the Taj Mahal is worth the journey.

You’ve already forked out a steep twenty bucks just to be allowed into the compound with the pyramids and the sphinx, so naturally many people opt out of paying ANOTHER twenty bucks to be able to go inside the great pyramid itself. We thought “hey, you’re only here once”, and indeed if you do ever go, make sure you fork out too.

It’s hot, you have to leave your camera with a random dodgy man at the door, the passage is tiny, rank and humid, and if you’re even the slightest bit claustrophic you’ll go crazy. However, seeing how perfectly the twenty-tonne bricks fit together (you couldn’t fit a razorblade between them) and the eerie feeling like you’re inside a spaceship are not to be missed. Once you go inside it’s easy to see why people think aliens built these things, because they feel so totally inhuman.

The admission to Rapa Nui national park is not too expensive - around $25 - but let's face it, you're likely to have forked out the $3000 airfare to Easter Island just to see this park, so it kind of adds up. Regardless, the mysterious quality of Easter Island's Moai set in one of the most astounding landscapes imaginable is something so hauntingly awesome it will stick with you forever.

Who knew Seville has one of the biggest and most impressive churches in the world? Not me! But it does. And it’s a doozy, and not only because it has Christopher Columbus’s tomb in it (who is amusingly referred to in Spanish as ‘Colon’), but also because it just so freaking huge it’s amazing. Apparently, the motivation for building it in the 1400s was that the church officials wanted to build such a whopper that all their ancestors would think them lunatics for doing something so outrageous.

Sure it's cliched and overrun with tourists, but it's also a sensational sight and a tribute to the ancient culture of the region. The entry price is really steep, but it's such a unique place that it remains worth the fee.

The phrase ‘like no other museum in the world’ could be liberally used. Only about a quarter of the displays even have signs identifying what they are, and the place is so, so full of Egyptian antiquity that they’ve even had to stack sarcophagi four on top of one another to fit everything in. The admission price is worth it even if you didn’t look at anything except Tutahnkamun’s mask and coffins, which are absolutely incredible. But the museum also has so much other stuff, like pretty much every major pharaoh lying in his/her open sarcophagus for your viewing pleasure, which is quite a gory site.

Why climb the Empire State when you can LOOK at it from the roof of the Rockefeller centre. The amazing views from this landmark are wonderful, particularly at sunset as the red glow makes Central Park look like it's in permanent autumn.

It's everything you could imagine. Elvis's planes, cars, house and clothing - even his grave - all fabulously displayed and worth it even for a total non-fan.

Seeing Michaelangelo's David in the 'flesh' is simply a must do - such incredible workmanship is worth the admission fee of the museum even if you look at nothing else.

It's a great spectacle to be able to stand right behind the cascade of Niagara Falls and witness the power of more than 6 million cubic feet of water passing you every minute.

You have to book tickets in advance to climb the Washington Monument, and it's probably one of the only things in DC that you have to pay for, but the wonderful views of the mall, the White House and the Capitol are worth it, as is the trippy elevator ride to the top.

This marvellous and haunting museum is surely on the best on the rise of Nazism in the world. Set in Hitler's massive unfinished parliament in Nuremberg, and attached to the old party rally grounds, the museum goes to great pains to explain to younger Germans how the rise of Nazism occurred. A fabulous and moving museum.

A fabulous way of experiencing the tropical north Queensland rainforest on this amazing cable-car ride. Worth every penny.