Alison Budge

Choosing the world’s most beautiful places is no easy task. After all, how can you compare a thundering waterfall to a lantern-lit city? Or a rainbow-coloured hill to a gleaming white mosque? The good news is that the planet isn’t held to the same rigid beauty standards as humans are. Whether it’s a tiny island, an entire country or a Buddhist temple, anything goes on our list of the most beautiful places on earth. Spanning every continent, you’ll find some of the usual suspects (what’s a list of beautiful places without Bolivia’s salt flats, after all?) alongside some of the world’s lesser-known beauty spots – all chosen by our network of globetrotting travel writers, who've personally experienced the beauty of every place on this list IRL.  Grace Beard is Time Out’s deputy travel editor, based in London. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts.RECOMMENDED:🗺 The world's most underrated travel destinations🧭 The best places to travel solo🏝 The best beaches in the world

South Africa is known the world over as a producer of exceptional wines, so it’s no wonder travellers flock to the wine farms (the proper South African term for estates) of the Western Cape. Cape Town is bordered by six viticultural regions – all less than an hour’s drive from the city centre – where hundreds of wineries beckon, with the promise of wide-open spaces, stunning outlooks and, of course, world-class wine. Here’s what you need to know to make the most of it all. You can find wine farms as far along the Garden Route as Plettenberg Bay, up the West Coast to the Namibian border and inland for about 250 miles to the dry Karoo area. The different climates, topography and soil types, known as the terroir, influence the taste of wine produced from the different varietals, as does the skill of the winemaker and the varietal chosen. Many of the wine estates are historical farms home to strikingly beautiful Cape Dutch manor houses, gardens, hotels, and fine-dining restaurants. Plus, in order to differentiate themselves, each farm tends to add something extra to their offering. In fact, you don’t even have to like wine to enjoy a trip to the Winelands: Cape Town’s wine farms offer experiences for all, from families and sports fans to history lovers and foodies. If you’re staying in Cape Town itself, and only have time for a day trip to visit some wine farms – well, you really are spoiled for choice here. The Cape Winelands district, which stretches north-east from the city