Vacation travel is geared at having a rest. Adventure travel is to lift the spirit and make the adrenalin flow. Cultural tours are designed to discover and learn. Most travel tours can include little of each but one of the impressions that is solid, and generates the very core of the reasons why most of us love to travel, is that which we often come home with as part of our most endearing conclusions.

Upon seeing a place that leaves an unforgettable impression on us and ignites yearning, it inspires us to utter: I’d love to live here; I’d love to work here; I’d like to build a house like that, and similar.

There are three small towns that have in recent years inspired many to make those and similar kinds of statements.

The first is a compact settlement of Fenghuang, in Hunan Province, a great stop on China travel tours, a small ancient town on the Tuojiang River. Fenghuang offers one of those fine glimpse of Old China, where a peaceful river winds through it, picturesque covered bridges, quiet streets, beautiful houses, fishermen casting their lines from an embankment next to a waterwheel. Spending time here elevates the soul and makes us dream.

Next is Paro Bhutan. A fairy tale land of the thunder dragon, Bhutan is well known for being the last Shangri La on earth today. Where a life has come to a standstill, despite the single runway airport, Paro lives at its own soothing pace. One street with a handful of shops, ancient watch tower up above next to a medieval dzong, a fortress dominating a skyline of traditional houses and monasteries assuring the Gross Domestic Happiness, that happiness of the people is more important than the actual fiscal GDP. Many of us want to stay.

Last example requires a little bit of time travel, or rather imagination to project into the illustrious past of the legendary Angkor Wat temple city on the Tonle Sap lake in western Cambodia, a sophisticated civilization that has built this magnificent complex of temples. When tourists are few and only the monks clad in saffron robes shuffle about the ruins, we feel that temptation of having lived here centuries ago, perhaps as one of the monks to soak up the ambiance to the fullest.

Thinking of the above three places it’s easier to understand why making lists of where to go and what places constitute a must-see list of places to experience before one dies are so popular these days.