24 March 2009

Bracketology - Destination unknown

With March Madness now in full swing, I thought it a good time to weigh in with my own bracket; this one though does not involve 19 and 20 year old soon-to-be college dropouts. Rather, using Patricia’s Schultz’ “1,000 Places to see before you die” as inspiration, this is a bracket “battle to the death” of tourist attractions. Feel free to use the results as inspiration on where to plan your next trip!

Divided by geographical region, I have chosen 16 popular attractions from each area. Although it will remain subjective, I have attempted to choose the most popular attractions in each region, ensuring of course a mixture of adventure destinations, family fun parks, historical rendezvous’ and all around kick ass cities.

Warning – don’t search the bracket out for any kind of scientific methodology. As you would expect, I do give you a one or two sentence hilarious reason for why I chose a particular destination over another.

In the hopes of creating some rules however, the rankings in each bracket are based on popularity of each destination – for instance, it is fairly straightforward to give Paris a #1 ranking for Europe, although that does not assure it of victory. Rather winners are based on head to head match-ups and on my own personal desire to visit each attraction. Winners are indicated in BOLD.

No doubt, you will all have something to say, so feel free to leave your comments on your own personal winners from my bracket! I will roll out one region at a time with a few days in between to keep the drama palpable. The final 4 will be published in the next couple of weeks. Our first stop will be Round one in Asisa/Oceania, followed by Round 1 of North America/Central America, Africa/South America and finishing with Europe. Next will be Round 2 of each region, followed by the regional semifinals and finals. Finally, we will crown the champions in the Final Four. Each entry will be a separate post.

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