Glacial, river, U-shaped, V-shaped, hanging, steephead, structural, dry, longitudinal, box, trough…the world of valleys is a huge geological name game.
But what unites them is scenic wonder and a great interest for tourists including mountains, waterfalls, archaeological sites and fine wines. Here’s our pick of the world’s best to consider for a visit.
You can pick from the Inca history and marvels of Machu Picchu at the Sacred Valley in Peru or the natural glories of California’s Yosemite, which is home to the majestic Half Dome and El Capitan peaks.
Lovers of the finer things in life will not want to miss the Napa in California and Portugal’s Douro, where excellent wines are produced.
Barun, Nepal
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Humans do not intrude too much on this precious Himalayan landscape close to the border with Tibet and around 112 miles east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
It’s one of the last remaining pristine mountain ecosystems on the planet and a magical ‘Shangri-la’ place with no permanent settlements, just camps for summer trekkers.
The 29-mile long valley has lofty waterfalls cascading into deep gorges, lush green forests and flowers blooming beneath the mountains.
Douro, Portugal
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The River Douro rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in central Spain and then flows for 557 miles to the sea at Porto, the handsome second city of Portugal.
Tourists flock to the gently sloping valley to enjoy the historic scenic railway line and luxurious river cruises, plus the terraced vineyards of the Portuguese wine region, which is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Stately Porto, also UNESCO listed, straddles the Douro estuary and is famed for its merchants’ houses, narrow cobbled streets, spectacular bridges and port wine production.
Thorsmork, Iceland
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We cannot ignore a valley named after the hammer-wielding god of thunder and lightning.
The Valley of Thor is in the south of the Land of Ice and Fire, between the volcanic glaciers of Tindfjallajökull and Eyjafjallajökull (the unpronounceable naughty one which stopped all those aeroplanes from flying a decade or so ago).
With its relative inaccessibility, canyons of flattened volcanic ash, rushing streams, mossy clumps and vast skies, it all feels a bit edge-of-the-known-world, or not quite of this Earth.
Go suitably equipped for anything and everything that Iceland’s climate can throw at you.
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
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The classic deep Alpine valley, it has 72 cascading waterfalls on its glorious five-mile length and the steep limestone sides soar up to 3,300ft high.
The Jungfrau Railway is close by, taking passengers in a curving tunnel inside the mighty Eiger mountain to Jungfraujoch, Europe’s highest station at a dizzying 11,332ft.
Also nearby is Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant which featured heavily in the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as the Bond villain Blofeld’s lofty lair.
It’s a genuinely spectacular area and quite easy to visit.
Glencoe, Scotland
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You want magnificent and moody? Then this is your atmospheric go-to U-shaped glacial valley. It’s just under eight miles long and offers genuine scale and grandeur, plus a turbulent human history from the 1692 massacre of the MacDonalds by the Earl of Argyll’s Regiment.
I’ve driven through here, stopped, and the soulfulness and silence was almost crushing.
Movie makers love it too – Harry Potter and James Bond have been filmed here.
Napa, California, USA
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Have we chosen this 30 mile long, five mile wide valley purely because of its world class wines? Of course we have.
North of San Francisco, it is renowned for 375 hillside vineyards set in beautiful surroundings. Visitors flock here for the world-class wines, boutique accommodation, Michelin-starred restaurants, benign climate, outdoor activities and glorious scenery.
Great Rift, East Africa-Middle East
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A valley for the more ambitious traveller – the whole system is 4,300 miles long, running from Lebanon to Mozambique via the likes of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and averages 30-40 miles across. It started forming 35 million years ago.
Today’s tourists head to Mount Kilimanjaro, the 19,341ft snow-capped dormant volcano. However, humans have been around here much longer. Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis found in Ethiopia in 1974. She dates to 3.2 million years ago.
Sacred, Peru
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A high and mighty valley some 62 miles long and up to 9,800ft above sea level in places, and overlooked by near 20,000ft Andean peaks.
Many travellers will head along it – passing the turbulent Urubamba River and the intensively cultivated valley floor – by road and rail from Cusco to visit the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.
Urubamba is a popular tourist town in the valley and a good base for visiting the vast Maras Salt Mines and the curious concentric Inca terraces at Moray.
Machu Picchu is of course one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites and the genuinely incredible high point of this lofty valley.
Yosemite, California
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A spectacular national park deserves a spectacular valley. It is about 7.5 miles in length and is flanked by fabled granite summits such as the 8,846ft Half Dome and 7,573ft El Capitan.
There are numerous waterfalls, with the 2,425ft triple-drop Yosemite being the highest in North America and a huge tourist draw in the spring, when the water flow peaks.
Visitors have been painting, drawing and photographing the awe-inspiring valley scenery, including El Capitan and Half Dome and the 620ft Bridalveil Fall, from the overlook at Tunnel View since the 1,400 yard Wawona Tunnel was opened in 1933.
Valley of the Kings, Egypt
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It’s frequently fiercely hot and annoyingly dusty and it’s not especially scenic, but that’s not what you’re here for.
You’re here for some of the world’s greatest archaeological sites – the tombs of the pharaohs.
The one you’ll not want to miss is Tutankhamen. It’s small, plain and his mummy is tucked in a corner but, as we all know, the greatest treasures in the world, discovered by Howard Carter in 1923, are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. m
Frankie, New Jersey, USA
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Don’t be silly…(but Grease is the word).
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