One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen is Egypt's White Desert, a desolate lunar landscape few travelers visit. These photos show just how unreal it is.

While Egypt's best-known sites are ancient ruins like the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, the country is home to many beautiful natural landscapes.
Perhaps the most beautiful of Egypt's natural destinations is the White Desert, a national park of white calcium rock formations in the Sahara Desert.
The area around the White Desert is full of interesting geological formations like the "crystal mountain," the Black Desert, and the salt lake Lake Marun.
After spending two days visiting the area, I'm convinced that every visitor to Egypt should make it part of their itinerary.
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Most tourists to Egypt have a long checklist of sights they want to see: The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Sphinx, the Red Sea, the Valley of the Kings, the Egyptian Museum, to name a few.

I was like that too when I visited last December.

The problem with all of those destinations, for me, is that I've dreamed about visiting them for so long that they could never possibly live up to my expectations.

As I've found time and again, the best tourist experiences are the ones I didn't plan and had no expectations for. With that in mind, when I spotted an ad for a tour to Bahariya Oasis, the Black Desert, and the White Desert at Dahab Hostel in Cairo, I was intrigued.

I was dying to get out of the city after a week in busy, polluted Cairo. Though I knew little about any of the places in the tour, I decided to take a chance.

I am so glad I did. All three locations are part of Egypt's Western Desert, the section of the Sahara Desert that covers the half of the country west of the Nile. Each place was more beautiful than the last.

Here's what it was like to visit:

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