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I feel myself getting pedantic. I apologize in advance CCat. Not aimed at your posting at all. I actually think lists are a lot of fun and I subscribe to NGT and its still one of my favorites. But it's these lists things they do...

I've done all or at least a fair part of the California drive, the Florida Keys, Finger Lakes, the Mississippi river, the mid-Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains drives.

All nice, some undeniably incredible. But this is one of those "best in the world" lists that, like those list shows on the Travel Channel, seemed geared to suit the preconceptions of the audience. While I know that something like "World's Greatest Scenic Routes" has to be highly subjective, I have a hard time with the idea that inevitably, what ever it is - from most scenic to most haunted - over 50% will always be in the US, over 75% in N. America (and of course with a couple of surprises to make it interesting, such as the Borderlands over the more famous SW USA drives)... but anything outside the US is the tried and true, world reknown spots. In this case, of 20 routes, 12 are in the US, 15 in N. America. 5 for the rest of the world.

Guess I'm just saying that as nice as the Finger Lakes are, they blow away the Serengeti, the Italian Lakes region, northern Thailand, the fjords of Norway, the Dingle Peninsula, the Swiss Alps, the Valley of the Kasbahs in Morocco, the Great Ocean Road.....??? "Drives we like", seems ok but "World's Greatest" is more spin than a tourism board could come up with. Having grown up on the Mississippi, all's fine with it, but the road to Marrakesh it ain't. (well ok, DO see the bald eagles nesting, swooping and diving from the bluffs at Clarksville if you get a chance.)

I'd love to drive around Cornwall, Beth. Which reminds me (sort of, in an unjustifiable connection) that I always thought from pictures that the Snowdonia area looked like a great drive too.

Would it be a "great drive" if you'd never drive it yourself? If so, I should think Rajasthan would have some impressive sites along the road, what with all the forts and such. And I forgot how I've always wanted to do the drive in Chilean Patagonia and see all those perfect cone shaped volcanoes and the Torres del Paine.

CCat, you're right, there's probably always a lot of "pop culture" in these lists based on what people already think. And I guess right now, if the economy is tight and your business is centered around a luxury like travel, you look for ways to show the majority of your customer base that they don't have to pack it in, but suggesting reasonable and inexpensive choices. It just seems a little disingenuous to hang on so tight to that "World's Greatest" title when you know you've intentionally not "scoured the world", as they put it.

On the hotel lists though - I'm not a top end hotel guy, but I sincerely wonder if maybe those aren't pretty accurate. Just from the few asian hotel experiences Ive had, where in Bangkok, men are in full regalia, saluting me ever single time I come into view; with women whose job it is to dash to the elevator to push the button for me with their perfect white gloves and little bow and people generally falling all over themselves to help you do anything. And that wasn't even at the famous hotels of the list, this was at a $79 per night apartment hotel (with teakwood furnishings, full kitchen, sep bedroom, 24 room service, free breakfast overlooking the pool, pretty much everything). So I can only imagine what it's like over at the Peninsula which always is on those lists.