1 Tokyo
Skip the pachinko parlors and fish market, and head straight to Akihabara — the ultimate red-light district for gadget fetishists. After that, take in either the Ghibli (dedicated to anime kings Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata) or Bandai museums. Don't forget to save a day for the Sega Joypolis!
2 Chernobyl, Ukraine
The highlight of the Chernobyl bus tour: Prypyat, a town whose 47,000 inhabitants had to split within 36 hours of the meltdown. While wandering abandoned schools and other buildings, keep an eye out for freaky mutant plant life and salty squatters who have taken up residence in the "exclusion zone."
3 Palo Alto, California
Silicon Valley's ground zero is within spitting distance of the most influential tech companies, from Apple to Yahoo. Other attractions: gawking at the famous Hewlett-Packard garage, touring the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, and sneaking into the Google cafeteria. And if you visit SF, feel free to admire Wired's offices... from the street.
4 CERN
Jet to Switzerland and watch artisanal physicists actually make their own antimatter (samples not available). Who knows, maybe you'll spot the subatomic Higgs boson while peering into the Large Hadron Collider — 17 miles of super conducting magnets! Word to the wise: Book at least four months ahead.
5 Mauna Kea Observatory
Hawaii doesn't have to be about boring activities like lying on the beach sipping mai tais. Instead, rent a 4x4 and trek to Mauna Kea, one of the most striking observatories on Earth. Stop at the visitors center, where you can view sunspots during daylight hours. Leave the surf shorts behind: At an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet, it can dip below freezing after dark.
6 Sidi Driss Hotel
Welcome to the underground dwellings that were Luke Skywalker's Tatooine home in Star Wars. They're in the burg of Matmata, Tunisia, and are now lodging geekotourists. What else is there to do? Day-trip over to the nearby town of Gabes, which — despite what you may have heard — is not a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
7 New Zealand
A tour of The Lord of the Rings' shot locations is as close as you're ever going to come to meeting Gandalf. Guides will show you Matamata (Hobbiton), Kaitoke Regional Park (Rivendell), and Mount Sunday (Edoras, home to the horse-lords of Rohan). Eight-foot broadswords sold separately.
8 The South Pole
It costs around $5,000 and can be damn cold (minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit in winter), but a cruise around Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station will warm any geek's heart. Alternatively, sign up for a working vacation at McMurdo Station. It has the bleak landscape and soul-numbing chill, but there are bars to go to at night!
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