The Abandoned Locations Worth Visiting Around The World

Book me a plane ticket right away – these abandoned locations are waiting for me to explore.

I love a good urbex travel adventure. Whether that be in my hometown of Sydney (and surrounds), or exploring an abandoned location overseas. I’ve been to many, and I plan to visit many more.

However, unlike many other parts of the world, most urban locations across Australia (particularly here in Sydney) are either owned by the government or still privately owned. Which means exploring many of these places is rather difficult to achieve, as they are often surrounded with high security fences and camera equipment to prevent any Urbex explorers from entering the premises.

Though, I have no doubt many of the owners wouldn’t mind many people coming through and wandering the old halls of many of these building, there is always that security risk of falling ceilings, walls and floors and of course – asbestos. Which in Australia, is pretty much any building built before the late 1900s (or thereabouts).

With my new obsession of wanting to explore Urbex locations, I recently happened across an SBS documentary series here in Australia called Abandoned Engineering.

Taking you around the world, to some of the most incredible places (mostly in Europe) which have been long since forgotten, but still easily accessible to explore.

Of course I already had urbex envy from a variety of YouTubers I’ve been following for several years now (mostly American) who spend their time traversing across the USA exploring some pretty incredible abandoned locations.

Here are five I tracked down – which I seriously can’t wait to get to see.

Pillinger, Tasmania:

This is an old abounded mining town/community, with buildings still left standing for anyone to wander and tale photos of. I visited Tasmania several years ago, but had no idea this place existed. Bummer, because I absolutely would have spent some time admiring this Australian urban jewel.

The town acted as a port for the shipment of Iron Ore in the 1800s and into the early 1900s, and it was flourishing for many years until the cessation of the rail line 1926 which brought businesses to a standstill in the small township. though one hotel and shop remained open after everyone left, eventually the last occupants left in 1943, and the town has remained abandoned ever since.

Hashima Island, Japan:

Also known as Battleship Island, this location is a sixteen acre concrete ghost town, off the coast of Nagasaki. It is ringed by fortified concrete walls, and was once was founded by the Mitsubishi Corporation, as they exploited the underground rich deposits of submarine coal.

the whole island is littered with the remaining foundations of apartment complexes, which were built for the employees and their families and other businesses which ran on the island to sustain life there. However, when businesses stopped trading there in 1974, it was left abandoned and for Mother Earth to reclaim.

Craco, Italy:

Anyone who is a fan of the movie Twilight will recognise this location right away, as it was the filming location for New Moon, where the Volturi live and where Edward was going to show himself to the humans, before Bella interluded and saved him from the exposure.

This location has been used in many movies, aside from Twilight. However gained much recognition for the movie, due to the fan base across the world. though no one lives in the town anymore, which now sit abandoned and silent onto a small mountain. The locals still hold many festivals here.

The Island of Spinalonga, Greece

Located in Crete, Spinalonga wasn’t always an island. During the Venetian occupation, the coast was carved out for defensive purposes to fortify the location, which resulted in this very fort like structure seeming almost separate from the land, becoming its own island.

The island has seen many occupations since then, from the Turks, to the Greeks and now lays abandoned and a popular tourist destination for many travellers to visit and explore. Though be wary of ghosts, as it was also used a leper colony from 1903 to 1957, and many say you can still hear the voices of those lost souls walking around the island.

Pripyat, Ukraine:

In 1986, forty nine thousand people were forced to leave their homes and abandoned everything they knew in the town of Pripyat. When the number four reactor at Chernobyl began to meltdown and the severity of the terrible incident lead to a meltdown, there was no time to grab your possessions.

The urgency of leaving the small city still echoes through abandoned rooms of each location, with shoes and clothes laying about, beds and other furniture lay decaying, and many of the building are now overgrown with trees and bushes. More then three decades later, as the city sits suspended in time, all the clocks throughout still sit 11.55am, the time when the power was cut.