You could book a vacation in Maui or head to Disney World and still wind up in a hotel that’s a total pit. Why settle for that when you can just visit a real pit instead?

The Mirny Diamond Mine

By one account, around 25% of all the world’s diamonds come from this mine just outside of Mirny, Russia. The drills began humming in the ‘50s and, since then, a colossal quarry has resulted. From the air, the pit, which is 1,722 feet deep and roughly three-quarters of a mile in diameter, looks like it was created by a Godzilla-sized mole determined to destroy the city. These days, the digging rarely stops and the mine operates around the clock seven days a week. Despite being located on the edge of an immense pit, over 37,000 people still call the town of Mirny home.

The Darvaza Gas Crater

The locals have a variety of colorful nicknames for this nightmarish pit in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert: “Derweze,” “The Gates of Hell,” and “The Door to Hell.” While it certainly looks like a sand trap on a hellish golf course, the crater attracts hundreds of tourists annually…and the occasional unlucky animal. Visitors say that spiders are especially drawn to its hypnotic flames. It all started in 1971, when Soviet geologists looking for oil in the region accidentally created the 230 foot pit after a drilling rig collapsed. To prevent the natural gas inside from creating a major safety hazard, they attempted to burn it all off. They figured that would take a few weeks, tops. Over 40 years later, the blaze is still going strong.

The Berkeley Pit

This former copper mine in Butte, Montana, opened in 1955 and was in continuous operation until its somewhat ironic closure on Earth Day 1982. When the drilling stopped, so did the mine’s pumps. As a result, tons of toxic water filled its quarry and the Berkeley Pit was born. In the ‘90s, roughly 5,000 gallons of the stuff was still flowing into the pit every single minute. In 1995, a large flock of geese made the tragic mistake of seeking shelter from inclement weather inside it. They wound up stuck down there after heavy fogs rolled in. Once it cleared, 342 of the birds were found dead. Nowadays, workers use loudspeakers and firecrackers to prevent a similar accident from happening. Despite being extremely polluted with over 40 billion gallons of acidic water (and some resultant freaky microscopic lifeforms), the pit is a tourist attraction that draws thousands of visitors every year. There’s even a Berkley Pit gift shop.