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written by Rough Guides Editors

updated 18.04.2024

The information in this article is inspired by the The Rough Guides guidebooks — your essential guides for visiting the world.

1. Witnessing elephant bath time - one of the most exciting travel experiences in Nepal

2. go volcano-boarding in león, 3. conquer an icelandic glacier, 4. steam in a temazcal, mexico, 5. sail around the galápagos, 6. eat steak in buenos aires, 7. tickle whales in mexico, 8. take the trans-mongolian express, 9. watch ballet in cuba, 10. hike china’s great wall, 11. spend a night in wadi rum, 12. climb cadair idris, wales, 13. take a slow boat up the nam ou, 14. drive from viñales to cayo jutías by scooter, 15. witness tibet’s true spirit, 16. hike in brazil’s chapada diamantina, 17. sleep wild in central sweden, 18. sleep beneath the stars in the sahara desert, 19. swim with pink river dolphins, 20. visit tikal in guatemala, 21. get lost in fez el bali, 22. see the northern lights in norway, 23. take a hot air balloon ride in cappadocia, 24. visit yosemite national park in the usa, 25. watch the sunset from table mountain in cape town, 26. snork in the great barrier reef in australia, 27. swim in the dead sea in jordan, 28. get amazed by the angel falls in venezuela, 29. drive along the amalfi coast, 30. visit costa rica national parks, tailor-made travel itineraries for nepal, created by local experts.

11 days  / from 3248 USD

Exclusive Everest

Trek in the Everest region of Nepal's Himalayas, absorbing spectacular views at every step, including Everest rising above the Nuptse Ridge, Lhotse, the iconic peak of Ama Dablam and other Himalayan giants too. Top this off with a shot of warm Nepalese culture for an experience of a lifetime.

13 days  / from 1950 USD

Himalayan Family Adventure

Experience Nepal's hill villages and jungle lowlands as you embark on a family-friendly adventure of a lifetime. Expect mini mountain treks, overnight camps, river rafting and wildlife safaris. Come here for action, stunning mountain scenery and a look around bustling Kathmandu too.

13 days  / from 2200 USD

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Nepal

Set in the heart of the Himalayas, the landlocked South-Asian country of Nepal is home to a wealth of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. From wild jungles to ancient civilisations, Nepal offers a combination of history, culture and nature; perfect for the most well-seasoned of travellers.

Every morning a procession of dusty elephants is led to the Rapti River, on the edge of Chitwan National Park, for a good scrub down – and travellers are welcome to help out.

The pachyderms delight in shooting jets of water from their trunks, wallowing on their sides while layers of mud are scraped off. Occasionally, they even dump unsuspecting riders into the river. It’s a magical experience that the elephants seem to enjoy almost as much as the travellers.

Experience Nepal's hill villages and jungle lowlands as you embark on this tailor-made Himalayan Family Adventure of a lifetime . Expect mini mountain treks, overnight camps, river rafting and wildlife safaris. Come here for action, stunning mountain scenery and a look around bustling Kathmandu too.

Elephant bathing © adrenalinrnb/Shutterstock

Nicaragua’s former capital, León, is the birthplace of the Sandinista revolution. This vibrant city offers lovely colonial architecture and superlative fried chicken.

You can also take an unusual tour to the steep ash of nearby Cerro Negro, where gas belches from cracks and views stretch over Nicaragua’s Pacific plains. The walk up is a slog, while the descent sees you surf down the dune-like surface as dust rises around you.

Where to stay in León:

• Best for hospitality : Casa de Los Berrios .
• Best for comfort : Hotel Flor De Sarta

Find more accommodation options to stay in León

Boarding from Cerro Negro volcano is one of the best travel experiences you can have in Nicaragua © Milosz Maslanka/Shutterstock

While Reykjavik is an essential base - and the Blue Lagoon is a justifiably popular attraction - for the best travel experiences in Iceland you need to find a glacier.

A short minibus ride from the capital will take you far from the tourist trail of lava fields and waterfalls and into endless icy oblivion. Here, armed with crampons and pickaxes, you can explore the endless crevices and precarious ridges of the country’s vast but receding glaciers.

Try our tailor-made trip along Iceland's scenic Ring Road , which stretches around the outside of the country. Soak in a thermal tub or pool beside gushing geysers or waterfalls, and relish the prospect of whale-watching, bird-watching, and glacier hiking in magical surroundings.

Skaftafell, Vatnajokull National Park, Iceland © Jens Ottoson/Shutterstock

The door slid shut, plunging the small domed room into darkness. The drumming started, softly, and the room filled with herb-scented steam. Go into the Maya sweat lodge - known in Mexico as a temazcal - just for the dewy skin. After two hours of sweating in the dark, it is hard not to feel some kind of oneness with the universe. The Caribbean Sea will never feel so refreshing as afterwards.

Yucatán is calling you, and this tailor-made trip to Mayan Heritage is the way to do it; go into the jungle and know it like no one else has ever known it; enjoy incredible food, beautiful sunsets, and the warmth of its communities that will do everything possible to offer you a dream experience. Are you ready?

Getting ready for temazcal ceremony © photographer chicago/Shutterstock

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The Galápagos islands are among the most remote and magical destinations on earth, so the sight of vast modern cruise ships chugging between them can come as a shock. To visit the islands in style pick a smaller vessel, preferably one with sails as well as an engine.

With the sound of canvas flapping in the wind and the creak of wooden decks beneath your feet, you can almost imagine how a certain young Mr Darwin felt when he arrived here in 1835.

The Galapagos islands in Ecuador are a truly special place. On this tailor-made trip to Galapagos Special , you will get to stay on 3 different islands and explore several more on boat tours. Start and end point of your journey is the UNESCO World Heritage Site and capital of Ecuador - Quito.

For the best travel experience, check out our guide to the best time to visit Ecuador .

Bartolome Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Bartolome Island is a volcanic islet in the Galapagos Islands with an amazing viewpoint at the top © Seumas Christie-Johnston/Shutterstock

Sampling a slice of bife de chorizo in Argentina is a must. The slice served at the La Cabrera restaurant in Buenos Aires’ Palermo barrio looks pretty standard. Then when you cut it the steak it seems to part before the knife. This is meat and man in perfect harmony.

Argentina is known for its dances and gastronomy scene, both to be discovered on this tailor-made trip to Tango & Wines in Argentina . Explore Buenos Aires on your own and with a guide, including its famous nightlife before heading to the vineyards of Mendoza, one of the most developed wine regions in the country.

Where to stay in Buenos aires:

• For a stay with modern decor: Fierro Hotel Buenos Aires
• For a boutique stay with an old-world feel: Magnolia Hotel Boutique

Or find your dream accommodation in Buenos Aires .

Argentinian beef steak © Foodio/Shutterstock

One of the best travel experiences in Mexico is San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, on the Pacific coast. This a breeding ground for grey whales, which love to be scratched and tickled by visiting humans. This is arguably the most extraordinary, awe-inspiring and emotional wildlife encounter on the planet.

Baja California is an off-the-beaten-track unspoiled paradise. The area is home to mountains, deserts and thousands of kilometres of gorgeous Pacific coastline. On this tailor-made trip to Pacific Coast Paradise you will explore, snorkel, dive and do a spot of whale watching (in season). Otherwise, sit back and relax on its soft sandy shores.

Whale in San Ignacio Baja, Mexico © Roadwardbound/Shutterstock

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the granddaddy of all train travel experiences. And easily the most interesting train is the weekly Trans-Mongolian Express from Moscow to Beijing.

This traverses Siberia and rounds Lake Baikal, strikes south across the Gobi desert past camels and nomads' yurts into the mountains of northern China. You can even steal glimpses of The Great Wall in the distance.

Trans-Mongolian train © Jose L Vilchez/Shutterstock

An evening of ballet at the brilliantly baroque Gran Teatro de la Habana invites you into a genre of Cuban music often overlooked by visitors in search of rumba and rum. Sets and costumes are resourceful and inventive, performances are breathtaking and an exuberant home crowd all celebrate Cuba’s position as a hub of world-class ballet.

Havana is like nowhere else on earth: the jewel in Cuba's crown effortlessly blends dishevelled beauty with risqué and vibrant charm. On our tailor-made trip to Havana you will spend a few days exploring the old town, Ernest Hemingway's favourite cigar-smoke-filled jazz club, and a tour of the city in a classic car!

Great Theater, Havana, Cuba © Anna ART/Shutterstock

You’ll never forget stumbling wobbly-legged out of a rickety cable car to see this ancient monolith snaking away across the hills. To make sure you see the original fortifications, bypass the super-touristy reconstruction at Badaling and head on to more remote Jinshanling.

Just don’t attempt the steep-sided scramble in flip-flops as I did. This stunning stretch is mostly un-restored and the hike is as challenging as it as it is scenic in places.

From well-preserved tombs to The Great Wall, this tailor-made tour to The Best of China packs in all the essentials. From the bright city lights of Beijing and Shanghai to breathtaking rolling landscapes, meandering rivers and ancient treasures, there’s much to delight all visitors to China.

Great wall of China during sunset © Zhu Difeng / Shutterstock

Wadi Rum is about as close as you’re going to get to the landscape of Mars here on Earth. The soil is a deep and rusty red, the mountains austere, and the silence almost disconcerting. Canyons and rock formations are scattered across the desert and make for good scrambling.

Join an overnight excursion - by jeep or camel - for the experience of sitting around a crackling fire underneath pearly stars. While here, take time to talk with the Bedouin about their life in this desolate space.

On this tailor-made trip to Jordan Culture in depth you will indulge in the mouthwatering street and local homemade food, meet the owner of the smallest hotel in the world, learn more about the Bedouins and the desert in Wadi Rum and finish off by floating over the Dead Sea mineral water.

The sunny desert with rocks . Jordan. Wadi Rum © Yury_1_2_3/Shutterstock

Standing 2930ft tall, Snowdon’s rugged, shorter sibling – Cadair Idris – makes up in looks for anything it lacks in height. Legend has it that if you spend a night at the top you will die, become a poet or go mad, but the views from here are stunning – a patchwork of greens interrupted by molten-metal slivers of river estuary and sea.

Hardy visitors can have a dip in Cwm Cau too, which changes colour from lagoon blue to inky black as clouds race overheard.

Cadair Idris, Wales © ieuan/Shutterstock

The Mekong may be more famous, but more unique travel experience in Laos is on the Nam Ou. This river which winds its way through the north’s mountains and limestone karsts. Sure, the boats are rickety and old and these days it is hard to predict if they’ll actually be running.

However, this three day journey, from sublime Luang Prabang to the tiny, isolated settlement of Hat Sa, gives you that rare feeling of experiencing a part of the country that few foreigners see.

One of Southeast Asia’s lesser-known countries, Laos is definitely off the beaten track, but it has retained its culture, charm and traditional village life, wild jungle and stunning countryside. Try our tailor-made trip to Historical Laos for tradition and mystery and a unique adventure.

Mekong Luang Prabang © Shutterstock

Viñales, a sleepy little town to the west of Havana, is in many ways typical of rural Cuba. What sets it apart are the mogotes (boulder-like hillocks) that jut out of the landscape and provide a magnificent backdrop.

It’s lovely just lolling around in the sunshine taking in the strange and beautiful vistas. However, to ramp the experience up a notch, rent a scooter and wind your way around these spectacular formations by taking the local road to the beach at Cayo Justía.

Try our moderately challenging tailor-made cycling holiday through Cuban countryside visiting the tobacco fields of Viñales Valley and a pristine Caribbean beach in Cayo Jutias.

Morning view to Vinales valley, Cuba © Zaruba Ondrej/Shutterstock

Tibet is sad in many places now, hideously over-developed and not at all the place you imagine. But it remains the one place that exerts a curious kind of spell and takes you to a different part of your being.

And in some ways its spirit has been strengthened and intensified even as - or sometimes because - its surfaces have been destroyed. Ladakh is more beautiful, Bhutan is better protected, Nepal is more funky. But Tibet is one place from which it's hard to come home unaltered.

On this tailor-made trip to Nepal you will trek in the Everest region of Nepal's Himalayas, absorbing spectacular views at every step, including Everest rising above the Nuptse Ridge, Lhotse, the iconic peak of Ama Dablam and other Himalayan giants too. Top this off with a shot of warm Nepalese culture for an experience of a lifetime.

Leh Palace the monastery in center of Leh city in Jammu India © sittitap/Shutterstock

The Diamond Highlands are Brazil’s top trekking destination. They lie in the interior of Bahia where three of Brazil’s biomes meet: the Atlantic rainforest, the cerrado – similar to the African savannah – and the caatinga (shrubland), which feels like the American chaparral. You can explore dry caves, swim in underground lakes, dive under waterfalls and climb near-vertical mesas all in the same day.

Discover the world's largest continental flood area - the Pantanal, one of the richest places in biodiversity. Continue this wildlife tailor-made trip to the Amazon River. Your lodges throughout the trip are located right in nature, with easy access to lodge trails around.

Iconic Morrao ridge in the Capao Valley of Chapada Diamantina national park, Bahia, Brazil © Double Bind Photography/Shutterstock

Glassy lakes, pure air and an outside chance of bears: camping in the forests of central Sweden is both wild and free. There’s even a constitutional law protecting everyone’s right to enjoy the great outdoors. So go swimming, drink from a stream, or fill your belly with red berries. Then sip whisky around the campfire and crash out on a reindeer skin, gazing up at the starry sky.

Sunrise and Tent in Autumn in Lapland © Jens Ottoson/Shutterstock

As the sun shifts, the Sahara Desert takes on different colours. Silvery white at dawn, ochre in the heat of the day, and deep gold at sunset. Stay at a Berber camp and fell asleep on your back, counting shooting stars that burned through the darkness like rogue coals from the campfire.

In the morning you can climb a sand dune overlooking Algeria and watch the sun emerge from the horizon, a blazing ball of desert red that turned the sand rose gold. Desolate, but beautiful.

On this tailor-made trip to Moroccan Cities and Ultimate Sahara you will follow the footsteps of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Discover the blue and whitewashed buildings of Chefchaouen before heading on to Fez and consequently the desert. Stay overnight in a luxurious desert camp before continuing to Marrakech.

Sahara, Morocco© Shutterstock

In the vast, swampy grasslands of Pampas del Yacuma, the pink freshwater dolphin is one of the more pleasant surprises hidden in the murky waters of the Bolivian Amazon. With the annual floods, they dreamily glide amidst tree trunks and chase fish between drowned, twisted branches.

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of diving into these muddy, unknown depths to swim alongside these surreal creatures; it’s a far cry from frolicking with dolphins in SeaWorld.

One of only two landlocked countries in South America, Bolivia is full of wonders. On this tailor-made trip through the natural and cultural wonders of Bolivia you will visit Lake Titicaca, the de facto capital La Paz, the actual capital Sucre as well as the fascinating Salar de Uyuni.

Pink dolphin © Shutterstock

A visit to the historical site of Tikal in Guatemala should be on everyone’s bucket list. These ancient Mayan ruins are a testament to a civilization that long passed. If you stay overnight, you can be there without the crowds giving the place an empty, eerie feeling that really makes you feel like you are Indiana Jones. It’s not often you get major historical sites to yourself but I found that it was just me, Tikal, and the jungle.

On our tailor-made trip to the Best Of Guatemala you will visit the most popular destinations including the Western Highlands, Tikal and Antigua Guatemala. Enjoy the different types of activities like exploring the Mayan pyramids in the middle of the virgin jungle or having one of the best cups of coffee surrounded by a unique landscape.

Tikal National Park, Guatemala © WitR/Shutterstock

Fez el Bali is an impenetrable maze of lanes and blind alleys that make up the beating heart of Morocco’s cultural capital. Drop down into the bowels of the Medina, past camel heads advertising the local butchers and vendors bartering in the spice souk.

Let your senses steer you: to the sound of metalworkers hammering away on Place Seffarine; to the brightly coloured yarns drying in the heat on Souk Sabbaghine; or to the thick stench of the tanneries.

For those short on time, this tailor-made trip to Highlights of Morocco allows you to visit Morocco in a little over a week. See the cultural capital Fez, the beautiful city of Chefchaouen, sleeping in a deluxe tent in the desert, as well as discover Marrakech. It's time to explore Morocco!

Where to stay in Fez:

• Best for the spa: Palais Medina & Spa
• Best for interior design: Dar victoria

Find more accommodation options to stay in Fez

Fez, Morocco © Shutterstock

At once eerily disconcerting and bewitchingly beautiful, the aurora borealis flicker across northern Norway’s winter firmament at irregular and unpredictable intervals.

Experiencing the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis is one of the unique experiences in Norway. The country is located in the northern part of the polar region where the lights are most commonly visible.

This tailor-made tour to Aurora Feast in Finland, Norway and Sweden is perfect for people who want to explore the Arctic. Begin your journey from the southern part of Finland via Sweden up to the northern part of Norway. Most importantly, you will be hunting for the Northern Lights in the best locations!

Northern lights, Skagsanden beach, Lofoten, Norway © Shutterstock

A lighter-than-air float gives an unrivalled perspective on the “fairy chimneys” and other features of the landscape and is one of the unique travel experiences in Turkey.

You can get airborne on a paraglider above Ölüdeniz and kaş, or more passively (and expensively) in a hot-air balloon over Cappadocia – champagne breakfast usually included.

3 different modes of transportation to explore Cappadocia - by hot air balloon, on the back of a camel as well as on an ATV quad. Why choose if you can have it all? This tailor-made trip to the sensational landscapes of Cappadocia is filled with fun and adventure in the volcanic valleys around Cappadocia making for an unforgettable trip.

Uchhisar fortress in Cappadocia, Turkey © Shutterstock

Yosemite National Park is a wild wonderland of snow-capped peaks, towering cliffs and giant granite domes that seem to be conjured from a fantasy world. Yosemite Valley is an undisputable contender for showcasing some of the world’s most stunning scenery.

Created by glaciers scoring through the canyon of the Merced River, the valley is walled by 3000ft near-sheer cliffs, marbled by waterfalls and topped by domes and jagged pinnacles. On the ground, deer, coyotes and black bears abound in the grassy meadows and forests.

Explore the diversity of nature reserves in the USA with our guide to the best national parks in the USA .

Yosemite national park, Yosemite Valley, California © christian_b/Shutterstock

The most spectacular way to ascend Cape Town’s famous landmark and one of the most unique travel experiences in South Africa is the revolving cable car. Table Mountain, which forms the backdrop to Cape Town, is the park’s focal point. The views are wholly dependent on the weather, so it is always advisable to visit Table Mountain early in your stay in Cape Town.

Discover the natural beauty on our tailor-made trip to Complete Cape Town . Located on the southwestern tip of South Africa, the area is home to rugged coastlines, undulating vineyards, and expanses of grassland. It is also home to some of the largest, wildest and most majestic creatures on earth.

Table mountain cableway, Cape Town, South Africa @ Shutterstock

The Great Barrier Reef is to Australia is what rolling savannahs are to Africa. Calling it “another world”, as the commonest cliché has it, doesn’t begin to describe the feeling of donning a mask and fins and coming face to face with its extraordinary animals, shapes and colours.

There’s so little relationship to life above the surface that the distinctions one usually takes for granted. For example, the boundary between animal, vegetable and mineral seem blurred. While the respective roles of observer and observed are constantly inverted as shoals of curious fish follow the human interlopers about.

Interested? Read our guide to visiting Australia's Great Barrier Reef for more information.

Great Barrier Reef, Australia © I Shafiq/Shutterstock

A few kilometres west of Amman’s city limits, the rugged highlands of central and northern Jordan drop away dramatically into the Dead Sea Rift. The Dead Sea is famed as the lowest point on Earth. Taking a dip here and relaxing on the beaches is one of the most unique travel experiences in Jordan, not least because of the world-class luxury resort hotels dotted along the shore.

Explore the country with this compact tailor-made trip to Highlights of Jordan . Activities include stargazing in Wadi Rum, exploring Petra and spending a day at leisure at the Dead Sea. Your knowledgeable guide will share stories about history and culture and introduce the Bedouin lifestyle to you.

Dead Sea, Jordan © Shutterstock

Angel Falls is a magnificent natural wonder in the Venezuelan rainforest, standing at an impressive height of 3,212 feet. The uninterrupted waterfall creates a dreamy atmosphere, with mist rising from the base and lush green rainforest surrounding it. It is a breathtaking sight to behold. A visit to Angel Falls is a humbling and unique travel experience that will leave a lasting impression.

Angel Falls, Venezuela © Shutterstock

Go southwest in Italy to Campania and see the Amalfi Coast . It is spectacularly beautiful, despite the heavy tourist numbers in summer - spring and autumn are quieter. The Amalfi Coast (Costiera Amalfitana) lays claim to being Europe’s most beautiful stretch of coast. Its corniche road winds around the towering cliffs that slip almost sheer into the sea.

This tailor-made gastronomic journey in Tuscany and Amalfi Coast will have your sense tingling. Taste the most wonderful and freshly made Italian food in Naples one day and enjoy the most beautiful views of the Amalfi Coast the next. Experience the smells, tastes, feels and sights of Italy when travelling from Florence to the Amalfi Coast.

Positano, italy. Amalfi Coast © iacomino FRiMAGES/Shutterstock

Over a quarter of Costa Rica ’s landmass is National Park, which means you’re more than likely to come across at least one on your visit. Costa Rica is covered by rainforests, volcanoes, cloud forest and more. For many people, exploring the biodiversity of this small but beautifully formed country is a major reason to visit Costa Rica in the first place.

See our tailor-made Costa Rica Eco Adventure and discover its compact jungle, tropical beaches, forests, wildlife and national parks. The country may be small but it’s a land of stunning natural diversity and the perfect backdrop to a veritable eco-adventure.

Sloth in Costa Rica © Harry Collins Photography/Shutterstock

If you are looking for some travel experiences for the whole family, explore our guide to the 30 best places to go with kids .

For more inspirational travel tips for your future trips check our Rough Guide books .

If you prefer to plan and book your trips without any effort and hassle, use the expertise of our local travel experts to make sure your trip will be just like you dream it to be.

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Best of the Best Things to Do

Below are the 2023 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Top Experiences—the activities that travelers loved most.

The Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best title celebrates the highest level of excellence in travel. It’s awarded to those who receive a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews and opinions from the Tripadvisor community over a 12-month period. Out of our 8 million listings, fewer than 1% achieve this milestone.

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The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have

A pair of internationally minded writers, a chef, an architect and a landscape photographer made a list of the most extraordinary adventures a person should seek out. Here are the results.

By Alwa Cooper ,  Ashlea Halpern ,  Debra Kamin ,  Aileen Kwun ,  Miguel Morales ,  Dan Piepenbring and Michael Snyder

One July morning, a five-person jury — including the writers Pico Iyer and Aatish Taseer , the architect Toshiko Mori , the chef and food scientist David Zilber and the landscape photographer Victoria Sambunaris — gathered over Zoom to debate what, exactly, constitutes a “travel experience” and how some might rise above the rest. To get the conversation started, each panelist had nominated at least 10 selections in advance of the call; their job now was to slash that list from 55 to 25.

The participants were all polite, often deferring to whomever they deemed an expert on a particular subject: Zilber, who worked at Noma and co-authored the Copenhagen restaurant’s 2018 book about fermentation, on outstanding restaurants; Sambunaris, who traverses the country several months a year by car to capture her images, on the spectacular topography of the American West. They were also quick to sacrifice their own darlings, particularly if they felt they were too familiar (Petra, Machu Picchu), too obscure (Alvar Aalto’s Muuratsalo Experimental summer house in Säynätsalo, Finland — a Mori selection), too personal (driving the Karakoram Highway connecting Pakistan and China — something Taseer heard about from his father) or too commodified (a Nile River cruise, most hotel stays ). As Iyer put it, “Hotels offer luxury and comfort, but they rarely touch my soul.”

Some panelists rescinded nominations for experiences they hadn’t had themselves, despite having dreamed for years about what it might be like to, say, hike through Japan’s remote Yakushima Island National Park , the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki ’s “Princess Mononoke” (1997) . (“I feel like I don’t know if going there would destroy or enhance my fantasy,” Mori said.) Others opted to keep in the mix selections to which they couldn’t personally attest — proving how powerful our collective imagination can be. If something seemed too easy, they worried it might not be special enough. At the same time, not every experience chosen is rare or difficult to access: Sometimes it’s just a matter of opening your eyes (or mind) to whatever magic a place has to offer.

The panel considered safety, too, with some participants concluding that what might make a destination “dangerous” is largely, though not entirely, shaped by personal history and worldview. Others wanted to be sure readers were asked to conduct their own research before deciding whether or not to set out for a certain place, as situations on the ground can change rapidly. At the time of publication, the U.S. State Department had issued its strongest possible warning — Level 4: Do Not Travel — for four of the destinations on the following list; several others have been categorized as Level 3: Reconsider Travel. But most of the panelists agreed, time and again, to include politically, ethically and ideologically fraught locations . “War-torn countries and places in conflict right now haven’t always been and might not always be,” said Zilber. “I don’t think [their current status] should negate their inclusion.” (In the months between when this panel met — on July 20, 2022 — and the list’s publication, the world continued to shift: the Russian war with Ukraine deepened; Iran erupted in protests following the arrest and subsequent death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman accused by the country’s morality police of violating their hijab law; and Ethiopia and the Tigray Defense Forces, a paramilitary rebel group, agreed to a cease-fire after two years of ruinous civil war.)

The final lineup, which is grouped geographically but not ranked, includes experiences of art and architecture, food, history and religion. There’s something for every whim and every kind of traveler — even those who may never leave their armchairs. — Ashlea Halpern

This conversation has been edited and condensed.

Ashlea Halpern: I’m curious to hear how each of you defined the word “experience” when you sat down to make your list.

Pico Iyer: I asked myself, “Which are the moments that most stay with me 30 years on in my life? Which are the most moving and also the most unexpected?” I wouldn’t include seeing the Taj Mahal by moonlight, because most Times readers would be aware of that. So something slightly different, but something that still reverberates inside me half a lifetime later.

Victoria Sambunaris: I defined “experience” as a journey, because that’s what I do in my life: I’m on the road for months at a time, immersing myself in the landscape. I’m interacting with people and learning about the [local] culture, history, ecology and geography. No reservations anywhere, being spontaneous, camping under the stars — there’s a great sense of adventure.

Aatish Taseer: I veer toward man-made things — cultural and civilizational complications. When a natural experience leaves me with a sense of wonder that I didn’t expect, it breaks the mold. Everyone travels with a sense of what they’re going to see; no one is completely blank. Then, occasionally, there’s a real element of surprise. That’s what I looked for.

David Zilber: “Experience” is really broad; everything is an experience. Binge-watching Netflix while sick is an experience, though I can’t remember what I binge-watch when I’m bedridden at home. But I do remember my 45-minute drive through the mountains of Crete to eat at this man’s biodynamic farm with his kids running around — and I probably will when I’m 75.

Toshiko Mori: I thought of natural wonders, because we forget how small we are, and of being able to observe animal life in a habitat without interfering with it. With Instagram, everybody posts awesome images; [the depicted locations] become huge attractions and it’s destructive to the environment. Also, I thought of certain civilizations and places that have had challenging pasts — like Kurdistan after ISIS retreated. It’s essential for us to engage in experiences like this, because we are incredibly privileged and protected. I didn’t want to forget places that really need attention.

A.H.: Let’s start with Europe. Spain received four nominations from four different panelists — more than any other country on your initial longlists.

1. Taste Wood-Smoked Sorcery at Asador Etxebarri in Spain’s Basque Country

The chef Victor Arguinzoniz was raised amid the rolling green hills of Atxondo, a small village in Spain’s Basque country where, when he was a child, his family kitchen had neither electricity nor gas. Perhaps that’s why the open hearth can produce such magic for him. He has no professional training but for 30 years has overseen a temple to smoke and flame at the Michelin-starred Asador Etxebarri, a rustic restaurant minutes from his childhood home. Arriving there, with its view of cattle grazing in the foothills below, is like stopping time. But in the kitchen, the clock has inched slightly forward: The six custom-made grills, designed by Arguinzoniz and adjustable via pulleys, are tools of culinary alchemy. The chef prepares his own wood coals in special ovens that are cranked up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. For each protein, he pairs a fuel with the precision of a sommelier, selecting holm oak for delicate shellfish and turning to heartier vine wood for red meats. There’s only one service — at 1:30 p.m. — and one menu per day. The meal, served in 15 courses, is a symphony that builds, plate by smoke-kissed plate, to a crescendo: first the smoked goat butter with Périgord truffle; then the salted, home-cured anchovies on grilled bread; then the beef chop with its crisp black sear and lustrous purple center; and finally a coda of smoky-milk ice cream with an infusion of sweet beets. This is fine dining in its purest, most unpretentious form. — Debra Kamin

D.Z.: Meals are some of the stickiest memories around, and this is definitely in the top three of my lifetime. It goes without saying that the Basque Country of Spain revolutionized food in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the repercussions of that have been felt around the world. I started cooking in 2004, and all the techniques that I’ve learned came from that region. We can talk about Ferran Adrià and his El Bulli and all the progeny who are still cooking today in Barcelona and Madrid, but Etxebarri best encapsulates what this region is about and its deep connection to the land and its people. There’s no one who comes out of that restaurant who doesn’t leave deeply touched.

2. Search for Muslim Spain in Al-Andalus

From the eighth to the 11th centuries, the Iberian Peninsula, then under Muslim rule, was one of the world’s most important intellectual and artistic hubs. In the region of southern Spain known as Andalusia — the name a Hispanicization of Al-Andalus, as Islamic Spain was known — that heritage remains visible everywhere: in the crimped vocalizations of flamenco music; in the elaborate geometric friezes of Seville’s Alcázar Palace; in the infinite recess of the red-and-white archways of the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba; and, above all, in Granada’s storied Alhambra, the last Moorish stronghold on the European continent, where it glitters in honeycomb muqarnas and moonlight-washed, waterway-threaded gardens. During the so-called Reconquista, as the centuries-long process through which Catholic kings gradually eroded territories accumulated by successive Muslim dynasties has been historically misnamed, the great cities of Andalusia became spectacular palimpsests of divergent faiths superimposed on top of each other. In Seville, the 15th-century cathedral — the largest Gothic-style building in Europe — stands on the footprint of an Almohad mosque whose graceful minaret was repurposed as a church tower, while in Córdoba, a Renaissance cathedral bursts from the austere, rhythmic heart of the mezquita , itself built atop the remains of a sixth-century Visigothic basilica. After experiencing these spaces, one finds that the influence of Islamic aesthetics throughout Spain — and, indeed, throughout the Americas, devastated and remade under Spanish colonial rule — reveals itself everywhere. Beyond its beauty, Andalusia is a tribute to the indelible marks that cultures and communities leave on one another across time and space. — Michael Snyder

A.T.: Nothing in the world prepares you for the strangeness of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba [Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba]. I’ve grown up in places where there are the mosques on the bones of temples on the bones of Buddhist viharas, but this business of church upon mosque upon church, where you walk in and see the remains of a Visigothic church but you’re in one of the most beautiful mosques in the world [and since the 13th century a church again], it’s like an act of reclamation — or historical revenge. Even the minaret is buried in the belfry of the church. It’s a theme that I love — layers upon layers of history — and just one of the reasons I thought it was absolutely marvelous.

P.I.: I was the one who suggested the Alhambra, so it comes down to whether we want a zoom lens or a wide angle. I chose the Alhambra for all the reasons that Aatish was mentioning: the overlapping of cultures, the historical significance and also the fact that the Alhambra is fairly well known. On nights when it’s open after dark, you’re getting a familiar place in a relatively unfamiliar context. So our question, really, is whether we want to introduce everyone to that entire region or just a microcosm of it.

A.T.: There’s a development I like in a broader trip, where you come to Seville, see the Giralda, which was originally built as the minaret of the old Almohad mosque, now part of this cathedral, and then you’ll journey a little farther and go to Córdoba and see this stunning mosque that has been turned into a church, and then finally it culminates in this last gasp of Islam in Spain, the Emirate of Granada, which then obviously results in the Catholic monarchs and the end of Muslim Spain. But Pico is absolutely right: The Alhambra is the epicenter — the Moors’ last sigh.

T.M.: I like this idea of a journey. This exposure to Muslim culture is so much more interesting than a single place.

3. Venture Into the Norwegian Night in Search of the Northern Lights

​​Spotting the aurora borealis, the elusive natural phenomenon colloquially known as the northern lights, involves careful coordination of time, place and, yes, luck. Like a digital rendering or laser beams projected above an after-hours rave, the unpredictable show illuminates the sky with dancing streaks of saturated yellow, pink, purple and green, a tangoing of solar gas and Earth’s magnetic field rendered in Technicolor. Locales roughly 66.5 degrees above the Equator, where the Arctic Circle begins, are considered prime viewing spots; cottage industries across Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia have sprung up to sell package tours and overnight accommodations to aurora hunters. Lofoten, an archipelago off Norway’s northwest coast, offers one of the most picturesque backdrops for witnessing this mercurial sight. There, a coastline framed by jagged peaks, sweeping fjords, sandy beaches and rorbu , old fishermen’s cabins painted cherry red and pine green, makes for a serene visit, day or night. Winters on the archipelago are long (November to April) and dark (for five weeks in December and January, the sun doesn’t even rise), so consider them a prime time to settle down on a north-facing beach (Unstad and Gimsøy are particularly beautiful) or sink into a hot tub at a heritage fishing lodge, neck craned skyward — and wait. The anticipation is half the fun. — Aileen Kwun

D.Z.: The northern lights are one of those earthly phenomena that don’t make sense — I don’t think that my brain could fully compute what it was like until I saw it in real life. And Lofoten is just extremely picturesque: It’s hard to get to but very rewarding once you’re there. But I don’t know. Maybe the northern lights are the Mona Lisa of the natural world?

A.H.: Anyone else seen the northern lights in Norway or elsewhere?

T.M.: Yeah, I have, because I’m in Maine and you can see it in northern Maine, but I don’t think it’s anything like what Dave is talking about. Lofoten is on my wish list.

A.T.: I saw them in Iceland but I’m 100 percent pinching David’s idea.

P.I.: I was really excited as soon as I saw this [on the list]. I’ve been up to Fairbanks, Alaska, to see the northern lights, and I know people go to Churchill in Manitoba. But the combination of the northern lights and this remote setting sounds irresistible.

4. Journey Across Two Continents and Eight Time Zones on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Traveling to Russia now, as its war with Ukraine continues, is virtually impossible: Nearly all international flights have been suspended, and the State Department has recommended that Americans steer clear of the country. How or whether Russia’s relationship with the rest of the world, not to mention its tourism industry — a frivolous concern compared to the immense suffering of the Ukrainian people — will recover remains to be seen. But in more peaceful times, riding the Trans-Siberian Railway and its shorter connecting lines is an unparalleled experience — a tour through the many and varied cultures that make up the largest country on Earth. The 5,772 miles of track from Moscow to Vladivostok, built at the turn of the 20th century at the behest of Emperor Alexander III, constitutes by itself the longest continuous railway in the world, and before the pandemic and then the war interrupted its international reach, sleeper cars could take you from most major Western European capitals to Moscow in two or three days. From there, you can make it to the other end nonstop in seven days, but arranging layovers along the way allows for a variety of side excursions: Hop off at Yekaterinburg to see the Soviet-era architecture of Russia’s fourth-largest city, for example, or Irkutsk to visit the UNESCO World Heritage site of Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake. Better yet, switch at Ulan Ude to the Trans-Mongolian Railway, which extends through the capital of Ulaanbaatar and into the Gobi Desert, ideal for fossil hunting and camel riding, before arriving in Beijing. — Alwa Cooper

V.S.: OK, I know Russia is controversial right now. But this is the longest [direct] train journey in the world. You’re going through ancient cities, deep forests, breathtaking mountains and Siberian outposts. You’re seeing a lot.

A.H.: How does the panel feel about including Russia?

A.T.: I feel absolutely fine. Russia existed before Putin, and Russia is going to exist after Putin. I mean, how could I, with a straight face, eliminate traveling through Russia and then go scurrying down to my Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy? I have a firewall between this idea of Russia as a culturally rich nation and the political reality that one can speak critically of. Lots of nations that we love will come to be ruled by bad people.

P.I.: I agree with Aatish. Political complication, historical complexity and texture are really what make these places something more than sites.

5. Savor an Unforgettable Lunch at Ntounias in Western Crete

It takes a 45-minute drive from Chania, Crete, through the Greek island’s White Mountains to reach this mecca of homespun cooking in Drakona. Through scenic Therrisos Gorge, with occasional stops for sheep crossings, the journey is best made with the windows down, cooled by the hillside breeze and dazzled by the sun winking across limestone mountain caps. Expect a warm greeting upon arrival — the view from the terrace of the valley below will make up for any bumps in the rugged and twisty road — but don’t expect a menu. Along with his wife, Evmorfili, Stelios Trilyrakis, the chef, farmer, shepherd, butcher, owner and maître d’, takes care of all that. The daily bounty comes from an organic garden, part of the tavern Trilyrakis took over from his parents in 2004 after years of working as a chef in Chania. Guests are invited to tour the grounds and the nearby apiary as well as the wood stoves and ovens in the kitchen, though the meal rightfully remains the primary attraction. There might be a village salad (horiatiki), farm-baked bread and freshly churned butter, stuffed vegetables cooked in a traditional clay pot, potatoes fried in olive oil for close to an hour, goat sizzling in its own fat and house wine made on-site. In a country known for its cuisine, Ntounias stands apart. — Miguel Morales

D.Z.: This man used to be a chef in Chania and then seemed to think, as I did, that the world of restaurants is just not where it’s at. So he left and founded a little biodynamic farm. He has this plot of land that overlooks a verdant gorge, and he cooks everything on an open fire. You get snails, lamb stew, whatever is in season. It’s not complicated food; it’s never going to be in the Michelin Guide or on the “World’s 50 Best” list. But it’s the closest I’ve tasted to soul food.

T.M.: I love Crete. It’s a very beautiful place and it still has a certain authenticity about it. The roads sometimes dead-end, and when I was there, you needed at least three maps to figure out where you were. It’s a real physical landscape.

D.Z.: The island itself is one of the oldest continually inhabited civilizations in all of Europe. It has a crazy history, and just going there and eating this food, the way that he cooks it, it’s so honest.

6. Join the Faithful in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a Different Kind of White Christmas

There is no Santa Claus in Ethiopia, no halls decked with holly. Christmas, which in so much of the Western world is a commercialized affair, is an intensely spiritual day here, observed not with gifts but with community, incantation and candlelight. The majority of Ethiopians are Christian and most worship freely, despite a history of extremist attacks on churches across the country. The nation follows a solar calendar, and Christmas, known as Genna, is observed on Jan. 7. The holiday begins with fasting on Jan. 6, when, at dusk, devotees head into the streets. In bustling Addis Ababa, a hush falls as thousands of men, women and children, all dressed in white and many wrapped in the traditional cotton robes called netelas , file to church like slow-moving snowdrifts. Many will worship all night, traveling by foot, lit candles in hand, from one church to the next until the small hours of morning. Ethiopia is home to some of the oldest and most beautiful churches in Africa, all of which are filled to capacity on Christmas Eve. (Visitors are welcome to observe.) In the capital, these include the Medhane Alem Cathedral, with its turquoise domes and columnar facade, and the Holy Trinity Cathedral, with its grand murals, jewel-toned stained glass windows and granite tombs in which Emperor Haile Selassie and his consort are interred. Some of the world’s oldest known human fossils have been unearthed from Ethiopian sands. On Christmas Eve, a nation that continues to endure famine and ethnic violence pauses for a prayer of peace. As worshipers pass one another and declare, “ Melkam Genna! ” — “Merry Christmas” in Amharic — the streets all but vibrate. — D.K.

P.I.: I seem to be haunted by places of spiritual intensity, from Lhasa to inner Australia. But I’ve seldom found anywhere to rival the power and magnetism of Ethiopia. It is, by some accounts, the oldest Christian country in the world, and when you drive through it, you feel like you’re going through the biblical books of Kings. But it comes to its culmination on Christmas Eve, when it seems like everyone in the capital is dressed in white, gathering around what look like mangers while these burning-eyed, bearded priests are rocking back and forth with little Bibles that fit in the palms of their hands. I’m not a Christian, but you look around and feel you could be in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus and that so little has changed in the past 2,000 years. Part of the poignancy is that life tends to be very difficult in Ethiopia, [teetering] between political uncertainty and impoverishment. So there’s this real sense that the religion and the moment mean even more than they might in Madrid or Paris. Although I was there 28 years ago, I’ll never forget walking through the night from church to church, seeing these people with tears in their eyes, gathered in the darkness, holding their candles and singing.

7. Traverse the Blossoming Oases and Ancient Desert Towns of Morocco’s Draa Valley

In precolonial Morocco, the imposing grandeur of the Atlas Mountains marked the boundary between the bilad el-makhzen — land under the rule of the Alaouite sultan — and the bilad el-siba , or “region of anarchy.” Today, to drive the circuitous route through the Atlases and into the Draa Valley is to exist on that line: It’s a liminal place where verdant gardens and soaring minarets open onto the vast barrens of the Sahara. Departing from Marrakesh, head southeast to Ouarzazate, or “the door of the desert,” and then onto M’Hamid, whose Dar Paru hotel exemplifies Berber architecture, with its rammed-earth walls and geometric parapets. From there, follow the N9 and N12 roads to hew close to the Draa, a river that runs along the Algerian border, nourishing a landscape of riotous color: The mountains’ ochers, umbers and emeralds cede to rippling oases of blue palms, olive groves, fields of golden barley and sun-baked adobe casbahs. Once home to a bustling trade route, the region bears the marks of Morocco’s imbricated faiths and folkways. Fragrant date palms, first grown by Arabs who arrived in the seventh century, freckle stretches of arable land hemmed in by sand dunes. Towns such as Tissint draw their influences from the Berbers, who have lived in North Africa for more than 4,000 years. (“Tissint” is the Berber word for salt, another early commodity.) Further southeast, in Akka, more than 300 miles from Marrakesh, are the remains of a community of Jewish merchants and silversmiths who plied their trade in the area as early as the second century. Their homes — made of mud brick and stucco, with walls now jagged or altogether missing — stand as monuments to the Draa’s rich, syncretic past and to the enthralling boundlessness of its present. — Dan Piepenbring

A.T.: I’d been to Marrakesh; I’d been to Tangier. Morocco, for me, was a known commodity. Then I did this journey south a couple of years ago. This is an Arabic place, and yet there’s this very profound other culture that’s always under the surface. The most startling moment came when I arrived in a town where there was an old Jewish quarter of silversmiths and we went into a house that felt like it had been abandoned yesterday. It was just one of those moments where suddenly all of the pieces fall into place and you get a window into another vein of culture or civilization and how it interacted with this Arabized Muslim state of Morocco. I also have to say, landscape-wise, it’s the only place other than Yemen where you’re driving through and you have these discrete, scarified mountains on either side, and every now and then there’ll be, like, a flowering tree against the desert. It’s stunning stuff.

8. Come Face to Face With a Rare Marine Mammal Off the Coast of Southern Mozambique

Sea pig, sea cow, sea camel — the dugong’s epithets aren’t particularly evocative, but its serene presence is the highlight of any dive trip. The 200 or so animals that scientists estimate live in the protected waters of Bazaruto Archipelago National Park constitute the largest remaining dugong population on the East African coast. To experience them, you must fly into the nearest international airport, in the town of Vilankulo, and then organize a helicopter or dhow ride to one of the archipelago’s many resorts and lodges. There are numerous diving and snorkeling spots along Bazaruto’s famed Two-Mile Reef, which offers unusually clear visibility and a thriving coral population. Found in the shallow coastal waters of as many as 40 countries, the large and placid dugong (imagine a manatee with a wider, shorter snout) is intensely shy, and its population is considered “vulnerable,” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Its hearing is sharp but its vision is poor; moving in slowly, silently and respectfully is key. Even so, only the luckiest Bazaruto divers will ever spot a dugong — often from a distance of several meters — drifting alone or in pairs. — A.C.

A.T.: When I’m obliged to write about the natural world, I get kind of nervous because I think, “Oh, am I going to feel something? Am I going to know how to translate that feeling in my writing?” By April [2022], I had become very scared of travel: the pandemic, the restrictions, the fear that you were going to be stuck somewhere and not allowed back. All of this was weighing on my mind, and I’d almost lost that sense of wonder, that willingness to leave home. And in this place, which is the basin of the Indian Ocean in that part of the world, the plane tilted and I saw the sand flats push through this ancient archipelago and I thought to myself, “Of course, this is why one leaves home!” I hadn’t scuba-dived in 15 years, and here I was with blacktip reef sharks and sea turtles swimming into the raking light with plankton. Dugongs are incredibly rare, but as we came up from this dive, we saw one. It was a kind of emotional state brought on by the pandemic — a fear of leaving home running smack into that total excitement to be out in the world again.

A.H.: Many other lists like this would probably include an African safari; it’s refreshing not to promote a more traditional safari experience.

T.M.: The African safari has a checkered history because it’s related to hunting animals. There’s a balance now between conservation and infringement, but how those animals are really protected or may not be … there’s a lot we don’t know. So I’m definitely sensitive about not recommending a safari as an experience.

THE MIDDLE EAST

9. discover paradise on earth in the secret courtyard gardens of yazd, iran.

The very concept of paradise was born in Iran around 550 B.C., when Cyrus the Great, in the days of the Achaemenid Empire, oversaw the construction of a spectacular walled oasis called Pasargadae — a place of symmetry, flowering trees and calming waters — setting an example of how man might bend nature in pursuit of ultimate beauty. So deep do the Iranian roots of nirvana run that even the English word “paradise” comes from paridaida , the Old Persian term for walled garden. For those wishing to commune with Eden today, there’s perhaps no better place than Yazd, a 1,600-year-old Iranian desert town that was once a critical stop on the Silk Road. Here, the garden hotels of the city, which today is home to 530,000 people, pay homage to the Iranian legacy of paradise with their hidden courtyards. From the lush Kohan and the majestic Moshir Al Mamalek to the family-run Dad Hotel, the accommodations range from humble to luxurious. For guests who step through the door and out into the enclosed garden, hushed earthly delights of fountains and flowers — soft calla lilies, tulips and desert roses — await. — D.K.

P.I.: In all my traveling life, Iran is definitely the richest, most sophisticated, most surprising place I’ve been. And it’s the one I’m always urging my friends in California to go to — partly because I worry, as with Cuba or with other Middle Eastern places, that we’re reducing them to one-dimensional stereotypes from afar. And I’m so keen for people to experience the human reality firsthand. Sometimes friends will ask me, “Is it safe to go?” Well, I’m sitting here near Los Angeles, which for most of the planet is a really scary place.

Before I went to Iran, I was told by people who had been there that you only have to worry about two things: Everywhere you go, you’re going to be swamped with more friendliness than you know what to do with, and everyone’s going to invite you to dinner. The only reason that didn’t always happen to me was that people took me for Iranian, so they weren’t as excited as if they’d seen a more visible foreigner.

A.T.: I loved Yazd. I have to say that I did run afoul of the authorities in Iran and was turfed out with 48 hours to leave and probably couldn’t go back, but I completely second what Pico said. Up until that point, I had been met with nothing but hospitality and friendship, and Yazd was one of the highlights of that trip.

10. Swim in a Desert Oasis in Oman

Many of Oman’s wadis, or desert valleys, dry up in the scorching summer months, but at Wadi Bani Khalid, wide pools of water glisten year-round. You drive through the desert and suddenly there it is: a cliché of a gleaming desert mirage. But this is no illusion. Above the pristine pools, date palms sway in the breeze, and the rocky white cliff sides of the Hajar Mountains reveal canyons and caves; if you hike into them, you can see shimmering waterfalls. Thousands of tiny garra fish flash beneath the surface of these pools, ready to nibble at the dead skin on your toes. Wadi Bani Khalid is a three-hour drive from Muscat, making it an ideal day trip, although there are lots of budget hotels and desert camps in the area. Many visitors stop first at the sandy outpost of Al Wasil for camel rides and an overnight stay in a Bedouin-style tent. From there, the mountain road winds through fishing villages until the vast expanse of Wadi Bani Khalid, with its nearly 12-mile stretch of water, appears on the horizon. Its natural beauty is as intact today as it was when Oman’s Bedouin tribes relied on it, and a visit here offers an instant connection to the region’s deep history. The Oman government has helped develop the site in recent years, too, bringing with it a paved parking lot, bridges and public restrooms. — D.K.

T.M.: I share Pico’s notions that people should travel to the Middle East. The geographical diversity is incredible, and Oman is a peaceful and stable place. It’s absolutely gorgeous, the air is clear, the food is great and the climate is wonderful. It’s so easy for people to go here, yet Dubai takes all the tourists.

P.I.: I’m so happy to see Oman on the list. I think of it as the Bhutan of the Middle East because it’s so tastefully developed and preserved.

11. Delve Into 6,000-Plus Years of History at Erbil Citadel in Iraq

The longest continuously inhabited settlement in the world, Erbil Citadel lies at the heart of the modern-day capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. To the north, the Zagros Mountains beckon. The Kurdistan Regional Government has been developing trails there to promote hiking across a range that rivals the Alps in size — an impressive backdrop for one of the cradles of civilization. The 6,000-year-old fort sits atop a tell, a 100-foot-high mound the size of 19 football fields made by generations of Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities that built on top of one another. Courtyard homes constructed with oven-fired brick, said to be inspired by the ring of tents nomads once formed around their cattle, nestle inside the citadel walls. Their plain facades conceal branching floor plans that gave privacy to the extended families who once lived there. Visit the citadel with a guide in the late afternoon, when its brick walls turn the color of amber, and then drop by the bustling Qaysari Bazaar, one of the oldest covered markets in the world. Dating to the Ottoman era, it houses stalls of jewelry, textiles, crafts and sweets. Erbil and its citadel have withstood waves of conquest by Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Achaemenids, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, Sassanids, Muslims, Timurids, Mongols and Ottomans. To repair and preserve the settlement, the High Commission for Erbil Citadel Revitalization was formed in 2007; the Kurdistan Regional Government has allocated more than $30 million to the undertaking. But just as the citadel was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, the rehab stalled temporarily owing to the rise of ISIS. Work has since resumed; the ancient tell remains open; and, despite centuries of conquest and long spells of neglect, the citadel stands: a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. — M.M.

T.M.: Kurds will say, “We have no friends but mountains.” This is one of the world’s largest stateless populaces and it’s constantly in danger, sandwiched between Turkey and Iran. The citadel is still going through reconstruction. I wouldn’t say it’s beautiful, but it gives you a real sense of place and what it’s like to live in a region that has had to defend against ISIS attacks. It’s not a safe choice, but Kurdistan is a strong and resilient community that has survived ongoing and periodic attacks. There are prominent politically progressive women in the government and there are many untouched archaeological sites.

12. Marvel at the Threatened Mud-Brick Skyscrapers of Yemen

In an ancient Semitic world as yet undivided by modern faiths, long before the rise of Christianity or Islam, the cities of what we now call Yemen emerged from the desert as their inhabitants made their fortunes on frankincense and myrrh. As trade between southern Arabia and the Mediterranean flourished, beginning around the third century B.C., these new urban centers sprouted along the so-called Incense Route , their occupants developing, over time, ingenious systems of irrigation and urban planning that are as remarkable today as they were a thousand years ago. In the 2,500-year-old historic center of Sana’a, the capital of modern Yemen, residents adorned the ocher walls of their multistory homes with garlands of gypsum plaster, while in the town of Shibam, which emerged in its current form in the 16th century, rammed-earth towers rose as high as seven stories from a cliff’s edge overlooking the Wadi Hadhramaut, a vertiginous landscape that blurs the boundary between the natural and the man-made. For decades now, these ancient settlements and the people who reside within them have suffered crisis upon crisis — floods and famines and a years-long civil war that, since its beginning in 2014, has precipitated mass starvation, even as historic neighborhoods are shredded by U.S.-backed Saudi bombings. Among the most extraordinary human settlements on earth, the tower cities of Yemen — and, more important, the communities that have for millenniums called them home — are in grave danger of disappearing for good. — M.S.

A.T.: Singularly, without a doubt, this was the most incredible trip I’ve done in my life. This is a rare, stuck-in-the-past kind of country: Like pre-Islamic Arabia, it felt Semitic in the deepest sense. Yemen, for me, was that one place where there was no creeping globalization; it was unbelievably pure. There were some dangers then, too, but not like there are now. I hesitate to recommend it because of the safety situation.

P.I.: I was thrilled to see it on the list. And if we have to single out one element in Yemen, those skyscrapers would be the place to start: Anyone who’s seen them is never going to forget them. I think we shouldn’t worry about safety. It is one of the great countries on Earth and, as Aatish was saying, not like anywhere else.

V.S.: Yes, I agree. We should keep it. Just Aatish’s description — I’m ready to go.

13. Follow the Silk Road Through the Caravan Cities of Uzbekistan

Step back in time with a visit to three of the most important stops on the Silk Road, each city a distinctive meld of Greek, Turkish, Mongol, Muslim and Russian cultures. In the tiled expanse of the Registan, ancient Samarkand’s public square framed by three madrasas (Islamic schools), stand transfixed beneath the grand portals, patterned minarets and ornate cupolas. A little down the road to the west lies Gur-e-Amir, the resting place of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Tamerlane. Resplendent with intricate tile work and crowned by a heavenly blue dome, the mausoleum inspired the Mughal master craftspeople of the Taj Mahal. A leisurely walk northeast, past new developments and century-old buildings, calls for a stopover at Siyob Bazaar, where you can wander the food stalls selling pomegranates, dates, halvah, naan and more. A few hundred paces away is Bibi-Khanym: One of the largest mosques built in the 15th century, the structure was restored to much of its former glory in the latter half of the 20th, its grand azure dome and four minarets suspended against the backdrop of the iwan. There are no direct flights from Samarkand to Bukhara, so take the scenic route by train, past rippling red sands, the oases that punctuate the bleached-out plains of the Kyzylkum Desert and Poi-Kalyan, the sprawling mosque complex, where the baked brick of minaret, madrasa and mosque glow pink at sunset. And though all three cities have centuries-old caravansaries — the famed inns where Silk Road merchants stayed — Ichan-Kala, a remnant of the ancient Khiva oasis, checkered with medieval Islamic buildings, appears completely untouched by time. Countless others have walked these walls before, and now you have joined your steps to theirs, grounded together in the richness of the past. — M.M.

A.T.: I mean, unparalleled, the most wonderful Silk Road trip you can do. Stunning monuments, red desert, old Persianate culture mixing with the culture of the steppe and then, obviously, the Soviet empire. I would recommend it very highly.

14. Tour the Lofty Potala Palace in Lhasa, a Sacred Repository of Tibetan Artifacts

Rising out of a cliff face more than 12,000 feet above sea level, Tibet’s Potala Palace feels like a lavish retreat, a religious sanctuary and an impregnable fortress all in one. The climb to the top of the 13-story building is breathtaking in every sense of the word; make sure you’ve acclimated to the altitude before you attempt it. And the palace’s sloped red-and-white facade — repainted annually with a mixture of honey, milk, brown sugar and saffron — is as inviting as it is magisterial. (Frank Lloyd Wright found it so inspiring that he kept a photo of it in his drafting room.) Completed in 1649, the palace’s two divisions, one red and one white, together comprise at least one thousand rooms that encapsulate the vibrant multiplicity of Tibetan history. Guided tours, lit by traditional butter lamps, take you through rooms crowded with hundreds of murals, works of porcelain and jade, intricate carpets and Buddhist scriptures; the world’s longest scroll of Tibetan calligraphy, measuring 676 feet in length, has been housed here since 2014. Also on display are astonishing gilded stupas — wooden towers of concentric rings inlaid with jewels, each crowned with a sun and moon — containing the remains of eight Dalai Lamas. The Potala is a tribute to Buddhism and an embattled people; located on a mountaintop in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, or “place of gods,” it has survived numerous attempts at looting and destruction since Tibet was annexed by China in 1950. Its resilience is reason enough to go. — D.P.

P.I.: Tibet is a really important place for people to visit culturally and politically because it’s so imperiled. Ladakh is more beautiful and Bhutan is more protected. But Tibet, the center of this rich culture and religion, is being destroyed very quickly, and anyone who goes there suddenly feels deeply invested in its protection.

15. Explore the Architectural Syncretism in South India’s Deccan Plateau

The vast highlands stretching between the eastern and western coastal ranges of the peninsular subcontinent have seen the rise and fall of countless kingdoms, each of which has left behind architectural remains as proof of its former glory. Nowhere is that immense cultural wealth more evident than in the temple towns and former imperial capitals of northern Karnataka, near the Deccan Plateau’s semi-arid heart. Beginning in the sixth century, the Eastern Chalukya dynasty, a vast and culturally diverse empire, turned its successive capitals in the now-sleepy villages of Aihole and Badami and the ceremonial center of Pattadakal into hubs for experimentation in religious architecture, assembling free-standing temples from elaborately carved stone that drew influence from both North and South India and excavating and erecting sites of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist devotion. In the 14th century, the Muslim Bahmani kings introduced Persianate domes and crenellated walls at the fortress capital of Bidar, while in Bijapur, roughly six hours southwest, the skyline bristles with minarets and domes left behind by the Adil Shahi sultans, who ruled there in the 16th and 17th centuries. Farther south, the subcontinent’s last great Hindu empire blossomed in the city of Vijayanagar, built over the course of 200 years, then abandoned in 1565 after its defeat by the sultanates of the northern Deccan. Now known as Hampi, that great city marks the pinnacle of Dravidian architecture, with its soaring temple towers and colonnades. Taken together, these cities and towns, clustered in the northern districts of Karnataka state, represent a practically endless trove of architectural treasures at least as rich as the Mughal mosques and Rajput temples of North India’s well-trodden tourist circuit. More important, they speak to the long tradition of syncretism that has always defined India, a tradition that contemporary politics increasingly — and tragically — aims to erase. — M.S.

A.T.: I went to school in South India, and the Deccan is very far from the world of the Taj Mahal and North Indian Islamic architecture. It was this unbelievable trail with beautiful temples in Aihole and Badami. Then you come to Hampi, which was once the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, and it’s a site like Angkor Wat: absolutely stunning. Then you carry on to Bidar and Bijapur [Vijayapura] and you see mosques — it’s one of the most interesting, beautiful meeting points of Islam and Hinduism, but in the south of India as opposed to the north.

P.I.: I’ve been to India quite a few times and I’ve never heard about those wonders. It’s a fresh, eye-opening suggestion.

16. Hike Japan’s Lore-Steeped Kumano Kodo Trail

South of the ancient cities of Kyoto and Nara, Japan’s Kii Peninsula offers dramatic ocean vistas and dense old-growth cedar forests. Its flickering shadows, creeping mosses and shrouds of ethereal mist have enraptured pilgrims and seekers since antiquity, and the region’s awe-inspiring tranquillity has come to embody the long commingling of Shinto and Buddhist traditions. Every year, as many as 15 million people hike the Kumano Kodo, a network of trails more than a thousand years old and totaling more than 600 miles, whose cobblestone stairs and long wooden footbridges lead to three grand shrines: the Kumano Hongu Taisha, the Kumano Nachi Taisha and the Kumano Hayatama Taisha, all prized for their ability to heal and purify. (That last one is said to date to A.D. 128, when it was built for gods who’d descended to Earth.) Comprising seven routes around the peninsula or through the heart of the Kii Mountains, the Kumano Kodo is so sprawling that no two journeys will ever be alike, though all are formidable; its Kohechi trail, a four-day, 43-mile hike over three mountain passes, includes vertiginous ascents of more than 3,200 feet and is renowned for its difficulty. Those who make the strenuous climb will find weathered milestones, natural hot springs and a hand-operated cable car suspended over a riverbank. Visitors can seek shelter for the night at designated campsites or at minshuku, guesthouses scattered along the route. Further on, at the Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine, a stately three-tiered pagoda overlooks the 436-foot Nachi no Taki, Japan’s tallest single-drop waterfall, long considered a sacred entity, which has enveloped generations of travelers in its awesome roar. — D.P.

T.M.: I like the idea of Shinto mountain worship: It’s a challenging but incredibly cleansing experience — like the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

D.Z.: I know two people who’ve done it, both after their fathers died. They said it was transformative.

T.M.: It’s arduous, and that makes it a strange spiritual experience unlike anything else.

17. Spend the Day in the Womblike Emptiness of the Teshima Art Museum in Japan

Before the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of travelers visited the art islands of Japan, a collection of some 20 former fishing and industry isles turned art havens scattered across the Seto Inland Sea, just over an hourlong flight from Tokyo. They made the trek via a combination of train, ferry, car, bus and bicycle, some with visions of Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin” (1994), a polka-dot yellow fiberglass pumpkin positioned at the end of a pier, in their heads. That sculpture was responsible for much of the foot traffic at the Benesse Art Site on Naoshima, a small island with several museums designed by Tadao Ando, until it was swept out to sea during a typhoon in 2021. (The work was eventually recovered, restored and, last month, put back on display.) As Japan slowly reopens, the Art Islands continue to attract pilgrims. Inujima, Shodoshima and Megijima host installations and art fairs in once-abandoned buildings, but it’s Teshima Island, home of the Teshima Art Museum, that travelers most need to experience. Designed by the Tokyo-based architect Ryue Nishizawa, the museum’s low-lying concrete shell is a feat of engineering and a work of art in itself. Inspired by the bulbous curve of a water droplet resting on a sheet of glass, it appears to emerge organically from a forested hillside overlooking the sea. Inside, two open-air oculi frame shifting scenes of water, sky and sunlight alongside the museum’s single permanent installation, 2010’s “Bokei” (Matrix), by the Hiroshima-based artist Rei Naito. The contemplative work features beads of water that emerge from, pool atop and are reabsorbed into pinholes perforating the floor. To enjoy a few hours in its engulfing silence, watching the light change with each passing hour, is to surrender to time itself. — A.K.

P.I.: I’ve been really impressed by the art project around Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea and how it has developed over the past 30 years. Though I would recommend the entire Naoshima project, the most piercing place is Teshima. You take a bus across a quiet island, end up on a hill and step into this vast empty space, which is the museum. There’s nothing there except two openings in the roof and drops of water being made to emerge from the ground. And somehow it’s transfixing — like a James Turrell Skyspace doubled and taken in an almost feminine direction. So many people, from billionaires to meditation teachers, have told me this is the single most moving place they have ever been.

THE AMERICAS

18. take the ultimate road trip: drive the pan-american highway from argentina to alaska.

Roughly tracing the path that early man followed after crossing the land bridge over the Bering Strait, the Pan-American Highway runs at least 19,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia at the edge of Tierra del Fuego, a subantarctic territory split between Chile and Argentina. Crossing 14 countries and interrupted only by the ecologically fragile forests of the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia, the highway — really a collection of interconnected freeways splintered across various routes — traverses the tundra of western Canada and the peaks of the Rockies, the deserts of northern Mexico and the pampas of Patagonia. Options for detours along the way are almost endless. You might weave through the national parks of the American West. In Mexico, depending on which route you take, you might feast on roasted goat in Monterrey or raw seafood in coastal Mazatlán. You could wander colonial cities like Antigua, Guatemala, or Granada, Nicaragua, and bird-watch in the rainforests of Costa Rica. In the valleys between Colombia’s triplicate Cordilleras, you could sip coffee among green hills in the department of Quindío and salsa dance in the lowland city of Cali. Following the Andes south, you’ll gaze upon the gilded extravagance of Ecuador’s whitewashed capital, Quito, or hike in the highland planes below the snow-dusted dome of Cotopaxi, that country’s highest active volcano. You could deviate from the main road to lose yourself in the endless white expanse of Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, then follow the spine of South America through regions of Argentina and Chile punctuated by vineyards and lakes. To drive the Pan-American Highway is to glimpse the immensity of the Americas and the unthinkable marvels of a world both ancient and irrepressibly new. — M.S.

V.S.: You’re driving through at least 14 countries including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. There’s surfing, jungles, swimming, birding, colonial towns, the history, the culture, glaciers, caves, blue lakes, beaches, hot springs in Mexico — it gives you everything.

19. Behold the Natural Wonders of Chile’s Atacama Desert

Ranging from the Pacific Coast to the Andean Altiplano and locked in the rain shadow of the world’s longest mountain range, the Atacama Desert, located mostly within northern Chile, is among the most alien landscapes on the planet. Pink flamingos gather at the edges of salt lakes the color of lapis or topaz or garnet. Perfectly conical volcanoes loom over salt flats and desolate plains where guanacos, elegantly proportioned cousins of llamas, and viscachas, which resemble long-tailed rabbits, drift through prickly wisps of ground-hugging vegetation. Jets of steam slip through the arid turf in some of the highest geyser fields, and rocky hills drop into the frigid blue waters of the Pacific. Uncontaminated by light or clouds or moisture, the night sky explodes with stars, recorded and studied by some of the most advanced telescopes on Earth. Covering a swath of 70,000 square miles and contiguous with similar biomes in neighboring corners of Argentina, Peru and Bolivia, the Atacama is so extreme in its atmospheric conditions that NASA used it as a test site for its Mars rovers in 2017. Until civilian space travel becomes a reality, the Atacama, with its spectral beauty, will remain perhaps the closest one can get to an extraplanetary experience. — M.S.

V.S.: The Atacama is the driest nonpolar desert on Earth. And I love extremes, obviously. I felt that this would offer a remote and diverse experience with lunar landscapes, salt pools comparable to the Dead Sea, sand dunes, rock formations, hiking and incredible stargazing.

T.M.: You can have an amazing time looking at stars, and it’s incredibly dry, so the atmosphere is very different. A truly visceral experience.

20. Feast on the Cuisines of Oaxaca City, Mexico

The state of Oaxaca has long been a focal point of Mexican culinary identity. But in the past few years, the namesake capital’s limestone buildings and dazzling evening light have attracted unprecedented numbers of visitors, upending the equilibrium between its Indigenous identity and the constant demands of tourists for elegant restaurants and luxury hotels. Yet growing awareness of Oaxaca’s cultural wealth and diversity has also made it possible for chefs with local roots to open revelatory new businesses in spaces as simple as they are unforgettable. At Levadura de Olla, for instance, the chef Thalía Barrios García prepares food straight out of the remote hill country south of the city where she grew up. Bowls of black beans fragrant with wood smoke or, in season, tacos made with the brilliant crimson flowers of the pipe tree are the closest thing to country cooking you’re likely to find in any major city. Outside the center, the chef Jorge León has turned the tranquil garden of his family home into a restaurant called Alfonsina, where he serves an ambitious, adventurous tasting menu that draws on his experience as a cook at Pujol, the high-concept gastronomic temple in Mexico City, while his mother and aunts turn out a parallel menu of traditional dishes like a meticulously prepared hoja santa-scented mole amarillo. Every corner of this wondrous city and its surrounding countryside contains its own culinary jewels — from market stalls selling steamed tamales swaddled in banana leaves and crisp corn tlayudas folded like envelopes around sheets of chile-rubbed beef, to relaxed mezcalerías and market halls redolent of barbacoa cooked overnight in underground pits. The newer restaurants aim neither to replicate nor supplant these spaces but, rather, to honor them and, in their down-to-earth manner, expand their reach. — M.S.

A.T.: A lot of food scenes can be quite fussy. What was moving to me here were restaurants like Levadura de Olla, with a woman who’s come from the hills of Oaxaca to bring the cuisine of her home to this restaurant. Besides the food being wonderful, it seemed like a real break from the sort of fine dining you find elsewhere.

21. Dance Until You Drop at Carnival in Cuba

Cuba’s massive Carnival celebrations have been held in some form or another since the 17th century. As a series of winter events tied to the Catholic Church’s calendar, Carnival was largely reserved for Cubans of mostly Spanish ancestry, while its summer counterpart, the Mamarrachos, allowed laborers and the lower classes (mostly enslaved Africans and their descendants) a period of riotous release after the sugar cane harvest. Many other Carnivals across the Caribbean are still observed in February, before Lent, but Cuba’s Carnival has evolved into an exuberant summer event that is celebrated across the country. The most famous parties, held in Havana in August and in Santiago de Cuba at the end of July, have preserved the vibrant spirit and Afro-Caribbean influences of the original Mamarrachos. Spangled and feathered groups of dancers called comparsas perform in the streets between giant effigies of religious figures and celebrities, decorated floats and conga performers. The mainstreaming of festivals that originated from marginalized communities hasn’t been entirely seamless, with periodic attempts by conservative Cubans to sanitize them, but the omnipresent rhythm of the Carnival drums is a permanent reminder of their roots in resilience, triumph and pure joy. — A.C.

P.I.: Cuba is one of the most powerful places I’ve been and Carnival is a wild concentration of its energy, music and spirit.

A.T.: That’s a great way to do Cuba — because it’s atmospheric. Going there is one of those experiences that, 20 years on, I can’t stop thinking about.

22. Take In the Magnificent Scale and Immutable Geology of the Colorado Plateau

The high desert of the Colorado Plateau covers 150,000 square miles, stretching across the Four Corners region in an arid, empyrean expanse including not only its namesake state but parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, as well as the whole of the Navajo Nation. From its massive sedimentary rocks rise gnarled, sweeping geological marvels that seem to defy gravity and dwarf the human concept of space: Here are the mesas, petrified forests, monoliths, pinnacles and hoodoos that define the rugged archetype of the American West. The Ancestral Pueblo people, who lived on the plateau until around A.D. 1300, left ruins in the form of kivas — circular subterranean chambers often used for ceremonies — adobe pueblos and intricate dwellings built into the sides of cliffs. These are enshrined among the plateau’s eight national parks and 18 national monuments, which together constitute some of the greatest, most diverse terrain in the United States. In addition to the Grand Canyon, there’s Bears Ears, a pair of burnt-sienna buttes revered by Indigenous groups; and Grand Staircase-Escalante, an imbricated series of ascending rock layers punctuated with canyons and cliffs. The plateau, in its vastness, offers many opportunities for hiking, cycling, rafting and birding, but the best way to experience it is to camp there, watching as its endless horizons become a vault of stars. — D.P.

V.S.: This area of the country is physically magnificent and encompasses so much of what I find engaging in the West: the Kodachrome red rock formations; the sweeping views; the canyons, mountains, valleys, deserts; the 600-million-year-old geologic history of the plateau and the culturally significant sites of Ancestral Puebloans, reminding us of what was here before. It’s an awe-inspiring trip that will remind you of our fleeting time here while you experience the grandeur where past and present converge.

23. Witness a Solar Eclipse in a Sleepy Fishing Village in Newfoundland, Canada

The next total solar eclipse in North America will occur on April 8, 2024. Among the many scenic vantage points on its path of totality is Bonavista, a town of some 3,000 people on a bucolic peninsula in Newfoundland. There are plenty of remote places here from which to take in the atavistic spectacle: a sublime, disquieting experience, full of renewal and destruction, that shatters one’s sense of magnitude. When you’re not watching the moon engulf the sun in a rite of astronomical passage, you can enjoy more earthly pleasures at the Bonavista lighthouse, which looks out onto a seascape of unsurpassed beauty, featuring calving icebergs, breaching humpback whales and ambling colonies of puffins. Nearby are the Dungeon, a collapsed sea cave warped by erosion into a natural archway, and the Ryan Premises, a set of white clapboard buildings from the 19th century, striking in their simplicity, and once the locus of the town’s thriving cod-fishing industry. (Their slogan: “Where cod is culture.”) Bonavista takes its name from the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto, often Anglicized as John Cabot, who is said to have exclaimed, “O buona vista!” upon glimpsing its shores in 1497. A full-scale replica of Cabot’s ship, the Matthew , floats in a harbor near the village center, where visitors can rent kayaks for whale-watching excursions. — D.P.

D.Z.: The one experience where I’m like, “I will die on this hill for this,” is to observe the next [full] solar eclipse in North America from the path of totality. I’ve never had the chance to [do this] myself, but I will be traveling to Toronto with my son — he’ll be two then — and I want to “ Lion King”-style raise him into the eye of the moon when this happens. It’s something our ancestors have built entire mythologies around: a way of keeping track of celestial bodies and realizing there were powerful forces far beyond our own imagination. With the association eclipses have historically carried with the end of the world, it’d be fitting to witness it from what’s colloquially known as the end of the world: Newfoundland. The province [Newfoundland and Labrador] doesn’t get a lot of credit, but it has some of the most beautiful coastal wild nature in North America. April is also iceberg season, which will only compound the viewing experience.

24. Labor on an Organic Farm in New Zealand

Travel can be alienating, expensive and bad for the environment. WWOOF , or World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, was started in England in 1971 by Susan Coppard as “a way of getting back into the countryside.” The first weekend she spent on a biodynamic farm spawned a global movement with a simple premise: Volunteers lend a hand on organic farms in exchange for food, lodging and an introduction to agriculture. WWOOFing in New Zealand, particularly in Northland, the milder, less-urbanized agrarian hub that spans much of the North Auckland Peninsula and is renowned for its white-sand beaches and giant Kauri forests, pairs this enterprise with a fairy-tale atmosphere. More than 100 farms here accept volunteer workers throughout the year, letting you experience nature and tend to it at the same time, living alongside New Zealanders, learning firsthand about their way of life and finding a way to give back to the picturesque landscape. Farm life often requires rising with the sun, but chores, whether pulling redroot weeds or tending sheep, usually conclude by lunch. Afterward, grander adventures can be had as well: backpacking Northland’s Great Walks, where you can rove through remote subtropical forests, or canoeing down the Whanganui River. But the most rewarding and memorable aspect of the trip comes from forging a bond with the earth and the resilient people who work it. — M.M.

D.Z.: Working on a farm is something everyone alive should do so that they understand where food comes from. WWOOFing is a great way to do that.

A.H.: It’s interesting in that it touches upon a recent trend toward voluntourism but in a less expected way.

T.M.: I have a miniature farm, but it takes all seasons and years to really understand a cycle. It depends on when you go, but you might see the planting, you might see harvesting; you might only get to do weeding.

D.Z.: It’s not a hotel; you can’t come and go as you please. But I don’t think the fact that you don’t get to completely embed yourself in agriculture over the course of multiple years or seasons negates the importance of learning what it’s like to farm.

A.H.: Why New Zealand specifically, David?

DZ: New Zealand, which is absolutely otherworldly for its natural landscape, is also an island nation that is super self-reliant thanks to the work of its farmers. If you chose to, say, help locals regenerate their surroundings by planting food forests, harvesting fruits in an organic orchard or rewilding land to create more habitat for native and endangered species, you would also get to reap the benefits of spending your off hours exploring Middle-earth, finding yourself a short drive from amazing landscapes like Spirits Bay [Piwhane] at the very tip of the North Island or the Te Paki sand dunes. Plus, I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a Kiwi bird in real life, crossing your path as you work in the field?

25. Float in a Zodiac to the Edge of Human Experience

The only continent with no permanent residents, Antarctica is synonymous with isolation. A two-day cruise through the notoriously rough Drake Passage (or a two-hour flight over it) from the tip of either Argentina or Chile brings you to the planet’s southernmost landmass. Once you’re there, the sights are simultaneously imposing and palpably ephemeral; the grandeur of miles-high glaciers in an exquisite spectrum of blues and greens is only heightened by the fragility of the climate that supports them. Antarctic sea ice is melting less quickly than that of the North Pole, but the vulnerability of the frozen sheet that contains more than half of the Earth’s freshwater supply has never been more difficult to ignore. Earlier this year, Antarctic ice was measured as at a record low (though it fluctuates from year to year, in contrast to Arctic ice, which has been consistently shrinking for decades). If the world’s governments fail to limit warming in the coming years to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, as seems increasingly likely, ice sheet collapses in the Antarctic could cause a catastrophic rise in sea levels over the next several centuries. Still, Antarctica’s sublime beauty persists. In addition to its penguin colonies, best encountered from November till January, the whale watching is revelatory. Go in February or March, when receding ice allows the dozen or so passengers in the inflatable Zodiac rafts of expedition cruises to get up-close views of blue whales, orcas, humpback whales and other cetaceans. Travel to Antarctica remains heavily regulated: Unguided landings are forbidden, and the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1991, instituted “leave no trace” guidelines designed to limit the human impact of tourism and scientific exploration alike. Before you go, do some research to identify the most sustainable way to explore . — A.C.

P.I.: I’m not very sensitive to nature, but this was beyond anything I’ve imagined or experienced, even in nearby Patagonia. It awakens you to the environmental concerns of the world, which are probably paramount in most travelers’ minds these days; being exposed to such majesty and beauty and also to the underlying frailty, you go home with important questions for your conscience as well as radiant memories.

At top: Footage of the World/Getty Images, Nick Ballon, Andrew Rowat, Iwan Baan, M’Hammed Kilito, Fernando Maquieira, Michael Turek (3), Nick Bondarev, Salvatore Di Gregorio, @SteMajourneys (2), Sjo/Getty Images, Luca Donninelli, Felix Odell, Stefan Ruiz (2), Grant Harder (2), Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images, James Thompson, Kelly Cheng/Getty Images

Research Editors: Mario Mercado and Alexis Sottile

Copy Editors: Diego Hadis, James Camp and Polly Watson

Photo Editor: Katie Dunn

Ashlea Halpern is a Contributing Editor for T Magazine.

An earlier version of this article rendered incorrectly the name of a city in Cuba; it is Santiago de Cuba, not Santiago del Cuba.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of a city in the Achaemenid Empire; it was Pasargadae, not Parsargadae.

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TravelAwaits

Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler who's ready to cross a few items off their bucket list.

My 15 Favorite Travel Experiences Everyone Should Try Once

• Bucket List Trips
• Types of Travel

Travel opens you up to so many incredible experiences, and while there’s a whole lot more of the world I’d still like to see, and this is certainly not the definitive list of best travel experiences, I’d like to share with you some of my most amazing experiences and those I think deserve a spot on every traveler’s bucket list. 

1. Watch The Sunrise In A Really Special Place

One of my most memorable sunrises was on Mequfi Beach at the end of a trip through the Quirimbas Archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the north-eastern coast of Mozambique. My husband and I had traveled the 68 miles of the archipelago by plane, sailboat, traditional dhow (wooden boat), and helicopter. We’d spent 2 weeks on the journey and Diamonds Mequfi Beach Resort was the final stop on our itinerary. Keen to savor our last few hours of beach time before flying home, we were up early and down on the beach just as the sun’s first rays of light started to peek over the horizon.

2. Do Something That Terrifies You

After it takes a 360-foot tumble over Victoria Falls , the Zambezi River squeezes through a narrow gorge where it boils up into the biggest, and arguably best, white water rapids in the world. This is not for the faint-hearted, and an average level of fitness is required, but if you are feeling brave this really can be an adventure of a lifetime. I have done this trip numerous times and it’s definitely something I would recommend.

Pro Tip: The best time to raft the Zambezi is when the water levels are lower and more rapids are accessible, from August to mid-October. Go with a good operator like Bundu Adventures .

3. Laugh When You Get Caught In A Well-Known Tourist Scam!

Rome is an expensive city. Even a double room in a moderately priced hotel can be pricy. Traveling to Rome as a family with small children, we found the best value accommodation was one of the many convents that take in paying guests. Traveling on a budget and trying to economize wherever we could, we caught the train from the airport into the city. With our luggage and two small children in tow (one in a pushchair), we made the classic rookie mistake – we asked a local taxi driver how much he would charge to drive us to the convent. He named an exorbitant price. Some haggling ensued. Beating him down to a price that wasn’t quite so eye-watering, we climbed into the taxi. He drove for minutes, and around the corner pulled up outside our destination! An expensive lesson learned. All we could do was laugh!

4. Climb A Mountain

Climbing mountains is something I have been doing for years. I’ve climbed them, guided them, and taken my husband and my children up them. I’ve also taken clients on trips they tell me have been life-changing experiences.

If you are looking for an achievable, yet challenging, mountain to climb, let me steer you towards Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro , where I have been guiding regularly for years. Whether you’ll rate a climb up Africa’s highest mountain a great “travel experience” depends entirely on when you’re asked! Ask a climber making the final push to the summit and they’ll probably say no! At that moment it’s a tough, cold, nauseating, exhausting hell. But ask them 6 hours later, when they’re grinning from ear to ear, standing on the roof of Africa, and their answer will definitely be different.

5. Fly First Class

I’d love to say I have flown in first class, but that wouldn’t quite be true! Years ago, traveling from South Africa to Australia , I got as close to flying first class as I am probably ever going to get. Our travel agent made a mistake with our booking. When the plane touched down in Perth en route to Sydney , my husband and I got off with all the other passengers for a short layover before reboarding. We were surprised to see our boarding passes had us in new seats. In first class! We said nothing, grabbed a glass of champagne from the hostess, and sat down. The hostess, surprised to see us, asked to see our boarding passes. And that’s when the mistake was noticed. We were on the wrong plane; our travel agent had accidentally booked us on a later flight to Sydney! We were allowed to finish our champagne , and then quickly ushered to a pair of empty seats back in economy. Our time in first class was lovely while it lasted!

6. Take An Epic Road Trip, On A Road Less Traveled

The 800-mile, 8-day drive from Kathmandu in Nepal to Lhasa in Tibet , along the China-Nepal Friendship Highway is a seriously memorable road trip. It takes you past the highest peaks of the Himalayas, pristine alpine lakes, incredible Buddhist monasteries, and surreal landscapes.

Pro Tip: The China-Nepal Friendship Highway closed after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, and is now only open for goods transport. The route currently being used is along the Pasang Lhamu Highway, a rough route only advised for very intrepid travelers.

7. Spend Time With The Locals

I traveled with Indian friends to Kodenchery in southern India , where they were taking part in a white water kayaking competition. Not knowing the front end of a kayak from the back, I wasn’t actually taking part in the competition but was somehow persuaded to take on the role of commentator. Kodenchery is not on even the most adventurous traveler’s paths, and I was quite a novelty standing on the river bank, microphone in hand, doing my best to describe the action taking place in the river below. I learned a handful of useful phrases from friendly locals and when I was at a total loss for words, one of the local teachers stepped in as my translator. I somehow made it into the local newspaper and onto the local TV news! I’ve never forgotten my weekend of celebrity in the backwaters of south India.

8. Sleep In A Tent

I’ve slept in many tents in my time, and have many fond memories. My husband, on the other hand, is not a keen camper, only sleeping in a tent when absolutely necessary. Of all the tent experiences I have subjected him to, he tells me the most memorable is waking up one morning in a tiny, ice-covered tent in Ethiopia ’s remote Bale Mountains on a trek through to find the endangered Ethiopian wolf. 

9. Sleep On A Boat 

My husband and I were traveling to Tanzania ’s Mahale Mountains National Park, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, to trek with chimpanzees. Most tourists coming to Mahale fly in by charter flight. We decided to travel by boat up the lake from Zambia , spending 3 nights on the MV Liemba , a WWI German gunboat that was converted into a passenger and cargo ferry. We’d managed to secure a “first-class cabin,” which consisted of a rickety bunk bed, a plastic garden chair, and a broken fan — I wouldn’t recommend the trip to any other than the most stoic of travelers. Most of the passengers didn’t have cabins, instead sleeping on the deck. The shared bathroom facilities left a lot to be desired – my husband caught typhoid on the journey home! 

You might not want to choose this boat, but find a boat that suits you, and spend a few nights aboard.

10. Eat Street Food

Street food comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. My “sweetest” street food memory is piping hot, fresh jalebis in India. It was a chilly early morning and I was walking, with a friend, through the narrow back streets of a tiny town in the Indian Himalayas, when we came across a guy deep frying these delicious sweets at a makeshift stall on the side of the road. Jalebis are a distant cousin to the donut, with a flour batter, deep fried in circular shapes, and soaked in sugar syrup or honey – they are delicious.

11. Visit An Iconic Site And Appreciate Seeing It In Person

The Eiffel Tower , the leaning tower of Pisa , the Grand Canyon – there are so many iconic sites around the world that deserve a place on your travel list. For me, it’s the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Growing up in Sydney, I never appreciated “the bridge” and must have crossed it a thousand times in my youth, never giving it a second thought. What makes you appreciate it though is climbing to the top! Dressed in a camouflage climbing suit, you, and your trembling knees, climb 1,332 steps to reach the top (burning 504 calories on the way!). At the top, you are rewarded with astounding views over the city. The view is particularly magical at dawn, watching the bustling metropolis come to life far below.

Pro Tip: book your climb with Bridge Climb Sydney the climb will cost you around $128. 

12. Sip Cocktails In A Rooftop Bar With A View

There are a million places around the world to sip a cocktail from a rooftop bar with a view. My special place is the chic rooftop bar at Upendo House , in Stone Town, Zanzibar. It overlooks the azure ocean and the historic House of Wonders (built by the second Sultan of Zanzibar in 1883 with a door so wide he could enter the house riding on the back of an elephant!).

13. Swim In Infinity Pool With A View

Everyone loves an infinity pool . My most memorable is the pool at Africa Bush Camps, Bumi Hills , Zimbabwe, which hovers on the edge of a cliff, looking out over the vast and shimmering waters of Lake Kariba, the world’s largest man-made lake, below.

14. Visit Somewhere With A History So Deep You Will Never Truly Understand It

Lalibela in northern Ethiopia is a place where I’ve stood in awe at the history around me. Known for its distinctive subterranean churches, many of which are joined by tunnels carved out of rock during the 12th and 13th centuries, Lalibela is still a pilgrimage site for Coptic Christians today.

15. Take Local Transport 

My first encounter with public transport in India was taking a sleeper train from Delhi to Dehradun (the gateway to India’s famous hill stations). I was alone and had never been on an overnight train before, let alone one in a different country. I boarded the train just before midnight. Within minutes, my fellow passengers had taken me under their collective wings, finding my berth, teaching me how to fold down my bunk bed, and introducing me to their families. As the train pulled out of the station, in unison they opened their picnic containers full of home-cooked food and offered me all kinds of delicious treats. I’ve never felt so instantly and completely accepted by a bunch of total strangers.

Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, before moving to Africa at the age of 21, Sarah Kingdom is a mountain climber and guide, traveler, yoga teacher, trail runner, and mother of two. When she is not climbing or traveling she lives on a cattle ranch in central Zambia. She guides and runs trips regularly in India, Nepal, Tibet, Russia, and Ethiopia, taking climbers up Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro numerous times a year.

28 Adventures to Travel For, From Glacier Chasing in Greenland to Sand Surfing in the Sahara

By Caitlin Morton

As much as we love lounging on a faraway beach or revisiting our favorite city for the tenth time, sometimes our passports need some adventure travel—we’re talking about those once-in-a-lifetime trips that push us way outside our comfort zones. Adventure travel is a great way to see more of the world, while also testing your physical limits, and coming home with a lifetime's worth of stories to tell at parties.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most incredible outdoor adventures for intrepid travelers, ranging from climbing Machu Picchu to skydiving in Dubai . Even if you don’t consider yourself a daredevil, you’ll still find activities that feel exciting (hello, camping under the northern lights) without too much physical—or emotional—exertion required. So fasten your seatbelts, grab your best pair of hiking boots , and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime.

All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.

Boat under the Iguazú Falls

South America’s Iguazú Falls, located on the border of Brazil and Argentina, make all other waterfalls look like mere trickles in comparison. The system of more than 200 cascades (reaching heights of around 270 feet) can be viewed from surrounding walkways and catwalks, but we’re fans of the more adventurous vantage-point—hopping on an Iguazú Jungle inflatable raft and sailing directly under the exhilarating, high-pressure falls.

Climb to Machu Picchu

No adventurer’s must-visit list is complete without Machu Picchu , the famous Incan citadel located in the Andes. While the site can be accessed via train and bus, more active travelers can take the five-day trek along the entire 26-mile-long Inca Trail. Or, thanks to local tour operator Sam Travel Peru , you can get dropped at kilometer marker 104 and do the whole experience in 24 hours .

Sand surf in the Sahara

The dunes of the Sahara are colossal, untouched, and tailor-made for extreme sports. The desert’s rows of barchans (meaning “crescent-shaped dunes” in Turkic) have ideal shapes for sand surfing (descending the slopes on a surfboard) and sandboarding (descending the slopes on a snowboard)—and those views don’t hurt, either. Stay at Erg Chigaga Luxury Camp in Morocco, which offers sandboarding in addition to other desert activities like camel rides and quad biking.

Heli-hike in British Columbia

With CMH Heli + Skiing , you can helicopter to the steepest and deepest powder in Canada for backcountry skiing. However, come summer , the company’s guides take guests on multi-day hiking trips to terrain otherwise inaccessible, along ridgelines, through alpine meadows, and to stunning viewpoints. While these high-altitude adventures are not for the faint at heart, the accommodations are quite comfortable, with log-hewn lodges complete with full-service restaurants, spa treatments, and a rooftop hot tub to relax in before another day on the trail.

Emily Saladino

Mark Ellwood

Hot air balloon over Cappadocia

A hot air balloon ride over central Turkey’s Cappadocia region provides 360-degree views of the famous limestone spires and “fairy chimneys”—something you can't get at the ground level. We recommend booking with Kapadokya Balloons , the first company that introduced hot air balloon tourism in Cappadocia. Services include transfers to and from your hotel, snacks, full insurance, and a champagne party after the flight.

Hunt for glaciers in Greenland

Greenland is relatively expensive and tricky to get to, but well worth the effort—especially since it’s one of the most untouched landscapes on the planet. Exhibit A: the hundreds-year-old icebergs and glaciers floating off the mainland, which you can get up close and personal with during a cruise excursion. ( Hurtigruten and Cruise Norway offer these sailings.)

Hop across Botswana on a mobile safari

While most safari camps stay in one place like a traditional hotel, the private canvas safaris by  Barclay Stenner Safaris are totally mobile, meaning you can pick up and move locations based on weather conditions and wildlife movements. The outfitter’s Botswana itinerary moves across the country to fauna-rich areas like the Okavango Delta and Makgadikgadi Salt Pans—get ready to follow groups of lions, hippos, elephants, and more.

Paraglide over Turkey’s Blue Lagoon

Oludeniz has one of the most beautiful beaches in Turkey, with pebble shores and a “blue lagoon” of aquamarine hues. The beach also happens to be one of the world's best places to paraglide, thanks to stable weather and gorgeous panoramic views. The launch site for most companies is from Babadağ mountain, with jumping-off points reaching 6,000 feet above sea level.

Explore the Great Barrier Reef

Divers and snorkelers everywhere need to experience the Great Barrier Reef at least once in their lifetime. Not only does the site have more than 400 different types of coral and 1,500 species of fish, but the natural wonder has been rapidly eroding due to coral bleaching and global warming . That means it’s more urgent than ever to see this sight in all its glory—and to understand what we are losing.

Swim through Mexico’s cenotes

Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula features a wealth of unique natural beauty, particularly when it comes to its cavernous cenotes. Floating in one of these natural sinkholes is an incredible experience, as is diving through the underground cave systems . When in Tulum , visit Dos Ojos (“Two Eyes”) to view one of the planet’s most beautiful underwater sites or Gran Cenote for rock formations that resemble Gothic architecture.

Free-fall over Dubai at 120 miles per hour

Dubai is one of the most over-the-top cities in the world, so are you really surprised that skydiving is one of its most popular activities?  Skydive Dubai is a company located near Jumeirah Beach, offering tandem skydiving for beginners and solo jumps for licensed divers. If you thought Dubai’s skyline was impressive already, just wait until you see it while falling from 13,000 feet in the air.

Scale Half Dome at Yosemite National Park

The Half Dome trail through Yosemite may be one of the most intense hikes you’ll ever take, stretching for 16 miles and ascending more than 5,500 feet. The final 400 feet are the trickiest—hikers must climb up the steep slope with two steel cables as their only support—but the breathtaking views from the top make the effort (and terror) worth it. Afterwards, stay at The Ahwahnee, one of the most beautiful national park hotels in the country.

Swim with great white sharks in South Africa

The fishing town of Gansbaai is often considered to be the birthplace of great white shark cage diving, an activity that would make most adrenaline junkies drool. Cage diving is totally safe (despite what some low-budget shark movies might lead you to believe), but we dare you to keep your heart rate in check as you come face-to-face with an apex predator.  Marine Dynamics is one of the most popular cage diving operators in town, with a marine biologist and videographer joining every tour.

Bungee jump in New Zealand

New Zealand practically invented adventure sports when the Kawarau Bridge Bungy opened in 1988. Here you join around 38,000 annual visitors to take the 140-foot jump from the South Island's historic, steel-framed Kawarau Bridge—an activity in which the views are almost as thrilling as the fall itself.

Climb Mount Fuji

Solitary Mount Fuji is probably Japan’s most iconic natural wonder , rising 12,388 feet above villages and reflecting on lakes’ surfaces. You can get views of the landmark from many places, like Lake Kawaguchi in Fujikawaguchiko and even the Park Hyatt Tokyo , but it’s the views from the mountain that will give you the most bragging rights. Visit from early July to mid-September to take advantage of the official climbing season, when the designated trails and paved roads are free of snow.

Go volcano boarding on Cerro Negro in Nicaragua

If you’re looking for action sports and adventure, we recommend booking a flight to Nicaragua right now. There you can kayak, surf, zipline through the jungle, and even sled down the side of an active volcano. Intrepid travelers love to climb up the 2,388-foot Cerro Negro and then “volcano board” back down (an activity where you sit or stand on a piece of plywood and slide your way down the slopes). You'll want to go with a guided group tour with this one. Bigfoot Hostels is one of many operators for excursions—for $25, you get transportation to the volcano, boards, safety equipment, snacks, and your speed clocked by a radar gun.

Take a white-knuckle drive in Norway

Who says your adrenaline can’t pump from the comfort of your car? Trollstigen is one of the world’s most popular (and  terrifying ) highways, known for its steep gradient and hairpin turns. The one-lane road passes such impressive wonders as the 1,050-foot Stigfossen waterfall, but be sure to pull over before you gawk and snap photos. There are several viewing platforms along the road that will let you take in the sites without risking a crash.

Dive Belize’s Great Blue Hole

Known for its circular shape and strikingly deep blue color , the Great Blue Hole is a 1,000-foot-wide sinkhole in the middle of Belize’s Lighthouse Reef. While an aerial shot is enough to convince anyone of its beauty, scuba divers are the ones who get to experience the wonders that lie beneath: massive, 40-foot limestone stalactites and stalagmites that formed during the last glacial period.

Go canyoning in the Azores

Portugal’s Azores Islands are equal parts adventurous and beautiful, inviting travelers to get up close and personal with nature while hiking, biking, and swimming. If you want to really push the envelope, try canyoning—an activity that has you rappel down a waterfall while navigating slippery rocks and fast-flowing water. Azores Getaways offers a comprehensive and easy-to-book experience. Training, equipment, on-site instructors, and snacks are all included in the excursion, which will no doubt become one of the most memorable of your life.

Kayak through Torres del Paine National Park

Chile’s Patagonia region is one of the most beautiful spots on the planet, and there are plenty of ways to explore the area. But while most people experience the sights while hiking, you can get a slightly different view from the water via a kayaking trip.  Kayak en Patagonia offers several tour options ranging in duration and difficulty levels, but all let you paddle past towering mountains, rugged glaciers, and other incredible vistas.

Sleep under the northern lights

Ah, the elusive northern lights . So many factors are at play when it comes to seeing the technicolor phenomenon—location, time of year, weather conditions—but it’s hard to lose with an excursion to Finnish Lapland. The Arctic area is one of the planet’s best for aurora viewing, especially if you get to sleep in an igloo hotel at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort or mobile Aurora Bubble Sled . Up your viewing chances by planning a trip between December and March.

Go heli-skiing in Alaska

If you’re a seasoned traveler who’s conquered every black diamond slope in North America, there’s still one snowy adventure left to vanquish: heli-skiing. There’s nothing quite like hopping in a helicopter and being dropped onto untouched snow at the top of a mountain—especially in a setting as formidable as Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. The experienced guides at  Valdez Heli Ski Guides (VHSG) will help make this dream a reality, taking you to some of the best runs of your life and then letting you unwind (hot tub and massages included) at the cozy  Tsaina Lodge .

Snorkel between continents in Iceland

Iceland is one of the best countries in the world for adventure travel , with opportunities for everything from glacier hiking to snorkeling and diving. For the latter, head straight to Thingvellir National Park along the country’s Golden Circle route , where two tectonic plates slowly pull apart at the rate of about two centimeters (0.8 inches) per year. The phenomenon results in the Silfra fissure, a stunning rift valley where travelers can snorkel or dive in impossibly clear (and cold) waters. Tour company DIVE.IS offers tours for divers and every level of snorkeler—including those with no prior experience—and will snap an underwater photo of you touching two continents at the same time.

Float along the Amazon

Some remote destinations are best seen from the deck of a boat, and that includes the upper Amazon River. Aqua Expeditions ’ luxury cruises through the Peruvian stretch of the river tour the area’s wildlife and culture at a delightful, leisurely pace. You'll even have chef-prepared gourmet meals and five-star suites with floor-to-ceiling windows. Looking for something a little less luxe? Amazon Adventures offers kayaking trips along some Amazon tributaries, where you can fish for piranhas and camp out in the rainforest.

Surf ‘The Pipeline’ in Oahu

Oahu’s Banzai Pipeline (commonly referred to as The Pipeline) is easily one of the most sought-after surfing spots in the world. Located off the coast of the island’s north shore in Ehukai Beach Park, the surf reef break averages waves measuring nine feet high. This activity is definitely not for beginners, but even non-surfers will get a thrill out of watching the many surf competitions that take place at The Pipeline—all from the safety of a sunny beach.

Spot elusive wildlife in the Great Bear Rainforest

Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world—and one of the most magical, with elusive species like sea wolves and Kermode bears roaming its 21 million acres. Outer Shores Expeditions will take you on a nine-day excursion aboard a schooner, departing from British Columbia’s First Nations community of Bella Bella and stopping for sea kayaking along the way.

Soak in the planet’s most extreme infinity pool

Located on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, Victoria Falls attracts thousands of tourists each year. One of the biggest draws here is the Devil’s Pool , a naturally formed eddy sitting at the very edge of the falls, where daring swimmers can splash around between August and January (depending on water levels, that is). Given that a slippery rock barrier is the only thing separating you from going over the edge, this site is easily the planet’s most extreme infinity pool .

Camp in Antarctica

Antarctica is truly the final frontier when it comes to adventure travel, providing untouched landscapes, unique wildlife, and more activities than you’ll know what to do with (like cruising, caving, and thermal spring soaking , to name a few). If you can get yourself to Punta Arenas, Chile, Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions will fly you to Antarctica for three days of skiing and hiking before setting you up for a South Pole sleepover.

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19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips

Love inspiring travel experience stories ?

Then you’re in the right place!

Grab a snack and your favorite beverage and get ready to settle in, as you’re about to read some truly inspiring travel stories about life-changing trips.

In this roundup, some of my favorite bloggers share their best travel stories.

You’ll hear about travelers embarking on sacred pilgrimages, growing after a first solo female travel trip, deeply connecting with locals on the road, and getting out of their comfort zones in ways that completely alter the course of their life.

And if you’re looking for a unique travel experience, you’ll likely find it in the short stories about travel below.

Table of Contents

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I regularly share about solo female travel, New York City, lesser-known destinations, unique experiences, active adventures, and how to turn your passion for exploring the world into a profitable business through travel blogging.

Click here to head back to the travel blog .

There is so much included!

Plus, I’m constantly adding new resources, guides, and personality quizzes to help you travel beyond the guidebook!

On that note, let’s dive into the inspiring travel stories .

1. Travel Experience Stories In South America

My travel story takes place in South America, back when I used to travel solo for months at a time.

I was in my mid-20s, and even though I’d backpacked Europe, Southeast Asia, and China and had studied abroad in Australia, the mix of intense excitement and nerves I had leading up to my South America backpacking trip was different.

And despite family and friends warning me that South America wasn’t a place for a solo female traveler , it ended up being my best trip ever.

There are so many interesting short travel stories and unforgettable travel experiences woven into this trip, like:

• Getting invited to have dinner with my Brazilian plane seatmate and her grandma
• Having a group of complete strangers on Couchsurfing take me out for dinner and dancing on my birthday in Mendoza
• Attending a small house party in Argentina and learning about the tradition of mate
• Getting stuck on a broken-down bus and having an impromptu language exchange with an elderly woman in Peru
• Having a love interest back home break up with me via text, and then experiencing the kindness of strangers as a woman in my hostel who I barely knew treated me to ice cream to cheer me up
• Having a romance with a hostel mate in Ecuador and then traveling through the country together
• Living in a giant treehouse with a group of strangers during a solo trip in Brazil and spending our days exploring hiking trails and swimming and our nights drinking and exchanging stories about traveling
• Taking a 4×4 from Chile to Bolivia across the Siloli Desert to see otherwordly sites like rainbow lagoons and train graveyards in the middle of nowhere
• Experiencing some of the world’s most incredible natural wonders, like Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, the Amazon River, Uyuni Salt Flats, and Perito Moreno Glacier

At times the trip was also challenging, from dealing with long bus rides and car sickness to flipping over my bicycle handlebars in Peru and getting my body (and ego) badly bruised.

But, I was okay.

In fact, I was more than okay, as the trip showed me how independent I could be and what I was truly capable of. It also showed me the beauty of immersing yourself in cultures different than your own and connecting with locals who want to share them with you.

Years later, when people ask what my best travel experience has been this is the trip that comes to mind.

-Jessie from Jessie on a Journey

2. Traveling With An Open Mind

Many people think of travel as an experience and rightly so. Sometimes, however, you cannot choose the places you travel to.

This happened to me in 2019.

My husband found himself posted in Brunei for work.

Three months pregnant meant that I had a choice:

Either stay with him in Brunei for three months before returning back to India or remain in India, alone.

I chose the former. Not because of my love for the country but because I wanted to be close to him.

Brunei had never held any appeal to me. Whatever research that I pulled off the Internet showed me nothing other than one beautiful mosque.

The flights in and out of the country were expensive so traveling frequently out was not an option either.

I was engulfed by a sense of being trapped in a remote place.

Needless to say, I reached Brunei in a pretty foul mood. I think one of the things that struck me the most even in the midst of that bad mood was the large swaths of greenery that surrounded us.

Mind you, we were not staying in the big city but as far away on the outskirts as you could imagine. I’m not a city girl by any stretch and the greenery eventually soothed my nerves.

It took a week, but I soon found myself interacting with people around me. Fellow expats and locals all went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

The more comfortable I felt, the more we explored. We trekked (yes, while pregnant!), we joined the board game community, and we enjoyed the local cuisine.

Three months later when it was time to leave, I found myself reluctant to say goodbye to the warmth of the country I had called home for a short while.

I think that my time in Brunei taught me a valuable lesson:

Don’t judge a place by what others say or a lack of information.

Sure, you may not always like what you see, but there will always be something that you will like. You just need to look hard enough to find it!

-Penny from GlobeTrove

3. From Half-Day Hiker To Walking Holiday Enthusiast

I’ve always enjoyed walking but never in a million years did I imagine I’d end up walking over 200 kilometers (~124 miles) in 10 days, become a fan of walking holidays, and end up developing self-guided hiking routes in Portugal with a local tour operator as part of my business.

The shift from being someone who was content with an easy three-hour walk to an experienced multi-day hiker began with a brief taste of the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim trail through Portugal to Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

Back in 2013 I did a guided one-day hike along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Camino, north of Ponte de Lima. It’s also one of the most challenging sections so it was hard work, but the views from the top of Labruja Mountain made the climb worthwhile.

My guides were so enthusiastic about the thrill of arriving at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral after the challenges of day after day on the Camino that I began to think I might want to give it a go, despite not being religious.

Fast forward a few years and I set off from Barcelos with a friend of mine to follow the Portuguese Camino de Santiago.

Apart from suffering from chronic back pain, I thought I was quite fit but nothing had prepared me for how utterly exhausted I would feel at the end of each walking day.

This was truly a slow travel experience, as we were averaging about 20 kilometers (~12 miles) per day and by the time we reached our hotel, I would barely have enough energy to get cleaned up and find food before collapsing. I had envisioned plenty of sightseeing but that ended up being minimal.

Quickly, I realized the moral of this unique travel experience:

The Camino was all about making the most of the journey rather than the destination.

For me, that was quite a shift in thinking as I am usually all about getting to where I want to be as soon as possible so that I can start exploring. It was, perhaps, also my first step on the path towards mindfulness.

I will never forget the sense of achievement and progress at the end of each walking day, and the relief and pride I felt when we finally made it to Santiago de Compostela.

We met people who had walked the Camino several times and I can totally understand how it can become addictive. 

-Julie from Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal

4. A Story About Traveling & Its Ripple Effect

Tucked away in far eastern Indonesia is a tiny archipelago of islands called the Banda Islands.

Apart from world-class snorkeling and some crumbling colonial buildings, the Banda Islands are mostly forgotten and would be described as a backwater by all accounts.

However, the Banda Islands are possibly the main reason that I am who I am today. 

Well, the Bandas are the original Spice Islands.

Nutmeg used to grow on this tiny group of islands alone and nowhere else. The Dutch colonized Indonesia and promptly became the owners of islands where money grew on trees.

The only problem was that Indonesia was so far away that they needed a halfway stop to and from Indonesia.

That’s where my travel experience story comes in.

The same Dutch East India Company that traded in spice set up a halfway station at the foot of Table Mountain to break up their long journey. As a result, my Dutch ancestors arrived in the southernmost point in Africa , and generations later we are still there.

When I visited the Banda Islands, it dawned on me how something happening on the other side of the world can ripple out and affect people on the other side of the planet.

And I’m not the only one!

The spice trade was so important to the Dutch that they even traded a tiny island in the Banda archipelago for a much bigger island…Manhattan.

Yes. That Manhattan.

Before visiting the Banda Islands I never really knew about this part of my history.

Along with the spice that the ships carried back to Amsterdam, it also carried slaves. These slaves, more often than not, ended up in Cape Town.

Just like my European ancestors, they too became a part of Africa and added another shade to our beautiful Rainbow Nation.

It was in the Banda Islands that I realized how much of my culture, food, stories and even words in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, actually originated in Indonesia.

Because of these tiny islands, I am a true mix of Europe, Africa, and Asia. While I always thought I knew how all things in life are somehow connected, I didn’t really grasp it until my visit to Indonesia.

This could have been a resort travel experience story, as I went to Indonesia to swim and snorkel and relax on the world’s best beaches. And while I did get to do that, I also learned a lot about who I am as a person, my people, and my country…on another continent. 

My visit to the Bandas has sparked a fascination with Indonesia, which I have visited seven times since. I’m already planning another trip to this spectacular country!

-De Wet from Museum of Wander

5. Awakening My Spirit In A Costa Rican Cloud Forest

In February 2017, I was just coming out of a decade of mysterious chronic illness that had shrunk my world.

And one of the things that finally helped me to resurface during the previous year was an online Qi Gong course I stumbled upon: 

Flowing Zen .

To the casual observer, Qi Gong looks a lot like its better-known cousin, Tai Chi — the ancient art of moving meditation — but it’s actually energy medicine for healing.

In fact, it’s commonly used in Chinese hospitals.

My daily practice that year made such a difference for me that I dangled a reward for myself:

If I stuck with it all year, then I’d head to Sifu Anthony’s annual retreat in a cloud forest in Costa Rica the following February.

And I did! It was my first trip out of the country for more than a decade.

Just like that, I booked a solo trip — something I hadn’t done since I was an exchange student to Europe 30 years earlier — to San Jose where I met up with a dozen strangers and Sifu Anthony, our Qi Gong master.

We boarded a tiny bus and rode up, up, up around carsick-inducing curvy mountain roads into a magical cloud forest jungle where we finally arrived at The Blue Mountain (“La Montana Azul”) for a weeklong Qi Gong retreat. 

There were no Internet or distractions here — just delicious organic vegetarian meals made with love and shared with the community under a gorgeous open-air palapa.

There were also colorful tropical birds singing in the jungle, as well as the largest arachnid I’ve ever seen in my gorgeous (but also roofless) room for a little extra adventure.

I’d felt a little energy movement during my year of online practice, but during that week on The Blue Mountain, my body began to really buzz with Qi — life force energy — as I Lifted the Sky, stood in Wuji Stance, and practiced Shooting Arrows.

I felt electrified and joyful. 

And that was when everything changed for me.

At home, I had a successful career as a freelance writer, but I decided during my week in the cloud forest that I wanted more from life.

I wanted to explore the beauty, diversity, nature, and culture in every corner of the world.

And I wanted to share this intoxicating joyful feeling of life-giving freedom and adventure with anyone who wanted to come along for the ride.

Shortly after that, at age 53, I launched my travel blog.

Dreams really do come true. They are just waiting for you to claim them.

-Chris from Explore Now or Never

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6. From Rome With Love

This wasn’t the way I wanted to see Rome. 

Sure, I was happy to spend Christmas in Rome and stand in awe of the city’s many iconic attractions. But, life wasn’t meant to turn out like this.

I was supposed to go to Rome with my mom back in 2012; however, life had different plans, because a week before our trip, I got a double kidney infection. A condition that required a week of hospitalization.

Although I was annoyed I had missed my trip, it wasn’t the end of the world since I was fine and everything seemed okay…until my mom developed a cough.

A cough that later became a heartbreaking diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer. 

My mom spent the final months of her life in chemo, desperately trying to fight a horrific disease so that she wouldn’t let her family down.

And she didn’t.

Instead, she showed us how to never give up on life, even if it was a losing battle. 

So, when she eventually passed away, I booked a trip to Rome. 

Sure, it wasn’t the trip I had hoped for. But, I knew that as her daughter, it was my job to live enough for the both of us. 

And that’s exactly what I did.

Was I an anxious, sad, angry mess of a person?

Absolutely. I was still getting used to a world that my mother wasn’t a part of. 

And honestly, you never get used to that world. You just deal with it because you don’t really have a choice.

But I also knew that I wanted my mom to live on through me and that I didn’t want to live a life where the haunting phrases “should of,” “could of,” and “would have” swirled through my head and ate away at my happiness.

So, I went. I packed a boatload of tissues, sobbed my heart out, and attended Christmas mass at the Vatican. 

I also threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, walked through the Colosseum, chowed down on gelato, and spent two weeks doing all the things my mom and I had wanted to do. 

And that’s when it hit me. I had never gone to Rome alone because my mom had always been there with me. Maybe she wasn’t physically there, but I thought of her and felt her presence every minute of every day. 

Her presence also reminded me that life isn’t about the things we buy or the money that we have.

It’s about making memories with the people we love; people that never really leave us since they are constantly influencing our lives in countless ways.

And after my trip to Rome, I finally knew that my mom would always be there because she had forever changed my life in the best possible way. 

-Kelly from Girl with the Passport

7. Studying In Finland

One of my major life-turning points happened during my exchange studies in Finland.

Until then, I was studying at a university in Prague, had a part-time job at a renowned management-consulting firm, and thought I was on the right path in life.

At the University of Economics where I studied it was notoriously difficult to get on an Erasmus exchange trip abroad since the demand was huge. Everyone wanted to go!

Regardless, I decided to sign up early for my last semester, just to see what the process was like to be better prepared for applying again in a year.

I did make it through all the three rounds and surprisingly got a spot at a University in Turku, Finland! I was ecstatic. The success brought its own challenges, but once you set your eyes on the goal, nothing can stop you.

And I had the time of my life in Finland.

I met the most amazing people, traveled a ton, partied a lot, and bonded with friends from all over the world.

Given I was one of the few people there who really needed to pass all her courses and additionally write her thesis, I managed to run on an impossible sleep schedule of four hours per night. But I made it!

My studies in Finland opened up my horizons, too.

The summer after, I wrapped up my life in Prague and went on to study in Germany and China . The whole time I traveled as much as possible, often going on solo adventures. It was only a matter of time when I’d start my own travel blog.

My Finland adventure led me to a life of freedom made up of remote work, travel blogging , and plenty of traveling. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. And it gave me one of my favorite true adventure stories that I can now share with others.

-Veronika from Travel Geekery

8. How Cuba Changed My Life

One of my favorite inspiring stories about travel takes place in Cuba.

I visited Cuba in February 2013 and it changed my life — and I like to think it did so for the better.

Interestingly, I expected a completely different country and was compelled to write about it when I got back home.

But let me tell you more.

I read copious amounts of blogs and travel diaries to prepare myself for the trip to Cuba so I thought I’d go in with a fairly good idea of what to expect. Each and every post I read spoke of marvelous landscapes, pristine beaches, crumbling but charming cities, and welcoming locals.

All of it was true, in my experience — except for the locals.

I didn’t find them so welcoming. At least, not genuinely so. They only seemed to welcome me as far as they could get something in exchange: money, clothes, pens, soap, you name it. 

Each and every day in Cuba was a challenge to avoid the scams, to avoid being ripped off, to fight off each and every attempt of people trying to take advantage of me. I usually managed, but it was exhausting and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once I got back home I felt the urge to write about my experience — not for other sites or papers as I’d often do. This time I was afraid I’d be censored.

So I opened my own blog. With zero tech knowledge, zero understanding of online content creation and SEO, I started writing and telling people what they should really expect during a trip to Cuba.

I’d put up the occasional post, but continued with my usual job.

At the end of the year, my contract as a researcher in international human rights law at the local university ended, and I decided to stop pursuing that career for a while.

I packed my bags and left for a long-term trip to Central and South America . I started writing on the blog more consistently and learning, and eventually took my blog full-time , turning it into a career.

As of today, I have never looked back and have no regrets.

The one thing I’ll do, as soon as I can, is travel to Cuba to say thank you — because it changed my life in a way nothing else has ever done. 

-Claudia from Strictly Sardinia

9. A Short Travel Story About Finding Inner Peace In Patagonia

Life in London is hard.

Life in London as a gay single brown refugee is harder.

Juggling between work, my passion for traveling, and the prejudices that I dealt with on a daily basis eventually took their toll on me and I reached a breaking point.

The fact that I couldn’t return home to see my family and being away for them for almost nine years was enough to hammer in the final nail in the coffin.

I almost had a nervous breakdown and in that moment of desperation, which I knew would define the rest of my life, I took a month off and headed to Patagonia.

It was probably the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. The 36 hours it took me to get to El Chalten from London were tiring but Patagonia blew me away.

On my first day there I did a 28-kilometer (17-mile) hike which included a steep mountain climb. It was incredible how moving through the forest helped me clear my mind. And as I stood in front of Laguna de Los Tres, the rain and clouds gave way to sunshine and a rainbow.

I felt at peace.

The countless hikes, great food, and the warmth of locals in Chile and Argentina helped me get back in my skin and find the peace I was missing in my heart.

Nature is indeed the best medicine when it comes to stress relief and I won’t be coy about hugging trees to speed up the process (it did).

Patagonia was life-changing for me.

The beauty of nature struck me at each point and every time I thought it wasn’t possible to beat the view, the next one did just that.

I came back a changed, resilient, and most importantly, a happy person.

-Ucman from BrownBoyTravels

10. Looking Inwards & Making Connections With Strangers

It was decades before I traveled solo for the first time in my life.

This trip — a six-day escape to Colorado — was the first trip that was not for business or family reasons but just to travel and discover.

As I prepared for it, I had a strange feeling of excitement and nerves at the same time. I had all sorts of thoughts and doubts:

Would it be fun?

Would I be bored?

Would I stay in bed all day or would I bounce with excitement to do the next thing?

I wasn’t sure. Little did I know that it was going to be a memorable journey of self-discovery. 

As a good wife and mom, for me travel is always about the family; always thinking of who would enjoy what. It’s about family time and bonding. It’s about creating memories and travel stories together. It’s all so wonderful.

But on a solo trip who would I connect with? What would I say?

Well, I found that I got to do anything I wanted!

Usually when I travel with my family, if I feel like going on a drive that’s not on the itinerary or getting a snack no one else is interested in, we simply don’t do that.

So it was weird to just go do it. Really, that’s a thing?

As for making connections, it was so easy to meet locals while traveling and also to connect with other travelers. Honestly, I had conversations everywhere — on planes, while hiking, in restaurants, in the hotel lobby.

It was quite an eye-opening experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of foster kids, a cookie baker, a professional photographer, a family of Fourteener hikers, and an internationally ranked marathon runner.

The inspiring stories I discovered were amazing and nothing like my wonderful safe life at home. 

In terms of travel safety , I got to go rock climbing, solo hiking, driving up a Fourteener, eating alone.

And it was all fine. Actually, it felt surprisingly normal.

It was was just me, my SUV, and my backpack for a week. Most of all, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know existed. 

It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are endless and there is so much more out there to explore and be wowed by!

-Jyoti from Story At Every Corner

11. A Solo Hike To Find Connection

I have traveled solo many times, but I admit I was a bit uneasy booking my trip to Colombia . In part, due to the country’s dark past. But also because I desperately wanted to do the Cocora Valley hike, and if I’m honest, I was terrified.

This hike is located in the Coffee Triangle, an area recognized for its beauty as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It features both rainforest and a stunning green valley speckled with cartoonishly-tall wax palms rising 200 feet or more.

It’s incredibly beautiful.

It’s also a long hike and quite challenging — it generally takes between six and eight hours and there is a steep area with over 3,000 feet of elevation within a quarter of a mile.

I wasn’t in hiking shape, so I was a little concerned. But, worst of all for me were the seven dodgy-looking suspension bridges. 

I’m terrified of heights.

And, I’d be going alone.

I decided to go anyway and I met an incredible woman on the bus to Salento, the town near Cocora. She was also traveling solo and we agreed to hike together.

The town is a backpacker enclave and we met up with a small group of people all traveling solo. As the days passed, our group got larger and it was such a magical experience.

As much as I love city travel, this small town won my heart.

My new friend and I set off on the hike and met two other women who were nervous to do the hike. We all went together.

When we got to the first suspension bridge, I paused. I was embarrassed to admit my fear, but the bridge swayed widely and there was nowhere to hold onto.

When they realized how out of my comfort zone I was and how scared I felt, everything changed. Instead of me dealing with it alone, they were all there to encourage me.

One crossed the bridge to encourage me from the other side and they stayed off of it to limit the sway. Crazy enough, I not only crossed the seven suspension bridges, but I also crossed one an extra time when we went the wrong way on the trail.

I did it! 

I was prepared to be blown away by Cocora Valley’s beauty, but what I wasn’t expecting was what a life-changing travel experience my time there would be.

 -Sam from My Flying Leap

12. How A Pet Sitting Travel Experience Led To A Passionate Career

We wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it.

By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise landed a three-month gig in a beautiful house in the US Virgin Islands — with an infinity pool overlooking the British Virgin Islands.

A month into our sit, we had explored the destination pretty well and so had a lot of time on our hands. We managed to secure another sit in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple that had previously stayed at our Grenada housesit, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches and funky bars.

But for every photo of a beautiful beach there were 10 photos of trash.     

It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such pristine and remote beaches.  So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick up on our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pandemic. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free .

We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great conscious brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going.

We love connecting with like-minded people and love the shift over the last few years that brands have made towards creating more sustainable products and services.

It’s been an amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

-Aaron & Vivien from The Dharma Trails

13. Learning To Slow Down The Hard Way

On Christmas of 2017, I was born again.

We like to spend our Christmas holidays somewhere warm abroad, and that year we chose Uganda.

Nature, wildlife, and sunny days were a blessing when it was so cold and dark in Europe. Life was beautiful, and we had a rental car and a busy schedule ahead to explore the country.

This is where this short travel story turns into one of my more scary travel experiences :

At Murchinson Falls National Park, we had a car accident.

I lost control of the car, and it rolled over, destroying windows, chassis, and engine.

But we were alive! My right arm was severely injured, but we managed to walk to our lodge, not far inside the park.

In the lodge, I was happy to learn that there was a pretty decent American hospital in Masindi that was just a one-hour drive from the lodge. Moreover, one of the lodge’s guests was a nurse who cleaned the wound while we were waiting for the taxi from/to Masindi.

The hospital took care of us, and after a couple of injections and stitches, I was ready to head to our new hotel in Masindi; however, my wound required daily dressing and more injections, so we were asked to stay in town for a few days.   

Masindi is the kind of place where you may want to stop to buy some food or water, but that’s it.

The town’s highlights were the market and our daily visit to the hospital, so we ended up looking for the small things, chatting with the medical staff, the hotel staff, the people in the market, and learning more about their customs.

We learned to slow down the hard way.

When we were allowed to leave, we took a road trip south through the country to see something else. We did not care about our travel bucket list anymore — we were alive, and we wanted to enjoy Uganda’s unique nature and its people. 

In the end, our Uganda trip was not about the places that we saw, but the people that we met. It was travel for experience vs sightseeing.

I hope to revisit Uganda one day, with a stop at Masindi for some food, water, and maybe something else.

-Elisa from World in Paris

14. A Cycling Trip To Remember

During the summer of 2019, I cycled solo from London to Istanbul. This huge bicycle tour took me 89 days and through 11 countries.

As you might expect, it was a challenging yet incredible journey, which saw me pedal along some of Europe’s greatest rivers, pass through some of its best cities, and witness some of its most beautiful scenery.

It’s becoming more and more important for us to think about the impact that travel can have on our environment. This was the inspiration for my bicycle tour; I wanted to find more responsible ways to explore the world and avoid flights where possible.

I discovered that bicycle touring is one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel, as using nothing but a bicycle and your own pedal power you can carry everything you need while covering surprising distances each day.

The simplicity of life and the sheer amount of time I spent cycling alone gave me a lot of time to just think . This really helped me to come to terms with some personal problems rooted in my past and, as a result, I arrived solo in Istanbul with newly found confidence, independence, and liberation. 

Cycling across the entire European continent may seem like an impossibly daunting task, but I assure you, it will make you feel like a new person, just like it did for me.

-Lauren from The Planet Edit

15. How The Caribbean Shaped Me Into A Fully Sustainable Traveler

One of my first international trips as an adult was traveling around the Caribbean .

I checked into my hotel in Jamaica and asked for a recommendation for a local place to eat. The receptionist told me that under no circumstances should I should go into the town because it was really dangerous, but that — to my luck — the hotel’s restaurant offered wonderful Caribbean food.

I pondered my options:

Did I really want to spend all my time on the beach without getting to know a single local?

I was a very inexperienced traveler and very young, but there was only one answer to my question:

Absolutely not. I was not going to be visiting a new place and staying hostage in a hotel chain. So out I went.

The poverty hit me in the face. After only seeing fancy resorts, the reality was hard to swallow.

A few locals approached me and were super curious as to what I was doing there alone, since most tourists didn’t go there.

I told them I was interested in meeting them and experiencing their culture. And just like that, I was embraced.

We met more people, had some food, and then we danced the night away. They had so little, yet they wanted to share it with me. They wanted to make me feel welcome.

And they undeniably did.

The next morning all I could think about was how all the money most tourists spend goes to big corporations. The locals have to be thankful if they get a job that pays minimum wage, while foreign businesses earn millions.

I have always been environmentally conscious, but this trip made it clear that sustainability goes well beyond nature and wildlife.

It’s also about communities.

From then on I always look for locally owned accommodation, eateries, guides, and souvenirs.

Sustainability, with everything it entails, became a motto for me and changed the very essence of the way I travel.

-Coni from  Experiencing the Globe

16. Lessons From My Students In Peru

One of the most life-changing trips I’ve ever been on was a volunteering experience in the stunning city of Cuzco in Peru.

I spent a month there teaching English and Italian to a group of local adults. And even though my time there was short, the travel experience was so humbling that it changed my outlook on life.

My lessons took the form of active conversations, which essentially turned into a massive multilingual cultural exchange between me and my students. Hearing my students talk about their lives — and realizing just how different they were from mine — made me look at my own life with a fresh new perspective.

One person spoke about the three years he spent living in a jungle with his dad, where they fed off of animals they hunted in order to survive.

Another student told me about her ultimate dream of mastering English so that she could become a tour guide and have a more stable future.

For me, these stories were a reminder of just how small I am in this world and how much we can get consumed by the small bubbles we live in. 

Most of all, my students showed a passion and appreciation for life that I’d never witnessed before.

This is true for the locals I met in Cuzco in general. The quality of life in Cuzco is very modest; hot water is scarce and you learn to live with little.

But the locals there do way more than just that — they spontaneously parade the streets with trumpets and drums just because they’re feeling happy, and their energy for the simple things in life is incredibly contagious.

It was impossible to not feel inspired in Cuzco because my students always had the biggest smiles on their faces, and the locals showed me again and again that simply being alive is a blessing.

I went to Peru to teach, but ended up learning more from my students and the locals there than they did from me.

Ever since I got back from that trip, I made it a goal to slow down and not take the simple things in life for granted.

Every time I get upset about something, I think about the Peruvians in Cuzco parading their streets in song and pure joy, and I tell myself to stop complaining.

-Jiayi from  The Diary of a Nomad

17. Braving Travel With Chronic Pain

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city with a prominent cathedral positioned centrally within the city.

While the historical cathedral attracts numerous visitors, even more well-known is the route to Santiago de Compostela, Camino de Santiago –- the world-famous pilgrimage route that has a plethora of trailheads and ends in Santiago. 

Home to locals, students, English teachers, and those on a spiritual pilgrimage, personal conquest, or a great outdoor hiking excursion, Santiago is a magical city.

My introduction to Santiago de Compostela doesn’t begin on the pilgrimage route, yet ends with a spiritual awakening analogous with those other unique pilgrimage stories.

It was my first solo trip abroad teaching English in Spain, a country that’s always been on my travel bucket list. A small town outside of Santiago was selected as the school I’d be teaching at for the year.

Unknowingly, this teach abroad program chose the perfect city for me to live in. 

A year prior, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that left me unable to function normally and complete average tasks. Migraines, headaches, and dizziness became my body’s normal temperament, a hidden disability invisible to the naked eye. 

Braving travel with chronic pain was the first lesson I learned during the trip.

The vast green outdoors and fresh dew from the morning rain enlivened me daily and reminded me about the importance of slowing down so I could enjoy traveling with my hidden disability. 

I also learned to stop often for daily tea breaks and to embrace the long lunch hour,  siestas , with good food, company, and a nap to rest.

Meeting locals , indulging in local food, and learning Spanish allowed me to connect deeply with the beautiful culture of Santiago. After all, my dream was to travel to Spain, and I more than accomplished that dream.

Difficult or not, I learned to own my dream and I was more than surprised with the results.

Who knew that a year after my injury I’d be traveling the world with chronic pain, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.

-Ciara from Wellness Travel Diaries

18. A Blessing In Disguise

2020 has been a wild year for all of us and foreign students in China are no exception. As soon as the malevolent virus began to make its rounds in China, our university sent us home for “two weeks.”

However, within a short time, countries began to shut their borders and these “two weeks” turned into months, a full year even.

Crushed by the burden of online lectures and virtual labs, my boyfriend and I packed our bags and caught one of the first flights to his home country of Pakistan.

I had always been an over-ambitious traveler. I believed numbers were everything — the number of countries I visited, the number of hours I spent on a plane, the number of international trips I took in a year. These numbers were what defined me.

My feet were constantly itching and I never liked to spend more than a few days in a place before heading to the next country. Revisiting a place felt superfluous to me.

That’s why I was hoping to spend a month or two in Pakistan and then continue to check new countries off the list — after all, my online classes finally granted me the freedom to “work on my numbers.”

But as is usually the case in 2020, things turned out quite different from what I had expected. Borders remained closed and worldwide infections stayed rampant. At this point, I have already spent nearly half a year in Pakistan.

During this peculiar time, however, an amazing thing happened:

My mindset about travel started to change and I began to look at my long stay in Pakistan as perhaps my most valuable travel experience ever.

I may not have visited dozens of countries like in previous years but my experiences were deeper than ever before.

From trekking to one of the world’s tallest mountains to sharing tea with heavily armed officers at nearly 5,000 meters altitude to exploring hidden beaches in the most secluded regions to spontaneously being invited to village homes, my adventures in Pakistan couldn’t have been more incredible. They opened my eyes to the sheer diversity of many countries and completely transformed my idea about traveling. 

It took me nearly a full year of heavy restrictions on international travel and a few months in one of the world’s most fascinating countries to give up on my superficial ideals and become a more mature traveler.

This time will always have a special place in my heart.

-Arabela from The Spicy Travel Girl

19. What The River Taught Me

My travel story takes place in the summer of 2017 — the final summer before I graduated university — as it continues to play a significant role in the person I’ve become.

When I say that, people ask me if it was the portion of the summer I spent solo backpacking in Europe . And to their surprise, it wasn’t. It was actually the latter portion of the summer where I stayed closer to home.

For July and August I worked as a canoe guide leading whitewater canoe trips on remote rivers in Canada. It was here that I got to canoe the powerful and iconic Missinaibi River, a river that continues to influence me all these years later.

The Missinaibi River flows from the powerful Lake Superior to the even more powerful salty waters of James Bay. Here, I led a group of eight teenagers through dozens of whitewater rapids over 500 kilometers (~311 miles).

With no cell service for 25 days, we were forced to disconnect from anything other than the river.

During this trip I learned two important lessons:

First, I learned to be confident in my own abilities as a leader and problem solver.

There were a few rapids where my campers’ boats flipped and I had to rescue the campers and the canoes. One rescue saw two boats flip on a mile-long rapid. It took six hours to make it down the rapid, and during this time I managed stuck canoes and crying campers.

And while this was one of the most difficult rescues I’ve done, I was amazed at how calm I was throughout it. I gave clear directions, prioritized effectively, and kept my campers safe throughout the entire experience. Following the rescue, I had a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities.

The second lesson I learned on the Missinaibi was the power of disconnecting from society and connecting with the people around you.

A wild river commands all of your attention. Each day, you and your group must take down camp, load canoes, paddle up to eight hours while navigating both rapids and portages, get to a new campsite, set up camp, cook dinner, and go to bed.

And without the distraction of technology, your attention has nowhere else to be. You focus on the river and your teammates.

As someone who had wrestled with anxiety and depression prior to this summer, I felt at total ease on the trip. Now I seek societal disconnection and human connection as much as I can. 

Sometimes the most profound, life-altering trips are the least expected trips closer to home.

-Mikaela of  Voyageur Tripper

More Short Travel Experience Stories

25 Crazy Travel Stories You Need To Read To Believe

23 Inspiring Travel Stories Sharing The Kindness Of Strangers

17 True Short Adventure Travel Stories To Inspire Your Next Trip

38 Inspiring Travel Love Stories From The Road

16 Short Funny Travel Stories That Will Make You Laugh

20 Embarrassing Travel Stories That Will Make You Laugh & Blush

21 Travel Horror Stories About Scary Travel Experiences

Do you have any inspiring travel experience stories about life-changing trips to share?

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These stories are so much fun to read! Thanks so much for putting a post like this together. It’s great to be able to check out other people’s blogs and read about other people’s experiences!

Always great to read about travel experiences of others. Some great stories to read over coffee. I’ve Pinned your post for future reference and to share with others. Will check out each story author’s blog as well. Great Job! 🙂

Amazing story for new traveler like me thanks for your contribution

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Fall in love with the Aussies’ relaxed way of life and passion for the outdoors with an adventure that takes you snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, hiking waterfalls in the Blue Mountains, and surfing off the coast of Bondi Beach.

Deep dive into the history, luxury, and magic of U.A.E. Go from sand to snow, 4x4's to Ferraris, fast-paced tourism to tranquil spa experiences, water to aerial views from the highest building in the world.

We live in a fast-paced world where unplugging and slowing down is getting more and more difficult each day. Amid the chaos, what if you could make more time for self-love and introspection? And what if you could do it in a place where mountain air, gorgeous natural surroundings, and healing session

Experience the complete Ring Road. This is certainly a powerful and comprehensive tour of Iceland, showing off nature in so many spectacular ways! We'll visit the North, the East Fjords, the Southern Coast, and some of the most famous, iconic places to experience Iceland at it’s finest.

Reconnect with yourself and with nature amid white-sand beaches and turquoise waters. This island-hopping retreat lands you in the “soft coral capital of the world” for all the water sports and beachside relaxation you can dream of.

Explore the culinary capital of America and the hidden gem of the Hudson Valley.

Enjoy a fruitful experience as you explore one of America’s greatest cities and wine regions.

Treat yourself to visual and culinary delights in this must-see destination that makes fun a way of life. Here, you’ll observe monks in meditation, make some friends at an elephant sanctuary, and dine under the limestone cliffs of Railay Bay.

Get your thrill on at Paris’ top theme parks and other must-see destinations. You’ll enjoy three adventure-packed days at the parks before diving deeper into France’s art, food, and entertainment alongside an expert local guide.

WHY WORLDSTRIDES?

Founded in 1967, WorldStrides is the global leader in educational travel and experiences. Each year, more than 550,000 travelers of all ages embark on our curated travel experiences. In addition to our Learn by Adventure tours, we offer experiential learning programs in educational travel, performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and sports that allow travelers to see the world—and themselves—in new ways. Visit the WorldStrides website for more information.

We’re there when you need us, and if the unexpected happens, we bring a can-do mindset to get things back on track quickly.

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10 of the Best Virtual Reality Travel Experiences

  With the time and expense required to travel being prohibitive to many, there are alternative ways of indulging your wanderlust – including via the burgeoning world of Virtual Reality.

(Photo: Cubicle Ninjas)

There are a huge number of VR companies all vying to create ever more unique experiences for consumers – and one of the biggest growth categories has been travel. And what better time to get a taste of exploration and adventure from the comfort of your living room, equipped only with a VR headset, than now, when travel is a luxury that many just can’t stretch to? We’ve picked out 10 of the best virtual reality travel experiences currently on the market.

So which VR headset should you go for? Our favourite is the Meta Quest 3, which launched onto the market in mid-2023 and is the successor to the Meta Quest 2. For immersive games and travel experiences, we believe the Meta Quest 3 is destined to become the leading VR headset over the coming years. It’s pretty affordable, too, and unlike other headsets, doesn’t require cords or a computer. You can purchase the Meta Quest 3 at Amazon.com.

Guided Meditation VR

Developed by Cubicle Ninjas, Guided Meditation VR is designed to bring peace, joy, and calm back into your daily life by teaching you ancient meditation practices in a cutting-edge way. It features over 40 lush environments to escape the everyday, 30-plus hours of guided meditations on anxiety, depression, maternity, resilience, sleep and zen, and hundreds of hours of calming musical audio tracks to help enhance your meditation experience. Users can also customise their sessions to their own specific preferences and needs, including the option to switch into Motion mode and gently float through beautiful vistas like you would on a lazy river, leaving the worries of your life behind before returning calmer and stronger.

PRICE £10.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

Be anywhere in the world with anyone, instantly, in this captivating game developed by Wooorld Inc. Visit hundreds of cities, architectural landmarks, natural wonders, and vacation spots in incredible 3D detail, and get tips about the best places to visit, the hidden gems, where to get the best food and all the tourist traps to avoid. You can also create your own 3D avatars with face and body tracking and test your worldly knowledge by guessing where you are after being teleported to 5 random locations, with only the landscape, flora, architecture, and road signs for clues. The game can played as collaboratively as you wish, with options to explore the world with friends and meet new people, or hop into a Solo World without any distractions.

PRICE Free HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

(Photo: Wooorld Inc.)

Blueplanet VR Explore

(Photo: Blueplanet VR Explore)

Highlighting sacred and fragile locations of natural beauty and cultural heritage, Blueplanet VR Explore  is a collection of remarkable places across the world. With freedom to move around and explore, the virtual reality experiences are captured in volumetric 3D with great detail and accuracy. The scenes look and feel like these places do in real life, and enable you to freely move around to enjoy and explore these remarkable, fragile, and priceless environments. Concern for the environment often comes from direct experience, and being as close as we can get to experiencing a sense of actually being there, Blueplanet can help encourage people to appreciate and protect these treasures.

PRICE £18.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

BRINK Traveler

Travel to some of the world’s most amazing natural wonders in fully immersive 3D and feel like you’re really there in this awe-inspiring game by Brink XR. Step into a scene akin to a postcard as you visit a total of 28 (with more on their way) of the most breathtaking places on Earth. In-game highlights include room-scale walkable areas in each destination, a virtual guide and assistant to learn about where you’re visiting, and the chance to shoot photos to share with friends. You can either play the game solo or with friends and family in multiplayer mode.

PRICE £11.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

(Photo: BRINK XR)

National Geographic Explore VR

Created in partnership with National Geographic, a world-leading society in the fields of geography, cartography and exploration, this magical VR experience invites you to discover two of the most iconic locations on Planet Earth. Don your explorer hat and head to Antarctica for an exhilarating expedition. Navigate around icebergs in a kayak, climb a vast ice shelf and survive a snowstorm as you hunt for a lost emperor penguin colony. Visit the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru and get immersed in amazing digital reconstructions of the legendary site. Witness mummy worships, raise a cup of sacred chicha and encounter cute and furry alpacas as you match Hiram Bingham’s photographs from when he rediscovered the citadel. Be sure to take a camera as your best snaps may even make it into the prestigious National Geographic magazine.

PRICE £7.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

(Photo: Force Field Entertainment B.V)

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

Fans of the hugely popular TV blockbuster The Walking Dead can now join the world of zombies in this new VR adventure. Travel through the ruins of New Orleans as you fight, scavenge, and survive, each day unravelling another mystery lurking within the city’s historic quarters. Encounter desperate factions and lone survivors who could be friend or foe. Whether you help others or take what you want by force, every choice you make has consequences. What kind of survivor will you be for the people of NOLA? Scavenge for anything that you can; weapons, food, tools, and clues. Be wary of the living and the dead, with spatial audio drawing attention to any loud noise. Craft makeshift gear out of scrapped material; blades, guns, medicine, and more. Test your morals and make difficult choices for yourself and others. It’s all here, bringing the small screen to life in a big way.

PRICE £29.99 HEADSETS Meta Quest 3

(Photo: Skydance Interactive)

Narrated by award-winning actress Anna Friel, this trail-blazing VR series opens the door to some of the planet’s wildest environments while redefining the limits of 3D-180 cameras. Meet the humans protecting our most precious wildlife, explore the great savannahs of Kenya, discover the ancient jungles of Borneo and dive into the rich coral reefs of Raja Ampat. Encounter elephants, orangutans, manta rays and some incredible humans, all in stunning cinematic footage filmed from the air and deep into the ocean. The series was produced in partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),

(Photo: PHORIA)

The world is your oyster with this interactive, immersive VR experience that’s designed to be played by the whole family. There’s global travel and adventure in which your friends and family can join city tours, hot air balloon rides, back-country road trips, and plenty more. Or you can simply kick back and relax, practice meditation and get back to nature – all in the company of a guide or going solo, if you prefer. Other features include photo sharing, soundtracks, a range of fun games and media customisation.

(Photo: AARP Innovation Labs)

Rome Reborn: The Pantheon

Created by Flyover Zone, an American company specialising in virtual travel applications that present the world’s most important cultural heritage sites and monuments, Rome Reborn is one of five applications that present different areas of ancient Rome. This particular one transports users over the entire ancient city, focussing on the Pantheon, perhaps the best-preserved building from antiquity. In the company of two virtual guides, you’ll get to explore the exterior forecourt and interior sanctuary of the reconstructed complex as you listen and learn about the Pantheon’s design and decoration, as well as the nature of the religious cult once housed within it.

PRICE £3.99 HEADSETS Currently only available on Oculus Rift

(Photo: Flyover Zone Productions)

Monte Fitzroy is Argentina’s most famous mountain landmark and is even used as the logo for outdoor retailer, Patagonia. It is a place that immediately evokes a sense of adventure. At the foot of the mountain is a beautiful and remote glacial lake known as Laguna Sucia. Most people who visit Monte Fitzroy view it from a location that is much easier to access. Laguna Sucia requires a much tougher hard-to-access trail that culminates in one of the most beautiful and remote glacial lakes in existence. You are rewarded with a sense of almost meditative stillness as you approach this untouched natural amphitheatre. This VR experience utilises Pterovision, a 3D technology that integrates computational photography, 360 Video, and gaming and allows you to take off like a bird, fly around the lake, visit the waterfalls along the edge, and fly over glacial formations beneath the mountain peaks. Numerous narrations will tell you about the challenges we faced when filming in this location, as well as educate you about the geology, culture, and history.

PRICE $2.99 HEADSETS Currently only available on Oculus Rift 

(Photo: Specterras Productions)

Gala360 – Travel & Relax

Taking you on awe-inspiring virtual adventures across the globe, Gala360 is the result of the magic touch of an array of exceptionally talented photographers who have captured their globe-trotting trips in all their glory before being rendered into VR form. In professional 6K resolution, more than 300 tours around the world are featured, with some also including narration which allows you to listen to the stories behind the trips. Most of the tours are free, but you can pay a small fee to unlock more.

PRICE Free HEADSETS Currently only available on Oculus Go (soon available on Quest 2)

(Photo: Gala 360)

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Intrepid Worldwide Sale Now On

Tick off bucket list destinations with up to 20%* off selected adventures worldwide with Intrepid. Hurry, sale ends 27 May 2024.

*T&C's apply.

Stay longer and save

RACV Members save up to 40% off* Book by July 1, 2024. *T&C's apply.

Latest offers as advertised

Fly for Free* on Great Southern Packages

Embrace the wonders of Australia's south-east on a rail journey from Brisbane to Adelaide, or reverse.

Book by 30 June 2024 and enjoy free* return flights on selected Great Southern rail packages.

*T&Cs apply. See website for details.

Kimberley Coastal Expedition

Broome to Darwin on board a luxuriously appointed expedition small ship. Includes meals, a wide range of beverages, accommodation and daily excursions.

Plus, save up to 40%* on selected cabin upgrades.

RACV Member price from $13,270*

10 days from $13,895* per person.

*T&Cs apply.

Grand European Tour

Departs Budapest on 16 November 2025 on board Viking Longship Baldur.

Includes meals, select beverages and one complimentary shore excursion at every port.

RACV Member price from $6,195*

15 days from $6,395* per person.

The Ghan Expedition – Darwin to Adelaide

Explore the most captivating and remote parts of Australia. Multiple Off Train Experiences.

All meals, fine wines and beverages included. 

RACV Member price from  $4,076*

4 days from $4,290* per person twin share.

Arnhem Land & Kakadu Explorer with Outback Spirit

Journey through the world’s oldest surviving culture on a small group 4WD adventure.

Kakadu National Park 30-minute scenic flight.

Includes meals, beverages and accommodation.

RACV Member price from $7,358*.

8 days from $7,745* per person.

Revelations of Japan with Oceania Cruises

Departs Tokyo 13 April 2025 onboard Rivierd in a Veranda Stateroom.

Free pre-cruise overnight stay, USD $600 shore excursion credit, gourmet speciality dining, beverages including champagne and wine, unlimited WiFi and more*.

RACV Member price from $12,460*.

12 nights from $12,910* per person.

*T&Cs apply. 

Small Ship Luxury with Oceania Cruises

Set sail with Oceania Cruises and enjoy:

• FREE shore excursion credit*
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• FREE pre-cruise hotel^ on selected sailings.

^Offer ends 31 May 2024.

New Zealand with Grand Pacific Tours

Explore New Zealand by coach with Grand Pacific Tours on their luxurious Ultimate small group tours, boasting a Business Class level of comfort (max 20 guests), and Signature Mid-Size group tours for those after Premium Economy comfort (max 32 guests).

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Britain & Ireland in Depth with GLOBUS

Explore England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Special departure 5 August 2025. More dates available.

RACV Member price from $11,419 *.

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Princess Cruises On Sale Now.

For a limited time, save up to 40%* off launch fares. Upgrade to Princess Plus and get Wi-Fi, drinks, room service and more included, plus up to $600* onboard spending money per stateroom. 

RACV Members save more. Hurry, sale ends 13 June 2024.

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Delta’s award-winning Fly Delta App is getting a major upgrade just in time for summer travel. Introducing Fly Delta 6.0, the most comprehensive update to the app since 2019—packed with improvements that help customers save time, explore new destinations and manage their travel even when the unexpected happens. 

Available today†, the latest update to the app includes a slate of new and updated features, functionality and experiences that reimagine how customers can engage with Delta. This includes an all-new Help Center view, always-available access to boarding information and connectivity to our Virtual Assistant. And quickly following in early summer, customers will also soon be able to utilize their Delta SkyMiles credentials from their Fly Delta App to seamlessly connect to Delta Sync Wi-Fi onboard. 

“The Fly Delta app connects customers to the full Delta experience, from inspiring travel and navigating a trip to seamlessly accessing exclusive partner experiences and content,” said Eric Phillips, S.V.P. and Chief Digital Officer. “This 6.0 update brings the Delta difference to customers no matter where they are on their journey.” 

From home to destination, on average 85% of Delta SkyMiles Members rely on the industry-leading Fly Delta app when traveling. With more than one billion unique app engagements in 2023, the updates coming to Fly Delta have an opportunity to create more meaningful, connected and elevated moments as customers embark on summer travel plans.  

Read on for more information on the highlights customers can expect in the weeks and months ahead. 

Plan your next trip with Explore 

Use the all-new Explore page in the app to gain inspiration, plan and book your next trip on Delta with ease. The highly personalized experience is connected with Delta’s integrated digital ecosystem, remembering your recent experiences and highlighting places to explore next.   

Everything where it should be with refreshed, easy-to-use navigation 

Browse the app with ease through a streamlined navigation ribbon that better reflects how customers engage with the app today. The new My Trips tab brings relevant, upcoming trip information into a standalone view, mirroring how customers navigate the delta.com homepage.  

Coming soon: Log in to Delta Sync Wi-Fi directly from Fly Delta 

Customers connecting to Delta Sync Wi-Fi using a personal device with Fly Delta installed can log in after connecting to the “DeltaWifi.com” wireless network onboard. Simply tap to log in using your Fly Delta app credentials and seamlessly access fast, free Wi-Fi connectivity on available routes. This feature will rollout beginning early this summer. 

Delta Sync Wi-Fi continues to roll out in 2024 with the vast majority of Delta customers expected to have access to fast, free connectivity by the end of the year.  

Always-available boarding pass sticks with you  

Customers navigating their day of travel can now use new boarding pass functionality that keeps boarding information readily available and just a tap away, even as customers move around to other screens in the app. Check an upcoming flight, plan a bucket-list trip, access in-app wayfinding and more without losing touch with your boarding pass. 

Manage the unexpected with new Help Center view 

The updated app brings simplicity to the unexpected with an all-new Help Center view. During moments where travel on Delta flights is disrupted, customers will be prompted with a simplified view of the actions required to continue their journey.  

“Every customer engagement is an opportunity for us to show them how Delta is different in moments when customers need us most,” said Phillips. “The Help Center view provides a way to connect with customers directly when travel is disrupted and gives them even more choice over their travel experience.”  

Through the Help Center, customers can select and manage Delta flight options, track baggage and more in one dynamic page. In one tap, connect with Virtual Assistant directly from the app for follow up questions or needs. Even better, the view now reflects more of the information Delta Reservations specialists see when assisting customers who contact Delta by phone or messaging. 

And more is on the way this year 

Delta teams are constantly listening to customer and employee feedback and finding ways to continue engaging through the app experience. Watch this space—more updates are on the way in summer 2024. 

† Available on demand for all customers via iOS App Store and Google Play beginning May 7. Customers with background updates enabled will receive an automatic update directly to their device on a metered, rolling basis following launch.   

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2024 Summer Release: Airbnb introduces Icons—extraordinary experiences from the world’s greatest icons

Plus new features that make planning group trips easier than ever

Airbnb is introducing Icons, a new category of extraordinary experiences hosted by the greatest names in music, film, television, art, sports, and more. Icons let you step into worlds you’ve only ever dreamed of. Drift off in the Up house. Spend the night in the Ferrari Museum. Hang out with Kevin Hart. Today, we’re unveiling the first 11 Icons on Airbnb, with new experiences dropping around the world throughout the year.

“Icons take you inside worlds that only existed in your imagination—until now,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and CEO. “As life becomes increasingly digital, we’re focused on bringing more magic into the real world. With Icons, we’ve created the most extraordinary experiences on Earth.”

Here are the first 11 Icons we are unveiling:

• Drift off in the Up house – Sleep inside one of Disney and Pixar’s most iconic homes—and yes, it floats. You’ll explore Carl’s world in this detailed re-creation of his home, complete with more than 8,000 balloons, and located in the scenic red rocks of Abiquiu, New Mexico.
• Spend the night in the Ferrari Museum – Immerse yourself in the world of racing with a stay at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy. You’ll sleep on a bed crafted from the same leather as Ferrari seats, take a lap with Scuderia Ferrari ambassador driver Marc Gené, and head to Emilia-Romagna’s premier race as a VIP. 
• Step into X-Men ‘97 – Live like the X-Men as you stay in a 2D animated re-creation of Marvel Animation’s X-Mansion in Westchester, New York. You’ll discover your mutant abilities and even train in the Danger Room. 
• Go VIP with Kevin Hart – Kevin Hart is taking you inside his members-only Coramino Live Lounge for an A-list evening. You’ll join Kevin and his friends in this secret speakeasy, where they’ll treat you to a tequila tasting and live stand-up by the best comedians in the game.
• Wake up in the Musée d’Orsay – Stay in the Paris art museum’s iconic clock room, which has been transformed into a luxurious bedroom by Mathieu Lehanneur, designer of the Paris 2024 Games torch and cauldron. From the terrace, you’ll witness the historic Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games along the River Seine.
• Join a living room session with Doja Cat -Fresh off a tour performing on the world’s biggest stages, Doja is hosting you for a much more intimate experience. You’ll enjoy an unforgettable living room performance from the Grammy-winning artist, including her favourite songs and tracks from her latest album.
• Stay in Prince’s Purple Rain house – Prince purchased the Minneapolis, Minnesota home featured in the legendary film Purple Rain, but it’s never been available to the public until now. Explore the home and go crazy for rare and special tracks from Prince’s world in an exclusive studio session.
• Game with Khaby Lame – TikTok sensation Khaby Lame invites you to his hometown of Milan, Italy for an epic, overnight gaming experience. You’ll stay in a one-of-a-kind gaming loft that Khaby designed himself, where you’ll #learnfromkhaby and face off with him in a Fortnite Battle Royale. 
• Go on tour with Feid – Join the reggaeton superstar on his FERXXOCALIPSIS World Tour for an entire week. You’ll join the crew for rehearsals, ride along on the tour bus, and get backstage access for every show.
• Live like Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor – Janhvi Kapoor is inviting you into the legendary, never-before-seen Kapoor family home in Chennai, India. From learning her Bollywood beauty secrets to tasting her favourite southern Indian dishes, Janhvi will host you personally on this ultimate overnight stay.
• Make core memories with Inside Out 2 – In anticipation of the June 14 release of Disney and Pixar’s new movie Inside Out 2, you’re invited to an overnight stay at Headquarters, the control centre of Riley’s emotions. Your host, Joy, will welcome you into her vibrant world to witness the emotions in action and help keep things in balance. 

Icons are featured in their own category right on the homepage. Most Icons are free, and all are priced under $100 USD per guest. A countdown displays the time until each Icon goes live, and guests can request to book through the app. The lucky guests who are selected will receive a digital golden ticket, and more than 4,000 tickets will be available in 2024 1 . 

New features for group trips

More than 80% of bookings on Airbnb are group trips, but the app wasn’t designed for groups. That’s why we’re introducing new features that make planning group trips easier than ever:

Shared wishlists

You can now easily share your wishlists with others on your trip, inviting them to add homes, write notes and vote on listings. When you share listings with others, the app creates a wishlist with these homes.

New Messages tab

A redesigned Messages tab now allows everyone on a trip to message with the host in a group thread. The simplified design consolidates all guest, host, and customer support messages in one place, making it easy to search across messages. Reactions allow guests and hosts to respond with emojis, and AI-suggested quick replies help hosts instantly answer common questions.

Trip invitations

Once you book a trip, you can invite others to join you with digital postcards of your destination, illustrated by artists from around the world. Everyone joining the trip will get all reservation details including the full address, Wi-Fi password, and check-in instructions.

Upgrades for Hosts

The 2024 Summer Release also includes upgrades for hosts based on their feedback. We’ve expanded the earnings dashboard with interactive performance charts and automated earnings reports. Our updated Listings tab gives hosts more control when creating and editing a photo tour to showcase their space. We’ve also added a simple way to quickly switch between the guest and host sides of the app.

Worldwide rollout starting today

Icons and new features for group trips are available starting today. Upgrades for hosts are available today by enrolling in Airbnb Early Access in the app.

For more information on the the latest upgrades, please visit  www.airbnb.com/release , and  check out all of the 2024 Summer Release highlights .

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Travel | indianapolis 500 is a bucket-list experience, even for those who aren’t racing fans.

Coming up on its 108th running, the iconic race is the largest single-day sporting event in the world, attracting upward of 330,000 attendees to the massive motorsports landmark.

Regardless of whether you’re a racing fan, the Indianapolis 500 is an event that everyone should put on their bucket list to attend at least once.

The race itself takes place the last Sunday in May, but residents turn up throughout the entire month for near-daily practice sessions and events leading up to the grand finale.

And for six hours on May 26, the speedway effectively transforms into a city within the city. If you’ve never been, it’s hard to grasp just how big this place really is. Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the White House, Vatican City and the Taj Mahal could all fit comfortably inside the 2½-mile oval track with room to spare. Did we mention there’s an 18-hole golf course on the 253-acre grounds?

For drivers and fans, the event is the crown jewel of the NTT IndyCar Series racing season. Since the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911, enthusiasts from around the world have made bucket-list pilgrimages to Indy. The race reaches a global viewing audience of millions across 140 countries.

“It’s a generational event,” said speedway President Doug Boles. “At some point during the Indy 500’s life, it became this thing where a granddad brought his son, who brought his son, and it just kept going. Seventy percent of our fans don’t watch another race the rest of the year.”

What is it that inspires that kind of loyalty? For diehards, it’s the pageantry, the time-honored traditions and the nostalgia those yearly trips to the track evoke.

Retired flight attendant Theresa Davis grew up about 2 miles from the speedway’s main entrance at 16th Street and Georgetown Road and has proudly attended 46 Indianapolis 500 runnings, her first in 1973 at age 7.

“My earliest Indy 500 memories are of race-related activities in elementary school,” she said. “We sang race songs and made race cars out of Circus Peanuts, and we’d go around the room telling the class who our favorite driver was and why.”

The 100-plus decibel whine of IndyCar engines lures locals to the speedway like moths to a flame, and not just on race day. Throughout May, when the weather’s nice, you’ll find folks grabbing “track pack” boxes of fried chicken from nearby supermarkets and playing hooky from work or school to catch a practice session.

But Carb(uretor) Day — the Friday before the 500 — is when things really start to amp up. Named for a now-defunct race car part, it’s the drivers’ last opportunity to squeeze in a few final laps before the big show, and a chance for team crews to strut their stuff during a pit-stop speed competition.

For fans, it’s an excellent excuse to day drink, winding down with a concert by a classic rock group such as Journey or Foreigner. This year’s shared bill: George Thorogood and the Gin Blossoms.

The Indianapolis 500 itself is, of course, the centerpiece of the Memorial Day weekend schedule. Sleepy fans — some having camped in designated lots since Thursday — start streaming in as soon as a traditional cannon blast announces the opening of the gates at 6 a.m. Sunday. People know to arrive as early as possible.

Whether you’re a devotee or just along for the ride, the people-watching opportunities as well as the pomp and the ceremony leading up to the 12:45 p.m. start are well worth the $85-$145 price of admission . Wave after wave of convertibles parade on the track to honor veterans, service members, first responders and celebrities. The anticipation builds until the roaring crowd quiets to pin-drop silence for the national anthem, followed by a thunderous military jet flyover that leaves only the most stoic visitors dry-eyed.

“I cry like a baby every year during the traditional singing of ‘Back Home Again in Indiana’,” Davis said. “Most of my adult life has been lived away from Indy, so that song really gets me. It hits home.”

Then, the famous “Drivers, start your engines!” announcement whips the masses into a near frenzy as the cars fire up and take several warm-up laps. The pace car pulls off the track and the green flag flies to signify the race is on. What comes next are three hours of 230-mph adrenaline as 33 drivers vie to add their name to the Borg-Warner Trophy, joining an illustrious roster that includes A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan.

Although quirky traditions such as chugging a bottle of milk in the winner’s circle and kissing the yard of bricks that marks the start/finish line carry over year to year, never knowing exactly what might happen on the track and who might walk away a champion makes every race a fresh experience.

Since buying the speedway in 2020, former driver and team owner Roger Penske has dropped nearly $60 million on upgrades to renovate restrooms, add video screens, and install modern AI technology to monitor entrance gate traffic and improve safety. The result is a surprisingly seamless visitor experience that runs like, well, an enormous well-oiled machine.

“Our biggest challenge is how do you honor what makes the Indy 500 special, which is so much of the history and tradition, but at the same time give it the appeal that’s going to attract the next generation of fans?” Boles said.

For one thing, you add in the Snake Pit, a flashy EDM concert inside the track at Turn 3 while the race is going on, attracting a new demographic of 25,000 young adults just looking to dance and party.

By the time the checkered flag drops and the winning driver zooms across the finish line, everyone’s on their feet, screaming themselves hoarse and high-fiving anyone within reachable distance.

And if you want to take a breather from racing, Memorial Day weekend marks the perfect occasion to visit the city’s stunning military monuments, markers and memorials, the largest collection in the country outside Washington, D.C.

THE LUME at Newfields, the city’s major art venue, offers an immersive “Dali Alive” exhibit that bathes guests in 30,000 square feet of surreal moving images set to music. Nearby, the recently opened RH Indianapolis at the DeHaan Estate offers high-end shopping and dining in one of the city’s most storied properties.

White River State Park boasts a scenic downtown canal, the Indiana State Museum and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, along with the Indianapolis Zoo and the NCAA Hall of Champions — all walkable for a wide-ranging, one-stop visitor experience. And as the largest facility of its kind in the world, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis holds 11 major galleries across four floors anchored by a soaring Chihuly glass tower.

The Mass Ave and Fountain Square cultural districts maintain a wealth of trendy shops, eclectic restaurants and funky music venues. Fuel up with a dressy dinner at one of Indy’s signature steak houses. St. Elmo, Prime 47, Hyde Park and Tony’s are all reliably good bets and great spots to catch a glimpse of drivers and celebrities in town for the race.

Here are some Indianapolis 500 tips for first-time visitors. If possible, tag along with someone who’s been to the race before and can act as your guide.

Traffic in and out of the speedway can take several hours. Map out a parking plan ahead of time and pack your patience. Insider tip: Pay to park in a neighborhood resident’s front yard and walk in from there. Bikes, ride-shares and shuttle services are also options.

What to wear? Bikinis, tank tops, T-shirts, sundresses, cut-offs — anything goes when it comes to 500 fashion, especially if it’s black and white; or red, white and blue.

Don’t forget the sunscreen. Many bleacher seats remain in full sun all day.

IndyCars are loud. Earplugs or headphones are a good idea, particularly for younger or older visitors.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a cashless facility; you’ll need a card to buy food, drinks or merchandise.

Coolers are permitted if you prefer to tote in your own snacks and beer, as many fans do.

Amy Lynch is a freelancer.

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Emirates recognised for excellence with nine wins at the 2024 Business Traveller Awards, World Travel Awards and International Loyalty Awards 2024

DUBAI, UAE, 9 May 2024:  Emirates took home top honours at the Business Travel Middle East Awards (BTME), World Travel Awards (WTA) 2024, and International Loyalty Awards 2024, a testament to its ongoing investments and initiatives to provide customers with the best-in-industry travel experiences, in the air and on the ground.

The prestigious travel awards ceremonies were held on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai this week and attended by industry leaders and professionals from across the world participating in the region’s biggest travel trade event.

Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2024

Emirates was named ‘Best Airline Worldwide’ at the Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2024 and scooped up four additional gongs for: ‘Airline with the Best Premium Economy Class’; ‘Airline with the Best First Class’; ‘Best Airport Lounge in the Middle East’; and ‘Airline with the Best Frequent Flyer Programme’.

Adil Al Ghaith, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Gulf, Middle East and Central Asia, and Dr Nejib Ben Khedher, Divisional Senior Vice President, Skywards, received the awards on behalf of the airline.

World Travel Awards 2024

At the World Travel Awards, Emirates took home top accolades for: ‘Middle East’s Leading Airline 2024’; ‘Middle East's Leading Airline - First Class 2024’; and Middle East’s Leading Airline Rewards Programme 2024 – Skywards.

International Loyalty Awards 2024

Emirates Skywards also won “Global Loyalty Programme of the Year Middle East” at the International Loyalty Awards 2024 – one of the most significant and prestigious awards within the industry. With more than 30 million members worldwide – Emirates Skywards continues to be one of the most valued and recognised loyalty programmes in the world.  

Over the years, Emirates has earned a reputation for providing world class products and services to customers across all classes of travel, both onboard and on the ground.  In just the past year, the airline had introduced a slew of product enhancements, notably the introduction of complimentary loungewear and meal pre-ordering for Business Class travellers, the re-opening of 8 dedicated Emirates Lounges around the world after a full facility refresh, and the roll-out of 16 more A380s offering the latest cabin interiors after a nose-to-tail retrofit.

This week at ATM, Emirates announced it will add 71 A380s and Boeing 777s to its multi-billion dollar retrofit programme, expanding it to 191 aircraft, nearly its entire passenger fleet, to ensure Emirates customers continue to “fly better” for years to come. 

The airline will offer its popular Premium Economy product to customers in 42 cities by February 2025 as the first batch of A350 aircraft join its fleet from September, in addition to newly retrofitted aircraft equipped with Premium Economy re-entering service.

More Information

About emirates.

The Emirates story started in 1985 when we launched operations with just two aircraft. Today, we fly the world’s biggest fleets of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s, offering our customers the comforts of the latest and most efficient wide-body aircraft in the skies.

We inspire travelers around the world with our growing network of worldwide destinations, industry leading inflight entertainment, regionally inspired cuisine, and world-class service.

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ATM 2024: PIF-backed Riyadh Air and Saudi Tourism Authority partner to enhance travel experience for passengers

Both entities will collaborate on initiatives to enhance the level of service for tourists

Dubai: Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia's new airline and Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at Dubai's Arabian Travel Market (ATM), that will enhance the travel experience for passengers to and from Saudi Arabia.

The airline, owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), aims to fly to over 100 countries by 2030, and through this partnership, both entities will collaborate on various initiatives to enhance the level of service for tourists.

STA CEO Fhad Hamidaddin said, "Increasing Saudi Arabia's connectivity with the world is a crucial pillar of our tourism strategy. It will ensure we sustain our rapid growth and meet our new ambitious target of 150 million visits by 2030."

"We are currently connected to over 180 destinations and aim to triple annual passenger traffic to 330 million by 2030, and this new agreement will help turbocharge these efforts," Hamidaddin added.

Commenting on the partnership, Tony Douglas, Riyadh Air CEO, said: "This is another momentous day in the history of Riyadh Air. Working alongside the STA to elevate the travel experience for our guests and those visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signifies what we're all about. We are elevating standards across the board in aviation to previously unseen levels. We have a shared commitment to travel and tourism in the Kingdom along with our forward-thinking approach to innovation, sustainability, and the satisfaction of our guests."

The partnership will focus on several key areas:

• Riyadh Air and the STA will jointly announce new routes and destinations to raise global awareness among travellers.
• Both will promote Saudi Arabia and any new destinations with an aligned strategy to attract and inform guests worldwide. Riyadh Air is expected to contribute to KSA's non-oil GDP growth by $20 billion while directly and indirectly creating over 200,000 new jobs globally and locally.
• Riyadh Air and the STA engage in sponsorship opportunities, enabling both parties to leverage each other's networks and resources.
• Working in unison, Riyadh Air and the STA will ensure a notable presence at key industry trade shows and major international events in the travel and tourism sector.
• The MoU will ensure accessibility to tourism-related platforms such as the Sustainable Tourism Observatories in Cities (STOCH) to keep both parties visible and accessible to tourists and guests year-round.
• Guests will benefit from collaboration between Riyadh Air and the STA thanks to joint benefits with their respective loyalty programs.
• Collaboration on payment solutions will simplify airline booking processes, enhancing the overall booking experience for Riyadh Air guests and tourists coming to Saudi Arabia.
• Riyadh Air and the STA will be active in the Tourism Accelerator Programme, driving innovation, growth and sustainability within the tourism sector. Riyadh Air also plays a crucial role in contributing to Saudi Arabia's broader economic diversification and job creation toward realising Vision 2030 goals.
• As globally recognisable entities, both will work in unison to develop and produce various travel and tourism products that enhance travellers' overall experience.
• As part of the agreement, Riyadh Air and the STA will gather invaluable feedback and information from travellers to improve services and the overall experience where necessary.

Riyadh Air recently celebrated its first anniversary, signing major agreements and partnerships with global partners as it continues to prepare for its maiden flight in mid-2025.

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CIA director may travel to Israel for more cease-fire and hostage negotiations

CIA Director William Burns may travel to Israel for more cease-fire and hostage release talks after holding discussions on Sunday in the Qatari capital, Doha, a source with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

Burns, whose schedule remained fluid amid uncertainty over the outcome of the talks, has emerged as a key figure in the negotiations. The CIA director had previously been in Cairo, where Hamas stated that cease-fire discussions concluded Sunday following “in-depth and serious discussions.”

The militant group reiterated key demands that Israel again rejected. After earlier signs of progress, the outlook appeared to dim as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  vowed to resist international pressure to halt the war.

Israel closed its main crossing point for  delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza  after Hamas attacked it. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Hamas wasn’t serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of  Gaza .”

Early Monday, the Israeli military urged civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate. The southernmost Gaza city, on the border with Egypt, is where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents now seek shelter from Israeli attacks.

Follow live updates here.

Israel didn’t send a delegation to the talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar. Egyptian state media reported that the Hamas delegation went for discussions in Qatar, where the group has a political office, and will return to Cairo for further negotiations on Tuesday.

A senior Arab negotiator directly involved in the talks with Israel and the United States said that the negotiations are not over and have not collapsed.

Separately, an Israeli official said that Burns' presence in the region was an indication that there are still ongoing discussions. Burns was in the Qatari capital Doha for talks on the subject yesterday.

However, another threat to talks came as Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s  Al Jazeera satellite news network to close , accusing it of broadcasting anti-Israel incitement. The ban did not appear to affect the channel’s operations in Gaza or the West Bank.

Netanyahu, under pressure from hard-liners in his government, continued to lower expectations for a cease-fire deal, calling the key Hamas demands “extreme” — including the withdrawal of Israel forces from Gaza and an end to the war. That would equal surrender after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the fighting, he said.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement earlier that the militant group was serious and positive about the negotiations and that stopping Israeli aggression in Gaza is the main priority.

But Israel’s government again vowed to press on with a military operation in Rafah, a key entry point for aid.

Kerem Shalom , now closed, is another. The Israeli military reported 10 projectiles were launched at the crossing in southern Israel and said its fighter jets later struck the source. Hamas said it had been targeting Israeli soldiers in the area. Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel said 10 people were wounded, three seriously. It was unclear how long the crossing would be closed.

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, called for an independent investigation and “accountability for the blatant disregard of humanitarian workers.” He also said Israel this week denied him entry to Gaza for a second time.

The closing of Kerem Shalom came shortly after the head of the U.N. World Food Program asserted there was a  “full-blown famine”  in devastated northern Gaza, one of the most prominent warnings yet about the toll of restrictions on food and other aid entering the territory. The comments were not a formal famine declaration.

In expanded remarks as the full NBC News interview was released Sunday, WFP chief Cindy McCain said famine was “moving its way south” in Gaza and that Israel’s efforts to allow in more aid were not enough. “We need more ability to be able to get more trucks in,” she said. “We have right now a mass on the outside border, about enough trucks and enough food for 1.1 million people for about three months. We need to get that in.”

Gaza’s vast humanitarian needs put further pressure on the pursuit of a  cease-fire . The proposal that Egyptian mediators had put to Hamas sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack, and it would include some sort of Israeli pullout. The initial stage would last for 40 days. Hamas would start by releasing female civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel has shown willingness to make concessions but said it “will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.” That includes the stated aim of crushing Hamas. Israel says it must target Rafah to strike remaining fighters there despite  warnings from the U.S.  and others about the danger to civilians.

An Israeli strike Sunday on the al-Attar family house in an urban refugee camp near Rafah killed four children, including a baby, and two adults, according to Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.

In a fiery speech for Israel’s annual  Holocaust memorial day , Netanyahu added: “I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself. If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

The Hamas cross-border attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people, and 250 others were taken hostage. Israel says militants  still hold around 100 hostages  and the remains of more than 30 others. Netanyahu is under growing pressure from some hostages’ families to make a deal to end the war and get hostages freed.

Israeli’s air and ground offensive has killed over 34,500 people, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but say women and children make up a majority of those killed.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, accusing it of embedding in residential and public areas. The Israeli military says it has killed 13,000 militants, without providing evidence to back up the claim.

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

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A Former ‘Green Book’ Hotel in North Carolina Has Been Lovingly Restored — And You Can Still Stay There

The Historic Magnolia House honors its past as a Green Book hotel while offering thoughtfully appointed rooms and delectable Southern food.

Food and Drink

Experiences and amenities, accessibility.

Byron Cain/Waterfall Associates

The Historic Magnolia House isn't just any ordinary bed-and-breakfast.

This Victorian-Italianate home dates back to 1898, but its vital role in Black history started in 1949 when the Gist family purchased the abode and turned it into a hotel that would welcome Black travelers. One of the few options with quality accommodations between Atlanta and Richmond, Virginia, during segregation, the property would become recognized in six editions of the Green Book starting in 1955.

Now, the Historic Magnolia House is one of America's last fully restored hotels of its kind.

In the decades following the Jim Crow era, the home began to slowly fall to the wayside. Samuel Penn Pass, who grew up in the neighborhood just around the corner, purchased the property in 1995 hoping to return it to its former glory. "However, it was in very bad condition," recalls Pass's daughter, Natalie Pass-Miller. "Squatters and the homeless community had taken over the home," she adds. The house had to be gutted to be stabilized and secured. By the time Pass-Miller and her husband, Devin Miller, acquired the Historic Magnolia House in 2018, there were still some necessary touches that needed to be made before it could be re-opened as a functioning B&B once more.

In January 2022, the Historic Magnolia House finally made its grand return. For Pass-Miller, carrying on her family's legacy was undoubtedly a driving force when it came to taking on this exceptional project, but it's almost much more than that. "Preserving Black historic sites, reuniting them in their communities on a national level, . . . and being able to give back to the [low-income] community that [she] grew up in" were also significant factors. Ultimately, it's this fervor for conservation and local betterment that reverberates through the walls of the Historic Magnolia House.

Historic Magnolia House

• Events throughout the year honor Black musicians, bring together the community and offer guests the opportunity to interact with locals.
• The food here is comforting, delicious, and soulful — Southern cooking at its best.
• The four bold and colorful rooms have been individually designed to pay homage to famous past guests.

The passion is palpable from the moment you step foot into the hotel. The staff's genuine desire to welcome all guests creates this sense of warmth that can only be likened to how one would feel in a fond, familiar place. Color-blocked interiors are reminiscent of a quirky but loving aunt or grandmother's home, a comforting feeling that's only heightened when the smell of butter and spices wafts out from the kitchen. Meanwhile, the museum-like living room is a reminder of the fight for basic civil rights for Black Americans while also honoring the fortitude of the Black community and the hotel's former proprietors. The Historic Magnolia House is not just any B&B — it's a home, it's a national treasure.

Read on for our full review.

Swathed in striking colors with various textures and midcentury modern accents, the four rooms at the Historic Magnolia House each have their own personality and have been dedicated to the property's past venerable visitors.

The chic black-and-white Baldwin room is a tribute to writers and intellectuals such as James Baldwin and Carter G. Woodson and features a vintage Smith-Corona typewriter on the desk. In Legends, a more “masculine” touch of plaid wallpaper, leather throw pillows, dark wood, and overt adornments like boxing gloves and baseball mitts remember athletes like heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles and baseball icon Jackie Robinson. Contrastingly, Carlotta's hot pink décor honors Queens of Soul Tina Turner, Lena Horne, and Gladys Knight while also nodding to Greensboro's erstwhile Carlotta Club, an important music venue that was part of the Chitlin' Circuit.

Then, there's Kind of Blue, inspired by Miles Davis' album of the same name, which is an homage to the friendship between the musician and Buddy Gist, the son of the hotel's original owners. The largest of the four, the cobalt-hued room is the only option with a private bathroom and shower. In keeping with an authentic Green Book hotel experience, the other three accommodations have access to shared bathrooms like guests would have during the Jim Crow era.

As expected with any B&B, breakfast is included, and this is one worth staying for.

A force to be reckoned with, Brooklyn-born Yancey Williams served as a combat Navy cook and later graduated top of his class from the Institute of Culinary Education. During the pandemic, the chef found his way down to North Carolina, where he ran the kitchen at UNC Greensboro before becoming a one-man crew at the Historic Magnolia House. The menu changes seasonally, but expect Southern classics like fried green tomatoes, chicken and waffles, and buttery grits.

If you stay on a Friday, hop down for supper and order the oxtail. Braised for six hours, the meat is so ridiculously tender that if a strong gust of wind found its way through the dining room, it'd likely fall right off the bone. A small selection of spirits, cocktails, and wine are also available to wash it all down. But one word of advice: portions are generous, so come with a healthy appetite and perhaps some stretchy pants.

Given the legendary musicians who have walked through the doors of the Historic Magnolia House, it is no surprise that music is at the core of the property's programming. "Because there is such a rich history as it relates to the musical arts . . . it was only right to establish a program in honor of such," says Pass-Miller. "Juke Joint [is tailored] toward the Black history and Black excellence in music and the culture of the arts."

Every Friday night, live jazz performed by members of the UNCG band floats through the home. A local DJ headlines a near-monthly party with house music. But watch for marquee events throughout the year, ranging from tribute concerts to art showcases.

Otherwise, relax in the lounge with a tipple and some board games, enjoy friendly conversation with other guests, or get to know the staff, who all have interesting stories. But you can't leave without exploring the museum-like first floor, where you'll find several informational placards centered around the hotel's history, excerpts from the Green Book , and even the original motel sign above the reception desk.

Due to the property's historic nature, the B&B does not offer ADA-compliant accommodations. All four rooms are located on the home's second floor, which is only accessible by stairs.

While you're in Greensboro, take the opportunity to brush up on history. On Feb. 1, 1960, four North Carolina A&T State University students sat down at Woolworth's, a whites-only lunch counter, marking the beginning of non-violent protests known as sit-ins. Today, that landmark is now the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, commemorating the site and participants of the historic moment, along with many other significant events during the Civil Rights Movement.

For American Revolution buffs, the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park was the scene for the historic namesake battle in 1781 that, while it was a loss on paper, ultimately led to pushing the British out of the Carolinas.

If you're interested in the arts, the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts hosts everything from Broadway productions to comedy shows, while downtown Greensboro, just a couple minutes from the Historic Magnolia House, is decorated with murals for public enjoyment.

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