The Top 50 Places In The World In 2021

What’s on your travel bucket list? If you’re like most people, it has been growing in size throughout the pandemic. “A year of travel bans has only fueled our wanderlust: thoughts of Angkor Wat, Banff National Park and the Great Barrier Reef are more enticing than ever,” says Amelia Selby, a spokesperson for Unforgettable Travel, a U.K.-based luxury travel planning company. So with travel starting to open up again, the team at Unforgettable Travel analyzed global search data to come up with the world’s top 50 bucket list trips that people are wanting to experience the most.

The list includes some of the most beautiful places on earth—and some of the most dramatic ones, too. Coming in at the top of the list as the most searched for bucket list travel experience is the tallest building in the world: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. “Being able to host up to 35,000 people at once, the world’s tallest freestanding structure is often referred to as a Vertical City,” writes Unforgettable Travel. “And with 10,000 searches a month for ‘Burj Khalifa tickets,’ people are certainly keen to explore its 160 stories.”

The great outdoors also features heavily on the list. There are six epic hikes in the top 50, including Everest Base Camp, Machu Picchu, Mount Kilimanjaro, Arizona’s Havasu Falls, Trolltunga in Norway and South Africa’s Table Mountain. The list also includes more laidback—but equally thrilling—ways to experience nature’s grandeur, from cruising down the Nile to soaring over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter.

Road trips are also popular bucket list journeys and two of America best drives make the cut, including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Route 66.

The country with the most bucket list travel experiences? Europe, which takes 38% of the spots on the list, with experiences ranging from art and history to adventure and even partying. North America also features prominently, with 24% of the experiences on the list. The top in the U.S. is also the second most popular bucket list travel experience in the world: Sailing New York’s Statue of Liberty.

Read on for the full list of the top 50 bucket list experiences in the world. You can see more info about the list—including breakouts by region—and read about the methodology here.

The Top 50 Travel Bucket List Experiences

1. Visit the tallest tower in the world, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai
2. Sail around New York’s green lady, the Statue of Liberty
3. Trek to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal
4. Cruise down Egypt’s famous river, the Nile
5. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
6. Experience the madness of the Las Vegas Strip
7. Cross the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
8. Enjoy beautiful views of New York from the top of the Empire State Building
9. Admire art at the Louvre Museum in Paris
10. Experience the wonder of Rome’s Colosseum
11. Witness America’s monumental crater, the Grand Canyon, from a helicopter
12. Take an American road trip down the famous Route 66
13. Enjoy the electric atmosphere at Glastonbury Festival
14. Experience California’s famous music festival Coachella
15. Live it up in the famous clubbing hotspot of Ibiza
16. Ride the famous Orient Express
17. Appreciate the gothic architecture of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia
18. Marvel at the beauty of the Taj Mahal in India
19. Hike to the top of Machu Picchu in Peru
20. Explore the world’s largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef
21. Visit untouched Antarctica
22. Enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms in Japan
23. See unique, biodiverse wildlife in the Galapagos Islands
24. Visit the Queen’s residence, Buckingham Palace in London
25. Cruise through the breathtaking Norwegian Fjords
26. Climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in South Africa
27. Experience the spectacle of the famous Niagara Falls
28. Visit China’s 600-year-old palace complex, the Forbidden City
29. Experience the incredible biodiversity of Costa Rica
30. Camp in the breathtaking Banff National Park in Canada
31. Watch a show at Sydney Opera House in Australia
32. Run through the streets in the London Marathon
33. Go diving in the Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia
34. Learn about the history of Pompeii in Italy
35. Ride the train to the top of glacier-capped Jungfraujoch in Switzerland
36. Watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat in Cambodia
37. Visit the romantic Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany
38. Marvel at the massive sculptures at Mount Rushmore
39. Witness the breathtaking Northern Lights in Iceland
40. Marvel at the beauty of the Sistine Chapel in Rome
41. Hike to the top of Havasu Falls in Arizona and enjoy the blue-green water
42. Float in the Dead Sea in Jordan
43. Hike up and stand on Norway’s awe-inspiring cliff, Trolltunga
44. Marvel at the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in the UK
45. Go to the top of Kuala Lumpur’s twin skyscrapers, Petronas Towers
46. Hike to the top of Table Mountain in South Africa and take in the views
47. Explore Venice’s famous canals on a gondola
48. Learn about the Mayan people on a tour of Chichen Itza, Mexico
49. Visit the lush rolling hills of The Shire at Hobbiton in New Zealand
50. Explore the UNESCO villages of Cinque Terre in Italy

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