That's what Budget Travel is asking its readers before publishing their own list. You can have your say here. I find it interesting that they've asked their readers to submit travel wish lists before releasing their own. Last year, the New York Times travel section came out with a controversial list of 53 places you should should go that received hundreds of comments and provoked some rather passionate debate. If anything, what the overwhelming response from NYT readers demonstrated was that when you get it wrong travellers aren't going to hesitate to let you know. Perhaps Budget Travel is thinking it's better to play it safe and gauge trends first. Or perhaps the editorial team can't agree themselves. What do you think?
The image? Morocco naturally, a perennially popular destination with travellers, and with a number of fascinating cities that still aren't on the mass tourism travel radar yet - I'm surprised we're not seeing those on any wish lists.
We all love a good list, don't we? The travel media have been busy publishing their 'places to go in 2009' lists, the hot 'new' destinations that guidebook publishers and travel publications think you should visit this year, 'it' places they want everyone talking about. Last year I posted a list based on places I'd been that I believed more travellers should visit and it included: Syria, Buenos Aires, Morocco (by road), Western Australia, Antwerp & Brussels, Thailand (road trip rather than beach holiday), Istanbul, Baltic Cities (Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius), Dubai, and Oman. I chose destinations I felt were emerging (the Baltic Cities), often overlooked (Syria, Oman), underrated (Western Australia, Antwerp), misunderstood (Brussels, Dubai), too hot to ignore (Buenos Aires, Istanbul), and places I felt people should experience differently to how they ordinarily might (Thailand and Morocco, which I encouraged people to drive). I'm still mulling over my list for 2009, which I'll share with you tomorrow. For now, here's a taste of the travel media's 2009 lists:
* CONDE NAST TRAVELER/CONCIERGE: Tel Aviv, Bolivia, Utah, Acapulco,Vilnius, Central Philippines, New York City, Rajasthan, Toronto, and Beirut.
* DK TRAVEL GUIDES: Vilnius, Buenos Aires, Gdansk, Seattle, Bristol, Fez, Washington DC, Copenhagen, Cape Town, and Vienna.
* LONELY PLANET: top 10 countries: Algeria, Bangladesh, Canada, Georgia, Greenland, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Peru, Rwanda and Sierra Leone; and top 10 cities: Antwerp, Beirut, Chicago, Glasgow, Lisbon, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Warsaw, and Zurich.
* FROMMER'S: Cartagena; Cape Town; Saqqara, Egypt; Washington DC; Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada; Civil Rights Trail, Alabama, USA; Lassen Volcano National Park, USA; Berlin; Belfast; Istanbul; Cambodia (But Not Angkor Wat); and Waiheke Island, New Zealand.
It's interesting to see the same places popping up, such as Vilnius, Beirut, Istanbul, and Oman. I've long been bewitched by Beirut myself (Terry and I wrote two editions of Lonely Planet's Syria and Lebanon guide, and wrote the Lebanon chapter for the first edition some 5 years ago), but the city hasn't yet stabilized and I can't see it having wide appeal. Ditto Georgia, where heavy fighting with Russia occurred in July this year, and Sierra Leone, where UN peace-keepers pulled out just eight years ago. But part of the point of these lists is to provoke discussion, get us excited about traveling, and influence us into buying books and magazines, isn't it? So, what do you think of the various hot lists floating around?
Pictured? That's the Corniche in Muscat, Oman.
We wind down the windows of our car and breathe in the fresh air - it's fragrant! Floral scents mingle with pine and eucalyptus. Wildflowers carpet the countryside. Butterflies are fluttering about. Turtles cross the road (don't ask me why). Trees that were bare and lifeless a week ago have come to life and are sprouting green leaves. The weather is all of a sudden warmer. It must be spring! We really noticed the change in season today on our drive from Kas on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, where we're holing up at a friend's house to write for a while, to Antalya. So it seems timely to create a list of destinations you must visit this (northern hemisphere) spring. Let's see.. my main criteria? The scenery must be spellbinding in its natural beauty, the air must be aromatic, at every turn you need to come across animals grazing on the new grass, and there must be an explosion of colour in the countryside, with fields suddenly flush with wildflowers. I'm on to it!
What is it about wish lists? Don't you love them? And no more so than when they're travel wish lists. Inspired by Decorno's What's Next for Travel blog which asked "What's on your list? Where does everyone want to go?", Franki Durban at LifeInAVentiCup wrote on Wanderlust: "I found myself unable to complete a list. I simply have too many places I hope to experience, and I won't stop until I've seen them all. Seriously, if it's on the list, I'm going, and I don't intend to leave this marble until I've completed my journey." I'm with Franki. And I enjoyed creating my own: Yemen, Iran, Libya, the Ukraine, Guatemala, Zanzibar, Madagascar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, Malta, Serbia, and Montenegro. I could go on. Why is that? Why do we enjoy list-making so much? Lonely Planet do well from their Blue List book and its companion website where you create your own 'bluelist' to recommend a travel experience. The glossy travel magazines publish lists all the time: top ten destinations, world's best beaches, top 100 hotels, etc. National Geographic Traveler has just released its 'Places of a Lifetime' list and guides to those cities - you can read our Dubai guide there soon! What we're really doing when we create our travel wish list is defining our dream destinations and travel aspirations. Our lists - and those of others - inspire us to move.
