Best Places To Visit In The World Lonely Planet – Peace, tranquility and fresh air: some of the world’s most remote places are havens of relaxation and solitude.
Here are some of the places that give you the luxury of breaking away from the glitter curtain to reconnect with your natural surroundings and yourself.
Best Places To Visit In The World Lonely Planet
The following destinations are highlights from Lonely Planet’s new Offbeat title, an inspirational book that presents 100 exciting options for the world’s best destinations for your next extreme travel trip.
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Now the question is: where do you want us to go? Hopefully this guide can provide some new answers.
Tiny Lesotho, dominated by the Drakensberg and Maluti mountains, can lay claim to being the highest country in the world – even the latter point, in the foothills, is at around 1,400m (4,593ft). On a walk or ride on a sturdy Basotho pony through this sparsely populated mountain kingdom, you’re more likely to encounter a shepherd in traditional Basotho dress than the throngs of South African tourists that completely surround Libeson. In 2019, just over 800,000 international tourists explored the thrilling 3,000-meter (9,840-foot)-plus passes, while 15.8 million visited South African landmarks such as Mount Island and the Blyde River Canyon.
Formerly a British protectorate, community-run tourist sites often occupy mountain trading posts that once remained huts for clandestine journeys in remote Rondavel villages. Even Prince Harry has ties to the country – he worked with AIDS orphans in his gap year, as well as the charity Sentebale – he has yet to include this rugged country on the usual Sahara travel itineraries.
There is something grand about the small town of Tetouan, where white buildings cling to the cliffs of the Rif. While there are many blue-washed streets near the capital Chefchaouen, those on the popular route a little further north to Tetouan avoid the crowds. The Phoenicians built a port here, and in the third century Roman remains on the slopes. The city has a cosmopolitan air thanks to centuries of immigrants. Jews and Moors who fled Spain in the 15th century settled here, as did post-Ottoman Algerians fleeing France. Between 1912 and 1956, Tetouan was the capital of the Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco.
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Mountains plunge into the sea at Con Son, a coral island off the southern coast of Vietnam. One of 16 islands and islets in the Con Dao archipelago, Con Son feels like a world away from the bustling market towns of the Mekong Delta across the water. The 52-square-kilometer (20-square-foot) island has a population of about 7,000 and features large tracts of forest, lotus-covered lakes, and deserted beaches lined with cassava trees.
Wild animals here represent the nature of the stars. Sea turtles nest in the sand, while abundant marine life (and many divers) are found just off the beach itself. The island is also home to more than 80 species of birds and the endemic long-lived macaque, which can be seen on island tours. However, the air of a tropical paradise passes through darkness. Con Son was once a hell on earth as thousands of prisoners languished in the island’s prisons under French and American rule. Former prisons and cemeteries serve as powerful memorials to those who suffered and perished here.
Nagaland was for decades the fringes of the known world in India – the last visible frontier, bordered by cloud-covered mountains, dotted with tribal villages and largely off-limits to tourists due to colonial red-tape delays. The past decade has slowly lifted the barriers, but word is trickling in: fewer than 6,000 foreigners visited Nagaland in 2019, while 1.6 million wandered into Rajasthan. If you want to experience India as it was before mass tourism, look no further.
Once known as hunter-gatherers (albeit with gratitude), the diverse tribal cultures of Nagaland retain many of their prehistoric traditions. Most of the group has nominally converted to Christianity, but the animistic traditions that decorate the houses of the buffaloes still persist. One can spend weeks in Nagaland without seeing a single tourist. The trek can be slow and the steep mountains challenging, but staying in a village immerses you in the life of this fascinating state of India.
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Shikoku rarely makes the Japanese itineraries for most foreign visitors, although the island has a lot to offer. Big events like the Awa Odori Matsuri in Tokushima, Japan’s equivalent of the Rio Carnival, draw huge crowds in August. The venerable Matsuyama Dogo Onsen is great for hot spring fans. And every three years, Shikoku Kagawa Prefecture co-hosts the Setuchi Triennale, a contemporary art festival that spans neighboring islands such as Naoshima and Shodo-shima.
But beyond the headline attractions, there are also plenty of under-the-radar experiences and locations. Look for sustainable projects in Zephyr Kamikatsu Village. Head to the remote Iya Valley to stay in an 18th-century thatched village and cross the Yoshino River. Walk part or all of the island’s 88-temple route. Or join the surf on the sandy shores of the South Pacific, between the two beautiful beaches of Muroto-misaki and Ashizuri-misaki. This Japan is far from the madding crowd.
A trek to Everest Base Camp can take travelers two-thirds of the way up the world’s highest mountain, but the trails can often be rough. Hikers who want the same views as good silence trade the busy Everest region for the empty tezkals of eastern Nepal, where Kanchenjunga – the third highest mountain on earth at 8,586 m (28,169 ft) – rises through a park of glaciers. snowy peaks
While over 57,000 trekkers and climbers visit Everest Base Camp each year, Kanchenjunga Conservation Area sees only 900 visitors annually. Don’t expect apple pie (hikers’ comfort food) at any stage – you’ll need a travel agent to follow the rough tracks that lead to the base camp above Pang Pema and Ramche. To soften the blow, remote villages offer hot food to brave people who come to this remote corner. And for the effort and expense, you’ll get a truly unspoiled view of Hawaii as you traverse some of the most extreme places on the planet.
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World Heritage 2000-year-old Ifugao Rice Terraces in Batad, Northern Luzon, Philippines © R.M. Nunes/Getty Images
While the sugar-white beaches and world-class destinations around Boracay, Cebu and El Nido are the most famous in the world, Northern Luzon – the “head” of the “old lady”, the Philippine archipelago, is often overlooked. . However, it captures the essence of the region better than any other island. Surface waves engulfed the seaway, hitting San Juan (La Union), Pagudpud, and Baler. The west coast city of Vigan has the best 16th-century Spanish colonial in Asia, while the impenetrable huts on the east coast are home to many species endemic to the region.
Inland, the forested Cordillera beckons from mountains with UNESCO-famous rice paddies, whitewater rivers hanging from caves, and caves full of skulls. Deep in the culturally rich rural areas of the country, Kalinga province, where headhunting has been practiced in living memory, echoes with a multitude of different languages and dialects. Across the sea, the sleepy life of the Bataan Islands feels a world away from Manila’s nightlife.
In an area where few tourists venture beyond all their activities, Tubagua offers a refreshing alternative. Located on the edge of the Northern Cordillera, bordered by Ruta Panoramica, the serpentine road that connects the Dominican cities of Puerto Plata and Santiago de los Caballeros, it is home to one of the best economies in the Caribbean. Entering the small village of Tubagua, where simple houses are interspersed with lush pastures, the hut sits in a wonderful setting, built in the traditional local style of the village. Here, among the lush foliage and rolling hills, roadside stalls sell tropical fruits from A to Z, and villagers fill up scooters with bottled gas.
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Different from the coast of time and culture, Tubagua is the perfect place to absorb the nuances of real Dominican life through community tourism projects. If you want to switch off the air conditioning for gentle mountain breezes and meringue pools for a chorus of crickets jumping, this could be your nirvana.
Suriname is not the smallest country in South America, but it is also the least visited. This means that this little-known corner of the continent, near the Gringo Trail, offers a refreshingly different experience of the American South. After annexation and civil war in the 1980s, today Suriname is also statistically one of the safest countries to visit in South America. On the banks of the Suriname River, the bustling colonial capital of Paramaribo is full of UNESCO-listed architecture, exciting nightlife and some of the best restaurants serving the mixed cuisine of its diverse population, mainly African slaves (known as Maroons), Indians, Indonesians. moderate and Chinese, British and Dutch colonists and Native Americans.
The old plantation houses show Suriname’s dark history, some of the best in the world
