Extraordinary Travel Festival participants reveal dream destinations for 2025
The list is based on a survey conducted during the Festival
Organisers of the Extraordinary Travel Festival held last year in Bangkok, Thailand just released a list of dream destinations for some of the world’s most travelled people.
It will be recalled that around 250 of the world’s most intrepid travellers came to the most recent ETF, including 31 people with the distinction of having been to every known nation in the world.
When surveyed, participants offered a surprising selection of locations they wished to visit, including those that could be considered surprising by even the keenest global travellers.
The ETF’s top 15 dream destinations
Based on survey results, the top choices are as follows:
- Antarctica 7.64%
- Yemen 7.01%
- Japan 5.1%
- Pitcairn Island (UK) 3.82%
- Papua New Guinea 3.82%
- South Pole 3.18%
- South Africa 3.18%
- Madagascar 3.18%
- Kamchatka (Russia) 2.55%
- North Korea (DPRK) 2.55%
- Greenland (Denmark) 2.55%
- Italy 1.91%
- Bouvet Island (Norway) 1.91%
- Bhutan 1.91%
- Argentina 1.91%
The following all garnered 1.27 percent of votes: Australia, British Indian Overseas Territory (UK), Brazil, Lake Louise (Canada), Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Timbuktu (Mali), Mongolia, Namibia, New Zealand, Siberia (Russia), Principality of Sealand, Syria, Thailand, Tokelau (New Zealand), Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, and Venezuela.
In this final group, each destination earned .64 percent of votes: Afghanistan, the Arctic, Patagonia (Argentina/Chile), Lord Howe Island (Australia), Botswana, Central Asia, Easter Island (Chile), Estonia, Faroe Islands (Denmark), Fiji, French Polynesia (France), Gaza, Greece, Hans Island (Canada/Denmark), Ladakh (India), Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Maldives, the Moon, Nepal, Nigeria, Lofoten Islands (Norway), Cook islands (New Zealand), outer space, Palau, Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Slowjamastan, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sudan, Tonga, Palmyra Atoll (USA), USA, and Zanzibar (Tanzania).
Most readers would consider this list to be an eclectic mix of dream destinations from the well-known to the esoteric.
The top three include Antarctica which is both remote and expensive to visit; Yemen, a country torn by civil war since 2014; and Japan, a highly developed and touristed country.
Highly-ranked and tourist-driven destinations like France and Italy were also listed alongside unstable and considered dangerous locations such as Afghanistan and Timbuktu.
Remote islands like Pitcairn Island and Bouvet Island cracked the top 15, and some aspirational travelers have their sites on the great beyond, including outer space and the moon.
Even two micronations and self-declared countries, Principality of Sealand and Republic of Slowjamastan, made their way into the list.
Individuals weigh in
For American traveller Matt McCaughey, Norway’s Bouvet Island is his choice when it comes to dream destinations.
Located in the South Atlantic Ocean and just north of the Antarctic Circle, Bouvet Island is considered the world’s most remote island.
According to McCaughey: “It’s about as remote as it gets, and I know very few people who have been there. It is a total bucket list destination.”
Andy Hicks, who has traveled to over 120 countries, includes far-flung Pitcairn Island among his dream destinations.
Hicks said of the island: “I’ve dreamt of visiting Pitcairn for years: the fact a small group of people are living in one of the most remote places on earth, nearly all of them the descendants of those who took part in the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in the 18th century, is just mind-boggling to me. Spending a few days on the island and getting to know some of the inhabitants will surely be one of my coolest travel experiences.”
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