The World’s Top 15 Bucket List Trips Ranked—According To A New Report

Posted by Admin July 21, 2024 Travel

Hot air ballooning over Cappadocia in Turkey is a bucket list item for many travelers.

getty

Bucket list travel aspirations tend to vary by individual, with every traveler curating a personalized list of places they’d like to travel and experiences they’d like to try out one day. But, some adventures around the world are universally appealing and tend to make the cut on many people’s trip bucket lists. To determine which bucket list travel experiences hold the most appeal, adventure travel company Skyhook surveyed 4,000 people from around the world about their travel preferences.

As part of the Skyhook survey, participants picked three activities that would be at the top of their bucket lists. The travel company provided 15 common bucket list activities for them to choose from, which ranged from climbing Kilimanjaro, hot air ballooning over Cappadocia in Turkey, embarking on an Antarctica cruise, venturing into space, and gorilla trekking.

A tent pitched up in snow at night with the northern lights flickering in the sky above. Aurora … [+] Borealis and travelling. Photo composite.

getty

The No. 1 bucket list travel activity in the world, according to the ranking, is seeing the Northern Lights. Traditionally, travelers will plan trips to countries like Iceland, Norway, Sweden, or Finland for a shot at seeing the Northern Lights—receiving middle-of-the-night wake-up calls from hotels or lodges when the night sky is swirling with shades of green, pink, and purple or staying in glass igloos to watch the spectacle. Seeing the Northern Lights ranked highest among Gen Z, with 6 in 10 respondents in the generation notating it as a top bucket list experience.

While the Northern Lights are sometimes visible from the United States in states like Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, and other Northern states, larger swaths of night skies in lower latitudes showed off the aurora borealis in May thanks to a global geomagnetic storm.

A family of four King penguins walking on the black sandy beach of South Georgia with the sea and a … [+] cruise ship in the background

getty

Cruising Antarctica was a top choice for Baby Boomers, with 46% choosing it as a top bucket list experience. Cruises to Antarctica to see penguin colonies and humpback whales among the ice glaciers have spiked in popularity in recent years, but environmentalists have cautioned that more restrictions need to be put in place to protect the continent’s wildlife from the “last-chance” tourism.

The only U.S.-based location to make it on the top 15 bucket list activities was a trip to the Grand Canyon, which is one of the country’s most-visited attractions drawing more than 6 million visitors each year to see the Arizona landmark. The Grand Canyon stretches 277 miles with rocky walls plunging more than a mile to the canyon’s floor. Visitors come to take in the beauty from viewing points at the rims (the South Rim is most popular), camp in the national park, or raft the Colorado River that cuts through the canyon.

A view of the rugged yet beautiful Grand Canyon national park during a bright day shows the … [+] intricate details of the ridges and formations.

getty