Most Exciting Travel Destinations For 2024
If you plan to travel in 2024, National Geographic recently released “The Cool List for 2024,” which shares their choices for 30 destinations around the world that are the most exciting places to visit in the year ahead. According to CNBC, there are places in all parts of the globe, but Europe dominates the list with 14 locations, including seeing the entire continent by train.
- North America has six destinations, and three are in the U.S.
- Texas lands on the list because those in central Texas will be able to see the total solar eclipse on April 8th, with Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin expected to have the best views.
The Cool List’s Most Exciting Travel Destinations for 2024
Europe
- Albanian Alps, Albania
- Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Emilia-Romagna, Italy
- Europe by train
- Galloway and Southern Ayrshire, Scotland
- Nordland, Norway
- North Yorkshire, England
- Pompeii, Italy
- Saimaa, Finland
- Tartu, Estonia
- The Euros, Germany
- Valletta, Malta
- Wales
- Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland
The Americas
- Atacama Desert, Chile
- Lima, Peru
- New York
- Miami, Florida
- Dominica
- Nova Scotia, Canada
- Texas
- Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
- Iberá Wetlands, Argentina
Africa
- Akagera, Rwanda
- Andrefana Dry Forests, Madagascar
- Sierra Leone
Asia
- Sikkim, India
- Tainan, Taiwan
- Xi’an, China
Australasia
- Victoria, Australia
If you do find yourself in any of these cool places in the year to come, make sure you check out the 6 hacks to eating healthy on vacation so you don’t pack on the extra pounds while you travel!
LauRen's Top Sardinia & Milan, Italy Must Sees
It only took me a month to write this blog, but there were so many details to this trip I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything!
When my Lufthansa flight landed in Sardinia from mylayover in Munich, I was ready to roll! My best friend (and former Aupair to my children) Elena picked me up in our rental car. I HIGHLY recommend driving in Sardinia. There are so many places to see, and Sardinia is too big of an island to rely on transfers. Elena flew in the day before me and stayed at the Air B&B that I rented for us.
Word to the wise: print everything when traveling internationally. Your phone may not have service when you need something like a receipt or reservation. I am glad I printed ours because our Air B&B host asked us to pay a local tourist tax that I had already paid inside my Air B&B reservation. A little shady in my opinion, but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
First Leg:
Once we got settled in and unpacked for the first leg of our trip, we popped a bottle of prosecco on our private balcony overlooking the ocean. That night, we had a fantastic dinner at Le Terrazze Ritual. This outside rooftop restaurant had a killer view of the sunset overlooking the water. And even though the wind was insane, the restaurant had faux fur blankets to keep their guests warm.
Speaking of the wind, Sardinia’s version of “mother nature”and I didn’t get off to a great start! For the first 3 days I was on the island it was incredibly windy. Like hurricane forced winds -windy! In fact it was so windy that one of our days out on the water was cancelled by the coast guard because it was too windy to safely have tenders out on the sea. This excursion was of course rescheduled and Elena and I decided to check out the inside of the island since the coast was so crazy.
Second Leg:
Once the wind settled down and we could get out on the water, we were ready for the next leg of our trip. We headed to Costa Smeralda to stay on a Catamaran I also found on Air B&B! Costa Smeralda was my favorite part of our trip, it is a small port town that has lots of celebrity sightings.
I LOVED our time on the Catamaran but I can see how this experience wouldn’t be for everyone. Think “camping”, okay well “glamping” on the water. We had our own room and bathroom but it was VERY small and you showered with a hand held spout in the center of the bathroom. I say “glamping” because we did have a captain and first mate/chef. They provided breakfast and lunch while out on the boat. When we came back to port, we could shower but had to get off the boat for an hour or so while they cleaned it. We just went to dinner during that time.
Everynight we would come back to the Cat and polish off a bottle of prosecco on the front hammicks with no one in sight! It was AMAZING!
Third Leg:
Finally, when it was time to say goodbye to Sardinia, Elena and I flew back to Milan for our last few days of fun! I have been to Milan before but just for a few days and I didn’t get to see/experince everything that area has to offer!
Here are the rest of the photos from our fantastic summer vacation in Italy!
