Bucket list travel aspirations tend to vary by individual, with every traveler curating a personalised 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.
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.
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.
Top Bucket List Trips Ranked in 2024
Ahead, here’s the top ranked bucket list trips around the world, according to the Skyhook survey:
No. 1: See the Northern Lights
No. 2: Trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
No. 3: Visit the Galapagos Islands
No. 4: Climb Kilimanjaro
No. 5: Take an Antarctic cruise
No. 6: Explore the ancient city of Petra
No. 7: Everest Base Camp Trek
No. 8: Go on an African safari
No. 9: Dive the Great Barrier Reef
No. 10: Space travel
No. 11: Gorilla trekking
No. 12: See the Grand Canyon
No. 13: Ride in a hot air balloon above Cappadocia
No. 14: Visit Angkor Wat
No. 15: Surf in Indonesia
How many of these bucket list experiences have you checked off?
This article first appeared on forbes.com.
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