As a rule, I avoid “best travel” lists for several reasons. You should too, and I am about to tell you why. Whether it is a questionable motive, a one-size-fits-all mentality, clickbait, or simple bias, these lists of “The best places to travel this coming year!” aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. It seems every well-known brand, from Lonely Planet to CNN to Travel+Leisure to Vogue, to name a few, publishes a list. You need to create your own.
Questionable motive
I launched Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com and ran it for more than a decade. We used the tagline “The Trusted Resource.” That meant you could be assured there was no ulterior motive to the information we were providing. But, wow, that was a challenge. Many times, I was approached by an auto manufacturer offering to pay us millions of dollars to feature them in some way that was clearly not advertising. We were offered a comparison tool that showed a certain brand in a more favorable light, an offer to modify our site to highlight one manufacturer over its rival, and so on. Some other sites took the money. Believe me, it was a challenge to turn down millions in revenue (and profit) in the name of being a trusted resource for consumers.
Why do I tell this story? Because the same thing happens in the travel industry. Let’s pretend that Casablanca wants to appear on this year’s best places to travel. Casablanca’s tourism bureau is given a significant budget to approach major brands and influencers, offering free trips, advertising dollars, content, and more in turn for favorable positioning. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s their job to promote Casablanca and all it has to offer tourists. Just remember that the site you are reading or the influencer you are watching may also be promoting Casablanca over some other places that could be more worthy.
One-size-fits-all mentality
This is probably the biggest reason I avoid best travel lists. I like destinations that present great photo opportunities. You might seek renowned museums and architecture. Maybe exciting cuisine tops your list for choosing a place. Maybe you are an adventure seeker, a zipliner, a skier, a scuba diver – none of which interest me. Some might want a place with total peace and quiet and others a vibrant urban nightlife. We enjoy travel for so many different reasons it seems fruitless to present “The 10 best places to travel this year!”
Even the way we travel to destinations reflects our individual tastes. Should we explore Europe via a river cruise, by train or rental car? In those cases, the journey becomes as fulfilling as the destinations.
One size does not fit all. I can live with a list from backroads.com of the top places to hike and bike. That is their specialty, and if it fits my lifestyle, I appreciate the help. If I have already made up my mind to cruise Alaska, I can benefit from a list of the best Alaskan cruises. Just don’t say we should all really visit Greece and Indonesia this year (when last year it was Iceland and Turkey).
Clickbait
The lists I really ignore are the ones that seem to exist as clickbait. We have all seen the teaser: “10 best places to travel – number 6 will shock you!” Of course, we all now want to know what number 6 is (probably the place that is paying to be on the list). Resist the temptation to click on videos or posts that are using this way to get your attention.
Simple bias
In a world of bloggers and vloggers and TikTokers who have honestly not traveled that much, “best travel” lists can reflect simple bias. They really enjoyed that over-water bungalow in the Maldives, so it goes on their list of the world’s top travel places. Have they ever been to Tahiti? Kauai? Bali? The Philippines? Was that bungalow really the best place in the world or the best place they have visited?
I have been to 55 countries and more than 600 cities (I stopped counting), but it still doesn’t qualify me to create a “must visit” list for the world. As much as I like Brazil, I have to admit I know very little about most of South America. Our luxury and adventure Alaskan cruise was exceptional, but would Antarctica have been even better? While travel to 55 countries might sound impressive, another way of looking at it is there are about 140 countries I haven’t visited! That includes Portugal, Peru, and Papua New Guinea, just to name a few that start with “P.”
Lists derived from user input are especially prone to bias. Take the Condé Nast Readers’ Choice Awards. The same names come up year after year because people keep going back to the places they know and like. That’s fine (and informative), but suffers from a form of selection bias.
Create your own list
It is challenging. Forbes and U.S. News Travel each published a list of “best cruise lines for couples.” They are respected brands, but are all couples alike? Do young honeymooners and retired senior couples want the same exact experience? Are first-time economy cruisers and luxury cruisers on their 50th voyage looking for the same amenities?
My suggestion is to make a list of the things that matter most to you when you think about travel. Use that information to search for a list that narrows the results. A search for “best small-ship luxury cruises for senior couples” at least returns some interesting results, including a video from cntraveler.com entitled “Discover the best small-ship ultra-luxury cruise.” More importantly, there are no articles about Carnival or Royal Caribbean, who don’t specialize in small ships (or true luxury).
Don’t even know where to start? 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, by Patricia Schultz, understands the problem. Think of it as a best list with a thousand entries. That’s enough to get you on the journey of narrowing down what interests you. I also recommend attending a travel show if one comes to a city near you.
A Google search for “best overwater bungalows in Bora Bora” returns a page of exactly that. Now we’re interested in researching further. By the way, Polynesia didn’t make any of the above general best lists. But Uzbekistan and Northwest Michigan did, just to show you how different people are, and why you should avoid those general best travel lists.
Do you have any thoughts about this? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment at the bottom of this post.
