The 10 greatest holidays on Earth (according to our experts)

If you had to pick one trip above all others, which would it be? Our specialist writers reveal their once-in-a-lifetime choices

D‘People are pushing the boat out this year to do something special’

id we all take travel for granted? Who could have predicted, when 2020 arrived in all its innocence and naivety, that holidays – mind-opening, life-affirming, the redletter days in our calendars that make the nine-to-five slog bearable – would be off the cards (even, for a time, illegal) for the best part of two years?

Now, after 24 months tethered to our wet and windy island, we are making up for lost time. The end of all Covid restrictions has seen bookings hit pre-pandemic levels, while tour operators report that we are spending more than ever on our hard-earned breaks and snapping up big “bucket list” adventures.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership, which represents scores of travel agents, said: “Our members are seeing an increase in people wanting to book that once-in-a-lifetime trip. Multi-generational holidays are also on the rise as families make up for lost time.

“Travellers are now choosing to spend more on their holidays, and upgrading where they can, as they look to tick items off their bucket list.”

The goal is to make holiday memories that last. According to Kerry Golds, managing director of luxury specialist Abercrombie & Kent: “Our clients are wanting to make their next holiday really count, increasing their budgets and treating themselves to an extra bit of indulgence.”

Big ticket experiences such as gorilla trekking in Uganda and Nile cruises, are proving popular.

“Many people will have gone for two years or more without an overseas holiday, so there will be a lot of hope pinned on 2022,” confirmed Rachel O’Reilly of

Kuoni. “Over the past couple of weeks we have booked tours of South America and Japan, family-friendly Africa safaris, and honeymoons in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. There are some highvalue bookings coming in – people are pushing the boat out this year to do something extra special.”

The awful human cost of the war in Ukraine is another reminder – if Covid had not already underlined this point – that life is fragile, and for living. In many ways, now is the time to seize the day. Or, in the words of CS Lewis: “Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun.”

To that end, we asked 10 of our most widely travelled experts to reveal their ultimate adventure – the one trip they would recommend to a friend who has been stuck at home for two years harbouring a rather serious case of wanderlust. Here are the results…