Overview
If you're already making travel plans for next year, you might want to consider a destination close to home: New South Wales' Lord Howe Island. Located 600 kilometres off the state's northern coast, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed spot has just been named one of the best places to visit in 2020 by travel publication Lonely Planet.
The only Australasian location to make the list, Lord Howe Island ranked fifth in Lonely Planet's rundown of top regions, which forms part of its Best in Travel 2020 guide. The publication heaped plenty of praise on the NSW spot, noting that the "visually stunning island makes an instant impact on the senses". It also called out Lord Howe's "soaring green mountains", "perfect lagoon", "perfect crescents of beach" and "splendid hiking trails" — as well as calling it "a shining example of sustainably managed tourism".
If you haven't yet experienced Lord Howe's wonders for yourself, only 400 people are allowed to visit the island at a time — which is why its approach to tourism earned a specific mention. That means you won't have too much company when you're trekking up Mt Gower's 875-metre one-day climb, swimming among 60 species of coral and more than 500 species of fish, surfing at Blinky Beach, visiting the world's largest sea stack or sleeping in a rainforest.
Zach Sanders
On the top regions list, the Aussie spot was in great company. The Central Asia's Silk Road took first place, Le Marche in Italy nabbed second, Tohuku in Japan ranked third and Maine in the USA came in fourth. Further down the rankings, China's Guizhou Province took sixth spot, followed by Spain's Cádiz Province, Northeast Argentina, the Kvarner Gulf in Croatia and the Brazilian Amazon.
Lonely Planet also compiles lists of top cities, countries and best-value places to visit; however, no Aussie or NZ spots ranked among the selections. Salzburg in Austria was named the best city, Bhutan topped the best countries and East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia emerged victorious among the publication's best-value picks.
You can check out Lonely Planet's full Best in Travel 2020 lists over here.
Images: Zach Sanders.