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Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 – Taste Travel Guide

The world can be a wonderful place – so many areas and cities to visit and so little time. Yet international travel is very much on the increase, a fact based on the sales and client targets of various Irish and UK travel groups. Here is our list of where to go to in 2020 – near, far, wide, hot, cold, and every single one quite amazing. Buckle up…

PALERMO, ITALY

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

It is called, not without reason, Italy’s most sensual city, but there is more to Palermo than this. Having been at the junctions of varying civilisations for thousands of years, there is a mixture of cultures here, with distinct traces of Arabia and Byzantine amidst the Italian heritage. Like many cities in Italy (although as it is on the island of Sicily, you might notice a strong sense of self-sufficiency), Palermo is equal parts faded beauty and contemporary glamour. In short, the best of both worlds.

What Will I See/Do?

Home to a natural port, circled by mountains, Palermo is one of the warmest cities in Europe. Expect, then, to use the climate to your advantage. If you’re an opera lover, what better way to fill a balmy evening than head to the Teatro Massimo – the largest in Italy, the third largest in Europe – for an access-all-arias experience.


BOTSWANA

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

You can blame Disney for this one! Interest in visitor trips to wildlife centres such as Botswana – the country is widely regarded as one of the world’s best for wildlife experiences – has dramatically increased due to the recent live-action remake of The Lion King.

What Will I See/Do?

During the seasonal floods, the landscape – which is distinguished by the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari Desert, the largest uninterrupted expanse of sand on the globe – becomes an abundant animal habitat as part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It is truly one of the world’s last magnificent wildernesses that Botswana is especially adept at capitalising upon and delivering like nowhere else in Africa.


QINGDAO, CHINA

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

The sustainability aspects of Qingdao will surely appeal to climate-conscious tourists. Located on the coast of China’s Yellow Sea, here is a natural coolness about this ‘green’ city that inland places don’t experience.

What Will I See/Do?

As well as verdant parks and enticing hiking trails in the Lao Shan area of the city (and which snake their way through air-popping water pools and atmospheric granite peaks, you will also see ‘China Eden’, a counterpart of Cornwall’s Eden Project that will have the world’s highest indoor waterfall. How high, I hear you ask? As high as Niagara Falls, is how high.


MONTENEGRO

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

Because it’s back, baby! Over 30 years ago, Montenegro was a well-known tourist stop-off, but the break-up of the Yugoslav state between 1991-2001 put a stop to most things. As the 2000s progressed, however, Montenegro came to be considered once again as one of Europe’s great discoveries. Tourism is now part of a national strategy, which is good news for the potential visitor.

What Will I See/Do?

The coast here is no more and no less a sequence of stunning images. No matter where you plan to go, there is scenery, coastline, mountain ranges and people that want to make you make feel right at home.


LEBANON

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

In 2019, the British Foreign Office altered its travel advice elating to Lebanon. Previously, the BFO had warned travellers against visiting the country, which is bordered by Israel to the south, and Syria to the north and east. Because of this change in guidelines, tour operators are pitching up itineraries like there’s no tomorrow.

What Will I See/Do?

There is so much beauty here that you’ll need repeat visits to see it all: if you’re into history and architecture, there is Baalbek, at which rests one of the largest and best-preserved Roman sites in the Middle East. Beirut is a magnet for artists, and Bekka Valley boasts over 40 wineries. Add hot-and beaches, and becalming cedar forests and you have a holiday of a lifetime.


SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

Salzburg topped Lonely Planet’s cities to visit in 2020, and if that isn’t recommendation enough, then be advised that the year celebrates the centennial anniversary of the Salzburg Festival, one of the world’s most famous curation of culture, music and theatre (and more besides). It is also, as if you didn’t know, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so if you’re a classical music fan, you are well and truly sorted.

What Will I See/Do?

Salzburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means that the city’s historic centre, globally recognized for its Baroque architecture, is one of the best-preserved centres north of the Alps. In other words, it is just about the prettiest picture postcard place you’ll ever see outside of a Disney fairy tale movie.


ALBANIA

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

Tour operators in the UK have seen the number of visitors to Albania rise by 20% since 2016, and the reason why is because the country is quickly turning into one of Eastern Europe’s travel must-sees. Prospective visitors, it seems, are eager to experience something different within relatively compact boundaries (from east to west the distance is less than 150km; north to south, less than 350km) and a low population (less than 3m). This is no surprise, considering the country has been effectively out of bounds to tourists for much of the 20th century.

What Will I See/Do?

Albania is a new vista for many, but all that spend time there admit that its scenery, history, beaches and bustling capital city, Tirana, have been worth the wait. Little known fact: Albania has the most coffee houses per capita in the world. As Michael Caine probably didn’t say: not many people now that.


PAKISTAN

Top 10 Best Places To Visit in 2020 - Taste Travel Guide

Why Should I Go?

There’s no doubt that for over 20 years Pakistan’s tourism hopes have been fractured by Taliban rule. In 2019, however, new visa guidelines – as well as a much-publicised visit by members of the UK royal family, and the election of new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who has promised to boost the level of international visitors – have put the country very much back into the centre of the tourist picture.

What Will I See/Do?

The landscape is almost beyond description, with green regions overlooked by huge mountain ranges. Indeed, it seems as if the country is gearing itself more towards intrepid adventure visitors than those wanting a city-based holiday. This makes sense, considering the Karakoram, a highway etched into the millennia-old rockface, is one of the world’s most mind-blowing.

WRITTEN BY TONY CLAYTON-LEA

 

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