10 Unbelievable Experiences to Add to Your Travel Bucket List

It’s no secret that I love to travel. Aside from the appeal of getting a decent tan and bulk-buying all manner of weird and wonderful souvenirs, exploring far-flung destinations and different cultures is truly helping me piece together who it is a want to be and what it is I want to do with my life. Yes, I’m a walking cliche, but travel is helping me “find myself.” 

Today I’m sharing my ultimate travel bucket list packed full of unbelievable travel experiences and the best holiday destinations to inspire your wanderlust.

1. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai ✔️

Getting up close and personal with an elephant is top of most travel bucket lists. With so many elephant experiences on offer, Thailand seems like the ideal place to live out this dream. But a huge amount of cruelty and injustice go into fuelling the animal tourism trade, especially in Thailand.

Elephant Nature Park is a genuine sanctuary, unlike many other organisations in South East Asia where elephants are chained, beaten and forced to give rides or perform tricks for tourists. The elephants that roam Elephant Nature Park have been rescued from trekking camps, logging camps and street begging and are now free to live out their days in a safe space. The park offers day long and overnight visits for those who want an opportunity to see Asian elephants first hand while supporting a project that puts their health and wellbeing first and foremost.

2. Rome ✔️

For those passionate about history (or pizza for that matter), Rome is an obvious must. Marvel at the coliseum, toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain, climb the steps of St Peter’s Basilica, and drink coffee morning, noon and night. With a different ancient wonder around every corner and a never-ending supply of carbs, Rome is a thousand different experiences in one.

3. Spotting the Big 5 on an African Safari

Imagine the thrill of spotting a prowling lion up close or watching an elephant lumber past your Jeep. To spy some of the world’s most awe-inspiring animals in their natural habitat, untampered with by humans and just going about their day to day lives must be phenomenal. A trip to the Serengeti National Park has an added thrill because of its annual wildebeest migration and abundance of big cats, but I’d quite frankly be happy to go anywhere I could spot an African elephant and perhaps even a rhino.

4. Gorilla trekking in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

What with the continuous reports of armed militia groups, political unrest and “bone chilling violence,” the Democratic Republic of the Congo is rarely viewed as the most favourable of holiday destinations. But for many who have seen Netflix’s must-watch documentary about Virunga National Park, a visit into the depths of the wilderness is a travel experience that can’t be missed.

While trekking and gorilla-spotting in Virunga isn’t exactly the safest travel experience, it’s definitely one of the most incredible.

5. Jerusalem

With its millennia of rich spiritual history, religious sights and architecture, walking through Jerusalem is like travelling through time. But, if thousands of years worth of history isn’t enough, nearby Tel Aviv, the cosmopolitan party-goers paradise, was ranked among the top 10 beach cities in the world. With such a mixture of things to do and see, these Israeli cities are considered some of the best vacation spots in the Mediterranean.

6. Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Tennessee

Naturally, this one comes down to personal preference, but for Jack Daniels lovers out there like myself, visiting the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, is a dream. That despite the fact that the name Lynchburg doesn’t exactly conjure up the most welcoming images and the fact that it’s a dry town so you can’t actually buy any whiskey there. Nonetheless, there are a variety of tours on offer, making it the place to go if you want to learn more about the world’s favourite Tennessee whiskey.

7. Witnessing the Northern Lights

Who wouldn’t want to witness the planet’s most breathtaking all-natural light show? Pictures of the phenomenon, with the sky lit up in a green haze, almost make it look like a scene from War of the Worlds. While the Northern Lights are visible from a variety of places near the tip of the planet including areas of Finland, Canada and Sweden (and apparently even Scotland if you’re very lucky), a good bet is to head to Svalbard.

Svalbard is a Norwegian island located between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Their website boasts that during the Polar Night, the Northern Lights illuminate the sky both day and night, making it the best place to see the Northern Lights. It’s worth battling the polar bears for!

8. The Pyramids of Giza

The modern reality is that the Pyramids of Giza are overlooking a Pizza Hut now. It’s fair to say that much of the mystical wonder is gone. Even so, the ancient pyramids are still a source of intrigue and awe for the thousands of tourists who flock there each year. Yes, you’ll need to look past the make-shift gift shops and street merchants, but the rugged beauty is still there to explore.

9. Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Whiskey might inadvertently be becoming a reoccurring theme in this blog post, but Bourbon Street is an undeniable travel bucket list experience. True, it would be rude to go all the way to New Orleans and not take a swig of bourbon and toss some beads around, but the city has a diverse and quirky history to explore too.

Just outside of the main hustle and bustle of the city there’s an opportunity to explore plantation houses from the antebellum era. Then there’s the supernatural element of New Orleans, what with its links with voodoo and the ghost tours on offer. Swamp tours give you the opportunity to come up close and personal(ish) with alligators and, of course, you can wash all that culture down with a quick drink on Bourbon Street, where the party never stops.

10. Ghost Hunting in the Edinburgh Vaults ✔️

The Edinburgh Vaults definitely fall into the eerie category and are even considered to be the most haunted place in Scotland.

The series of underground chambers was home to society’s undesirables (think murderers, drunkards, prostitutes, body-snatchers and the like) and, as you can imagine, crime flourished. Now visitors can explore the vaults on guided tours, soaking up the history and searching for ghosts. The only question is: are you brave enough to go down there?

What weird and wonderful places do you have on your travel bucket list?

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