Destinations of the year!

Dubrovnik is known for its distinctive Old Town, encircled with massive stone walls completed in the 16th century. Its well-preserved buildings range from Baroque St Blaise Church to Renaissance Sponza Palace and Gothic Rector’s Palace, now a history museum. For the Game of Thrones fans, this is King’s Landing and home to Cersei Lannister and her clan.

Yangshuo is popular among tourists for its karst peaks, rivers, caves, and temples, as well as its laid-back cafés and bars. As such, the city is visited by a large number of Chinese tourists as well as foreigners, and has a relatively large expatriate community. 

A magical island topped by a gravity-defying medieval monastery, the Mont-Saint-Michel features among France’s most stunning sights. For centuries one of Europe’s major pilgrimage destinations, this holy mount is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as is its breathtaking bay. The population of the island is around 50.

Crescent-shaped Santorini is actually a group of islands consisting of Thíra, Thirassiá, Asproníssi, Palea and Nea Kaméni in the southernmost part of Cyclades. Its whitewashed homes and cobbled streets are popular with tourist and social media users.

Hallstatt is a charming lakeside village in the Alps. Nestled between the edge of Hallstätter See and the towering Dachstein mountains, this is the country’s oldest and possibly most photographed village. The World Heritage Skywalk here hovers 350 meters above the roofs of the village and offers a great panoramic view over Lake Hallstatt and the mountainous scenery.

Huacachina is a desert oasis and tiny village just west to the city of Ica in southwestern Peru. At its centre are the green waters of the Huacachina Lagoon, ringed by palm trees and thought to have therapeutic properties. The lagoon’s shores are dotted with bars and clubs. Dune buggies run across the high, rolling sand dunes that surround the village.

Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the five towns, colourful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbours are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialities along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto.

Chefchaouen is known for its striking, blue-washed buildings of its old town. Leather and weaving workshops line its steep cobbled lanes. The best way to explore the city is by walking through its beautiful bylanes. Besides local handicrafts like wool garments and woven blankets, the goat cheese native to this area is also popular with tourists.

Lalibela, a town in Amhara Region, Ethiopia, is famous for its rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of the locale is large antiquity of the medieval and post-medieval civilisation of Ethiopia. Lalibela is one of the country’s holiest cities, second only to Axum, and a centre of pilgrimage. The Rock-Hewn Churches were declared a World Heritage site in 1978.