Djibouti, Mauritius and South Africa are among the Top 10 countries to visit in 2018 according to the recently announced Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2018 selection.
Each year, the much anticipated Best in Travel announcement features destinations that should feature on every traveller’s wishlist for the year ahead. Lonely Plant categorises destinations according to the top ten countries, cities, regions and best value destinations that Lonely Planet’s experts recommend travellers experience in the following year.
For 2018, the East African country, Dijbouti came in at number 4 on the list of top ten countries, while Mauritius was ranked at number 8 and South Africa at number 10.
Deciding which destinations to include in the annual selection is considered a “process” involving Lonely Planet’s community of writers, editors and bloggers providing hundreds of suggested places that are not to be missed. These places are then shortlisted by a panel of in-house travel experts who consider criteria such as topicality, excitement and wow-factor to decide what to include in the best-selling, inspirational travel year-book.
Ultimately destinations must offer travellers an outstanding experience in the year ahead such as something exciting in happening in the destination in the year ahead, that it offers travellers new things to see and do, or that Lonely Planet’s experts consider the destination overlooked and underrated and recommend travellers to visit before the crowds do.
Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2018 also features five travel trends that consumers should look out for in the next year and for 2018 the trends include destination races, vegetarian and vegan travel and private islands.