MOST DESIRABLE COUNTRY (LONG HAUL)
AUSTRALIA
We always want most what we can’t have. Australia’s borders slammed shut right at the beginning of the pandemic and, at the time of writing, opportunities for British travellers wishing to visit are few and far between. Neighbouring New Zealand, who followed a similar course, has said it is now accepting fully vaccinated travellers as of 30 April 2022, and hopes are high that Australia will follow suit soon. Until that happens, we are still left dreaming of riding The Ghan through endless Outback or watching the sun rise over the red sandstone edifice of Uluru one more time.
It’s clear you, too, have been thinking of little else. It also feels like we’ve been singing its praises non-stop recently, or at least since Qantas launched direct flights to Perth from London back in 2018. These are tentatively due to recommence in April, and we have our fingers crossed they do because, frankly, there is plenty more to talk about.
Western Australia still feels like an undiscovered country in itself: its Ningaloo Reef is every bit the equal of its Great Barrier cousin but still little visited by comparison, affording you the chance to swim with whale sharks; the Kimberley is a region of beehive-like mountains and wilderness so rugged and unfinished that it feels like Mother Nature barely got through sketching it before she moved on to something else. Add to that magnificent winelands, scenic trails where you can spy humpbacks breaching offshore, luxurious coastal cruises and a thoroughly modern regional capital, and it’s not hard to see why travellers get so excited about this state.
But beyond Western Australia, there’s the chance to experience the things we’ve missed out on. The Great Southern train route between Adelaide and Brisbane only had its inaugural journey at the very end of 2019, three months before borders closed. The new Grampian Peaks Trail is a rocky 160km route across Aboriginal land, red gum forests and the dramatic, dizzying rises of the Grampians NP.We can’t wait to try both.
There are countless thrills to be found here when you eventually return. But if you’re short of ideas, just relive the classics: soak up Sydney’s northern beaches, drive the Great Ocean Road, meet the inquisitive quokka of Rottnest Island, explore the pink-granite cliffs of Freycinet Peninsula. Because you never know when it’ll all be taken away again.
Your top ten favourites
The sight of Japan hosting the Olympics in 2021 has clearly whetted your appetite for this regular Wanderlust reader favourite. We’re especially excited by what’s happening in the county’s southern regions in 2022. Last year, a host of UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites where named, including the islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, scattering the East China Sea off Kyushu. Their thick forests, mangroves and perfect shores are home to a number of rare endemic species (barely 100 Iriomote leopards exist now), and currently see few visitors. Meanwhile, the newest shinkansen fast train (Nishi Kyushu) route is set to open up the southern hot-spring town of Takeo Onsen this year. Add to that Japan’s first castle hotel in Ozu and Okinawa’s new eco-treehouse resort, Treeful, and southern Japan is certainly piquing our curiosity.
Costa Rica is another long-time reader vote-winner. Among the big new openings here is the Hacienda AltaGracia, a brand-new 180-acre retreat on a functioning coffee farm, high in the rainforested Talamanca mountains. Those who can handle a horse will find plenty to savour, with its stables offering guided treks down into the lush valley below.
Given how highly you rate its regions and cities, it’s no surprise to see North America feature strongly. Canada is an evergreen at these awards, but the USA arguably less so. Certainly, the slew of pre-pandemic British Airways flights opening up the likes of New Orleans, Nashville and Charleston to the UK seem like another world now, but it showed what variety there is to discover. Judging by how highly you rate the Deep South elsewhere in these awards, they had an effect on you. If that’s not enough, the creation of a new national park (New River Gorge National Park and Preserve) in West Virginia last year and the 150th anniversary of the founding of Yellowstone NP certainly has us excited (see Editors’ Picks for 2022).
The lower reaches of this list contain fewer surprises, with Peru, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand all mainstays at these awards over the years thanks, in part, to their natural gifts. But it’s the arrival of South Korea, above them all in sixth, that intrigues the most. It gets little credit for its landscapes, although there are some incredible wild corners, not least the DMZ where its wildlife (red-crowned cranes, water deer) has flourished, undisturbed since 1953. But it’s arguably the success of films like Parasite or the hit Netflix TV series Squid Game that put it in the world’s eye of late, with the volcanic island of Jeju (featured in the latter) seeing a huge boost in visitors recently. We can’t wait to return.
MOST DESIRABLE COUNTRY (SHORT HAUL)
FRANCE
It feels like a long time since we’ve been this
