Now seeing the end of 2022, you’re probably looking at planning your trips for 2023. So, we’ve collected a round-up of the top 20 lifetime travel experiences to give you some inspiration. 

Before we start

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1. Iceland – See the Northern Lights

Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice, is full of natural wonders and it offers one of the best opportunities to see the Northern Lights. Visit Iceland and see volcanic landscapes, breathtaking waterfalls and relax in the geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon.

2. Visit Lake Bled in Slovenia

Could there be a more postcard-perfect place than Lake Bled? Discover Slovenia and see its most iconic sight in the heart of the Julian Alps.

3. Take a Jeep Ride in Wadi Rum

This is one of the many highlights on a trip to Jordan. The Wadi Rum desert, or ‘The Valley of the Moon’, in Jordan is full of incredible rock formations and sand dunes. It was also used as a filming location for the classic film ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’

4. Experience an African Safari

A top travel experience in Africa is to search for the Big Five in Kariega Game Reserve in South Africa.

5. Go with the flow on a river cruise

Sail along the Danube, Rhine or Seine on a river cruise holiday; it’s one of the best and most relaxing ways to discover some of the highlights of Europe.

6. Visit La Alhambra

The UNESCO listed monument complex of La Alhambra, with its magnificent palaces, patios and gardens, is one of the best attractions in Spain to see.

7. Explore Old Havana in a classic American car

The classic 1950’s cars are famously associated with Cuba; from 1959 to 2013 there was an import ban on cars into the country. Havana’s official nickname is ‘Ciudad de la Columnas’ or the City of Columns, due to its Colonial architecture. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 and we think on your Cuba holiday that the best way to explore this historic city is by vintage car!

8. See the mighty Iguazu Falls

There are a total of 275 waterfalls that make up the magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site Iguazu Falls. Discover this incredible wonder of nature on a guided Brazil and Argentina tour.

9. Step back in time to Ancient Egypt

The best way to see all the top sights in Egypt is to take a guided holiday. Visit the Pyramids of Giza before embarking on a cruise down the Nile and discover more historical treasure troves of Ancient Egypt, such Luxor and Aswan.

10. See Mount Teide

One of the highlights of Tenerife is Mount Teide, the third tallest volcanic structure in the world. The volcano is located in Teide National Park, which was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007.

11. Explore Valletta

On one of TD’s holidays to Malta, you can visit its capital Valletta, a UNESCO World Heritage City due to its incredible historic buildings dating back to the 16th century. It’s one of Europe’s smallest capitals so it can easily be explored by foot.

12. Sail around Ha Long Bay

Hạ Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and stunning natural wonder, means “descending dragon” and is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s just one of the many highlights of Vietnam.

13. See the Taj Mahal

A trip to India isn’t complete without visiting the mighty Taj Mahal. One of the new seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra. The Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan commissioned this iconic building to house the tomb of his favourite wife.

14. Go to the smallest country in the world

On a guided Rome holiday you can visit Vatican City, see St Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, where you will be amazed by Michelangelo’s most famous masterpiece.

15. Fjords of Norway

Explore the Fjords in Norway, the country’s stunning landscape has attracted tourists for many years, from the snow-capped mountains, glaciers to waterfalls. A cruise along the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Nærøyfjord is an unforgettable experience.

16. Learn more about Ancient Greece

The land where civilisation began, a holiday in Greece can offer historical sites and archaeological wonders. See the Acropolis, an ancient citadel perched on a hilltop overlooking Athens and visit Thessaloniki, the cultural capital of Greece.

17. Admire the artwork in the Hermitage

It’s been estimated that it would take a visitor more than 10 years to view the entire art collection in the Hermitage Museum! On our guided tours to Russia, you can visit Moscow and St Petersburg; both of these cities are unique in their own way.

18. Enjoy a Pastel de nata in Lisbon

The Pastel de nata, a tasty pastry, was created in Lisbon! Portugal’s capital has a fascinating heritage, the city itself is extremely beautiful. With stunning pastel-coloured buildings, neoclassic architecture and mosaic-paved streets. It’s one of the best places in Portugal to visit.

19. Try your luck at Monte Carlo

The Monte Carlo Casino opened in 1863, making it 156 years old. You can enjoy a day trip to Monaco, one of the smallest countries in the world, and get a taste of glitz and glamour as part of a Cannes & the Côte d’Azur holiday.

20. Explore Pompeii

A visit to Pompeii will provide an incredible insight into Roman life. This ancient Roman city was buried and largely preserved under ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Enjoy a half day excursion to this fascinating site on TD’s Sorrento Coast, Pompeii & Capri tour.

About Travel Department

Silver Magazine chooses its partners very carefully, and Travel Department is no exception. With nearly 30 years’ experience perfecting tours to around 140 destinations worldwide, Travel Department’s escorted holidays typically include flights, accommodation, transfers, and guided tours. They carefully plan your trip, so you experience the best holiday highlights accompanied by a friendly local guide.

They offer a wide range of guided group holidays from city breaks or solo travel to active and adventure holidays (including walking, yoga and photography holidays) with their sister brand, TD active Holidays.

With multiple departure airports across the UK, you can fly from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. In Northern Ireland they fly from Belfast (plus Dublin and Cork) and for passengers from the South they depart from Bristol and a range of London airports.

The mood is upbeat, friendly, and inclusive, where everyone feels welcome.

Travel Department’s escorted holidays typically include flights, accommodation, transfers, and guided tours. They carefully plan your trip, so you experience the best holiday highlights accompanied by a friendly local guide. With Travel Department you see more!

Lana Hall

Lana can usually be found spinning her collection of records, or writing odd poems in her phone notes. Her mixer of choice is a ginger beer, and you’ll never find her away from the sea for more than a few weeks.

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It’s not just the heat from the Caribbean sun that can be felt wandering the dusty backstreets of Havana – the warmth of the Cuban people is just as tangible. All smiles and waves, it’s as if the obvious poverty doesn’t bother them. Not for that moment, as we pass, anyway – maybe not ever. In passing, all we get is a glimpse. We can only really guess the truth of it all. But in a place where being poor is the norm for most families and the average income is a shocking $25 per month, you’d imagine they might be more miserable.

Cuban hospitality

Buildings that are crumbling in a way that makes for nice photos but not-so-nice homes, provide the backdrop for the lively townsfolk. Not a sad face among them.

On our first night there, one of our group was taken ill in a bar and the staff were amazing. It was clear they knew their first aid and did everything in their power to make things right. The Cuban family on the next table were also concerned and, despite having had their evening interrupted, still asked if everything was OK and offered to help in whatever way they could. In the UK, people would turn a blind eye. In the USA, they’d sue.

On the outskirts of town on the Malecón, at the Iberostar Habana Riviera, a faded hotel with more than the faintest whiff of the 60s about it, the staff couldn’t be more friendly and helpful. The floor-to-ceiling windows in the foyer not only framed the passing vintage cars and across-the-road sea looking out towards Miami, but also served to reflect the warmth and smiles from inside the building.

Scenic driving in a stylish car

I go for a ride around central Havana in a pink Cadillac. Like you do. At 62 years old, she wasn’t doing too badly (the car, not me). OK, so the gears crunched a little and the front passenger door flew open halfway up a dual carriageway, but I still felt like a modern-day Lady Penelope.

OK, so the gears crunched a little and the front passenger door flew open halfway up a dual carriageway, but I still felt like a modern-day Lady Penelope.

I ask my tour guide – a beautiful lady in her fifties, sat next to me on the leather back seat – what makes the Cuban people so happy?

I comment too, as we drive slowly past about 20 pensioners in a park, moving rhythmically and in synch, how slim and fit the majority of elderly Cubans seem to be, despite the supposedly high intake of rum and cigars. “They’re doing tai chi,” says my guide. “We look after our old people here.”

She tells me the average age at death of a Cuban is 79.5, which reminds me of the tiny 88-year-old Cuban lady who sat next to me on the eight-hour flight from Gatwick, (“Call me Mama,” she’d chuckled, as she swept leftover freebies from my fold-down table into the capacious bag at her feet) and that the country has the highest doctor-to-patient ratio in the entire world, with 58 doctors to every 10,000 people, compared to just under 21 per 10,000 in the UK.

We talk about mental health and I mention how joyful most of the natives appear to be. She says it’s probably because they live simple lives. It’s the complexity of modern-day living that causes sad faces and stress-related illness, she reckons.

Living lively

Across the street, on a patch of green, are a group of teenagers, kicking a ball around. Along a bit further are some young people sat on the back of a bench, laughing and chatting. With the internet introduced a mere three years ago and wi-fi available in only a few places, there’s not a mobile phone in sight. These kids are actually talking to each other (“in real life,” as our kids might say) and looking at each other (using their eyes, not via Instagram pics!).

They are interacting the old-fashioned way and look very happy about it. No frowny brows, squinty eyes and hunched shoulders; the youth of Cuba look carefree, un-addled and – dare I say it? – normal.

In the bars, there is dancing, singing, smoking, drinking, the air around buzzing with chatter and music. No-one sits still for long. The constant movement is mesmerising.

I notice there’s not much variation in the clothes worn by Cuban youth – with the girls in colourful skimpy shorts and tiny t-shirts and the boys in looser variations of the same garb. My guide informs me that, in Cuba, not only do people not go shopping (“they only go to a shop if they need something,” she says), but that there are only two types of clothing available to buy – “boutique or economy,” she says, adding that “most people buy economy.”

It’s actually quite nice not to be constantly bombarded with billboards, telling us what to buy and how to look.

She also points out the lack of advertising: in fact you’re more likely to see images of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and John Lennon than posters showing stuff available to buy. This is thanks to Cuba being a socialist country and a one-party government (led by Miguel Diaz Canel) who don’t allow any private companies to promote anything that might be viewed as ‘propaganda’. I must say that it’s actually quite nice not to be constantly bombarded with billboards, telling us what to buy and how to look.

Make like the Cubans

Later in the holiday, at the beautiful Dhawa Hotel at Cayo Santa Maria, the locals were as friendly, kind and laid-back as they were in Havana. As a woman, I noticed – and I feel almost sexist for saying this, but any woman who’s travelled abroad especially alone will know exactly what I mean – that the men were respectful and polite and not even in the slightest bit flirtatious.

There seemed to be fewer rules about the small things – smoking, crossing the road, drinking – and, whereas at home, we often feel under scrutiny, in Cuba that feeling was absent.

After all we are told about the place, I was surprised to feel that way.

Adding it all together, I come to the conclusion that the happiness, health and kindness of Cuban people has much to do with the way they live – in a simple way, low on technology, money and advertising, high on fresh air, movement and life.

I remember commenting to no-one in particular as I sat in a tiny backstreet bar in downtown Havana how everything just felt so real. Hard to recapture now I’m back to non-reality…

To be happy, perhaps we need to take a step back and follow their lead and, strange dance move though that might be, maybe going backwards for a bit is the only way forward!

So stop fretting so much, have a few cigars, drink some rum, smile big smiles and make like the Cubans. Just remember to dance, sing and laugh at every opportunity. Oh, and to leave your phone at home.

Going to Cuba? Then make sure you….

… take a tour of Havana in a vintage classic car, making sure to drive along the Malecón, one of the city’s typically Cuban thoroughfares

… while you’re in Havana, pop along to the John Lennon Memorial Park and sit next to a bronze statue of the man himself. You can also talk to Aleeda Rodriguez Perasa, a lady employed by the government to specifically guard the statue’s removable glasses!

… go to the lively town of Remedios and see one of the island’s oldest churches (built around 1550)

… sunbathe on its finest beach – Playa Sirena

… drink some Cuban rum! If you like cocktails, go for a mojito

… stroll around the beautiful Plaza del Carmen near the town of República

… check out the Salto del Guayabo waterfall near the Villa Pinares del Mayari, the highest in Cuba

… walk through the Plaza de la Revolución, one of the country’s best outdoor music venues, where orchestras regularly play

… visit Trinidad Cuba, a stunning Spanish colonial town, part of which is a UNESCO world heritage site

… dance! Strut your stuff in one of the many live music bars or with some locals in the street

… visit the tobacco fields of Vinales and smoke a Cuban cigar. It’d be rude not to

* * * *

Jacqui visited Cuba as part of the FITCUBA Fair 2018, and was invited by the Cuba Tourist Board

The tour in Havana was courtesy of Viajes Cubanacan (MINTUR) ground handler of the UK tour operator Holiday Place

Jacqui stayed at the Iberostar Habana Riviera Hotel in Havana and at the Dhawa Hotel in Cayo Santa Maria. The “Gran Manzana Kempinski and Royalton Cayo Santa Maria” package from Cuba Direct includes three nights at the elegant Gran Manzana Kempinski in the heart of Cuba’s capital Havana, followed by four nights of luxury and relaxation at the Royalton in Cayo Santa Maria, a paradisiacal island off the coast of Cuba. Based on two people sharing over seven nights and including transfers and representation services, the package costs £1,239 per person. This package does not include international flights. Book here

Jacqui Deevoy

Jacqui Deevoy has been a freelance journalist for over three decades, starting out on teenage magazines, then later working for women’s magazines worldwide, and national newspapers including the Daily Mail, the Mirror, Express and Telegraph. These days, as well as writing for magazines, papers and websites, she produces documentaries and hosts a Monday night talk show for Unprecedented TV.

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