For seasoned travellers and those just starting out on their first overseas adventure, there’s heaps to see, experience and do around the world in 2019. Here’s our list of the top five places to go this year:
- For art and culture lovers. Germany is the birthplace of Bauhaus – a revolutionary avant-garde movement spanning art, architecture and design and ushering in what we think of as the modern. 2019 is the one-hundredth anniversary of architect Walter Gropius manifesto, the "Proclamation of the Bauhaus" which inspired art legends such as van der Rohe, Klee and Kandinsky. To celebrate, the country will host a bevy of Bauhaus events, starting with a grand festival in Berlin, the opening of the new Weimar Bauhaus Museum that made Bauhaus great. (where the movement began), and Dessau’s groundbreaking Bauhaus Museum, designed to showcase everything that made Bauhaus great.
- Remarkable nature and art combine. Japan’s ancient Setouchi Islands will host the Setouchi Triennale this year to celebrate the perfect balance of art and life. Take the ferry or Shinkansen to see one of the country's most visited sites, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, reopening in spring after a $51 million revamp. Cycle Setouchi’s new trails through citrus and olive groves and catch the Shimanami bike ferry from Honshu to Shikoku islands. Go on a luxury sea voyage aboard the Guntu – a floating ryokan with walnut clad rooms and open-air soaking baths. Or get an advance taste of what Tokyo will bring to the 2020 Olympic Games with Ale’s Shooting Star Challenge – a microsatellite aiming to create the first artificial meteor shower over Setouchi skies.
- Dig a little deeper into history. India’s Hampi archaeological complex, created in the sixteenth century by the Vijayanagar Empire to become one of the world’s wealthiest cities, will be opened up to more tourists for the first time in 2019. There are over 1000 temples, forts and palaces to explore across almost twenty-six kilometres along the banks of the Tungabhadra River. Previously incredibly difficult to reach, you can now take a direct flight from Hyderabad and Bangalore to Ballari, driving the last forty kilometres to reach Hampi. Stay at the revamped Kamalpura Palace or glamp at the new Kishkinda Camp where you can join guided archaeological tours, go rock climbing or travel the river in basket boats.
- See them before climate change takes its toll. On the north shore of Ontario's Lake Superior, vast caverns created from frozen 20+ foot waves forge constantly shifting structures each winter, lit by the sun and carved by the wind. Now under threat from climate change, February 2019 might be your last chance to see their spectacular natural beauty. After you’ve finished checking them out, you can indulge in cross-country skiing and snowshoeing at the local Stokely Creek Lodge, or explore famous Alona Bay and Coppermine Point.
- Go wild in New Zealand. Once barely accessible, the Paparoa Track is a new wilderness trail running through the remote Paparoa National Park. Be one of the first to take a walk (or cycle) through fifty-five kilometres of untouched wilderness, starting from a historic mining town through epic limestone gorges, beech forests and sandstone bluffs. The trek will take you three days (or two days to cycle) and culminates at the renowned Punakaiki Blowholes. It's free to hike, and no permit is required – although for a small fee you can say in a bunk hut overlooking the Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea. Bliss for nature lovers.