Northeastern Minnesota made the list for Best In Travel 2027. Here is why.
Lonely Planet named Northeastern Minnesota one of the 50 best places to travel in 2027.
Lonely Planet is known for its guidebooks and annual “Best in Travel” list, which highlights destinations and experiences from around the world. The list features 50 places, including locations from Rhode Island to Chengdu, China.
“Best in Travel is our annual list of the things that we’re most excited about for the year ahead,” Lonely Planet Senior Editorial Director Alex Howard said. “It’s a global list that really captures what we’re hearing from travelers. They want to slow down. They want to get to know a place and experience something that’s a little bit different than the usual top sites.”
The process of narrowing down the list starts with input from writers, editors and travel experts.
“It starts with a question to our writers, our editors, our travel experts: What is exciting your about next year? And that gives us a really long list of destinations and recommendations,” Howard said.
An internal team then reviews and debates the recommendations before finalizing the global list.
“Because our writers and our travel experts are always kind of on the road, looking for what’s new, it all comes from that sort of personal, firsthand experience,” Howard explained.
He said Minnesota’s North Shore and Boundary Waters made the list because “it really is about the journey being the experience.”
“Our writer, Bailey Freeman, started in Minneapolis, went up to Duluth, and then along the Shore towards the Boundary Waters. And there, she kind of really fell in love with the tiny towns and the cool communities, the history, and also all the outdoors and nature that there is to experience. There’s some great hiking, there’s some dramatic coastline and some of the most pristine wilderness the Midwest and frankly, the U.S. has to offer,” Howard said.
Travelers are encouraged to use the list as a resource for planning their trips.
“You can filter for the kinds of things, experiences, whether it’s food or outdoor, the things that feel most like you,” Howard said. “Because, again, that’s what we’re hearing from travelers is they often begin with the experience that they have in mind, whether it’s a food experience or a hike or a drive, in the case of the North Shore. Kind of start with that idea, and then you can choose the destination from there.”
Other U.S. destinations on the list include Rhode Island, where you can be a lighthouse keeper for a night, and “flightseeing” in Alaska.
“This is something that I had a chance to do a couple years ago and really does literally open up the Last Frontier,” Howard said. “You get a sense of the scale of the landscapes, and you get to access parts of the country that aren’t served by roads.”
The full “Best in Travel” list is available online and in book form.
Source: www.wdio.com
