It’s not just you, the world’s most touristy places are more crowded than ever.
The number of people traveling internationally has grown steadily since the 1950s with a great spike in the last year as travel interests peak in a post-pandemic era. Intense airline competition, falling fares and increases in disposable incomes are just some of the key reasons why travel has boomed in the past few decades: pre-pandemic, the United Nations World Tourism Organization recorded around 1.5 billion annual international tourist arrivals globally. But where do 1.5 billion people go?
The problem is, not all destinations are created equal in the eyes of tourists. In recent years we have cultivated homogenous travel desires whereby, often, we’re all striving towards the same experiences. We collectively dream of seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris (check), the Grand Canyon (check) or the Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak (check).
Traveling beyond the classic honeypot destinations is a terrific way to spread your money to corners of the globe where local people desperately need it. Seek out the places where tourists are few and far between and your visit has the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives, creating incomes and opportunities that can empower entire communities.
Get inspired to travel off the beaten path with these 10 select highlights from Lonely Planet’s new Offbeat book; certain to feed your wanderlust.
Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada
Move over Banff and Glacier National Park — this Rocky Mountain bolthole has it all
In the Rocky Mountains between the big-ticket national parks of Glacier in the US and Banff in Canada, Waterton Lakes enjoys less celebrity and less traffic than its esteemed neighbors. Yet this spectacular pocket of the Rockies has international pedigree. Inaugurated in 1895 as one of the world’s first national parks, it has since been recognized by Unesco as a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site. To add to its uniqueness, Waterton was conjoined with Glacier in 1932 to form America’s first International Peace Park, symbolizing the longstanding relationship between the two countries.
With its small town and handsome heritage hotel surrounded by chiseled mountains and a long navigable lake, Waterton is, in many ways, a microcosm of the larger Rocky Mountain parks to the north. But with…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Stories – Lonely Planet…