These Aussie destinations have made the Rough Guide’s 100 Best Places on Earth

From every corner of the world, a new list showcasing the places to visit in 2020 has dropped — and two local destinations have made the cut.

Planning a trip abroad next year or just looking for travel inspiration in your own backyard?

Have you ever thought about a trip to Stone Town in Zanzibar? Or even Moscow’s Red Square?

If you haven’t, you might be missing out on some of the “Best Places on Earth”, according to a new travel guide.

From Beijing’s Forbidden City to the Scottish Highland way, Rough Guides books has compiled a list of destinations promisingly called The Rough Guide to the 100 Best Places on Earth.

The guide is designed to highlight the destinations its editors think are “unmissable, underrated, up-and-coming or back on the tourist map”.

Just leafing through the pages, there are a few places you might not have considered or even encountered.

The guide says it's time to check out the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Salty Wings.

“Taking in exhilarating mountain scenery, dazzling cityscapes, pristine tropical islands, atmospheric ruins and sweeping savannas,” this book claims to have scoured “every corner of the globe in the search for 2020’s most spectacular spots”.

While the entries are full of far-flung places, no “must-see” guide would be complete without a few stops in Australia.

According to the Rough Guide, 2020 is the year to swim the Great Barrier Reef and pay a visit to Uluru.

Across the ditch, the guide describes Fox Glacier on New Zealand’s South Island as a must visit, along with a trip to Queenstown, which is described as “superbly set by the deep-Blue Lake Wakatipu and hemmed in by craggy mountains”.

Queenstown was listed as a must-visit spot in 2020.

“Locals and visitors alike gather in cosy restaurants, spilling out onto the pedestrianised streets to trade stories of fun-filled days over a cold beer or a hot chocolate,” the guide said of the popular destination.

However, among the perennial tourism favourites, the Rough Guide unearths some gems you might not have thought of.

In the south of France, Les Gorges du Verdon are dramatic canyons and a welcome adrenaline-fuelled break from the bijou Provence farmsteads. The guide recommends the “spectacular viewpoints, plunging crevices up to 700m deep and glorious azure-blue lakes”.

In Matera, Italy, the guide suggests you “zigzag through the sloping streets, pausing at Santa Lucia alle Malve and the Crypt of the Original Sin to take in extraordinary eighth and 13th-century frescoes”.

Far from the lavender fields: Gorges du Verdon, south France.

Beijing’s Imperial Palace is now a bustling tourist attraction that should be next on your list. Beyond the impressive walls, it suggests you explore the side rooms and buildings displaying “intimate accoutrements that bring home the realities of court life for its inhabitants”.

If you’re keen to get on the road, make a trip along the Big Sur in California, tracing highways 1 and 101. “Hugging the cliffs, the road winds high above the rugged shore, giving dramatic views of white-capped surf pounding against the rocks below and sun-sprinkled waves stretching out across the horizon,” the guide notes.

Far from Chamonix, discover the Slovenian Alps.

“Formed during the Ice Age, the 7km-long U-shaped glaciated valley features a level, green valley floor covered with flower-speckled meadows and beech woods, enclosed by steplike cliff sides riddled with glacial boulders, waterfalls, springs, streams and a majestic wreath of jagged grey peaks, most of which top 2000m.”

Beijing's Imperial Palace is now a bustling tourist attraction that should be next on your list.

Tanzania’s world heritage site near the cradle of life is contained within an extinct volcano and is a must-visit in 2020.

“Ngorongoro’s highlight is an enormous volcanic crater, formed by the same immense geological upheavals as the Great Rift Valley. Once a mountain as high as Kilimanjaro, about three million years ago Ngorongoro blew itself to bits, covering the Serengeti in ash while the crater floor sank into the mountain. Today, the rim stands at an impressive 2285m.”

The Ngorongoro crater is filled with wildlife.

In the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, near the plains that oversaw the Russian space program, you’ll find “a shining beacon on the desert’s edge”. The space-age structures and white marble buildings belong on another planet.

In Turkey, Cappadocia is home to hundreds of fairy chimneys, with hills dotted with “fantastical forms and honeycombed with cavern towns that give way to boulder-strewn plains”. The ancient cave dwellings are thousands of years old.

The stunning scene at Turkey's Cappadocia as hot air balloons fill the sky.

If you find the summer days pass too quickly, the list advises travellers to head to Norway’s Lofoten Islands, home to the midnight sun.

“The fjords are beautiful, timeless and everyone’s idea of the soul of Norway,” says the guide.

If summer passes too quickly, check out Norway’s Lofoten Islands, home to the midnight sun.

Also making the list is a visit to Mongolia on horseback. In the capital of Ulaanbaatar, Genghis Khan appears on bank notes, cigarette packets and even a giant, 50m tall statue that the guide calls a “modern, man-made structure of titanic proportions”.

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO THE 100 BEST PLACES ON EARTH

OCEANIA

Fiji

Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

New Caledonia

Queenstown, New Zealand

Tuamotu and Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

Uluru, Australia

ASIA

Andaman Islands, India

Began, Myanmar

Bangkok, Thailand

Bhutan

Forbidden City, Beijing

Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue, Mongolia

Great Wall of China

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Himalayas

Jaisalmer, India

Khiva, Uzbekistan

Kyoto, Japan

Lahaul and Spiti, India

Maldives

Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Sri Lanka

Taj Mahal, India

Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

Tbilisi, Georgia

Tokyo, Japan

Turkmenistan

AFRICA & THE MIDDLE EAST

Beirut, Lebanon

Cape Town, South Africa

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ethiopia

Jerusalem

Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Madagascar

Marrakesh, Morocco

Mount Sinai, Egypt

Namibia

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Petra, Jordan

Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

Sahara Desert

Stone Town, Zanzibar

Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe

EUROPE

Acropolis, Athens

Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Berlin Wall, Germany

Cappadocia, Turkey

Dubrovnik Old Town, Croatia

Galway, Ireland

Gorges du Verdon, France

Haghia Sophia, Istanbul

Iceland

Kamniške — Savinja Alps, Slovenia

Lapland, Finland

Lisbon, Portugal

London, UK

Matera, Italy

Norwegian Fjords

Paris, France

Penwith, Cornwall

Prague, Czech Republic

Red Square, Moscow

Rome, Italy

Sagrada Família, Barcelona

Saxon Switzerland

Scottish Highlands and Islands

St Petersburg, Russia

Stockholm, Sweden

Utrecht, Netherlands

Venice, Italy

Versailles, France

USA, MEXICO & CANADA

Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Denver and Colorado, USA

Grand Canyon, USA

Massachusetts, USA

Memphis and the Deep South, USA

Mexico City

Monument Valley, Arizona

New York City, USA

Niagara Falls, Canada

Pacific Coast Highway, California

Vancouver Island, Canada

Vermont, USA

Wynwood Walls, Miami

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

CENTRAL AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Amazon Rainforest

Bolivia

British Virgin Islands

Cuba

Easter Island

Galápagos Islands

Machu Picchu, Peru

Nazca Lines, Peru

Nicaragua

Patagonia, Argentina/Chile

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Tayrona National Park, Colombia

Tikal, Guatemala

Uvita, Costa Rica

The Rough Guide to the 100 Best Places on Earth for 2020 is published on September 1.

— with New Zealand Herald