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A view of canal boats and houses in Amsterdam
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Can you guess the world’s best travel experience (according to TripAdvisor)?

The winners of the 2022 Travellers’ Choice ‘Best of the Best’ awards are in

Ed Cunningham
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Ed Cunningham
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Everyone’s got their own favourite travel experience. The Northern Lights. Sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Getting a helicopter over Uluru. That kind of stuff.

According to TripAdvisor, however, none of those are currently among the world’s best touristy things to do. The winners of the 2022 Travellers’ Choice ‘Best of the Best’ Things to Do Awards are in, and the results are... unexpected, to say the least.

TripAdvisor’s ‘Best of the Best’ awards have taken into account reviews and ratings from solely the past 12 months, trawling through the data to figure out which experiences have gathered the most positive responses from its online community.

And top of the 2022 ranking is… an open-top boat canal cruise in Amsterdam! Which seems like a strange choice but, when you think about it, sounds pretty fair enough. After all, you can’t really do ‘Dam justice without a boat tour, drifting along past all those gorgeous townhouses and world-famous attractions, no doubt with a beer in hand.

Next in TripAdvisor’s list is a quad bike tour in Dubai, which also includes sand-surfing, camel-riding and a BBQ, and third place went to a tour of the north shore of Honolulu, Hawaii. They set the tone for much of the rest of the list, which tends to focus on organised tours and packages.

Here are the world’s top ten travel experiences, according to the 2022 Travellers’ Choice ‘Best of the Best’ awards:

1. Open Boat Canal Cruise, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2. Red Dunes Quad Bike, Dubai, UAE

3. Tour of North Shore, Honolulu, USA

4. Natural Pool & Indian Cave Jeep Safari, Aruba

5. Kayak Tour of Shell Key Preserve and Tampa Bay Area, Tierra Verde, USA

6. Classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru

7. Food Walk, Reykjavik, Iceland

8. High-Speed Thames River Rib Cruise, London, UK

9. Rio Jacaré Pepira by Wild Canoe Territory, Brotas, Brazil

10. City & Beatles Tour, Liverpool, UK

If you’re interested in finding out more about TripAdvisor’s awards, you can check out the full list of winners here.

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