What is the best travel destination? The best restaurant, the best beach, the best ski resort, the best hotel…? Does it matter, really? Do people look to have fun and just appreciate things or show to others that they found “the best of the best”? After all, the purpose of travel is… well, travelling, really – to explore, to find new wonders, to meet people who are completely different from us and yet just the same.

That said, one has to have some references, it is true. That is the reason why hotels are rated from 1 to 5 stars: you know that a five star hotel has much more comfort and services than a one star hotel. However, sometimes an experience in a three star hotel can be more rewarding than in a five star hotel. It depends on the purpose, the place, the company.

Extreme experiences are a good example of this paradox, for example, expeditions to Antarctica or to the Amazon. The discomfort is great, but the reward is greater (for the braves, of course). On the contrary, a five star experience, with swimming pool, SPA, and people paid to please you in whatever you want can be an outstanding experience for some, but exasperating for others. Is this experience better than the previous ones?…

There are many lists with the best in the world. Those lists were made by people with specific purposes in mind. Some of those purposes are related with money and sponsorships. Or maybe with ideas about what people should like best, a conceptualised ideal that people should follow. There are general lists and specific lists (the 10 best beaches in the world, the 5 best extreme adventures, the 6 top historical monuments).

And then, there are the “bucket lists”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a bucket list is «a list of the things that a person would like to do or achieve before they die». This expression comes from another expression “kick the bucket” , which means «to die». The idea here is to list everything you want to do (related to travel or not) and then cross every item when you have done it. If you google it, you will find a lot of “best ideas for your bucket list”.

However, maybe the best is to just go with the flow and see where life leads you (which is surprisingly difficult, actually). Maybe you can then make a list of the things you did… or simply collect memories in the form of photos and writings, or just by sharing them without arrogance, pretence or I-know-best attitudes.