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“Travel at its best is an exchange; the real magic unfolds over shared dinner tables with strangers, chance encounters, and moments of serendipity that you can’t plan for and you can’t check off the list,” says travel writer Sebastian Modak. “Choose destinations that aren’t suffering from overtourism,” says Jeremy Tarr of Fodor’s, whose No List for 2023 urges readers to reconsider visiting destinations like Venice and Lake Tahoe. While overtourism will always threaten hotspots such as cities and well-known spectacles, says Hilary Bradt, founder of the legendary Bradt Guides, wildlife tourism, done in a controlled manner, can be resoundingly positive. Slow travel can change how you see everything. Look for mom and pop stores, family-run restaurants, locally-owned hotels, local guides and local producers. “In an age of mass travel -- when people can cross the world on a whim -- it becomes all the more important to open your mind to the magic that can be found anywhere, not just in so-called ‘exotic’ locales or where your hippest Instagram friend says you should be going,” says Modak.
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