Rough Guides Predicts Hot 2018 Out of the Way Destinations

A Northern English city, a drive through the segregationist South, and a landlocked and often overlooked African country are up and coming destinations that you might want to explore for your clients in 2018, according to one of the foremost publishers for off the beaten path travel.

Rough Guides team of travel editors and authors handpicked 18 places “that will be big news next year,” destinations “that are underrated, up-and-coming or newly back on the tourist map,” said senior web editor Coralie Modschiedler.

Number one on the list is Newcastle, the northern English city on the Tyne river, and a short drive to the Northumberland National Park. Rough Guides calls the city genial, with a “lively nightlife, burgeoning restaurant scene, fantastic museums and architectural feats.”

Next summer Newcastle and its sister city Gateshead will host the Great Exhibition of the North, “a two-month jamboree that will tell the story of Northern England and how its artists and innovators have helped shape the world we live in.”

In second place, the publisher recommends the new Civil Rights Trail in the USA, which courses through Atlanta, (birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.), Montgomery, and Birmingham, Ala., and Jackson, Miss., the home to the recently opened Mississippi Civil Rights.

Also on the trail is the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, Tenn., where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and which now hosts the National Civil Rights Museum. April 4, 2018 will mark 50 years since the assassination.

“Malawi is fast gaining a reputation as a fabulous safari destination,” Rough Guides said, with three reserves – Majete, Liwonde and Nkhotakota – run by the conservation organization African Parks. Accommodations include everything from luxury lodges to community campsites, the publisher said.

Malta’s capital Valletta and the country of Wales round out Rough Guides’ top five. Cuba was ranked sixth, with Rough Guides citing the Trump Administration’s tightening on travel restrictions “good news for travelers, who can take advantage of increased competition and reduced demand.”