9 Ethereal Places to Add to Your Escapist Travel List

Our collective want to flee could also be approaching a fever pitch. Escape what? Oh, take your decide. A couple of issues on my private record: Screens, the rise of authoritarianism, persistent wars, AI the whole lot, and local weather anxiousness.

I’m not alone. In a recent Gallup poll, 40 p.c of American girls ages 15 to 44 (my demographic) revealed “they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity.” A bit greater than a decade in the past, in 2014, solely 10 p.c of girls ages 15 to 44 reported feeling that method. To a lesser diploma, males additionally need out; 19 p.c of males in that age group would additionally go away if they might. The New Yorker even lately printed a information entitled “How to Leave the U.S.A.” 

Maybe that’s what’s driving the rising journey pattern of escapist and surrealist locations. In its latest annual trends predictions, Pinterest known as “fairytale meets fever dream” the best pattern in journey of 2026. Think mystical forests, mysterious formations, and ethereal locations that make you’re feeling such as you’re in an alternate actuality or on one other planet.

While you do what you’ll be able to to make issues decidedly much less dystopian, each every so often, all of us want an escape. For anybody who feels the identical, I’m sharing a number of the most mystical, ethereal locations I’ve visited up to now—and the otherworldly locations topping my future journey record this 12 months. Happy escaping.

The Most Ethereal Places I’ve Ever Been

Scottish Highlands, Scotland

With close to perma-fog surrounding craggy, emerald hills and castles, the Scottish Highlands are quintessential “mystic outlands,” as Pinterest dubs this journey pattern. Having visited twice, I perceive why the Scottish Highlands aesthetic has turn into so wanted. There’s a purpose fantasy collection like Game of Thrones and Harry Potter have been filmed right here—you’ll be able to go to shooting locations for each.

My first go to to Scotland was for my honeymoon. My husband and I lugged two huge packs crammed with trad climbing gear (P.S., after I’m not writing journey tales, I’m the editor-in-chief of Climbing) across the nation. But because of persistent rains, we have been solely capable of truly climb as soon as. Instead, we spent our time touring again in time to the thirteenth century on the Eilean Donan Castle (which appeared in a James Bond movie), mountain climbing across the enchanting Fairy Pools within the Isle of Skye, and ingesting an excessive amount of scotch whereas enjoying cribbage in cozy pubs.

Head to the Highlands in case your escapist journey fantasy has medieval undertones, you would possibly consider in monsters lurking beneath lakes, and you favor climate forecasts conducive to ending whole fantasy novels in a matter of days over sunny skies.

The Amazon

If you want a breather from the chaos of recent life, head to the “Lungs of the Earth.” A unique form of chaos thrives right here, and it’s known as biodiversity. A pair autumns in the past, I had the prospect to go to a regenerative ancient chakra farm in Ecuador. I tasted extra fruit than I might document in my pocket book, swung from a jungle vine, and noticed how the Indigenous Kichwa individuals use Amazonian crops for the whole lot from drugs and dyes to hairbrushes.

But the second that may follow me for the remainder of my life was once we emerged from the gorgeous chaos of the jungle throughout a stroll led by a Kichwan household. All of the sudden, the thick vegetation and tangles of vines cleared as we reached the sting of a cliff, the place water pooled above a roaring waterfall descending lots of of toes to extra rainforest beneath. A tapestry of timber stretched out for miles as birds dipped out and in of sight overhead. The vastness was staggering (that is obvious within the drone shot of us on this Instagram put up beneath, taken by our journey photographer James Roh).

A go to to the Amazon—whether or not in Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, or one other nation dwelling to a part of the world’s largest rainforest—is equal elements mystical and motivating. You will escape the concrete jungles, however additionally, you will be reminded of how lush and alive our planet is—and the way vital it’s to struggle to preserve it.

Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni

Technically, I by no means made it to Salar de Uyuni, the mind-bending salt flats that stretch by some accounts so far as 4,633 sq. miles. That’s as a result of I broke my foot shortly earlier than we have been presupposed to arrive whereas bouldering within the Valle de Rocas. With no crutches obtainable in any of the small cities in central Bolivia, I spent two days hopping round whereas using within the decrease baggage compartment of a bus to make it again to La Paz—and I by no means received to see the biggest salt flats on the earth.

But shortly earlier than the accident, I visited a extremely saline lake known as Laguna Colorado. Stretches of salt flats lined its shores, the place flamingos perched. I’ve additionally been to the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, the place I reside. Walking on the saline panorama feels lighter than life—and peering into the horizon will blow your thoughts. For photographers, the chance to play with perspective is irresistible.

Here, the fever dream is what you make of it—a panorama that doubles as a clean canvas for illusions and moon-age daydreams. Walking on salt flats does really feel like what I think about a stroll on the lunar floor could be.

Spiral Jetty in Salt Lake City, Utah

Speaking of salt, you could find it surrounding this iconic piece of land artwork on the northeastern shore of Utah’s endangered Great Salt Lake. Completed by Robert Smithson in 1970, the counterclockwise spiral stretches 1,500 toes lengthy and 15 toes vast.

While it was as soon as continuously obscured by lake water, the endangered saline lake not often submerges this art work these days because of a megadrought and the state’s water calls for. This implies that throughout most visits, you’ll be able to stroll the spiral and ponder its that means: entropy—the breaking down of issues, the descent into dysfunction.

When I visited Spiral Jetty a couple of years in the past, I arrived alone, after an hour on filth roads, the place I handed a Cold War-era rocket garden and the Golden Spike, the purpose that marked the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. As I pulled as much as Smithson’s spiral, wild horses eyed me from the hills above the lake. Walking the spiral in a silence interrupted solely by the occasional buzzing fly is an expertise I’ll always remember.

Continue the land artwork escape by making the two-and-a-half-hour journey west to see one other piece of historic land artwork in Utah: Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, greatest visited throughout the winter or summer time solstice.

Ijen Crater in Java, Indonesia

I’m a bit torn about together with Ijen Crater—or Kawah Ijen in Malay—on Indonesia’s island of Java on this record. It’s undoubtedly maybe essentially the most mystical place I’ve ever been, but it surely’s additionally the positioning of a harmful mining operation. As we hiked as much as the rim of the crater in pre-dawn darkness, dozens of younger males pushed wheelbarrows crammed with sulfur-emitting poisonous gasses up and down the path. Unmasked, these miners breathe in carcinogenic sulfur dioxide that may result in respiratory issues and different well being points. At the highest, we tried to help them by shopping for yellow trinkets they’d long-established from the volcanic sulfur.

The world’s largest acidic lake, Ijen bewitches all who behold it with its unreal cerulean blue floor. As it emits sulfuric gasses, the air above glows sapphire, giving the lake the nickname “blue fire.” The sight seems extra spectacular by night time, however we reached Ijen too late at dawn to see the complete impact.

Just as surreal because the volcanic lake itself is the encompassing panorama. On our trek again down, mist hovered over rolling hills of darkish grasses and timber, a few of which have been leaf-less, gnarled, and useless as a result of poisonous fumes of Ijen. Back on flat land, distributors arrange makeshift tents, the place we purchased on the spot ramen and processed what we’d seen.

If you’re contemplating an escape to expertise the yogic vibes and temples of Ubud or to the seashores of Bali’s coast, contemplate including on an tour to Ijen. Visually, it is going to grip you—and provides you numerous to consider.

House on Fire, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah

One extra Utah spot for this record of ethereal locations—since I’m biased as a Utahn of 9 years and a neighborhood journey information writer. Several extra otherworldly locations exist in Utah that I thought-about including right here—Pando, Monument Valley, and Singing Canyon, amongst them. But in the end, House on Fire, a cultural heritage web site within the desert, stands out.

One of the one nationwide monuments co-managed by a coalition of native tribes with ancestral ties to the land, Bears Ears National Monument stays a sacred place to many. This by no means felt extra poignant to me than at House on Fire, which is definitely not the stays of a home, however of historical granaries constructed by the Ancestral Puebloan individuals. I navigated to GPS coordinates, pulled over on the facet of a street, and located the faint path by way of Mule Canyon, which I adopted as a robust fall breeze rustled the comb round me.

I turned a nook and there it was: buildings of stone huddled beneath a mushroom-like sandstone dome. An older couple was there, however left after I arrived, leaving me alone on the web site. I hiked across the granaries, imagining them brimming with heaps of seeds, ears of corn, or pine nuts. Past the granaries to the left, I noticed a constriction main upward. I scrambled up a boulder and wandered by way of a dim alcove, after I noticed two umber handprints, centuries outdated, printed on the rock. Further by way of the alcove, I noticed 4 extra. Bears Ears is actually otherworldly within the sense that it transports you again in time geologically and culturally.

The Most Ethereal Places on My Travel List

Japan’s Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

The roots of this big forest of bamboo lie centuries in the past throughout the imperial Heian interval, from 794 to 1185 C.E. Back then, Kyoto, the place the forest is situated, served because the capital of the Japanese empire. This dense grove of bamboo contains stalks as excessive as 92 toes, immersing the customer in a world of inexperienced—and Zen embodied. In Japan, bamboo symbolizes power, resilience, and the Zen philosophy. Since this arboreal attraction entices many guests, it’s greatest to reach earlier than dawn and seize that golden mild. But I might like to go at sundown, then keep for stargazing amid the inexperienced giants swaying within the winds of darkness.

Faroe Islands

Located within the North Atlantic, practically equidistant between Iceland to the northwest, Norway to the east, and Scotland to the south, this archipelago is definitely a part of Denmark, practically 1,000 miles away. The Faroes formed over 50 million years ago as volcanoes erupted, blanketing the land in flows of lava that solidified into basalt. Ghostly sea stacks, perpetual waterfalls, and dramatic cliffs make this vacation spot as “mystic outlands” because it will get. Amid the pure splendor, loom Viking burial mounds and archaeological sites—and loads of sheep. While I’m hesitant to plan a climbing journey to this land of rain, mist, and doubtless sketchy rock like I did in Scotland, I might like to lean into the water, kayaking between sea stacks.

The Wave, Coyote Buttes

Imagine sand dunes in a violent wind storm coaxed into dramatic swirls and varieties—then freezing in place perpetually. That’s one of the best visible description I can provide you with for this psychedelic sandstone formation on the border of Utah and Arizona. Technically, “The Wave” itself lies in northern Arizona, however the Wire Pass trailhead begins in southern Utah. For a number of years, I’ve been vying for an advanced lottery permit to hike to this elusive—and extremely in-demand—space. No cube for me but, however perhaps 2026 will probably be my 12 months. If you don’t have little youngsters or a 9-to-5, it’s also possible to be extra opportunistic. While in southern Utah, attempt for an easier-to-obtain daily lottery as an alternative.

Tips for the Escapist Traveler

To escape, you want the precise vacation spot, however you additionally want the precise mindset. It’s a bit like your suspension of disbelief in studying a novel or watching a fantasy trilogy set in, say, some mystic outlands. You know you’re nonetheless on this similar earth, in your similar actuality, beholden to your similar tasks. But you want a respite from all of it. You want an escape you’ll be able to briefly get misplaced in. A spot to seek out higher magnificence and perspective on the earth upon your return.

Here are a couple of suggestions for profiting from the escapist journey pattern:

Turn your cellphone on airplane mode.

No emergency work check-ins, no group textual content drama, no social media. Just the escape.

Bring a non-phone digital camera.

This method, you’ll be able to take pictures with out getting swept away by unplanned doomscrolling. Consider bringing a DSLR, a Polaroid digital camera, or perhaps a point-and-shoot for nostalgic prints post-trip. Don’t have a digital camera? Rent one out of your native digital camera store or online.

Plan , becoming learn.

Find a historic novel set within the vacation spot you’re visiting. Fantasy max with romantasy or the primary tome in an epic collection. Or throw it again with some age-old fables or fairy tales.

Make an escapist playlist.

If you’re street tripping or renting a automotive, the precise music will set the temper. Depending in your vacation spot, contemplate some Bjork, Wind Rose, Air, Phillip Glass, or cinematic soundtracks.

Travel like a real LARPer.

This tip isn’t for everybody! But lately, I stayed at a scifi-themed resort in the midst of nowhere that absolutely leaned into the idea with wardrobe leases, character playing cards, fictional narratives about every constructing posted on plaques, and extra out-there particulars. If you’re up for it, go all in. Pack an imaginative wardrobe to match the vibe of the ethereal place you’re visiting. Role play together with your journey mate. And carry what you want for some D&D (or different fantasy-inspired video games) on the street.

TELL US: Is there an otherworldly place you’re dreaming of visiting this 12 months? Or an unreal spot that stopped you in your tracks?