These are the most popular bucket list travel activities in 2024

Most Popular Bucket List Activities in 2024

The most popular bucket list travel activities in 2024

• Seeing the Northern Lights is the most popular bucket list activity in the world.
• Trekking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu came second, while visiting the Galapagos Islands took third place.
• Antarctica cruising stands out as the top choice for Boomers (46%), whereas Gen Z displayed a notable preference (62%) for seeing the Northern Lights.
  
• Men are twice as likely to want to climb Kilimanjaro as women.

A new study has revealed that seeing the Northern Lights is the most popular bucket list activity in the world.

Adventure travel company Skyhook surveyed over 4,000 people from across the globe, probing them about their travel preferences. The survey formed part of a broader study on people’s adventure personality traits.

As part of the survey, participants were asked to select three activities that would be on the top of their bucket lists.

Participants had 15 bucket list activities to choose from, including climbing Kilimanjaro, hot air ballooning in Cappadocia, trekking with gorillas, and cruising Antarctica.

Some preferences differed considerably by generation, gender, and country.

Here is the complete list in order of most to least popular:

• See the Northern Lights
• Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
• Visit the Galapagos Islands
• Climb Kilimanjaro
• Antarctic cruise
• Explore the ancient city of Petra
• Everest Base Camp Trek
• Go on an African safari
• Dive the Great Barrier Reef
• Space travel
• Gorilla trekking
• See the Grand Canyon
• Cappadocia hot air balloon
• Visit Angkor Wat
• Surf in Indonesia

Study Insights on the Top Ten Bucket List Activities

Here are some of the top insights on each activity taken from the study.

We’ve included information based on responses from people located in different countries, of different generations (Baby Boomers: Born 1946 to 1964 aka Boomers, Gen X: Born 1965 to 1980, Millennials: Born 1981 to 2000, Gen Z: Born 2001 to 2020), and genders (99% of respondents selected either female or male when asked about gender, so we used those two answers to focus the gender analysis).

1. See the Northern Lights

Seeing the Northern Lights captured the top spot for bucket list activities in 2024, with 38% of respondents from around the globe selecting it as their number one dream experience.

This surge in interest might be linked to the recent phenomenon where parts of the UK and Europe experienced this breathtaking light show, sparking widespread fascination and media coverage.

Country-wise, South Africans showed the highest enthusiasm, with 39% voting for the Northern Lights in their top three. This was closely followed by Belgians and residents of the UAE.

Among the generations, Gen Z displayed a notable preference, with 62% voting for the Northern Lights. Could this be influenced by the event’s extensive social media coverage earlier this year?

Additionally, the activity was particularly popular among women, with 43% marking it as their top bucket list item.

2. Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu ranks second on the list, with 34% of global respondents selecting it as a must-do adventure. The UK showed the highest enthusiasm for this activity, with 39% of its residents keen on exploring the ancient trail.

Gen X and millennials share a close interest in this trek, with 38% of Gen X and 37% of millennials voting for it.

Women slightly outpaced men in their preference, with 36% of women versus 31% of men eager to experience the journey to Machu Picchu.

3. Visit the Galapagos Islands

Visiting the Galapagos Islands is the third most popular bucket list activity, with 29% of people worldwide rating it as a top activity. Germans lead the pack, with 37% placing it at the top of their bucket lists.

The Galapagos Islands are particularly popular with Gen X, with 34% ranking it in their top three activities. Meanwhile, it ranks last in the top 10 for Gen Z, outlining the generational difference in travel preferences.

4. Climb Kilimanjaro

More Germans (36%) than any other country are keen to climb Kilimanjaro, although it wasn’t actually their most voted activity. That was the Northern Lights.

Kilimanjaro was, however, the top choice for Canada, with around one-third of respondents eager to take on the challenge.

Generationally, Gen X showed the most enthusiasm, with 29% voting for Kilimanjaro. Boomers were the least interested, with only 8% voting for it.

Notably, men are twice as likely to want to climb Kilimanjaro as women, with 37% of men and 18% of women expressing interest.

In fact, this was the highest vote from men, making it their top bucket list activity.

5. Antarctic cruise

An Antarctic cruise is highly appealing, particularly among the Irish, who gave it the most votes compared with other countries. 35% expressed a wish to embark on this icy adventure.

Antarctic cruising also stands out as the top choice for Boomers – 46% chose the cruise in their top three. As the cruise was one of the least physically demanding options on the list, this isn’t surprising.

Interestingly, Antarctic cruising received a balanced vote between women (24%) and men (23%), showcasing its broad appeal across genders.

6. Explore the ancient city of Petra

Looking at popularity among countries, the survey shows that exploring the ancient city of Petra ranked highest with Belgians, who gave it 28% of their vote. Overall, though, it was number four on their bucket list.

Petra is particularly popular among Boomers, with 31% placing it in their top three choices.

7. Everest Base Camp Trek

On a country level, the highest enthusiasm for Everest Base Camp (EBC) comes from the Irish (33%). This is followed closely by people from the UAE (31%).

Among generations, millennials show the most interest in EBC, with 24% keen on this challenging trek.

However, it’s worth noting that millennials rated EBC lower compared to the other two bucket list hikes: Kilimanjaro and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

8. Go on an African safari

Even though this wasn’t UAE respondents’ top bucket list activity (Northern Lights was), they still came out as the strongest country in favour of going on safari. 36% expressed interest.

Interestingly, this activity saw the closest vote between generations, with only a 6% difference. Millennials led with 21%, followed by Gen X at 19%, Gen Z at 17%, and Boomers at 15%.

There was a significant gender disparity in the votes, with women being 1.6 times more interested in an African safari than men (23% vs. 14%).

9. Dive the Great Barrier Reef

Compared with other countries, diving the Great Barrier Reef is of most interest to Belgians, with 31% giving it their thumbs-up.

Generationally, Gen Z was most drawn to this activity, with 26% voting for it. Overall, it was their second favourite activity after the Northern Lights.

At the other end of the top ten, the lowest interest came from the United States. Only 11% of respondents expressed a desire to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

10. Space travel

Although commercial space travel isn’t accessible yet, it’s certainly captured our imaginations! The top three countries that voted for space travel are Germany (32%), followed by Canada (25%), and the United States (18%).

Gen Z showed the most interest in space travel, with 23% keen on this futuristic adventure. Meanwhile, Gen X was the least interested at 7%.

Notably, men are three times more interested in space travel than women (24% vs. 8%).

Space travel lost points in Switzerland, with only 5% of people expressing interest in this activity.

Table 1 shows the bucket list activities arranged in order of their popularity. This was calculated as the highest to lowest percentage of votes each received globally.

Table 2

Table 2 shows the percentage of the top three votes each bucket list activity received from various countries.

Table 3

Table 3 shows the percentage of the top three votes each generation gave to the respective activities.

Table 4

Table 4 shows how women and men voted for their top three bucket list activities.

Methodology

This survey formed part of a broader adventure travel personality quiz launched by Skyhook Adventure on the 16th of May 2024.

Access the quiz here: Skyhook’s Adventure Travel Personality Quiz

The quiz was sent to the Skyhook customer database of 30,000 travellers, as well as promoted across the Skyhook website, which receives 50,000 visitors a month.

At the time of analysis, over 4,000 people had completed the survey (4,042 people).

Insight for the study was gathered from a survey question asking participants to choose their top three bucket list activities from a list of 15 options. These activity options were randomly selected after doing internet research on the top bucket list adventures across the world.

During the study, we also asked participants to provide the following information:

• Country location
• Age
• Gender (we include the option for Other and Prefer not to say, but the number of respondents that selected these was negligible)

Analysis by Country Location

At the time of analysis, respondents from nearly 50 countries took part in the study. For the purposes of this case study, we narrowed the focus to the ten countries with the most respondents.

Because each country had varying numbers of respondents, we calculated multipliers to scale the answers proportionally from each location.

We took the country with the highest number of respondents and divided the number of respondents with each of the other nine countries. This gave us a multiplier for the nine countries with lower votes.

We then took that country multiplier and applied it against the number of votes each activity received from each country.

Analysis by Age

The study received responses from four generations. Where mentioned, the following applies:

• Baby Boomers: Born 1946 to 1964 (also known as Boomers)
• Gen X: Born 1965 to 1980
• Millennials: Born 1981 to 2000
• Gen Z: Born 2001 to 2020

Again, the study had an uneven number of respondents from people spanning the generations. So, we calculated multipliers for three generations to get a proportional response weighted against the largest generational group.

To do this, we took the generation with the highest number of respondents and divided it against each of the other three groups. This gave us a multiplier to apply against the number of votes made by the three generations with the lowest representation.

Analysis by Gender

The study received responses from various gender groups. 99% of respondents selected either female or male when asked about gender, so we used those two answers to focus the gender analysis.

To ensure proportional representation of women and men in the votes, we calculated a multiplier for the smaller group. We did this by dividing the number of respondents from the larger group by the number of respondents from the smaller group. We then used the multiplier to increase the number of votes submitted by the smaller group and give a proportional result.