THE TRIP STARTS WHEN YOU LEAVE THE HOTEL

Some destinations are made for lounging. Others practically dare you to get up and go somewhere. BlkTravel’s Top Excursion Destinations celebrates the places where what you do becomes just as memorable as where you stay.

These are destinations built for travelers who want stories to bring home. Zip through the rainforest in Costa Rica, explore mountains and coastline around Cape Town, island-hop from Zanzibar, chase waterfalls in Dominica, drive Maui’s legendary roads, explore ancient landscapes in Peru, or trade the city entirely for the desert scenery of Arizona. The experiences are wildly different, but they have one thing in common: you did not travel all that way just to see the inside of a resort.

And an excursion does not have to mean jumping off a cliff or hiking for six hours. Food tours, boat trips, cultural experiences, wildlife encounters, historic neighborhoods, scenic drives, off-road adventures, snorkeling, waterfalls, and simply seeing a destination from somewhere unexpected all count. Adventure looks different depending on who is traveling.

Our Top 20 Excursion Destinations are the places where building the itinerary might be the hardest part of planning the trip, because there is simply too much worth doing.

Book the hotel. Drop the bags. Then go see something.