Lonely Planet shares the top 500 places to visit in the world.

It’s the first time the 42-year-old travel companion has created the ultimate bucket list.

People mostly know Lonely Planet as that book that holds all the amazing holiday destinations, cafes, wineries, and gelato shops around the globe and holds a nice place on your shelf.

You only have to start typing “what to do in…” when Google suggests Lonely Planet as the place to sort your travel itinerary. The world’s favourite travelling companion has released a list of the top 500 places to visit before you die, and while some of the landscapes are hardly surprising, others are a bit of a shock.

In a true testament to the great continent on which we live, Australia makes the top 20 THREE times. Our neighbourly friends over in New Zealand made the whole list nine times (so you know where you’ll be jetting off to next). There is also a vast assortment of rocks (think Stonehenge) and waterfalls that made the cut.

Tom Hall, Editorial Director of Lonely Planet, said “This book has been years in the making and brings together the most compelling places in the world according to our team of globetrotting travel experts. Every traveller has got a list of places they simply have to see – places heard about, read about or dreamed about. Of course, what makes somewhere special is different for everyone and we’d love to hear about other people’s top spots. But this is our definitive list. And one we hope will inspire many other travel wishlists.”

Have your frequent flyer points at the ready.

Here are the Top 20 that made the list.

You can view the full list here.

How many of the top 20 have you visited? Where’s next on your list?

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