"Lonely Planet" ranks Dresden among the top destinations for 2023

According to the “Lonely Planet” travel guide, the Saxon state capital of Dresden will be one of the trendiest holiday destinations in the world in the coming year. In the global list "Best in Travel 2023" published online on Wednesday, the city on the Elbe is next to destinations such as Accra (Ghana), Sydney (Australia), Montevideo (Uruguay), but also entire countries such as Guyana, Jordan and Albania.

It's the 18th time that the nearly 50-year-old Lonely Planet brand has recommended travel destinations for the following year. Editor-in-Chief Nitya Chambers (Senior Vice President of Content and Executive Editor) emphasizes that Best in Travel aims to show "how to get away from the crowds and get to the true heart of the destination".

There is no longer a best-in-travel book (the previous book version is taking a break, they say). There are also no more rankings, but 30 goals in five categories such as "Eat" and "Relax".

Dresden is listed in "Learn new things" alongside El Salvador, the US state of New Mexico, Marseille in the south of France, the city of Manchester in England and the region of southern Scotland.

Regarding Dresden as a “city of awakening”, the list praises the fact that urban renewal will continue there in 2023: “The Altmarkt is to be reopened with more accessibility and under climate protection criteria. On one side of the Elbe is the carefully reconstructed old town, on the other the modern center with artisan beer, international cuisine and great street art.” The Elbe Sandstone Mountains with their “fabulous natural scenery” are only a short train ride away.

In Germany, Dresden is known as a cultural metropolis with the Semperoper, the Zwinger, the Saxon Staatskapelle, the Green Vault, the Frauenkirche, the Old Masters Picture Gallery and the Striezelmarkt, which is one of the oldest and largest Christmas markets in the world.

In recent years, however, the image of the city has also suffered. The twelfth-largest city in the Federal Republic in terms of inhabitants often made the headlines, for example with the extremist and Islamophobic Pegida movement and as a center of the so-called angry citizens.

With its list, "Lonely Planet" wants to pay special attention to meaningful travel experiences, according to the brand, which in Germany belongs to MairDumont, the largest German travel publishing group based in Ostfildern near Stuttgart.

The aim is to help with individual travel planning with tips from local experts. “The Food category includes Peru's capital Lima alongside chef Ricardo Martins, affordable world-class food in South Africa and the dining scene around Umbria in Italy, among others. Under the heading "Travel" you will find, for example, the night train between Istanbul and Sofia in Bulgaria that has been reinstated, as well as a long weekend road trip through Nova Scotia in Canada's dramatic Atlantic province, reported by surfer Dean Petty."

The "Lonely Planet" brand, which was launched in 1973 and claims to have printed more than 145 million travel guides in the last 49 years, has chosen ten "best" cities, countries and regions for many years. "Best in Travel" is thus one of a large number of editorial lists that supposedly choose hip travel destinations for a year.

For example, the list "52 Places to Go..." by the "New York Times" is well known. The “Marco Polo” book “Where is the journey going? - The best goals for 2023”, in which, among other things, Mannheim is recommended because of the upcoming Federal Horticultural Show.

Last year, in the “Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2022”, which was still published as a book, Freiburg im Breisgau came third among the cities, behind Auckland in New Zealand and Taipei in Taiwan.

For 2021, "Lonely Planet" had refrained from choosing ten top cities, countries and regions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, inspiring people, travel destinations and tourism projects were presented in an online campaign.

For 2020 - without any knowledge of Corona - the Austrian Salzburg was announced as a top travel city, mainly because of the 100th anniversary of the festival. Bonn was in fifth place at the time because of Beethoven's 250th birthday. For 2019, Germany landed in second place among the states primarily because of the Bauhaus anniversary. For 2018, Hamburg was fourth among the cities. In 2016, Bavaria was eighth in the regions, in 2010 Germany was second in the states.