Brisbane and the Great Ocean Road included in Lonely Planet’s best family travel destinations for 2018

Leading global travel authority Lonely Planet has named Brisbane one of the world’s Top 10 Best Culture Trips for Families in 2018, and the Great Ocean Road is recommended for Cross Generational Travel next year in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2018, published this week.

Best in Travel 2018 is Lonely Planet’s 13th annual agenda-setting collection of the world’s hottest destinations, experiences and trends for the year ahead. The best-selling inspirational travel yearbook highlights the top 10 cities, countries and regions that Lonely Planet’s experts recommend travellers experience in 2018, as well as various new travel trends such as Cross-Generational Travel.

“For a taste of the uber-relaxed, outdoorsy, barbecue-loving culture that is quintessentially Australian, a trip to Brisbane hits the right notes for those with kids”, writes Lonely Planet’s Imogen Hall. “Splash around on man-made Streets Beach (perfect for small swimmers) or let off steam in the tree-house playground at New Farm Park. Relax with a BBQ in the riverside South Bank Parklands before checking out koalas at nearby Lone Pine Sanctuary. For a taste of ancient Australian culture, there’s Aboriginal art in the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), which runs sessions for children.”

Lonely Planet’s Top 10 Best Culture Trips for Families in 2018 are:

1. Oman
2. Norway
3. Namibia
4. Mexico
5. Emilia-Romagna, Italy
6. Orkney, Scotland
7. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
8. Nashville, USA
9. Brisbane, Australia
10. Kyoto, Japan

The book also declares Cross-Generational Travel as a Top Travel Trend for 2018. The top 10 locations recommended here are:
1. Budapest, Hungary

2. The Nile, Egypt
3. Oaxaca, Mexico
4. Napa Valley, USA
5. Great Ocean Road, Australia
6. Kerala, India
7. Tyrol, Austria
8. Beijing, China
9. Kenya
10. Naples, Italy

Lonely Planet’s writers and experts spend time on the road in almost every destination on the planet, and each year they report which destinations are set to take off, offering travellers the best experience available. The destinations selected for Best in Travel meet specific criteria. It could be that something special is going on in the year ahead, or there's been recent development and a lot of buzz about the place; that it offers travellers new things to see or do; or that the Lonely Planet team of experts thinks it’s been overlooked and underrated and suggests travellers visit before the crowds do.

Deciding what to include in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel annual selection is a considered process involving the whole of Lonely Planet’s community: from its writers and editors all the way to its online family of bloggers and tweeters. Each year, they come up with hundreds of places that are not to be missed. These are then whittled down by a panel of in-house travel experts who shortlist in line with criteria such as topicality, excitement and wow-factor.

www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel features all of the Best in Travel 2018 destinations and additional advice on visiting them. Four videos accompany each of the number one destinations to reveal why they were selected the top spots for travel in 2018; all captured using GoPro equipment by Lonely Planet’s experts on the road. Travellers can also enter a My Best in Travel video competition via the website to win return flights for two to the number one country Chile and a GoPro Hero6 Black provided by this year’s sponsor, GoPro.

LONELY PLANET’S BEST IN TRAVEL 2018
208pp, full colour, 180mm x 145mm, paperback, AU$24.99