Top 7 places around the world for water adventures

From Alaska's Inside Passage to the Faroe Islands, here are Travel+Leisure's top destinations for water experiences.

Travel+Leisure magazine’s 50 Best Places to Travel is always a fun read, but this year’s category breakdown makes it even more wanderlust inducing. There’s a section of “Where to Go 2024” rankings for travelers looking for cultural immersion, food and drink (Sonoma County gets a shout out), big city thrills and more.

We’re finding the “moments on the water” list especially inspiring, with its mixture of Mississippi River and Norwegian fjord vibes, Alaskan cruises and Portuguese riverways.

Norway’s splashy attractions include the Salmon Eye, a mind-blowing, floating restaurant-meets-sculpture in Hardangerfjord near Bergen. It’s part art — the world’s largest floating art installation — part tasting menu and part aquaculture learning lab.

Alaska makes the top spot on the list, thanks to a surge of new offerings in the Inside Passage, from new cruise ships to a new port on Prince of Wales Island and a huge, floating dock in Skagway.

And the Faroe Islands — which are halfway between Iceland and Norway — are suddenly a hot spot for cold water surfing, spectacular hikes and Instagram-worthy landscapes, including a lake that sits above the ocean. (Yes, really.)

Find the full list of Travel+Leisure’s top 50 spots at www.travelandleisure.com. Meanwhile, here’s just a peek.

Top 7 places for water adventures

1 Coastal Alaska

2 Coastal Norway

3 Douro River, Portugal

4 Faroe Islands, Denmark

5 Kimberley, Australia

6 Mississippi River

7 Queen Anne ship, Southampton, England