This historic British pilgrimage route is one of the world’s best places to visit in 2027, according to Lonely Planet

Alongside a dive to an underwater world in the Aegean Sea and an expedition through the Galápagos, one British hiking route was named among the world’s best experiences by travel publication Lonely Planet.

St Cuthbert’s Way, a 62-mile historic pilgrimage between the Scottish Borders and Northumberland, made the cut on Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel list for 2027. Each year, the travel publication collates a selection of 50 destinations and experiences around the world which it deems to be the most unmissable, compiling them all into a book. 

The pilgrimage route – which was the only UK experience to make the list – winds through moorlands and past ghostly hillforts, tracing a path between Melrose and Lindisfarne first trodden by a 7th-century saint. Around 2,500 people complete the entire thing each year, and certain sections of the path are also suitable for cyclists and even horseriders. 

St Cuthbert’s Way passes plenty of village pubs, which walkers can stop in for a quick recharge, and you can even wild-camp along the Scottish part of the route, although you’ll have to find official accom once you cross the border into England. Plus, anyone who completes the journey can score an official certificate for their efforts. Because what’s the point in traipsing all that way if you have nothing to show for it?

Traditionally trodden from west to east, the final stop on St Cuthbert’s Way is Northumberland’s Holy Island, a breathtaking and otherworldly islet which is cut off from the mainland twice a day at high tide and is positively chocka with historic sites, pubs and cafés.

You can read Lonely Planet’s 2027 Best in Travel list in full here.

Did you see that this 800-year-old castle is being turned into Wales’ next major tourist attraction?

Plus: last year Lonely Planet named East Anglia one of the world’s top places to visit.