ideas for time travel

Not Your Usual Time Travel Story Ideas (2024)

Looking for unusual time travel story ideas and writing prompts? You’ve come to the right place!

Read on for ideas like a world where time flows differently in different regions, a person with an ability to travel in their dreams, and more!

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The time travel trope.

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Time Travel Story Ideas & Writing Prompts

Time travel has long been a captivating concept in storytelling, transporting us to narratives of endless possibilities. Now, let’s explore some unique and unconventional story ideas!

Please note that the genders in these prompts and story ideas are just placeholders and do not mean to enforce any hurtful stereotypes nor offend anyone.

Story ideas

From unexpected time travelers to unconventional methods of traversing through time, embark on a thrilling, time-bending adventure with these exciting ideas.

• Lost Time A group of explorers stumbles upon an alien-made, time-traveling elevator that can transport them to different moments within their own lifetime, at the cost of reduced longevity.
• Reversed A scientist makes a mistake in their time travel machine, which sends them spiraling into an alternate reality where time operates in reverse.
• Past and Future Memories In a post apocalyptic world, a person finds that they can jump into the past as well as potential future memories of others. Then, they navigate through different people’s experiences in the hope of finding a way to undo the effect of the apocalypse.
• Time is Money In a world where time flows differently in different regions, a society formed where time travelers exist and time itself can be a commodity. (Originally appeared in my post The Most Mesmerizing Fantasy World Ideas (2023) )
• Chronicler of Lost History A person wakes up every day in a different time period, with no control over when or where they’ll end up next. As they try to find out why, they realize that their purpose is to witness and document crucial moments in history that have been erased from collective memory.
• Time-Traveling Detective In a time when time travel is possible, a time-traveling detective agency specializes in solving crimes and incidents that occur across different points in time.
• Network of Selves There’s a new invention that allows people to split their consciousness into multiple timelines, creating a network of parallel selves.
• Tour Across Time Time travel is a regulated industry, and a tour guide accidentally takes a group of tourists to a time period that never existed, causing a ripple effect that alters the course of history.
• Time-Traveling Companion There’s a peculiar type of animals that have the innate ability to traverse time. Once they form a unique bond with a human, the bond will allow that human to time travel along with said animal.

• The Time Capsule After unearthing a long-forgotten time capsule, a tight-knit group of friends is transported back to their younger selves. (A similar concept appeared in my post Beyond the Mundane: Captivating Slice of Life Story Ideas (2023) )
• The Time Thief A physicist accidentally creates a device that allows them to move between parallel universes. They exploit this power to commit crimes across dimensions, staying one step ahead of authorities.
• The Reversed Time Traveler A time traveler’s machine malfunctions, causing them to experience life in reverse. Frustrated by their reversed existence, they seek to disrupt the flow of time itself.
• Cheering Through Time An alien with the ability to explore different time periods gets stranded on earth and befriends a cheerleader. But as the two jump between time periods, they unwittingly start a chain of event that might spell catastrophe for both of their home planets.
• Happy Days Specific emotional triggers can create a quantum leap, launching individuals through time to a moment in the past or future when a similar emotional event occurred.

Here are some time travel picture prompts, because a picture speaks a thousand words! What kind of time travel prompt or story jumps out at you when looking at the picture prompts below?

The concept of time travel has fascinated storytellers for generations, offering endless possibilities and narrative intrigue, allowing writers to explore the complexities of cause and effect, challenge the boundaries of linear time, and delve into the profound impact of altering the past or glimpsing into the future.

In time travel stories, protagonists often find themselves in paradoxes and moral dilemmas as they attempt to correct past mistakes, change the course of history, or prevent catastrophic events where the smallest alteration can have far-reaching repercussions.

Time travel narratives also provide a fertile ground for exploring themes of identity, self-discovery, and the relentless march of time, prompting characters and readers alike to ponder the nature of free will and the fragility of existence.

If you need more story ideas and prompts, please browse our Story Ideas & Writing Prompts category!

Have any question or feedback? Feel free to contact me here . Until next time!

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Past, present, paradox: writing about time travel, crafting a believable time travel story requires careful consideration of the logic at play. let's crack the temporal code on traveling through time in fiction.

Table of Contents

Time travel in fiction can open your story to infinite possibilities. Ever wondered what it would be like if somebody taught the Romans how to make a nuclear bomb? Do you need to retcon an event in your story? Time travel!

It may seem simple for your time-traveling characters to hop in Tony’s Terrific Temporal Transport and whiz through time, but there are many hurdles to overcome when writing about time travel.

Chief among these is dealing with time travel paradoxes, so let’s look at those, discuss how you can write convincing time travel stories, and explore how some popular stories handle it.

The Problem With Time Travel

Consider an ordinary day in your life. It follows a sequence of events where one thing leads to another. This is called causality , the concept that everything that happens results from events that happened before it. The problem with time travel in fiction, especially travel to the past, is that it often breaks the rules of causality.

This can lead to time travel paradoxes and unforeseen results , including:

• Continuity paradoxes: The act of time travel renders itself impossible.
• Closed causal loop paradoxes: Traveling to the past creates a condition where an idea, object, or person has no identifiable origin and exists in a closed loop in time that repeats infinitely.
• The butterfly effect: Even the smallest action can have massive consequences.

With all that in mind, let’s embark on a journey through time and explore these further!

Grandfather Paradox

This thought experiment posits the idea of somebody traveling back in time and killing their grandfather before their parents were born. Because the grandfather never has children, the time traveler—his grandchild—cannot exist.

However, if the time traveler never existed, they couldn’t kill their grandfather, so he would go on to have children and grandchildren. One of those grandchildren is the time traveler, though, who might go back in time and kill their grandfather. If that seems confusing, it’s okay—it’s supposed to be.

The bottom line is that if somebody travels to the past and changes something that prevents them from ever traveling to the past, they have broken the timeline's continuity.

Polchinski’s Paradox

American theoretical physicist Joseph Polchinski removed human intervention from the time travel equation.

Imagine a billiard ball travels into a wormhole, tunnels through time in a closed loop, and emerges from the same wormhole just in time to knock its past self away.

Doing so prevents it from ever entering the wormhole and traveling through time, to begin with. However, if it does not travel back in time, it cannot emerge to knock itself out of the way, giving it a clear path to travel back in time.

Bootstrap Paradox

The Bootstrap Paradox is the first closed causal loop paradox we will explore. This presents a situation where an object, idea, or person traveling to the past creates the conditions for their existence, leading to it having no identifiable origin in the timeline.

Imagine sending the schematics for your time machine to your past self, from which you create a time machine. Where did the knowledge of how to create the time machine begin?

Predestination Paradox

The most nihilistic of paradoxes explores the idea that nothing we do matters, no matter what. Events are predetermined to still occur regardless of when and where you travel in time.

Suppose you time travel to the past to talk Alexander the Great out of invading Persia, but he hadn’t even considered this until you mentioned it. By traveling to the past to prevent Alexander’s conquest, you caused it.

Butterfly Effec t

Less of a paradox and more an exploration of unintended consequences, the butterfly effect explores the idea that any action can have sweeping repercussions, no matter how small.

In the 1960s, meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered that adding tiny changes to computer-based meteorological models resulted in unpredictable changes far from the origin point. In traveling back in time, we don’t know what effect even minor changes might have on the timeline.

How to Write Convincing Time Travel Stories

Time travel can be pretty complex at the best of times, but that doesn't mean writing about it has to be a challenge. Here are a few practical tips to craft narratives that crack the temporal code.

Ask Yourself, "Why Time Travel?"

If your story has time travel, to begin with, it likely plays a pretty significant role in the narrative. Define the purpose that time travel has in your story by asking yourself questions like:

• How and why is time travel possible in your setting?
• What does it mean for your story and your characters?
• What are your characters meant to use time travel for?
• Is the actual practice of time travel different from its intent?

If you can't be clear about time travel's purpose in your story, how can you convincingly write about it? To get crafty with time, you first need to master its relevant mechanics.

Keep a Record of Everything

You're asking your reader to potentially make several mental leaps when time travel is involved in a story, so it's imperative to have all of your details sorted. Do the work of planning out dates and events ahead of time by creating a time map for yourself—like a mindmap, but for a timeline.

You'll be able to keep a birds-eye view of the narrative at all times, be more strategic about moving the order of events around, and ensure that you never miss a detail. You may even want to have multiple versions—a strictly linear timeline and a more loosely structured time map where you draw connections between events and in the order they appear in the narrative.

In Campfire, you can do both with the Timeline Module —create as many Timelines as you want by using the Page feature in the element. You can also connect your Timeline(s) to a custom calendar from the Calendar Module for extra fun with time wonkiness in your world.

If a new idea pops up while writing, don't stress! You'll have your handy time map already laid out so you can easily see if a new scene or chapter makes sense, as well as where it will best fit into the narrative.

Never Forget Causality

I mentioned this concept earlier in the article, but it should be reiterated: The most important rule of time travel is that every action results in a consequence. Remember cause and effect : an action is taken (your character time travels to the past), and causes an effect, the consequence (the timeline is forever changed).

"Consequence" doesn't have to be a negative thing, either, even though the word has that connotation. The resulting consequence of a given action could be a positive effect, too.

Regardless, seek to maintain causality so you don't confuse your readers (or yourself, for that matter). Establishing clear rules for how time travel works in your setting and sticking to them will help you keep your time logic consistent and avoid running into narrative dead ends or plot holes.

Tips & Tricks For the Time-Traveling Author

Now that we’ve examined several obstacles you can encounter when writing about time travel, let’s see how you can either avoid them or exploit them. That’s right! Even time travel paradoxes present opportunities for superb storytelling.

Focus on the Future

Fortunately, all the named paradoxes here involve the past, so the easy way to avoid them is to not go there! Thanks to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, you don’t even have to invent a clever way to travel instead to the future.

An aspect of Einstein's theory is time dilation , in which the faster an object moves through space, the slower it moves through time. With this, you need only zip around at near the speed of light for a few weeks or months, and when you come back to Earth, years or centuries will have gone by.

Create a Multiverse

A popular trope in science fiction today, and a theory gaining popularity among theoretical quantum physicists, is the multiverse concept. According to multiverse theory, whenever an event occurs, every possible outcome of the event happens simultaneously, splitting the universe into parallels that each contain differing outcomes.

Since all these realities exist, perhaps changing the past is simply a way for time travelers to travel between realities, shifting their perspective to a timeline where things occurred differently than in their original reality.

Get Creative With Consequences

Instead of avoiding paradoxes, maybe you want them to occur. Leading to some fascinating stories, this can be approached in a variety of ways. Perhaps you want to examine the unintended consequences of the butterfly effect, create a time-traveling police force that enforces the laws of time travel, or simply break time itself and revel in the chaos that ensues.

Just be sure to remember the action-consequence rule and keep your timeline handy for easy reference—especially if you're toying around with multiple timelines!

Best Time Travel Stories

What follows are what I think are some of the best time travel stories. As you will see, the first two fall victim to time travel paradoxes, while the other two do a great job of exploring various elements we’ve discussed.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The corporation Cyberdyne Systems has remnants of the Terminator from the first movie, which they use to create an artificial intelligence system called Skynet. Skynet then actually creates the terminators and sends one back in time. Thus, it gives humanity the technology to create itself in a classic example of a bootstrap paradox.

Back to the Future

In this film, Marty McFly travels to the past and inadvertently interrupts the event where his parents first meet. This causes a chain of events where Marty’s parents never get married and have children, threatening to erase Marty and his siblings from the timeline.

Some argue that the McFly offspring ceasing to exist is a great exploration of the consequences of time travel. However, they would never have been at risk had Marty not been in the past to impede their parents’ romance. And if he ceases to exist, he’ll never go back and get in the way, thus creating a grandfather paradox.

War of the Twins

In this second volume of the Dragonlance Legends trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the mage Raistlin Majere travels into the past, kills a wizard named Fistandantilus in a battle for power, and assumes his identity. Throughout the book, Raistlin unwittingly follows the historical fate of Fistandantilus, in a wonderful exploration of the predestination paradox.

It’s hard to talk about time travel in fiction these days without mentioning Loki. The show explores two suggestions from my list above: the multiverse and policing the timeline. In this series, varying outcomes of events lead to branching timelines, creating a multiverse of possibilities. However, an agency called the Time Variance Authority exists to prevent this from happening, and they set out to eliminate any branches separate from what they consider the Sacred Timeline.

Bon Voyage!

I hope this exploration of time travel leaves you prepared to tackle these obstacles and opportunities that naturally present themselves when playing around with time.

Just knowing about the complexities of time travel and the paradoxes it can bring about is the best way to avoid trouble and create innovative storytelling moments. So, dust off your DeLorean, polish your paradox-proof plot, and get ready to write your adventure through the ages!

Learn more about making a timeline with Campfire in the dedicated Timeline Module tutorial . And be sure to check out the other plotting and planning articles and videos here on Learn, for advice on how to plan your very own time travel adventures!

10 Ideas for a Time Travel Story

Here are 10 quick ideas for a time travel story, including everything from colonies in the distant past and future, to time traveling Jews, Jesus, and jealous husbands.

If one of these ideas inspires you to create a time travel story of your own, let us know and we’ll share it with out community!

1. Future War

A future dictator invades the past. He sends giant war machines into 19th Century London, Paris and Washington, and he demands that all world leaders surrender to him. It’s up to a team of time traveling heroes to stop him.

2. As Time Goes By

A scientist discovers that he can slow down time in a localized area. He can use this to visit the future (and stop off anywhere along the way), but he can never go back. At first, he uses the device to prolong his own life, spending a day inside the time-bubble as a month passes outside. Later, curiosity compels him to travel into the distant future in search of new wonders and a fresh start.

Our protagonist finds a future world full of wonders, and he begins to build a new life for himself. But when things start to go wrong, he finds himself traveling forward yet again. Eventually, the urge to travel forward becomes irresistible as he searches for perfection. Is he really searching for something, or just running from his own past?

As our traveler comes to the end of his life he realizes that, while he has seen more than most people, he hasn’t really lived at all. He’s spent his whole life running.

3. Doing Time

Using a time machine, a penal colony is established in Earths distant future – a future in which humanity is extinct and the sun is approaching the end of its natural life-cycle. When the end finally comes, do the guards evacuate the prisoners or leave them to their fate?

4. The Man You Used To Be

After his wife leaves him, a scientist travels back in time to be with her again. He’s determined to get it right the second time around, and thinks he knows what to do to keep her happy. But when he travels into the past he comes across an obstacle he hadn’t counted on – the past version of himself.

SEE ALSO: Travelling in time but NOT space

Desperate to be with his wife again, he plots to do the unthinkable – he plans to murder his past self and take his place.

There are two obvious ways in which this story could end, each equally as ironic. 1) He kills his former self and is happily reunited with his wife, but after spending one perfect day together the time paradox begins to kick in and he vanishes into oblivion. 2) He kills his former self, but his wife recognizes that he is not the man he used to be. Because of what he’s been through and what he’s done, he’s changed, and his wife can see it in his eyes. She leaves him again.

5. Future Tense

Fearing the extinction of humanity is on the horizon, a large group of humans travel into Earths distant future to avoid the catastrophe. They arrive in a time in which the Earth has recovered from the disaster, and in which all traces of human civilization have disappeared. Many animal species have evolved beyond recognition. In this new wilderness, they attempt to build a home.

Knowing that the end of human civilization is near, people are desperate to travel to the future colony. With a limited number of places available, people fight for the last remaining passes. Eventually, the future colony finds itself with too many mouths to feed.

6. Past Participants

With the destruction of Earth imminent, humanity begins colonizing the distant past. The colonization effort slowly begins to interfere with the timeline. Each group of colonists that arrives from the future has experienced a different version of history, with increasingly interesting results.

One group of time travel colonists is from a fascist timeline in which the Nazis won the Second World War, and they try to take over the colony. Another group reports having found the remains of the colony during a future archaeological dig, indicating that the colonization effort will eventually fail.

7. Populating Zion

A team of scientists rescue Jews from Nazi extermination camps by transporting them forward in time just before the moment of their deaths. Nazis are confounded when they open the doors to gas chambers and find that their victims have mysteriously vanished. In the future, thousands of rescued Jews struggle to understand what has happened to them, and they begin to hail the lead scientist as their Messiah.

8. Time Me Up, Time Me Down

After inventing a time machine, a scientist travels into his own future where he meets his beautiful future wife. Back in his own time, he meets his future wife for the first time (for her at least), but she isn’t interested in him. He tries his hardest to impress her but fails. How can this be when they are meant to be together?

Determined to win her heart, he travels back to their first meeting over and over again, trying something different each time. He even visits her past in an attempt to learn more about her, but nothing works. Becoming increasingly obsessed, he eventually resorts to kidnapping her. He takes her forward in time to show her their future life, but his actions have drastically changed the timeline.

9. Final Interview

A time travel agency sends a man to interview famous historic figures just hours before they die. The interviews are not only important to historians, they have also become a form of popular entertainment. After interviewing countless historic figures over a long and distinguished career, our protagonist has become something of a celebrity himself. One day, a younger man arrives at his home insisting that he be allowed to interview the protagonist. The protagonist realizes that the younger man is his future replacement, and that he himself is soon to die.

(Thanks to  Jorgen Lundman for this idea, the full version of which can be read here )

10. Jesus vs The Time Police

The technology needed for time travel exists, but it has been outlawed by most of the world’s governments. A special police unit or federal agency uses specialist equipment to track down illegal time travelers and prevent them from damaging the timeline.

Some of the time travelers are attempting to alter their own past for personal gain, others are rich tourists seeking a thrilling but illegal encounter with the past. One day, however, they track down a time traveler who has managed to evade them for several years. He has been living in the past for all this time, and he claims to have become an important historical figure. Doing a little research, they determine his claims to be true. The time traveler has had a profound effect on the timeline, and undoing his actions might have profoundly negative consequences. He has written himself into history – a history that the time-police have always accepted to be true.

The illegal time traveler might be a famous general, monarch, or president. He might even be a religious figure, such as Jesus (as such, he may not have had an entirely positive effect on history, but a profound one nonetheless). If the illegal time-traveler is Jesus, might his ascension to heaven actually be his forced return to his own time, staged by the time-police?The time-police are faced with a dilemma – set the timeline straight and undo his actions without knowing what the result might be, or allow him to continue living in the past.

This article was written by Mark Ball . With thanks to Jorgen Lundman.

Use our Random Story Idea Generator for inspiration for more stories.

DraftSparks ✨

158+ ‘Time travel’ Writing Prompts

Time Travel Dilemma

You invent a time machine but it only makes one round trip. Where and when would you go and why?

Time Travel Destination

If you could time-travel to any era in history, which would it be and why?

The Time Travel Calendar

Imagine you have a calendar that can time travel to any date. What dates will you choose and why?

Adventures of the Time Traveling Carolers

Create an adventure story where a group of Christmas carolers accidentally time travel while caroling.

Christmas Journey Through Time

Detail an imaginary Christmas journey through different historical periods.

Transcendent Tyranny

Write about a villain who aims to harness time travel, potentially altering history to favor their reign.

Time-Travelling Bloodlust

In a world where time travel is possible, a vampire is chasing victims through different eras.

Time Travel Tales

Create a story about a time machine that allows you to travel anywhere in history.

Time Travel Daylight

Imagine waking up on the day of daylight saving time change and finding out you’ve traveled to a different era.

Historical Time Traveller

If you could go back in time to any historical epoch during your 7th grade history lessons, which would it be and why?

Time Travel Tourist

Imagine you can time travel to any historical event or period. Write about where you would go and what you would do.

A Way Back Into Time

Imagine your character has the ability to travel back in time to a period and place, where and when will that be and why.

Treaded Eternity

Design a story where deceased souls must time travel to atone for their sins in life before they can pass on.

Dystopian Restoration

A superhero born in a dystopian future uses their time travel abilities to prevent their world from descending into chaos.

Accentuate the Positive

Write about a time-traveller who uses his power to spread positivity by preventing negative events from happening in the past.

Grandfather Paradox

Write a story in which a time traveler meets his own grandfather back in time and their actions directly impact the present.

Dinosaur Days

Your protagonist has the ability to time travel back to the prehistoric era.

Your protagonist is part of a special task force that goes back in time to prevent crimes that have yet to happen.

Epochal Time Travel

Describe a chase scene across different periods of history as both the protagonist and antagonist can time travel.

Historic Time Travel

Write about a time-travel journey to a significant event in history.

Sands of Time

Imagine a beach bonfire that has the mystical power to show the past or future. Write a story revolving around a character who discovers this power.

Ghost Words

Construct an epistolary short story where letters from the past mysteriously appear in the present.

Journey Through Time

Imagine navigating various epochs of human history with the aid of a time machine.

Time Travel by Virtual Reality

Imagine using a virtual reality headset that can transport you to any moment in history. Which period would you choose to go to and why?

Puppeteer of the Past

Create a scenario where time travel allows individuals to alter historical events for personal gain.

The Inevitable Horizon

Imagine a future where time travel is possible and document an adventurous expedition a group of explorers undertake to witness the end of the world.

Borrowed Time

A character has found an artifact that allows them to time travel, but each trip shortens their life.

Journey to the Tomorrow

Write a suspenseful story of a time-travelling detective who prevents future crimes.

Chase through Time

Create a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase between a relentless detective and a criminal with the ability to time travel.

Time Travel Summer Disaster

Write a funny tale of a time traveler who miscalculates and ends up in the middle of the hottest day of the year.

Time-Traveling Diary

Write a story about a diary that allows you to time travel whenever you write in it.

Caverns of Time

Write a story about a group of adventurers who find a mysterious cave that leads them back in time.

Time-Traveling Train

You’re the conductor of a steam-powered locomotive that can travel through time.

Time Turbine

Imagine a steampunk mechanism that could transport its operator through time.

The Timekeeper’s Paradox

Spin a tale about a master clockmaker who invents a time-traveling pocket watch, but everything goes awfully wrong.

Time Travel Agents

Time-traveling teens who work as secret agents to preserve the past.

Rewrite History

Choose a historical event and reimagine it with a speculative element, such as alien intervention or time travel.

Time-Travel Tourism

Imagine a future where time-traveling is just as ordinary as going on holidays.

Time Terror

Picture a teenager who finds a time machine, but every jump into the future reveals something terrifying.

Across The Time Continuum

Your story’s setting isn’t in a physical place, but across different periods of time.

The Paradox Experiment

Write about a scientist who makes a breakthrough in time travel, but creates a paradox that alters reality in unexpected ways.

Time Traveling Santa

In a world where time travel exists, Santa Claus uses this technology to deliver presents. How does he manage it?

Love Transcending Time

Write a romance story where one of the characters can time travel.

Time Travel Target

Imagine a detective with the ability to time travel who must solve the murder of their future self.

Lost in Time

Write a narrative about someone who has discovered a time machine, which only travels forward.

Sleeping Beauty and Time Travel

Sleeping Beauty wakes up not 100 years later from her own time, but in the 21st century after a scientific experiment goes wrong.

Jingle All The Way Back to Past

You are sent back in time to the filming of a classic Christmas movie. What happens, and how does it change the movie?

The ‘What If’ Scenario

Imagine if you were able to travel in time for a day. Where would you go and what would you do?

Time Travel

If you could time travel only once, would you go to the past or the future? Write about your decision and what you hope to see or do.

Back In Time Travel

If you could travel back in time, what era would you go to and why?

Time Machine Adventure

Write a story where you have the ability to time travel.

Imagine you have a time machine, describe where you would go and what you would do using new vocabulary words.

The Space-Time Anomaly

You encounter a space-time anomaly that sends you back in time upon contact. Describe the adventures you experience in the universe’s past.

Love Through the Ages

Compose a poem that traverses time, detailing a love that has lasted throughout centuries.

Images in Time

Write a poem that captures a specific moment from your past.

The Time Machine

Compose a poem about time travel, describing the era you’d love to visit most.

If you could time travel to the future, what age or era would you choose to visit, and why?

Time Machine Mix-up

In their first-ever time travel, a novice time traveller misinterprets the controls and ends up at a dinosaur-themed amusement park.

A Paradox In Time

Describe the dilemma of a time-traveler who accidentally altered the course of history.

Time-Travelling Phantom

Write about engaging in a mission with a time-travelling ghost.

Time Machine Journey

Write a story about finding a time machine and deciding to travel to a period in history.

Space-Time Slip

You accidentally find a device that transports you to different timelines. Write about your time-travel adventure.

Time Travel Mishap

Accidentally, you have landed in the wrong era due to a time machine error. Write about the wonky adventures you’d have.

The Time-Travelling Diplomat

Write a series of dispatches from a modern-day diplomat who has accidentally time-traveled back to ancient Rome.

Time Travel Tourism

You run a time-travel tourism company in the future, write about an average day in your life.

Time Travel Tour

Choose a historical period and pretend you are a tour guide for time travellers. Write a journal entry about it.

Chrono Travel Device

Write about a superhero who exploits a cutting-edge time-travel device.

Adventures with an Ancestor

Pen down the exciting adventures you could see yourself having if you traveled back in time to meet an adventurous ancestor.

Each person chooses an era, and together, write a story where characters time travel between these selected periods.

Artistic Time Travel

Choose a historical painting or sculpture. Write a fictional story about what was happening when the artwork was created.

Travel Through Time

Imagine you have a time machine. Describe a journey to a past or future era, detailing the sights, sounds, and experiences.

Musical Time Travel

Choose a period in history and create a song that would be a hit during that time.

Time-Travelling Adventures

What if you could time travel? Where would you go and what would you do?

The Tenses Time Travel

Write two short stories of the same event, one using past tense and the other using present tense.

Nightmare of the Time Traveler

Your protagonist can time travel, but every time they do, they see horrifying premonitions.

From Fiction to Fact: A Science Perspective

Choose a piece of science fiction technology or concept and discuss the feasibility in reality.

Time-Traveling to the Past

If you could time travel, describe a day in the life of your parents (or grandparents) when they were your age.

Unexpected Superpowers

Imagine waking up one day with a superpower of your choice, what would it be and how would you use it?

Journey to a Different Era

If you could travel to any time period, when would it be and why?

Fourth of July Through Time

Imagine you have the ability to time travel and attend any Fourth of July celebration in the history of America. Describe your experience.

Time Travelling Adventure

Imagine you have a time machine, write a comic strip about the different eras you visit.

The Time Travel Watch

Imagine if you invented a watch that could teleport you to any time period. Which period would you choose and why?

School Time Machine

If you had a time machine and could travel to any time in the school day, where would you go and why?

Maccabean Time Travel

Marry past and present by writing a time-travel story that involves characters from the original Hanukkah story arriving in the present day.

Tales Across Timelines

If could have a conversation with your future 25-year-old self, what would you ask or discuss?

Secret Door in the Basement

Your character discovers a hidden door in his basement which leads to a world he never knew existed.

Time Travel Love

Write a narrative involving one character traveling across time to find their destined love.

Time Travelling Musician

If you were a musician whose music could transport anyone to any time period, what songs would you play and why?

Time Travel Adventure

If you could travel back or forward in time, where would you go and what could you do?

Craft a narrative as if you’ve just arrived at an ancient version of today’s modern cities. How is it different? How is it similar? How do you feel about it?

Comic Time Travel Hypothesis

Compose a tale about a scientific experiment gone hilariously wrong, leading to an unintentional time travel mishap.

Hero’s Timeless Quest

Design a story where the hero embarks on a quest that transcends time.

Chronological Conundrum

Travel forward in time to uncover a secret that could save humanity.

A Timeless Easter

Craft a time-travelling adventure that throws the protagonist back to the first Easter.

Imagine traveling back in time, only to realize you are being haunted by a vengeful ghost that insists you amend a mistake from the past.

Time-bending Love

A lover returns in a time where their partner has aged, but they haven’t.

Time-Traveler Chronicles

Imagine if an elder in your community had the ability to time travel — detail their journey.

The Time Machine Invention

You have invented a time machine. Write about where you would go, what you would do, and who you would meet.

The Time Travel Letter

You find a letter written by you in the future. What does it say?

Write a story imagining you’ve traveled back in time to an important historical event.

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Sci-Fi Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

Hannah Yang

Are you excited to write a science fiction story but unsure what to write about? Using a writing prompt is a great way to get started.

We’ve created writing prompts in eight popular science fiction subgenres: aliens, biopunk, dystopia, high-tech, robots, science fantasy, space opera, and time travel.

You can start with the categories that you’re most excited about, or read through all of them to see if anything unexpected tickles your imagination.

This article has 80+ science fiction story ideas that you can use for your next novel, screenplay, or short story. Happy writing!

Alien Story Ideas

Biopunk story ideas, dystopia story ideas, high-tech story ideas, robot story ideas, science fantasy story ideas, space opera story ideas, time travel story ideas, tips for using sci-fi story ideas.

The alien subgenre is a classic in science fiction literature. Different writers have envisioned countless scenarios for what might happen if we discovered other life in the universe.

• You run a hotel on Earth where various alien species come to stay on vacation
• A child finds out her pet has been an alien all along
• Alien students come to study on Earth for a foreign exchange program
• An alien race comes to planet Earth to help solve global warming
• Humans invade a peaceful alien planet to steal their secrets
• Aliens speak a language you have to learn how to decipher
• Aliens can mind control the human race, except for a certain demographic of people
• Aliens have taken over the Earth, and a family must try to survive against all odds
• A human falls in love with an alien and they have a child together
• Alien parasites can infiltrate the human body and make people commit crimes
• Aliens take over Earth’s prison systems so they can use human criminals as slaves
• Scientists dig up alien technology that has been buried in glacial ice for centuries, revealing secrets nobody expected

Biopunk is a subgenre that grapples with the implications of biotechnology. What happens when humans learn how to engineer and augment their own bodies?

• People steal organs to sell them on the black market
• You can raise a genetically identical version of yourself to give you spare organs
• A scientist recreates her dead family out of grief
• A technology company hides your memories behind a paywall, so you have to pay to access them
• A young woman and her twin sister agree to be genetically modified in two different ways
• You meet someone who looks exactly like you, and find out you’re actually a clone they created
• Every family is only allowed to have one child, and terrible things happen if you break that rule
• Parents are forced to genetically optimize their babies, and those who refuse are forced to work menial labor
• Thieves steal genetic skill sets, such as math skills and gymnastics skills, from the rich
• Evil scientists create a terrible pandemic and unleash it onto enemy countries

If you like critiquing the state of our society or political system, dystopian world building is a great way to do it. This subgenre lets you interrogate the dark side of government control and the erasure of individual autonomy.

• The government, which controls all media, lies about an important historical event to try to erase history
• Nobody is allowed to go beyond the wall that surrounds the city, and nobody remembers why
• The government mandates a hive mind so they can see everyone’s thoughts
• Everyone has a ranking to show their status as a citizen, forcing them into class tiers
• You work for a rebel organization trying to take down the global dictatorship
• The government sets up high-tech surveillance programs that watch everyone 24/7, but only you know how to get around the cameras
• The government decides who you marry and have children with, but you fell in love with someone else
• Nobody is allowed to eat the old foods, but you inherited a recipe book from your grandmother
• The government outlaws a new invention that some people desperately need
• Citizens are forced to participate in brutal competitions
• The government creates a strange new technology for punishing dissidents
• A mechanized police force prevents crime, but also commits atrocities

Many science fiction stories imagine new types of futuristic technology that might change the way we interact with the world, from virtual realities to extreme social media. If you like inventing new things, this sub-genre could be an exciting one to try.

• Someone creates an app that lets people buy, sell, and trade emotions
• Social media gets pushed to the extreme
• A dating app becomes sentient and starts forcing its users to date the people it chooses
• Humans figure out how to upload their minds into computers, effectively achieving immortality
• Everyone begins spending most of their lives in a virtual reality
• Humans are allowed to choose their own VR afterlives
• People can selectively remove some of their memories
• Babies get created and raised in artificial wombs, raising ethical questions
• Laws try to ban an invention that lets you change people’s memories
• A technology can heal any affliction…with a cost
• An inventor tries to patent his invention, only to find that big corporations who want to use his invention are out to kill him
• Someone invents a technology that lets you swap bodies with someone else

Robots and artificial intelligence are another classic science fiction subgenre. What happens when people create machines that are smarter than we are?

• A woman creates a robot boyfriend, but feels guilty when it starts having an existential crisis
• A young boy and his best friend discover that their babysitter is a robot
• A loophole in the programming of an AI robot causes it to go rogue
• All jobs are taken over by AIs, and humans must find meaning in other pursuits
• Human military officers have designed a robot to serve as a super weapon, but the robot doesn’t want to kill anyone
• The planet has been split into territories ruled by humans and territories ruled by machines
• A lawyer fights for civil rights for androids
• Years after the robots overthrew human civilization, a small group of humans survive
• Robots learn to fall in love, either with humans or with each other
• A robot seeks revenge against the people who killed the family it protected
• The androids don’t know they’re androids, because they’re told they’re humans
• The narrator is a sentient house that takes care of a family
• A child gets raised by robots and learns robotic mannerisms

Science fantasy lives at the intersection of science fiction and fantasy. Who says stories based in science can’t have a little magic too?

• A war breaks out between scientists with incredible technologies and the witches and wizards who have been hiding on Earth for centuries
• Spaceships are controlled by people who have magic powers that allow faster-than-light space travel
• Scientists figure out how to create mythical animals in laboratories, such as dragons, unicorns, and pixies
• After a spaceship landed on a distant planet, the natives of that planet have formed a new religion which worships space travelers as gods
• An inventor creates the technology to bring children’s dreams to life, including their nightmares
• A scientist creates a fortune teller that can create magical prophecies
• Using modern technologies, scientists discover the lost city of Atlantis and the ancient magic it holds
• Time travelers go back to ancient Greece and meet mythical beasts such as the hydra
• An experimental government program combines humans with other animals, creating creatures like mermaids and angels

Space opera stories are adventures set in outer space, full of action, drama, and romance. There are a lot of different directions you can take these stories.

• Five people wake up on a deserted space station with no memory of how they got there
• Earth competes in an interplanetary art contest against multiple alien races
• Someone stows away on a spacecraft to run away from home and gets discovered by the crew members after they’ve landed on a distant planet
• A war breaks out on a generation ship, causing the last survivors to reach their destination without any of the skills or resources they were supposed to have
• Intergalactic bounty hunters look for fugitives on faraway planets
• A space pirate lands in your backyard and tries to recruit you
• A galactic empire tries to colonize your peaceful planet, so you team up with other species to fight back
• Single people try looking for romance at an interplanetary club
• Navigators use special powers to plot courses through the stars
• Write a retelling of your favorite fairy tale…in space!

Time travel is an exciting element of science fiction! If you’re a history buff, you might send your characters back to big events in the past. If you like logic puzzles, you might want to figure out a tricky series of actions in time.

• Humans learn how to communicate with their past and present selves
• Time travel journalists go back in time to document historical events with modern technology
• You travel a hundred years into the past and accidentally kill your own ancestors
• A secret society of time travelers patrols different time periods to protect the way history unfolded
• A high school student creates a time machine for a science fair
• In a small town, someone is born with the special ability to visit the same town in the past, present, and future
• A woman befriends her childhood self to try to change her own past
• Someone uses time travel to commit untraceable crimes
• A time traveler meets an immortal vampire and becomes best friends with them
• Knowing that the human population is about to be wiped out, the last survivors on Earth travel back in time as refugees

Remember that a prompt is just a starting point. You still need to decide how you’re going to put your own unique twist on the story.

Most of these science fiction ideas have been used many times before, but that doesn’t mean your story can’t be original and unique.

For example, E.T. and Lilo and Stitch are two movies that could conceivably have originated from the same prompt—“a kid discovers an alien and keeps it as a pet”—but they’re very different movies.

Here are some tips for how to use these prompts to create exciting and original stories.

Tip #1: Combine Multiple Ideas

You can consider combining a prompt with an idea for a character or setting, or even with a second prompt.

For example, maybe you want to take an alien prompt and a time traveler prompt and include both in the same story by making the aliens turn out to be humans from the future. When you let two ideas collide, new and exciting possibilities can arise.

Tip #2: Write What You Know

“Write what you know” is a great adage that applies even to science fiction. That’s how you create an original, authentic story that resonates with readers.

If you’re an insurance salesperson, perhaps you can write about an alien who sells insurance to other planets. If you’re a high schooler, perhaps you can write about a high school student discovering time travel.

Using your real life as a starting point for a story can imbue it with your own perspective and voice.

Tip #3: Don’t Forget the Basics

An interesting premise is important, but there are other skills you need in order to flesh out your writing. Craft elements like character development and world building are still crucial for creating a good story.

Tip #4: Write with a Friend

Writing doesn’t have to be a solitary activity! It can be fun to write the same prompt with a friend and then trade stories. Chances are, you’ll be surprised by the different ways you and your friend can use the same idea.

If you’re excited to try some of these prompts and meet other sci-fi writers, don’t forget to register for our free Science Fiction Writers’ Week .

Happy writing!

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Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates.

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40 Best Time Travel Books To Read Right Now (2024)

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Travel back in time with the best time travel books, including engrossing thrillers, romance, contemporary lit, and mind-bending sci-fi.

Table of Contents

Best Time Travel Books

Books about time travel promise to not only transport you across time periods and space – Doctor Who-style – but also tesser you into new dimensions and around the world. Most readers already know about classics like The Time Traveler’s Wife , A Christmas Carol , and The Time Machine .

For romance time travel, grab In A Holidaze or One Last Stop . For contemporary and new time travel books, Haig’s The Midnight Library and Serle’s In Five Years captivated our hearts and minds.

Recursion re-kindled our love for science fiction, and Ruby Red transported us to 18th-century London. Books like Displacement promise intuitive and raw commentary about generational trauma and racism in graphic novel form.

Below, find the best time travel novels across genres for adults and teens, including history, romance, classics, sci-fi, YA, and thrilling fiction. Get ready to travel in the blink of an eye, and be sure to let us know your favorites in the comments. Let’s get started!

Contemporary & Literary Fiction

If you enjoy contemporary and literary fiction filled with strong main characters, these are some of the best books in the time travel genre. Uncover new releases as well as books on the bestseller lists. Of course, we’ll share a few lesser-known gems too.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Would your life change if you had one seemingly real dream or premonition? What if some key facts were missing but you had no idea? Can we change the future?

One of the best books about time travel and friendship, don’t skip In Five Years . In fact, we read this New York City-based novel in half a day. Have the tissue box ready.

Dannie nails an important job interview and is hoping to get engaged. Of course, this is all a part of her perfect 5-year plan. Dannie has arranged every minute of her life ever since her brother died in a drunk driving accident.

On the night of Dannie’s “scheduled” engagement, she falls asleep only to have a vision of herself 5 years into the future in the arms of another man. Did she just time travel or could this be a dream? When Dannie arrives back in 2020, her life goes back to normal. …That is until she meets the man from her dream.

We were expecting In Five Years to be a time travel romance story; however, this is a different type of love and one of the best books about strong friendships .

Read In Five Years : Amazon | Goodreads

Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot | We just love Japanese literature . One of the most debated time travel books among our readers – you’ll either love it or hate it – Before the coffee gets cold takes place at a cafe in Tokyo, Japan.

Along with coffee, this 140-year-old, back-alley cafe lets visitors travel back in time. Four visitors at the cafe are hoping to time travel to see someone for the last (or first) time. The way each patron views the cafe says a lot about them. The details and repetition are everything.

True to the title, visits may only last as long as it takes for the coffee to grow cold. If they don’t finish their coffee in time, there are ghostly consequences.

Before the coffee gets cold asks, who would you want to see one last time, and what issues you would confront?

Along with the many rules of time travel, these visitors are warned that the present will not change. Would you still travel back knowing this? Can something, anything, still change – even within you?

The story has a drop of humor with a beautiful message. We shed a tear or two. Discover even more terrific and thought-provoking Japanese fantasy novels here .

Read Before the coffee gets cold : Amazon | Goodreads

If you are looking for the most inspiring take on time travel in books, Haig’s The Midnight Library is it. This is one of those profound stories that make you think more deeply . TWs for pet death (early on) and suicide ideation.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Imagine if you could see your other possible lives and fix your regrets. Would that path be better? Would these changes make you happier?

Set in Bedford, England, and at a library , Nora answers these questions as she intentionally overdoses on pills. Caught in the Midnight Library – a purgatory of sorts – Nora explores books filled with the ways her life could have turned out. She tries on these alternative lives, pursuing different dreams, marrying different people, and realizing that some parts of her root life were not as they seemed on the surface.

Find hope and simplicity in one of the most authentic and heaviest time travel novels on this list. Haig addresses mental health through a new lens that is both beautiful and moving.

With a team full of avid readers and librarians, discover our top selections featuring more books about books .

Read The Midnight Library : Amazon | Goodreads

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

Some of the best time travel books are those with alternate realities, including The Two Lives of Lydia Bird . There are content warnings for prescription pill addiction and more.

Set in England, Lydia and Freddie are planning their marriage when the unthinkable happens. Freddie dies in a car accident on the way to Lydia’s birthday dinner. In a matter of seconds, Lydia’s world falls apart. She isn’t sure how she will survive. When Lydia starts taking magical pink sleeping pills, she enters an alternate universe where Freddie is alive and well.

Caught between her dream world and real life, Lydia must decide if she will give in to her addiction – living in a temporary fantasy world – or give it up completely.

While the repetitive and predictable plot drags a bit – slightly hurting the pacing – the overall story shows emotional growth and the nature of healing after loss. And, as Lydia soon learns via her dreams, no love is perfect. Maybe her future was destined to be different anyway, which is reminiscent of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library .

Read The Two Lives of Lydia Bird Jose Silver : Amazon | Goodreads

The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North

If you are looking for more suspenseful books about time travel and like Groundhog Day , check out The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. However, this is not just one day on repeat; instead, this is a lifetime.

Harry August is repeatedly reborn into the same life, retaining his memories each time. No matter what Harry does or says, when he lands on his deathbed, he always returns back to his childhood, again and again. On the verge of his eleventh death, though, a girl changes the course of his life. He must use his accumulated wisdom to prevent catastrophe.

Read The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August : Amazon | Goodreads

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

When it comes to time travel books, An Ocean of Minutes is one of the most original takes about time travel’s effects on alternate history.

Polly and Frank are deeply in love in 1981 when a pandemic devastates the planet. By the end of 1981, time travel (invented in this alternate reality in 1993) has been made available.

Because of this invention, individuals can sign on to work for the TimeRaiser corporation in order to escape or save their loved ones in the present. Due to a flaw in the technology, though, they can only transport people for 12 years. This prevents them from stopping the pandemic by just 6 months.

When Frank gets ill, Polly signs up, both agreeing they will meet back up in 1993. Now alone in the future, Polly has to learn to navigate a world she has less than zero preparation for. In this world, she is a time refugee, bonded to TimeRaiser without a physical cent to her name.

Lim uses the time travel mechanic to cleverly explore the subject of immigration, forcing the reader to follow Polly blindly into a world they should know, but don’t. This is what makes An Ocean of Minutes one of the most unique time travel novels on this reading list.

Read An Ocean of Minutes : Amazon | Goodreads

Time Travel In Science Fiction

For fantasy and sci-fi lovers, take a quantum leap into fictional worlds, quantum physics, possible futures, black holes, and endless possibilities. See if you can tell the difference between the real world and new dimensions.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Recursion is one of our all-time favorite time travel books to gift to dads who love sci-fi. Can you tell what we gave our dad for Christmas one year?

In Recursion, no one actually physically time travels – well, sort of. Instead, memories become the time-traveling reality.

Detective Barry Sutton is investigating False Memory Syndrome. Neuroscientist Helena Smith might have the answers he needs. The disease drives people crazy – and to their deaths – by causing them to remember entire lives that aren’t theirs. Or are they!?

All goes to heck when the government gets its hands on this mind-blowing technology. Can Barry and Helena stop this endless loop?

Recursion is also a (2019) Goodreads Best Book for Science Fiction.

Read Recursion : Amazon | Goodreads

This Is How You Lose The War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar 

A Goodreads runner-up for one of the best science fiction novels (of 2019) – and one of the shortest time travel novels on this list – This Is How You Lose The Time War follows two warring time-traveling agents falling in love through a letter exchange.

Red and Blue have nothing in common except that they travel across time and space and are alone. Their growing and forbidden love is punishable by death and their agencies might be onto them.

In a somewhat beautiful yet bizarre story, we watch as Red and Blue slowly fall for each other and confess their love. They engage in playful banter and nicknames. Every shade of red and blue reminds them of each other.

The first half of the novel is a bit abstract. You might wonder what the heck you’ve gotten yourself into. However, once you get your feet planted firmly on the ground of the plot, the story picks up and starts making more sense.

We can’t promise you’ll love or even understand This Is How You Lose The Time War – we aren’t sure we do. However, this is truly one of the most unique sci-fi and LGBTQ+ time travel romance books on this reading list – written by two authors. Also, maybe crack out the dictionary…

Explore even more of the best LGBTQ+ fantasy books to read next.

Read This Is How You Lose The War : Amazon | Goodreads

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

A debut novel, All Our Wrong Todays is both a humorous and entertaining time travel book that speaks to how we become who we are.

In 2016, technology perfected the world for Tom Barren. However, we all know that perfection doesn’t equate to happiness. Barren has lost his girlfriend, and he just happens to own a time machine… Now, Barren has to decide if he wants to keep his new, manipulated future or if he just wants to go back home to his depressing but normal life.

Read All Our Wrong Todays : Amazon | Goodreads

Here And Now And Then by Mike Chen

Imagine getting trapped in time and starting over. That’s exactly what happens to IT worker, Kin Stewart, in one of the bestselling science fiction time travel books, Here And Now And Then .

Stewart has two lives since he is a displaced time-traveling agent stuck in San Francisco in the 1990s. He has a family that knows nothing about his past; or, should we say future. When a rescue team arrives to take him back, Stewart has to decide what he is willing to risk for his new family.

Here And Now And Then is a time travel book filled with emotional depth surrounding themes of bonds, identity, and sacrifice. Find even more books set in San Francisco, California (and more!).

Read Here And Now And Then : Amazon | Goodreads

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is one of the most unusual books about time travel out there.

Our protagonist Charles Yu lives in a world where time travel exists and is readily available to the average person. And yes, he is named after the author, and yes, it is as meta as it sounds; and yes, this is just the beginning of this speculative fiction time travel book.

Charles Yu’s day job is spent repairing time machines for Time Warner Time. But in his free time, he tries to help the people who use time travel to do so safely and to counsel them if things have gone wrong.

It’s no surprise that Charles’ entire life revolves around time travel since his father invented the technology many years ago. And then he disappeared. In fact, Charles is also trying to find out just what happened to his dad, and where – or when – he’s gone.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of the best time travel books if you want delightfully meta, fantastically non-linear, and very very weird.

Read How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe : Amazon | Goodreads

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

For beautiful, lyrical time travel novels about found family and love, The Vanished Birds is a must-read.

Nia Imani exists outside of time and space. She travels in and out of the world through a pocket of time with her space crew. They emerge to trade or sell goods every eight months. But eight months for them is 15 years for everyone else.

She has lived this way for hundreds of years. Though she has her crew, and there are people she shares connections with sporadically throughout their lives, she is lonely. And although she barely ages, she watches friends and lovers grow old and die.

One such person is Kaeda, who meets Nia for the first time when he is 7. The next time he sees her, he has aged 15 years, while she is only months older. She continues to come every 15 years of his life, always looking the same.

Then one day a mysterious, mute boy falls from the sky into Nia’s life. His name is Ahro, and there’s something extra special about him. Something that could revolutionize space travel forever. And now there might be people after Ahro who won’t love him the way Nia does.

If you love a character-driven book with exquisite prose – and a few time warps – this is one of the best time travel books for you.

Read The Vanished Birds : Amazon | Goodreads

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Night Watch is one of the most fun and thrilling books about time travel. It’s also a bit ridiculous and very very British.

Why can’t policing just be simple? All Sam Vimes wanted to do was capture and arrest a dangerous murderer. But thanks to those damned wizards and their experiments, he and the killer have both been accidentally thrown back in time thirty years.

And to top it off, the man who would have become a mentor to young Sam Vimes in the past has been killed in the process! How’s Vimes going to get this all sorted out?

The City Watch he’s spent years improving is just a bunch of semi-competent volunteers at this point. He’s got no money, no clothes, and no friends. But at least he’s making enemies fast. Can he catch the killer, stop history from not repeating itself, and get home to his family? Oh, and the city’s about to dissolve into civil war. Typical.

Night Watch is perfect if you prefer your time travel books to be fantasy-based.

P.S. There may be mild spoilers for previous books in the Discworld series, but this can be read as a standalone. And if you only ever read one Discworld novel, this is one of the best there is – and so far the only one of the Discworld books with time travel!

Read Night Watch : Amazon | Goodreads

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

The Future of Another Timeline is one of the few time travel books to explore history through a feminist lens.

In 1992, Beth – a high school senior – and her friends Heather, Lizzy, and Soojin attend a riot grrl concert with Heather’s boyfriend Scott. But afterward, one of Scott’s not-so-funny sexist jokes gets out of hand and Lizzy accidentally kills him. Now they’re on the run, and the bodies just keep piling up.

Meanwhile, in 2022, Tess is part of a group of women and non-binary people working together to change history. They have the use of five time devices which only allow them to travel backward and back to the present day – but never forwards.

Beth and Tess come from two wildly different times (1992, and 2022, respectively). But, while Beth is busy making history, Tess is quite literally trying to change it. However, both of them want the same thing: a better world. When their worlds collide, will they be able to save each other – and the world?

The Future of Another Timeline is a time travel fiction celebration of feminism and queerness with lots of sci-fi and punk rock thrown in. This is one of the best time travel novels for those who enjoy stellar women making history .

Read The Future of Another Timeline : Amazon | Goodreads

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

The Kingdoms is wildly imaginative and sure to enchant fans of time travel books, alternative history stories, and tales about parallel universes.

In 1898 Joe Tournier steps off a train and suddenly can’t remember anything that comes before that moment. The world he now finds himself in is as foreign to him as it is to us: an alternate history/reality where the UK lost the Battle of Trafalgar and is now a French colony.

In this world, the British are kept as slaves. Napoleon is a popular name for pets, and tartan is outlawed. Since Joe arrives on a train from Glasgow speaking English and wearing tartan, there is some speculation he might be from The Saints, a terrorist group based in Edinburgh fighting for freedom.

But all Joe remembers is the fading image of a woman and the name Madeline. Although he is identified by his owner and brought “home,” Joe is determined to find this Madeline. And his resolve is only strengthened when he receives a postcard signed ‘– M’ and dated 90 years in the past.

Discover even more books about Scottish culture, history, and everyday life.

Read The Kingdoms : Amazon | Goodreads

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

The Light Brigade is one of the best time travel stories for anyone who loves character-driven tales or books about war and conflict.

As war wages on Mars, the military has devised the perfect soldier to fight on the frontlines: being made of light. The Light Brigade, as they’re called back home, is made up of soldiers who have undergone a procedure that breaks them down into atoms capable of traveling at the speed of light. They are the perfect soldiers, but broken people.

The book follows one such soldier, Dietz, an eager new recruit who is experiencing battle out of sync with everyone else. Because of this, she – and we – see a different reality of the war than the one presented by the Corporate Corps. As Dietz becomes more and more unstuck in time, she becomes more and more unsure of her own sanity and the role she is playing in this war.

Read The Light Brigade : Amazon | Goodreads

The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way

You Look Like Death Volume 1 | Now a popular (and excellent) Netflix TV show, The Umbrella Academy is one of the best time travel books of all time.

One day, forty-seven children are suddenly and inexplicably born to women who were not previously pregnant. Eccentric millionaire Reginald Hargreeves goes around the world buying as many of the surviving children as he possibly can. He is able to get seven.

These children, it turns out, all have superpowers (except, it seems, for the unremarkable Number Seven aka Vanya). They become the crime-fighting group: The Umbrella Academy.

Fast forward several years, and Number Five, whose special power is that he can travel in time a few seconds or minutes per go, has mysteriously appeared after Hargreeves dies. And now he brings warning of an apocalypse – one which he insists none of his siblings will survive.

The Umbrella Academy series currently has three volumes, all packed with tales of time travel, parallel worlds, family drama, and lots of epic battles. We’ve absolutely loved this time travel book series so far; we can’t wait to see what Gerard Way does with future installments.

Discover even more great books with music, musicians, and bands.

Read The Umbrella Academy : Amazon | Goodreads

Historical Fiction

Travel back in time to witness wars and history. See what happens if you try to rewrite the future. Many of these historical fiction books with time travel promise to teach you more.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

We have a plethora of Agatha Christie fans amongst our Uncorked Readers , and Turton’s The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evenlyn Hardcastle is inspired by Christie.

Similar to Levithan’s Every Day , each day, Aiden wakes up in a different body from the guests of the Blackheath Manor. Trapped in a time loop, Aiden must solve Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder to escape. In the process, he navigates the tangled web of secrets, lies, and interconnected lives of the guests. Can he identify the killer and break the cycle?

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is an award-winning historical thriller and one of the best time travel novels if you enjoy Downton Abbey and Groundhog’s Day . Discover even more great books set at hotels, mansions, and more.

Read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle : Amazon | Goodreads

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Travel back in time to Scotland in one of the most well-known time travel book series (and now TV series) of all time. Outlander is a part of pop culture. A New York Times bestseller and one of the top 10 most loved books according to The Great America Read, get ready to enter Scotland in 1743.

Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, walks through an ancient circle of stones and is transported into a world of love, death, and war. This is a place of political intrigue, clan conflicts, and romantic entanglements. Claire must navigate the unfamiliar landscape while grappling with her feelings for the dashing Jamie Fraser.

Encounter even more cult-classic books from the ’90s like A Game Of Thrones , which is perfect for fantasy map lovers .

Read Outlander : Amazon | Goodreads

11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King

Written by bestselling author, Stephen King, 11/22/63 is one of the best award-winning time travel books for historical fiction lovers. Set in 1963 when President Kennedy is shot, 11/22/63 begs the question: what if you could go back in time and change history?

Enter Jake Epping in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  Epping asks his students to write about a time that altered the course of their lives. Inspired by one of those haunting essays, Epping enlists to prevent Kennedy’s assassination.  How is this time travel possible? With the discovery of a time portal in a local diner’s storeroom…

11/22/63 is one of the most thrilling and realistic books about time travel, according to both critics and readers.

Read 11/22/63 : Amazon | Goodreads

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

If you are looking for historical fiction novels about time travel that address slavery and racism, be sure to check out Butler’s Kindred. This is also one of the best books published in the 1970s .

One minute Dana is celebrating her birthday in modern-day California. The next, she finds herself in the Antebellum South on a Pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. Dana is expected to save the plantation owner’s son from drowning. Each time Dana finds herself back in this time period as well as the slave quarters, her stays grow longer and longer as well as more dangerous.

Examine the haunting legacy and trauma of slavery across time. For younger readers, there is also a graphic novel adaptation . Discover more books that will transport you to the South .

Read Kindred : Amazon | Goodreads

What The Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

A bestseller and Goodreads top choice book, if you devour historical Irish fiction, What The Wind Knows will transport you to Ireland in the 1920s.

Anne Gallagher heads to Ireland to spread her grandfather’s ashes. Devastated, her grief pulls her into another time. Ireland is on the verge of entering a war, and Anne embraces a case of mistaken identity. She finds herself pulled into Ireland’s fight for Independence at the risk of losing her future life. She also falls for another main character and doctor, Thomas Smith.

What The Wind Knows is one of the best time travel novels that both romance and fantasy readers can appreciate. Witness connections that transcend time.

Read What The Wind Knows : Amazon | Goodreads

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Known for being one of the best time travel books for thriller lovers, The Shining Girls also has the reputation as the spookiest novel on this reading list.

Kirby Mazrachi is the last shining girl – a girl with a future and so much potential. Harper Curtis is a murderer from the past meant to kill Mazrachi. However, Kirby is not about to easily go out without a fight, leading her on one violent quantum leap through multiple decades.

As Kirby races against time to track down a serial killer and unravel the mysteries of the House, encounter themes of resilience, fate, and the shining spirit that can transcend even the darkest forces.

Read The Shining Girls : Amazon | Goodreads

Time Travel Romance Books

We love a good time-travel romance novel, but we also understand how hard it can be to hold onto love when time is so unstable. From queer love stories set on trains to holiday celebrations, fall in love across time with these books.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

From bestselling author, Casey McQuiston of Red, White, & Royal Blue – one of our favorite LGBTQ+ books for new adults – don’t miss the most-talked-about book (from 2021), One Last Stop.

Twenty-three-year-old August is quite the cynic and living in New York City. Up until now, August has jumped schools and towns as often as you change a pair of socks. August has also never been in a serious relationship and wants to find “her person.” August’s life suddenly changes, though, when she meets a beautiful and mysterious woman on the train.

Jane looks a little…out of date… and for good reason; she’s from the 1970s and trapped in the train’s energy. August wants nothing more than to help Jane leave the train, but does that mean leaving her too?

A feel-good, older coming-of-age story, laugh out loud and be utterly dazzled as you follow love across time and space. You’ll cozy (and drink) up in the parties and community surrounding August. One Last Stop is one of the all-time best LGBTQ+ time travel books – and perfect if you enjoy books that take place on trains .

Read One Last Stop : Amazon | Goodreads

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler’s Wife is one the top time travel romance novels – and not just because the story features a librarian . We are so biased.

Henry and Clare have loved each other pretty much forever. Unfortunately, Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder, sporadically misplacing him in time. Of course, this time-traveling dilemma makes Clare’s and Henry’s marriage and future together pretty darn interesting.

Grab some Kleenex as they attempt to live normal lives and survive impending devastation. The Time Traveler’s Wife has also been made into a romantic movie classic . Watch even more fantasy movies with romance .

Read The Time Traveler’s Wife : Amazon | Goodreads

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

If you are looking for a sweet and sexy holiday rom-com set in Utah, grab In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren.

Mae leaves her family and friend’s Christmas vacation home after drunkenly making out with an old childhood friend. Blame the spiked eggnog. Unfortunately, Mae’s secretly in love with her best friend’s brother, Andrew. On the ride to the airport, Mae wishes for happiness just as a truck hits her parent’s car. 

Mae lands in a time-travel loop where her dreams start coming true.  Is it too good to last?   What happens when she isn’t happy once again? Is she trapped?

For holiday books about time travel, this one is sure to put you in the Christmas spirit if you enjoy movies like Holidates  or  Groundhog’s Day . It’s light with a happy ending – typical of this author duo. We also recommend In A Holidaze if you are looking for Christmas family gathering books – a big request we see here at TUL.

P.S. Did you know that Christina Lauren is a pen name for a writing duo, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings? Christina Lauren also wrote The Unhoneymooners , which was also hilariously enjoyable and set on an island .

Read In A Holidaze : Amazon | Goodreads

A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

For cozy time travel romance books and a feminist tale set abroad, try A Knight In Shining Armor .

Dougless Montgomery is weeping on top of a tombstone when Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, appears. Although this armor-clad hunk allegedly died in 1564, he stands before her about to embark on a journey to clear his name. Convicted of treason, Montgomery vows to help her soon-to-be lover find his accuser and set the record straight.

Read A Knight In Shining Armor : Amazon | Goodreads

The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz

Set in South Carolina, if you love lighthouses and beach vibes, you’ll find something enjoyable in the time travel romance, The Night Mark .

After Faye’s husband dies, she cannot move on and recover. Accepting a photographer job in SC, Faye becomes obsessed with the local lighthouse’s myth, The Lady of the Light.

Back in 1921, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter mysteriously drowned. Faye is drawn into a love story that isn’t hers and becomes entangled in a passionate and forbidden love affair.

Read The Night Mark : Amazon | Goodreads

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Anyone who likes their time travel books to have a magical love story should pick up The Seven Year Slip for their next read. It’s one of our favorite magical realism novels .

When Clementine’s aunt dies, she inherits her fancy New York apartment on the Upper East Side. Although Clementine would really rather have her aunt back and can’t imagine living in her home, she eventually forces herself to move in and inhabit her aunt’s space.

And not long after, she wakes up to discover a strange man in her living room… except it’s not her living room, it’s her aunt’s… from seven years ago. Clementine’s aunt always said her apartment held a touch of magic; sometimes it created time slips that brought two people together when they were at a crossroads.

But what happens when you start to fall for someone stuck seven years in the past? Clementine knows there’s no future together, but she also can’t let go of this link to her aunt.

Like her previous speculative fiction romance, The Dead Romantics , Ashely Poston’s unique time travel tale is full of heartache and grief. However, it will also make you swoon. Basically, this one is a must if you are a fan of time travel romance books.

Read The Seven Year Slip : Amazon | Goodreads

Classic Books

No time travel reading list would be complete without the classics. Below, uncover just a few great time travel novels that started it all.

The End of Eternity by Issac Asimov

The End of Eternity is said to be one of Asimov’s science fiction masterpieces. This is also one of the most spellbinding books about time travel – although some criticize the story for its loopholes.

Harlan is a member of the elite future known as an Eternal. He lives and works in Eternity, which like any good time travel novel, is located separately from time and space.

Harlan makes small changes in the timeline in order to better history. Of course, altering the course of the world is dangerous and comes with repercussions, especially when Harlan falls in love.

Read The End of Eternity : Amazon | Goodreads

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

It goes without saying that Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous and best time travel books for classic lovers – and a literary canon-worthy Christmas novel.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a greedy, lonely, and cruel man who truly has no Christmas spirit. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, present, and future, Scrooge must find the ultimate redemption before it’s too late. Does he have a heart?

Find even more classic and contemporary ghost books , including a few unique takes on ghosts.

Read A Christmas Carol : Amazon | Goodreads

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five is a somewhat bizarre time travel book about finding meaning in our sometimes fractured and broken lives. It’s also one of the most popular books published in the ’60s .

Similar to The Time Traveler’s Wife, Billy Pilgrim is “unstuck” in time in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Drafted into World War II, Pilgrim serves as a Chaplain’s assistant until he is captured by the Germans. He survives the bombing at Dresden and ultimately becomes a married optometrist. Things get a little wild…

Suffering from PTSD, Billy claims that he is kidnapped by aliens in a different dimension. Like most time travel novels, the story is out of order and Billy travels to different parts of his life.

Aliens come in all shapes and sizes; have more alien encounters with this reading list .

Read Slaughterhouse-Five : Amazon | Goodreads

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

First published in 1889, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is one of the most popular classic and satirical time travel novels that’s set close to our childhood home. Having grown up in CT close to the old Colt factory, this story makes us smile.

Hank Morgan supervises the gun factory and is knocked unconscious. Upon waking, he finds himself in Britain about to be executed by the Knights of King Arthur’s Round Table in Camelot.

Morgan uses his future knowledge to his advantage, making him a powerful and revered wizard, which unfortunately doesn’t quite save him as he hopes. Not to mention that Morgan tries to introduce modern-day conveniences and luxuries to a time period that isn’t quite ready for them.

Read A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court : Amazon | Goodreads

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Time Machine is one of the best frontrunner time travel books of all time. Published in 1895, the Time Traveler recalls his exhausting time travel adventures to incredulous believers. He even disappears in front of them.

Blended with fantasy and science fiction over the course of 800,000 years, the Time Traveler battles “bad guys.” He also loses his time machine, debatably falls in love, and meets the underground dwelling Morlocks.

Read The Time Machine : Amazon | Goodreads

Young Adults Books

For young adults and teens – plus adults who appreciate YA – read the best middle-grade and high school time travel books. We’ve included more time travel graphic novels and manga here too.

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

For historical YA graphic novels , Displacement is one of the must-read books about time travel that will teach young readers about generational trauma, racism, politics, and war.

Follow Kiku, who is displaced in time, back to the period of U.S. Japanese incarceration [internment] camps – essentially glorified prisons – during WW2. Kiku begins learning more about her deceased grandmother’s history, which mirrors the horrid actions under former President Donald Trump. How can Kiku help stop the past from repeating itself, and more so, how can we?

In a simplistic but powerful style of storytelling, Hughes’s emotional YA WW2 book is accessible to young readers. Displacement is also one of the shorter and quicker books with time travel on this list. Find even more LGBT+ graphic novels to read – one of our favorite genres.

Read Displacement : Amazon | Goodreads

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Changing the past can be pretty tempting. We’ve even seen that The Flash cannot resist. However, altering the course of history can be dangerous…

The first of two YA time travel books, Nix is the daughter of a time traveler. Her dad can sail anywhere on his ship, The Temptation. Her dad has his own temptation, though: to travel back to Honolulu in 1868, the year before her mom dies in childbirth. Nix’s father threatens to possibly erase her life and destroy a relationship with her only friend.

Discover even more great books about maps. Or, travel via armchair with these ship books.

Read The Girl From Everywhere : Amazon | Goodreads

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Translated by Anthea Bell | If you are looking for time travel in books and enjoy YA historical fiction, try Ruby Red , which is the first in the Ruby Red Trilogy.

Gwyneth Shepherd quickly learns that she can easily time travel, unlike her cousin who has been preparing her entire life for the feat. Gwyneth wants to know why such a secret was kept from her. There are so many lies. Gwyneth time travels with the handsome Gideon back and forth between modern-day and 18th-century London to uncover secrets from the past.

Back in our MLIS and library days, Ruby Red was one of our favorite YA time travel books to recommend since so few knew about the series. Just a small warning that this enemies-to-lovers trope is a tad sexist, though. Find books like Ruby Red on our books with red (and more colors) in the title reading list .

Read Ruby Red : Amazon | Goodreads

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A little creepier for young adult time travel novels, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is all about time loops. We’ve only read the first in this eerie series that mixes manipulated vintage photography with a suspenseful and chilling story.

Jacob discovers a decaying orphanage on a mysterious island off the coast of Wales. Known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the building isn’t exactly abandoned… Jacob runs into peculiar children who might be more than just ghosts.

If you are looking for Kurt Vonnegut-esque time travel books for teenagers, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is for you. Find even more great adult and YA haunted house books to add to your reading list .

Read Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children : Amazon | Goodreads

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

One of the most well-known books about time travel for families – made even more popular by Oprah and Mindy Kaling, A Wrinkle In Time , is the first book in The Time Quintet .

Although a time travel book series for elementary and middle-grade students – and also a 1963 Newbery Medal winner – adults will love the lessons and whimsical sci-fi quality of A Wrinkle In Time.

Meg Murray and her brother, Charles Wallace, go on an adventure in time to find and rescue their father. Their dad disappeared while working for the government on a mysterious tesseract project.

Watch this thrilling time travel adventure mixed with a coming-of-age story and a little girl power, too.

Read A Wrinkle in Time : Amazon | Goodreads

Orange by Ichigo Takano

Translated by Lasse Christian Christiansen and Amber Tamosaitis | This YA sci-fi romance manga is one of the most endearing time travel books you’ll ever read.

On the first day of 11th grade, Naho oversleeps for the first time ever. She also receives a letter that claims to be sent from herself 10 years in the future. The letter tells her both of the two big things that will happen to her that day as proof of sender: she will be late, and there will be a new kid in class named Naruse Kakeru from Tokyo who will sit next to her.

Naho is unsure if she trusts the letter, or whether or not she should heed its warnings – especially since it talks about past regrets and trying to undo them.

Orange is an adorable, but heartbreaking time travel manga that teaches us the meaning of friendship, love, regret, and so much more. If you’re looking for the best books about time travel for teens, Orange is the perfect option (and adults will love it too).

Read Orange : Amazon | Goodreads

If you devour the time travel genre, don’t miss these great movies…

If you enjoy books that take you back in time, you might also appreciate these top movies with time loops . Would you be able to fix past mistakes, fall in love, and you know, maybe not die this time? Find out if these protagonists succeed.

Travel Back In Time With These Reading Lists:

• Best ’90s Books
• Iconic ’80s Books
• Best WWII Historical Fiction

Christine Frascarelli

Dagney McKinney

45 Comments

Hi, nice list but just FYI you have one of the novels named incorrectly: it should be All Our Wrong Todays, not All Our Wrongs Today.

Thanks for letting us know! Every year, this list grows, and sometimes we miss a few mistakes.

The Things Are Bad Series by Paul L Giles is the funniest, most insightful time travel books I’ve ever read. It has everything!

Thanks so much for the review and rec!

Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain is an engrossing time travel book that I enjoyed immensely.

Our readers and contributors are big Diane Chamberlain fans. Thanks!

A huge time travel fan. A great list. Another time travel book recommendation: Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montemore. Wonderful story.

Thank you so much for the kind words and recommendation! We’ll have to check it out.

Great list, thanks. I also love seeing all the recommendations in the comments. I would add the Chronos Files series to your list. And, of course, the film ABOUT TIME, which is fantastic!

Thanks so much for the recommendations. We appreciate it!

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Time travel: five ways that we could do it

Cathal O’Connell

Cathal O'Connell is a science writer based in Melbourne.

In 2009 the British physicist Stephen Hawking held a party for time travellers – the twist was he sent out the invites a year later (No guests showed up). Time travel is probably impossible. Even if it were possible, Hawking and others have argued that you could never travel back before the moment your time machine was built.

But travel to the future? That’s a different story.

Of course, we are all time travellers as we are swept along in the current of time, from past to future, at a rate of one hour per hour.

But, as with a river, the current flows at different speeds in different places. Science as we know it allows for several methods to take the fast-track into the future. Here’s a rundown.

1. Time travel via speed

This is the easiest and most practical way to time travel into the far future – go really fast.

According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, when you travel at speeds approaching the speed of light, time slows down for you relative to the outside world.

This is not a just a conjecture or thought experiment – it’s been measured. Using twin atomic clocks (one flown in a jet aircraft, the other stationary on Earth) physicists have shown that a flying clock ticks slower, because of its speed.

In the case of the aircraft, the effect is minuscule. But If you were in a spaceship travelling at 90% of the speed of light, you’d experience time passing about 2.6 times slower than it was back on Earth.

And the closer you get to the speed of light, the more extreme the time-travel.

Computer solves a major time travel problem

The highest speeds achieved through any human technology are probably the protons whizzing around the Large Hadron Collider at 99.9999991% of the speed of light. Using special relativity we can calculate one second for the proton is equivalent to 27,777,778 seconds, or about 11 months , for us.

Amazingly, particle physicists have to take this time dilation into account when they are dealing with particles that decay. In the lab, muon particles typically decay in 2.2 microseconds. But fast moving muons, such as those created when cosmic rays strike the upper atmosphere, take 10 times longer to disintegrate.

2. Time travel via gravity

The next method of time travel is also inspired by Einstein. According to his theory of general relativity, the stronger the gravity you feel, the slower time moves.

As you get closer to the centre of the Earth, for example, the strength of gravity increases. Time runs slower for your feet than your head.

Again, this effect has been measured. In 2010, physicists at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) placed two atomic clocks on shelves, one 33 centimetres above the other, and measured the difference in their rate of ticking. The lower one ticked slower because it feels a slightly stronger gravity.

To travel to the far future, all we need is a region of extremely strong gravity, such as a black hole. The closer you get to the event horizon, the slower time moves – but it’s risky business, cross the boundary and you can never escape.

And anyway, the effect is not that strong so it’s probably not worth the trip.

Assuming you had the technology to travel the vast distances to reach a black hole (the nearest is about 3,000 light years away), the time dilation through travelling would be far greater than any time dilation through orbiting the black hole itself.

(The situation described in the movie Interstellar , where one hour on a planet near a black hole is the equivalent of seven years back on Earth, is so extreme as to be impossible in our Universe, according to Kip Thorne, the movie’s scientific advisor.)

The most mindblowing thing, perhaps, is that GPS systems have to account for time dilation effects (due to both the speed of the satellites and gravity they feel) in order to work. Without these corrections, your phones GPS capability wouldn’t be able to pinpoint your location on Earth to within even a few kilometres.

3. Time travel via suspended animation

Another way to time travel to the future may be to slow your perception of time by slowing down, or stopping, your bodily processes and then restarting them later.

Bacterial spores can live for millions of years in a state of suspended animation, until the right conditions of temperature, moisture, food kick start their metabolisms again. Some mammals, such as bears and squirrels, can slow down their metabolism during hibernation, dramatically reducing their cells’ requirement for food and oxygen.

Could humans ever do the same?

Though completely stopping your metabolism is probably far beyond our current technology, some scientists are working towards achieving inducing a short-term hibernation state lasting at least a few hours. This might be just enough time to get a person through a medical emergency, such as a cardiac arrest, before they can reach the hospital.

In 2005, American scientists demonstrated a way to slow the metabolism of mice (which do not hibernate) by exposing them to minute doses of hydrogen sulphide, which binds to the same cell receptors as oxygen. The core body temperature of the mice dropped to 13 °C and metabolism decreased 10-fold. After six hours the mice could be reanimated without ill effects.

Unfortunately, similar experiments on sheep and pigs were not successful, suggesting the method might not work for larger animals.

Another method, which induces a hypothermic hibernation by replacing the blood with a cold saline solution, has worked on pigs and is currently undergoing human clinical trials in Pittsburgh.

4. Time travel via wormholes

General relativity also allows for the possibility for shortcuts through spacetime, known as wormholes, which might be able to bridge distances of a billion light years or more, or different points in time.

Many physicists, including Stephen Hawking, believe wormholes are constantly popping in and out of existence at the quantum scale, far smaller than atoms. The trick would be to capture one, and inflate it to human scales – a feat that would require a huge amount of energy, but which might just be possible, in theory.

Attempts to prove this either way have failed, ultimately because of the incompatibility between general relativity and quantum mechanics.

5. Time travel using light

Another time travel idea, put forward by the American physicist Ron Mallet, is to use a rotating cylinder of light to twist spacetime. Anything dropped inside the swirling cylinder could theoretically be dragged around in space and in time, in a similar way to how a bubble runs around on top your coffee after you swirl it with a spoon.

According to Mallet, the right geometry could lead to time travel into either the past and the future.

Since publishing his theory in 2000, Mallet has been trying to raise the funds to pay for a proof of concept experiment, which involves dropping neutrons through a circular arrangement of spinning lasers.

His ideas have not grabbed the rest of the physics community however, with others arguing that one of the assumptions of his basic model is plagued by a singularity, which is physics-speak for “it’s impossible”.

The Royal Institution of Australia has an Education resource based on this article. You can access it here .

Related Reading: Computer solves a major time travel problem

Originally published by Cosmos as Time travel: five ways that we could do it

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Matador Original Series

10 Key Destinations For The Historical Time Traveler

Two hundred years ago a traveler had to wait months to traverse oceans. We now have the means to wake up in New York and fall asleep in Sydney, all in the same day.

The trend: travel is becoming exponentially more accessible to the common man.

But the tradeoff is that culture and history are being lost. Remote islanders maintain their outdated tribal customs merely to get a buck from the nearest walking wallet with a camera. Cities that in ancient times were considered quaint and romantic have become nothing more than identical concrete jungles.

We’re losing the remnants of human history with each passing day – why not find a means to time travel for leisure? Where would you go if you had a weekend in any city in any century?

1. Rome, Height of the Empire

No one in living memory has ever really seen the Colosseum. Whatever your religious beliefs, there used to be gods in that city; watching over the empire from their marbled countenance, and ensuring trade on one of the first greatest centers of business in the western world: the Roman Forum.

Imagine being able to walk down the epitome of civilization; they didn’t call the period after Christianity spread and the empire fell The Dark Ages for no good reason. ..

2. Kyoto, 16th Century

In the 1500’s, Kyoto served as the national capital and home to the imperial family. Tokyo (then Edo) was little more than a fishing village at this time, not yet placed on the map by the empowering of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

In modern times, many travelers journey to Kyoto to discover only remnants of what was once one of the most beautiful and mystical places on the planet. Back in its heyday, this Japanese city would have been the richest and most populated next to Osaka.

The predecessors to geisha gently walking in their kimonos, made from imported Chinese silk; visions of the mountains to the north and east not yet lost in a sea of grey; everything under ten meters high.

The only downside? Not much fresh fish or sushi: transporting the latest catch from Osaka to Kyoto took a while to perfect, and sushi was still in its infancy.

3. United States, The Old West

Back to the Future had the right idea – many people at one point imagine themselves as a cowboy or cowgirl.

What would you give to be riding on horseback on a cool summer morning in the undeveloped expanse of the western territories? Nothing for hundreds of miles in any direction, except perhaps the whistle of a steam locomotive and wandering tribes of Native Americans.

Of course, if you go back far enough in history, any land can be considered unexplored or undiscovered, but there’s a certain romantic connotation that stirs up when thinking about the American movement to the west.

It’s the promise of the unknown – traveling towards the Pacific, having uprooted everything stable, everything civilized in the east, and seeing where the Oregon Trail took you.

4. Ancient Egypt, c. 2500 BC

Watch the building of the pyramids and learn more about archaeoastronomy – skylights in the pyramids were carved so that certain constellations could be viewed at a set time of year.

Even the great structures themselves were arranged on the sand corresponding to the placement of three stars overhead. Discover the meaning of the Great Sphinx – who knows why it was built? Maybe some pharaoh just had a mutant pet.

Cairo will surely be hot and dry during this period in history, so remember to pack light loose-fitting clothing and plenty of sunscreen. If you wait around for another five hundred years, you might catch the finishing touches on Deir el Bahri .

5. London, 14th Century

“…the truth was that the modern world was invented in the Middle Ages. Everything from the legal system, to nation-states, to reliance on technology, to the concept of romantic love had first been established in medieval times.” – Timeline, Michael Crichton

Everyone wants to be a knight in shining armor or a princess fair and true. Chivalry isn’t dead. In fact, if you choose to travel to London roughly seven hundred years ago, you’ll find it quite alive and well.

A walking tour of this city will let you face the first real London Bridge, providing the only access across the Thames. Canterbury Tales by Chaucer paints a rather vivid picture of this era. Many of the buildings in London we associate with medieval times were already in place: The Tower of London, Westminster Hall, Westminster Abbey.

Remember to apply insect repellant liberally, as the Black Death was known to pass through Britain and France in this century.

6. Chang’an, Han Dynasty

The origin of The Silk Road and a golden age in Chinese history, when Confucian principles laid down the foundation for society and Buddhism was just beginning to spread. Travel west along this trade route and in a matter of months, you’ll reach the Roman Empire.

7. Chichen Itza, 5th century

Although you may not be in a temple of doom, it’s wise to heed the words of Indiana Jones and “protect your heart!” As one of the largest Mayan cities on the Yucatan Peninsula, Chichen Itza was the site of human sacrifices.

It’s true that quite a few of the largest temples are very well preserved in modern Mexico, but I challenge you to find another time or place in which ancient games that could rival basketball were played. Best to arrive before the Toltec siege.

8. India, c. 600 BC

The Buddha had about forty-five good years of teaching from the time of his reaching enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree to his death. Don’t waste them. Meeting the Awakened One and learning the dhamma firsthand would be an experience for which almost anyone in Asia would trade his or her life. Try and eliminate the suffering in your heart before your departure…

9. New York City, Roaring 20’s

By the time the 1920’s dawned in New York City, the modern version of a cityscape was already formed: Macy’s department stores, the public library, Grand Central Terminal, and the then world’s tallest Woolworth Building.

Unfortunately construction on the Empire State Building won’t commence until after the crash of ’29, but take advantage of this period in history with your choice of taxicabs or horse drawn carriages. Watch Lindbergh start his journey across the Atlantic. Gaze at the audience of women in hoop skirts and men in all too stiff and uncomfortable suits.

10. Babylon, c. 600 BC

One of the seven wonders of the ancient world: the hanging gardens of Babylon. As one of the first empires in human history, Babylon was built in the shadow of ancient Sumeria near the Euphrates River, and may have even been the source of the legendary Tower of Babel with its own Temple of Marduk.

I’m sure there are many asking “Why not see some dinosaurs?” Think a little practically in this impractical form of travel and question if you’d prefer camping in the late Cretaceous (and being trampled to death), or blending with the masses and observing the election of a Roman consul firsthand.

Besides, if a Tyrannosaur doesn’t get you, the meteor will later on.

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You’ve been to the past, now meet travelers that we still remember tale. Read 10 Travelers and Why Their Tales Made History . Also, what other trends might we see in the future of travel? Check out 6 Predictions For the Future Of Travel .

Where and when would you go if you had a ticket guaranteeing a weekend of fun in any place at any time?

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How to Make a Time Travel Craft Inspired by The Time Machine Book

January 27, 2024 | Leave a Comment This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy .

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We’re making a fun time travel craft inspired by the Time Machine book. Also, look at this post 11 Best Science Fiction Books For Middle Schoolers for more ideas.

Time travel has long been the topic of science fiction stories. 

Authors like HG Wells imagine a world where we can cross time and space, going into the past as well as the future.

The Time Machine is a science fiction work written by HG Wells and was published in 1895.

Inspired by H.G. Wells’s book The Time Machine we created a craft that let us imagine a taste of time travel.

While time travel may still not be possible for us in this day and age, what we can do is create a time capsule that will give our future selves, or someone else, a glimpse into who we were in present times.

They can be a wonderful way to preserve and showcase your personal or family memories for future self or future generations.

There are so many options for what can go into your time capsule.

It can be made up completely of things that you love as well as things that represent the period like music, books, TV, shows, pop trends, etc.

I have a list of ideas for you below to help you decide what to put inside.

Table of Contents

Science Fiction Books for Middle School Kids

Next, I have more science fiction books for middle school kids.

11 Science Fiction Books for Middle School

Your kids will love reading one or two of these science fiction books or them to add to your unit study.

The Wild Robot (Volume 1)

This newer addition to sci-fi is an absolute delight and is part of a series of 3 books following robot Roz as she navigates her accidental life on a wild remote island. We adored this first selection as a read-aloud. 

The War of the Worlds

So begins The War of the Worlds, the science fiction classic that first proposed the possibility of intelligent life on other planets and has enthralled readers for generations. This compelling tale describes the Martian invasion of earth. When huge, tireless creatures land in England, complete chaos erupts. Using their fiery heat rays and crushing strength, the aliens just may succeed in silencing all opposition. Is life on earth doomed? Will mankind survive? A timeless view of a universe turned upside down, The War of the Worlds is an ingenious and imaginative look into the possibilities of the future and the secrets yet to be revealed.

Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Force Collector

This is probably one of the best book versions of Star Wars ( in the opinion of a teen fan) but it is not based on familiar characters in the Star Wars universe rather it is a new storyline and new characters in familiar locations. This is a stand-alone story with no sequels as of now

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition

It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien.After that, things get much, much worse.With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover.Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.

The Time Machine

Embark on an extraordinary time-travel adventure with H.G. Wells. Explore fascinating future worlds and dystopian societies. Witness the implications of human evolution and societal decay. Engage with thought-provoking questions about the nature of humanity. Experience the brilliance of H.G. Wells’ visionary storytelling.

The City of Ember Deluxe Edition: The First Book of Ember

The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. After two hundred years the great lamps that lights the city are beginning to flicker, and two friends fight together to save the city in this first of 4 in the series. It is listed as recommended for grades 3-7 but it really is an enjoyable story for even older grades.

Last Day on Mars (Chronicle of the Dark Star, 1)

This part 1 of a 3-part series has stunning visual imagery and impossible situations like life on the red planet, when even that is threatened the few humans left must travel to yet another home on a distant star unlocking mysteries about time and space,

Ender's Game (The Ender Saga, 1)

This is the first of Orson Scott Card's Cards Ender's Saga, to date there are 5 novels and one novella in the Ender series based on the government breeding child geniuses and training them as soldiers against alien attack.

The Hunger Games

Even if They have already seen the movies I highly recommend assigning your middle schooler this series. It gives a lot of material for discussions of moral choices, allegiance to your government at all costs, friendships, how a future like this could come to be, and more

Divergent (Divergent Series, 1)

Similar to Hunger Games this is the first in a 4 part series of a dystopian world where everyone is split up into 5 factions—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent) splitting families and friends and pitting them against one another.

Ready Player One

If you have a teen who loves gaming and the 80s along with science fiction they are really going to enjoy this one that is set in 204 but filled with pop culture references from that totally awesome decade

25 Things to Put in Your Time Capsule

• A letter- addressed to your future self or whoever finds it.
• Photographs- selfies and favorite photos of you, your house, family, and pets.
• Newspaper- A front page of the current date is a good choice.
• Grocery ads- To show how much grocery items cost at the time.
• Favorite toys, current favorite things from the time like LEGO, mini surprise toys, video games, etc…Fast food kids meal toys, unopened.
• Coins dated from the current year.
• Ticket stubs from current movies, concerts, and events.
• Dried flowers from a bouquet or your yard.
• Seashells and sand from a beach trip with a label of when/where.
• Cleaned packages from your favorite snacks.
• A lock of your hair.
• Short notes of advice from every family member.
• A copy of your favorite book with a note inside.
• Your favorite t-shirt.
• Key to the house.
• A family recipe
• Your favorite poem.
• Copy of your report card.
• Takeout menus from local restaurants.
• Hand or footprints
• A video recording of yourself/family.
• Technology cards, chargers, power banks, flash drives, etc…  to show what tech was like in your time.
• Local souvenirs from your area.
• A bucket list of things you want to accomplish in the years that you have set your time capsule for if you are putting it away for your future self.

5 More Cool Time Travel Crafts and Activities

• Here is an idea for a Time Traveller’s Journal done in steampunk style which just screams time traveler to me. 
• If you want to go crazy you can get an old refrigerator box and turn it into a time machine with your kids.
• Another popular time travel book is Madeleine L’Engle’s  A Wrinkle in Time, and these Cootie Catchers are a really fun activity to go along with it.
• Watch the History of Time Travel on Prime Video , a fictional documentary about the world’s first-time travel machine and the impact it has on real-world events.
• Of course, we can’t forget one of the most popular time travelers, Doctor Who, craft these scarf bookmarks to keep your spot in your favorite time travel books.

Putting Together a Time Capsule

The first thing you want to do is determine how long you want to keep your time capsule before opening. How long-term are you willing to go? 5 years? 10? 20? 50?

Where will you put it? Are you going to bury it in the backyard or just hide it in a box or the back of the closet?

Now what are you going to put in your time capsule?  There are so many options.

A time capsule can be made up completely of things that you love as well as things that represent the period like music, books, TV, shows, pop trends, etc. I have a list of ideas for you below to help you decide what to put inside.

If you would rather use something sturdier to bury your time capsule and not worry about the elements here are a couple of ready-to-go options.

You will need:

• An Airtight container
• Letter and number stickers
• Themed stickers
• Tissue paper
• Masking or packing tape
• Your chosen items

Clean and dry your chosen vessel.  I used this large pickle jar that we had on hand, I wouldn’t trust it to be suitable for varying in the backyard but it’s great for putting in a hope chest or in the back of the closet.

How to Put Together a Time Capsule Craft

Add the current year to your time capsule with letter stickers, you can also add the goal year of when it should be opened if you like.

You can use other fun stickers to decorate the outside of your time capsule either with a futuristic theme or just a fun mix to fit your personality.

Pre-fit all your items in the container to make sure they will fit with a little space.

We are using tissue paper to hide it all because if we paint the jar inside or out it will scratch off. You can cover it in contact paper on the outside if you prefer.

Once you know everything fits, wrap it all carefully in tissue paper and slide it back into the jar.

Replacing the lid and securing it with duct tape or packing tape works well to secure the lid to help deter little eyes from peaking too soon.

Now all that is left to do is hide your time machine on the back of a shelf or deep in a chest in the attic.

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155 Best Travel Video Ideas for YouTube (2024 List)

Watching travel videos before a trip is great. However, I recently noticed all of them look kinda the same.

Aerial drone footage of the same two tourist traps, a 2-minute time-lapse of the same sunset spot, and endless footage with electronic music in the background.

It seems no one has any original ideas anymore.

What if YOU brought something new to the table?

Do you think it would help your YouTube channel stand out?

In this article, I offer more than 155 travel YouTube video ideas for your next content piece. I also show you how to create travel videos that tell a story.

And if you’re wondering why you should listen to me, I have a YouTube channel with over 180,000 subscribers. I know what makes people click, watch, and stick around.

What Are The Best Travel YouTube Video Ideas?

Here are the travel YouTube video ideas you can use in the next piece of content you film.

Destination Guides

If you’re an avid traveler, you might know places regular tourists will never experience – up till now.

Why not share these beautiful hidden gems with the world?

You can use the following travel video ideas to help inspire someone’s next adventure.

• Top 10 Must-Visit Places in Tokyo for First-Timers
• A Complete Guide to Budget-Friendly Eats in Paris
• Exploring the Hidden Gems of New York City
• The Best Beach Destinations in Southeast Asia
• A Local’s Guide to London: Beyond the Tourist Spots
• Adventure Seekers in New Zealand: South Island Highlights
• Walking Tour of Rome: Discovering Ancient History
• The Ultimate Road Trip Guide: California’s Pacific Coast Highway
• Island Hopping in the Philippines: A Beginner’s Guide
• Discovering the Magic of the Northern Lights in Norway
• How to Spend 48 Hours in Istanbul: A Whirlwind Tour
• The Art Lover’s Guide to Florence: Museums and Galleries
• Exploring the Natural Wonders of Iceland: A Travel Guide
• Vegetarian Foodie Tour of India: Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur
• Backpacking Through South America: Essential Stops
• Navigating the Markets of Marrakech: Tips and Tricks
• The Ultimate Sydney Experience: From Beaches to Bars
• Discovering the Ancient Ruins of Petra, Jordan
• A Thrifty Traveler’s Guide to Scandinavia
• The Best Spots for Whale Watching Around the World
• A Cultural Tour of Mexico City: History, Art, and Delicious Food
• The Adventurer’s Guide to Patagonia: Hiking and Exploring
• Exploring the Vineyards of Tuscany: A Wine Lover’s Journey
• The Best Places to See Wildlife in Africa: A Safari Guide
• Off-the-Beaten-Path: Exploring the Balkans

Cultural Immersion

Diving deep into a place and living like a local has its perks. You can experience local traditions, festivals, customs, and everyday life.

If you want to create videos around these topics, the following list will help:

• Celebrating Diwali in India: The Festival of Lights
• Participating in a Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony
• The Art of Making Authentic Neapolitan Pizza in Italy
• Experiencing a Day in the Life of a Maasai Warrior in Kenya
• The Significance of Flamenco in Spanish Culture
• Attending the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan: A Guide
• Learning the Tango in Buenos Aires: A Cultural Deep Dive
• Discovering the Roots of Reggae Music in Jamaica
• Celebrating Carnaval in Rio: Culture, Costumes, and Colors
• Traditional Chinese Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Workshop
• Exploring the Architectural Wonders of Gaudi in Barcelona
• A Guide to the Holy Sites of Jerusalem: A Religious Journey
• Participating in a Thai Cooking Class in Bangkok
• The Ancient Art of Silk Making in Vietnam
• Celebrating the Day of the Dead in Mexico: Traditions and Meanings
• Discovering the World of French Wine: A Cultural Tour
• The History and Culture of Native American Powwows
• Experiencing an Irish Pub Crawl: Music, Dance, and Storytelling
• The Traditional Tea Culture in China: A Journey Through Time
• Attending a Traditional Hawaiian Luau: Understanding the Heritage
• Discovering the Folk Music Traditions of Eastern Europe
• Exploring the Kasbahs of Morocco: A Historical Adventure
• The Art of Sushi Making in Japan: From Fish Market to Table
• Participating in the Holi Festival in India: A Colorful Celebration
• A Culinary Journey Through the Spice Markets of Istanbul

Adventure Travel

Hiking, deep sea diving, skydiving and so many other adrenaline-filled activities.

You can experience all these activities on your travels and share them with others.

Check out the following video ideas:

• Conquering Kilimanjaro: A Beginner’s Guide to Climbing Africa’s Highest Peak
• Skydiving Over the Swiss Alps: An Adrenaline-Packed Experience
• Bungee Jumping in Queenstown: Facing Fear in the Adventure Capital
• White Water Rafting on the Colorado River: A Thrilling Journey
• Exploring the Amazon Rainforest: Survival Tips and Must-See Sights
• Cycling Across Vietnam: A Journey Through Scenic Landscapes
• The Ultimate Surf Trip: Chasing Waves in Bali
• Ice Climbing in Alaska: Gear, Tips, and Best Locations
• Sandboarding in the Sahara: A Unique Desert Adventure
• Caving in the Cenotes of Mexico: An Underground World Awaits
• Sailing Around the Greek Islands: A Beginner’s Guide
• Hot Air Ballooning in Cappadocia: Views from Above
• Dog Sledding in Norway: An Arctic Adventure
• Kayaking Through the Fjords of Norway: A Paddler’s Paradise
• Paragliding in the Himalayas: Soaring Above the Clouds
• Safari in Kruger National Park: Wildlife Encounters
• Horseback Riding in Patagonia: The Gauchos’ Path
• Zip-Lining Through the Costa Rican Rainforest: A Bird’s Eye View
• Hiking the Camino de Santiago: A Pilgrim’s Progress
• Snorkeling in the Maldives: Exploring Underwater Marvels
• Mountain Biking in Moab: Trails for Every Skill Level
• Deep Sea Fishing in the Caribbean: A Sport Fisher’s Dream

Travel Vlogs

Traveling isn’t always about grand adventures and cultural experiences.

Sometimes, it’s about the personal insights that make a trip memorable.

In these cases, the following travel vlog ideas can help:

• A Day in My Life: Backpacking Solo Through Thailand
• The Realities of Van Life: A Week on the Road
• Exploring the Street Food Scene in Seoul: A Taste Adventure
• My Journey to the Dead Sea: Floating and Mud Masks
• 24 Hours in New York City: The Ultimate Challenge
• The Northern Lights Hunt in Iceland: Successes and Fails
• Learning to Salsa Dance in Colombia: A Vlog Series
• Navigating the Venice Canals: A Gondola Ride Experience
• Road Trip Across the USA: Coast to Coast Adventures
• Living with Nomads in Mongolia: A Cultural Exchange
• The Festivals of India: Experiencing Diwali, Holi, and More
• A Week Living Off-Grid in the Canadian Wilderness
• Discovering Ancient Egypt: Pyramids, Sphinx, and Nile Cruise
• My First Time Scuba Diving: The Great Barrier Reef Adventure
• Attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Shows, Laughs, and More
• Island Life in Fiji: Community, Culture, and Coral Reefs
• The Journey to Machu Picchu: Hiking, History, and Heights
• A Culinary Tour of Italy: Pasta, Pizza, and Gelato Galore
• Experiencing Ramadan in Turkey: Fasting, Feasts, and Festivities
• Winter Wonderland: Skiing and Snowboarding in Japan
• Hitchhiking Adventure: Stories from the Road
• A Solo Traveler’s Guide to Making Friends Abroad
• Volunteering Abroad: Building Schools in Nepal
• The Best Sunset Spots Around the World: A Vlog Series
• A Beginner’s Guide to Travel Hacking: Maximizing Miles and Points

Budget Travel

You don’t always have to spend big to enjoy your trip.

For those who focus on affordable travel destinations and tips, these video ideas can help you create content:

• How to Travel Europe on $50 a Day: Tips and Tricks
• Mastering the Art of Couchsurfing: A Beginner’s Guide
• Budget Travel Hacks: Saving Money on Flights and Accommodations
• The Ultimate Guide to Affordable Safaris in Africa
• Exploring Central America on a Shoestring Budget
• How to Enjoy Paris for Free: Top Free Attractions and Activities
• Traveling the Balkans: Budget Tips for This Underrated Destination
• Southeast Asia Backpacking: How to Plan Your Trip on a Budget
• The Best Budget Travel Destinations for 2024
• How to Score Cheap and Free Accommodation While Traveling
• Eating Cheap: A Guide to Street Food Around the World
• Budget Travel in Expensive Countries: Japan on a Dime
• Planning a Budget Road Trip Across the USA
• The Secret to Finding Cheap Hidden Gems in Europe
• Traveling Without Flying: How to Save Money and Enjoy the Journey
• How to Use Public Transport Like a Local: Saving Money on the Go
• The Best Free Walking Tours in European Cities
• Budget Island Hopping in the Caribbean
• How to Bargain in Local Markets: Tips from Around the World
• Maximizing Points and Miles for Free Travel: A Beginner’s Guide
• The Best Budget-Friendly Family Vacation Spots
• Backpacker’s Guide to the Australian Outback: Tips for Affordable Adventure
• How to Plan a Trip Around the World on a Budget
• The Best Time to Book Flights and Hotels: Secrets for Budget Travelers

Luxury Travel

On the other end of the “ways of travel spectrum”, you can find luxury travel.

Here the focus is on expensive experiences. Traveling in style, living in luxury accommodations, and indulging in high-end activities.

Here’s how to show the high-end travel lifestyle:

• Video Reviews Of The World’s Most Luxurious Hotel Experiences
• Private Island Getaways: The Ultimate in Luxury Travel
• Experiencing the Northern Lights in Style: Luxury Glass Igloos in Finland
• The Best First-Class Flight Experiences Around the World
• Luxury Safari Lodges in Africa: Where Wildlife Meets Opulence
• Sailing the Seas: A Look Inside Ultra-Luxury Cruise Experiences
• The Ultimate Guide to the Maldives: Overwater Bungalows and More
• Exclusive Culinary Tours: Michelin Star Experiences Around the Globe
• The Most Extravagant Casino Resorts in the World
• Jet Set in Style: The Best in Private Jet Travel
• Experiencing the Monaco Grand Prix: Luxury and Speed
• The World’s Most Opulent Train Journeys
• The Best Places to Stay for a Luxurious Desert Experience
• The Most Luxurious Spa and Wellness Retreats Worldwide
• Luxury Shopping Experiences Around the Globe
• Gourmet Dining in the Sky: The World’s Best Airline First-Class Meals
• High Roller: The Luxury of Las Vegas Beyond the Casinos
• Chartering a Yacht in the Mediterranean: What You Need to Know
• The Top Luxury Golf Destinations and Resorts Around the World
• Indulging in the World’s Most Luxurious Chocolate Experiences
• A Guide to the Most Opulent Theaters and Opera Houses
• Luxury Voluntourism: Giving Back in Style
• The Best Private Island Resorts in Southeast Asia
• Exploring the French Riviera: Glamour and Luxury Guide

Culinary Travel

Street food, local cuisine and traditional cooking methods are all part of one’s culinary journey.

Here’s how to combine your love for food and travel into one package:

• A Taste of Italy: Culinary Journey Through Tuscany
• Street Food Around the World: A Gastronomic Adventure
• The Ultimate Guide to Sushi in Japan: From Tsukiji to Conveyor Belts
• Discovering the Flavors of Morocco: A Food Tour of Marrakech
• The Best Wine Tours in France: From Bordeaux to Champagne
• Vegan Traveler’s Guide: Finding Plant-Based Delights Globally
• The Spiciest Dishes in Thailand: A Culinary Challenge
• BBQ Across America: A Road Trip for the Taste Buds
• Traditional Cooking Classes in India: Learning From the Locals
• Argentina’s Culinary Gems: Steak, Wine, and Empanadas
• Reaction Videos to Exotic Foods
• The Ultimate Seafood Journey: Exploring Coastal Cuisine
• Cheese Lover’s Tour of Europe: From Gouda to Gorgonzola
• The History of Chocolate: A Sweet Journey Through Belgium and Switzerland
• Vietnam’s Coffee Culture: From Egg Coffee to Street Cafes
• Exploring the Tapas Scene in Spain: A Guide to Eating and Drinking
• The World’s Best Food Markets: A Culinary Exploration
• Greek Cuisine: Beyond Gyros and Moussaka
• The Craft Beer Trail: Sampling Brews Across the Pacific Northwest
• A Culinary Walk Through New Orleans: Cajun and Creole Classics
• Sampling the Street Foods of Mexico City: A Flavorful Adventure
• Discovering Traditional Russian Dishes: From Borscht to Blini
• A Guide to Eating Out in Istanbul: From Kebabs to Baklava
• The Delights of Scandinavian Cuisine: From Smørrebrød to Seafood
• Exploring the Unique Flavors of Peruvian Cuisine

Solo Travel

Some travelers just want to explore the world by themselves. No one to wait for, make plans with or slow them down.

The peace and freedom this gives solo travelers is challenging to explain (to those who don’t get it).

If you resonate with this type of traveler, the following travel video ideas might be perfect for your next trip:

• Best Destinations for Solo Travelers in 2024
• How to Overcome Loneliness and Enjoy Solo Travel
• Solo Female Travel: Empowerment and Safety Tips
• The Art of Solo Travel: Making the Most of Your Journey
• Packing Tips for the Solo Traveler: Essentials and Hacks
• Meeting People While Traveling Alone: Best Apps and Tips
• Top Budget Destinations for Solo Travelers
• The Solo Traveler’s Guide to Self-Discovery and Adventure
• Navigating Foreign Languages as a Solo Traveler: Tools and Tips
• Solo Travel in Asia: A Guide to the Best Experiences
• How to Plan Your First Solo Trip: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Solo Road Trips: Planning, Safety, and Destination Ideas
• The Best Solo Travel Experiences in South America
• Staying in Hostels: Tips for Solo Travelers
• Solo Travel and Mindfulness: How to Fully Embrace Your Journey
• Documenting Your Solo Travel: Blogging and Vlogging Tips
• How to Deal with Emergencies While Traveling Alone
• The Best City Breaks for Solo Travelers
• Solo Wilderness Adventures: Tips for Safe Hiking and Camping
• Finding the Best Solo Travel Deals: Flights, Accommodations, and Tours
• Solo Travel in Africa: Destinations, Safety, and Cultural Tips
• The Joy of Solo Travel: Discovering Yourself While Exploring the World
• The Challenges of Solo Travel and How to Overcome Them

Eco-Friendly Travel

Sustainable travel practices help with your environmental footprint.

However, it’s not just about choosing eco-friendly accommodations or activities.

It could also be about supporting local communities and minimizing waste.

Here’s how to share your eco-friendly travel experience with others:

• The Ultimate Guide to Sustainable Travel: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
• Eco-Friendly Packing Tips: Sustainable Travel Essentials
• Top 10 Eco-Friendly Destinations Around the World
• How to Choose Sustainable Accommodations: A Guide for Responsible Travelers
• Voluntourism: Combining Travel with Making a Positive Impact
• The Rise of Eco-Friendly Tours: Exploring Nature Responsibly
• Tips for Minimizing Waste While Traveling
• A Parody Video on How Not to be an Eco-Tourist
• Exploring the World’s Most Sustainable Cities: A Travel Guide
• Eco-Friendly Transportation Options for the Conscious Traveler
• Responsible Wildlife Tourism: Do’s and Don’ts
• The Beauty of National Parks: A Journey Through Conservation and Adventure
• Sustainable Eating: Finding and Enjoying Local, Ethical Food While Traveling
• The Impact of Travel on Local Communities and How to Travel Responsibly
• Eco-Friendly Adventure Activities: Fun Without the Footprint
• The Role of Conservation in Eco-Tourism: Visiting Projects Around the World
• Green Travel Apps and Resources to Plan Your Eco-Friendly Trip
• The Future of Travel: Innovations in Sustainability
• How to Offset Your Travel Emissions: A Practical Guide
• Eco-Friendly Souvenirs: What to Bring Back and What to Leave Behind
• Sustainable Sea Travel: Exploring the Oceans Without Harming Them
• Participating in Beach Clean-Ups and Environmental Efforts While Traveling
• The Benefits of Slow Travel: Embracing Sustainability Through Pace
• Discovering Eco-Lodges: A Unique and Sustainable Travel Experience
• A Guide to Bicycle Touring: Exploring the World on Two Wheels
• Water Conservation Tips for Travelers: Preserving the Planet’s Most Precious Resource

Family Travel

Booking a family trip can be a long, drawn-out process.

Do you have tips to help those traveling with children? Or, even better, a video showcasing your family’s adventures and the lessons you learned?

Here are some concepts that can serve as your YouTube video idea generator:

• The Best Family-Friendly Destinations Around the World
• How to Keep Kids Entertained on Long Flights: A Parent’s Guide
• Educational Travel: Making Learning Fun for Kids on the Road
• The Ultimate Packing List for Family Vacations
• Budget-Friendly Family Travel: How to Save Money Without Sacrificing Fun
• Navigating Theme Parks: Strategies for a Stress-Free Visit
• Family Road Trip Survival Guide: Keeping Everyone Happy
• Traveling with Toddlers: Tips for a Smooth Experience
• The Best Kid-Friendly Activities in Europe: A Family Travel Guide
• How to Choose Family-Friendly Accommodations
• Travel Insurance for Families: What You Need to Know
• The Benefits of Multigenerational Travel: Bringing the Family Together
• Adventure Travel with Kids: New Ideas for the Whole Family
• Cultural Exchanges: How Travel Can Expand Your Children’s Horizons
• Documenting Family Trips: Tips for Capturing Memories
• The Best Time to Travel with Kids: Planning Around School Schedules
• Eating Out with Kids While Traveling: A Guide to Stress-Free Dining
• Preparing for Your First Family Camping Trip
• Solo Parent Travel: How to Manage and Enjoy Trips with Your Kids
• Safety Tips for Family Travel: Keeping Everyone Protected
• The Top Educational Museums for Kids Worldwide
• Engaging Teens in Travel Planning: Tips for a Smooth Family Holiday
• How to Deal with Jet Lag in Children: Tips for a Happy Family
• Traveling with Children with Special Needs: A Comprehensive Guide

Historical And Educational Travel

Are you a history buff with a curious mind? Do you seek to understand how different cultures and societies have evolved?

A travel YouTube channel allows you to dive deep into the stories that shaped our world.

Here are the top ideas to consider:

• Walking Through History: Exploring the Ancient Ruins of Rome
• The Civil Rights Trail in the USA: A Journey Through History
• Following the Silk Road: A Modern Adventure Through Ancient Trade Routes
• World War II Sites in Europe: A Historical Travel Guide
• Discovering the Mayan Civilization: A Tour Through Mexico and Central America
• The Castles of Scotland: Legends, History, and Architecture
• Educational Travel for Kids: Making History Come Alive in Washington D.C.
• The Renaissance Trail in Italy: From Florence to Venice
• Uncovering the Secrets of Ancient Egypt: A Nile Journey
• Historical Battlefields Around the World: A Guide to Their Stories and Significance
• The Spiritual Heart of India: Exploring Varanasi’s Rich History
• Journey Through Time: Visiting the World’s Oldest Cities
• The Viking Trail: Exploring Norse History in Scandinavia
• Slave Routes in Africa: A Deep Dive into History and Healing
• The French Revolution: Tracing Its Footsteps Through Paris
• A Guide to Exploring the Ancient Temples of Southeast Asia
• The Holocaust Trail: Remembering History Through Travel
• Colonial America: A Trip Through the Historic East Coast
• The Great Wall of China: Hiking Through History
• Pilgrimage Routes: Spiritual and Historical Journeys Across the World
• The Ottoman Empire: Tracing its Legacy in Turkey
• Ancient Greece: From Athens to Olympia
• The Age of Exploration: Navigating the Routes of Early Explorers
• The Gold Rush: Retracing the Adventurers’ Paths in California and Alaska
• The Industrial Revolution: Visiting the Birthplaces of Modern Industry

Photography And Videography Tips

Photographers love traveling. Travel gives them new and unique perspectives, opportunities and landscapes to capture.

As a travel photographer, you can cater to people with different skill levels – anyone from beginner to advanced.

It’s also not just about the skill level. It can be about the type of photography you focus on.

Here’s how to make travel photography a part of your YouTube channel:

• Capturing the Essence of a City: Urban Photography Tips
• Landscape Photography: Techniques for Captivating Nature Shots
• Night Photography in Travel: Capturing The Most Vibrant Cities After Dark
• Wildlife Photography on Safari: Gear and Ethical Practices
• Vlogging Your Travel: A Beginner’s Guide to Engaging Content
• The Art of Time-Lapse Photography in Iconic Locations
• Aerial Photography: Using Drones to Capture Breathtaking Views
• Underwater Videography: Tips for Scuba and Snorkeling Shoots
• Cultural Photography: Respectfully Capturing the Essence of Local Life
• The Golden Hour: Mastering the Magic of Sunrise and Sunset Shots
• Action Photography: Freezing Motion in Adventure Sports
• Smartphone Photography: Maximizing Your Phone’s Capabilities
• Editing Travel Photos: A Guide to the Best Apps and Software
• Creating a Travel Photography Portfolio: Helpful Tips and Tricks
• Shooting and Editing YouTube Videos on the Go: A Mobile Filmmaker’s Guide
• The Travel Photographer’s Packing List: Essentials for Every Trip
• Street Photography: Capturing the Heartbeat of Cities
• Stabilization Techniques for Smooth Travel Videos
• Amazing Food Photography: Making Culinary Shots Look Appetizing
• Creating Cinematic Travel Videos: Techniques and Tips
• The Challenges of Shooting in Harsh Weather: Overcoming the Elements
• Building a Narrative in Your Travel Photography
• Tips for Capturing Festivals and Events: Colors, Crowds, and Action
• Protecting Your Photography Gear While Traveling

How To Create Engaging Travel Videos

There’s a lot of travel-based content on YouTube.

If you want yours to stand out, you can’t expect to just throw together some footage and hit publish.

Instead, here are some key ideas to help your travel videos be more memorable:

• Hook your audience with your footage: The first 3 seconds of your videos are crucial. You can use dramatic footage, an unknown landscape, fly over a majestic landscape or use captivating audio. Anything that’s ‘out of the norm’ will do the trick.
• Ask questions: Travel videos are generally one-sided. The content creator presents content and the viewers watch and listen. Asking questions makes viewers active participants in your videos. The more engaging the question, the better. Asking, “Can you travel around the world using $100?” is a more engaging question than, “Did you know you can travel on a budget?”
• Use teasers: At various points during your video, you can tease what’s coming next in that video (or in future ones). This gives people a reason to keep watching.

Travel Planning And Research

Planning and research play a huge part in creating engaging travel videos.

When planning, the first thing to consider is how you’ll differentiate your travel content.

Most travel videos explore common tourist areas, markets and well-known landscapes.

What if you go off the beaten path? Could you show your audience unique and lesser-known destinations or experiences? Sharing hidden gems will make your content different.

Are there any local festivals or hidden culinary delights your viewers must try?

You can also create travel itineraries for your viewers.

Here you’re not only providing your audience with visual walkthroughs of attractions. You’re also telling them the best order to visit them.

If you can create plans for different numbers of days in a city, (for example, 3 days in Paris, 5 days in Sicily) that will be even better.

How To Capture Great Travel Footage

Another way to stand out is to have variety in your travel footage.

Most people show a zoomed-in version of whatever they’re filming (and stick to it throughout the video). Instead, try this: don’t always stay too close to your subject.

People love seeing different points of view. You achieve this through varying shot lengths.

You might want to start with close-ups of food, crafts or architecture. Then, zoom out to show the big picture.

You can even have talking head videos (where a person is talking on camera). Then at various moments, you overlay B-roll footage of an attraction you’re talking about.

Two other crucial factors are lighting and audio.

Natural lighting is the best type of lighting. Usually, the golden hour (when the sun is rising and setting) offers excellent opportunities to film travel videos.

Your audio is another critical factor.

Use a portable microphone if possible to capture the best quality sound.

This little touch goes a long way when filming outdoors – especially if the video has background noise (including wind, waves, or crowds).

Increasing Audience Engagement

Creating YouTube content means you’re not publishing videos for yourself. You’re doing it primarily for your audience.

You want people to engage time and time again with your content. This engagement can become the foundation of a travel community.

Over time, you want your viewers to look forward to your content. You want them to watch, like, subscribe and comment.

As you build a community of like-minded people, ensure you have calls to action in your videos. These should match whatever you’re trying to achieve.

For example, if you want to create a “travel hacks” course, ask people to join your email list or follow you on Instagram to learn more.

If you want them to subscribe, be clear and explicit about it.

Don’t assume it will happen without asking.

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or just going on your first solo trip, you have knowledge you can share with the world.

The above ideas will help you get started creating content others will find valuable.

It’s time to grab your camera, pick your next destination and start filming.

Safe travels!

Further reading on AdamEnfroy.com: Need more video ideas?

This ultimate list of YouTube video ideas will help.

If you’re leaning towards lifestyle content, check out the 105 best lifestyle video ideas for inspiration.

Alternatively, if you want to give your audience a good laugh, these 105 funny YouTube video ideas have got you covered.

Finally, for the artists, you can explore my list of 25 unique art video ideas to help showcase your knowledge.

Editorial Process:

Our reviews are made by a team of experts before being written and come from real-world experience. Read our editorial process here .

Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to us at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. These are products we’ve personally used and stand behind. This site is not intended to provide financial advice. You can read our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy .

Adam Enfroy

We test and review software products based on an independent, multi-point methodology. If you use our links to purchase something, we earn a commission. Read our editorial process and disclosures .

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Blaze News original: 7 most underrated summer travel ideas in the US

Summer is right around the corner, and that means planning for a wondrous summer vacation that will provide cherished memories for a lifetime. Maybe you want to avoid travel destinations with overwhelming crowds, or perhaps you want to discover a new summer vacation spot that could be your annual retreat with your family. This travel guide will provide you with some of the most underrated summer travel ideas in the U.S.

Travel experts suggest that you should book your summer vacation around mid-April to ensure that you snag the best accommodations before prices rise due to higher demand.

So without further ado, check out these underrated summer travel ideas so that you can start planning the best vacation for 2024.

Asheville, North Carolina

Nestled amid the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains lies the intriguing and inviting city of Asheville, North Carolina . This Appalachian gem offers a bevy of experiences to satisfy your palate, quench your desire for the arts, and indulge your sense of exploration.

This vibrant city offers a community of culinary collaborators crafting a delectable array of cuisines that will have you drooling — including James Beard Award-winning chefs. Asheville is rich in gastronomy — treat your taste buds to barbecue, Spanish tapas, Southern eats, and French dishes.

Asheville is also a beer drinker's paradise, and it is the city with the second-most breweries per capita. Last year, Asheville was ranked as the No. 4 place on Craft Beer and Brewing magazine's Readers’ Choice Favorite Beer Cities survey after notching the top spot in 2022.

After you've stuffed yourself with all the gourmet fare, you can burn off those delicious calories by walking and hiking the scenic trails of the Blue Ridge Parkway — America’s longest linear park. The breathtaking park features cascading waterfalls, a tapestry of natural sights, and hidden Appalachian Mountain treasures.

For the hard-core explorer, visit the picturesque Pisgah National Forest and enjoy panoramic vistas from atop the summit of Mount Mitchell — the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

No trip to Asheville is complete without visiting the historic Biltmore Estate. Constructed in 1895, this Châteauesque-style mansion was the majestic home of George Washington Vanderbilt II.

The Biltmore House boasts 250 rooms, encompasses 178,926 square feet, and is the largest privately owned home in the United States. The Biltmore House houses treasured artwork by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and John Singer Sargent and features a centuries-old Italian Renaissance wellhead from Venice, Italy.

Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Travel to Colonial Williamsburg, where you can step into a living, breathing museum that gives you a time-traveling glimpse into American history.

This 301-acre historical area features cobblestone streets and hundreds of meticulously restored and recreated buildings from the 18th century when Williamsburg was the capital of the colony of Virginia and named in honor of King William III.

Williamsburg was a revolutionary hotbed, where anti-British sentiment festered and the protests against Britain's Stamp Act spawned the "no taxation without representation" movement.

In 1776, Virginia's Declaration of Rights was introduced by George Mason in Williamsburg and called for American independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson drew inspiration from the declaration and used it as inspiration when drafting the United States Bill of Rights.

There is no shortage of attractions that are a quick drive or a day trip away from Williamsburg:

• Another town preserved from the colonial era is Smithfield, Virginia.
• You can visit historic Jamestown — the first permanent British settlement.
• You can travel to St. John's Church, where Patrick Henry delivered his infamous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in Richmond, Virginia .
• Relive the final major battle of the American Revolutionary War at the Yorktown Battlefield.
• Spend the day thrill-seeking on daring roller coasters at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg amusement park.
• Take a trip to Norfolk to visit the Nauticus maritime-themed museum and the U.S.S. Wisconsin — one of the largest battleships ever constructed by the U.S. Navy.
• Soak up the sun with a relaxing day at Virginia Beach.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Situated about 40 miles southeast of Knoxville, Gatlinburg presents a diverse variety of activities for travelers of all ages.

Get in touch with nature when visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Of the 63 national parks across the country, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has the most visitors, and it isn't even close. The idyllic Tennessee park attracted nearly 13.3 million visitors in 2023. The next most-visited park was Grand Canyon National Park with 4.7 million visitors. Prepare for an exhilarating hike because the park boasts more than 800 miles of hiking trails. While you're hiking, keep your eyes open for the incredible diversity of plants and animals at the park. There are more than 17,000 species documented at the park, and researchers estimate there are an additional 30,000 — 80,000 species that live there.

Ogle sweeping landscape vistas of the stunning Great Smoky Mountains while riding on the Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway — one of the largest tramway systems in the United States.

Challenge yourself to walk across the imposing SkyBridge — the longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America.

For the thrill-seeker, there are roller coasters, zip lines, whitewater rafting, haunted house attractions, and ghost tours.

For those who want to relax, there is also world-class golf, fishing, and bird-watching.

A handful of moonshine distilleries let you travel back to the days of bootleg spirits.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole is most notably known as a winter wonderland destination for skiing, but the valley in Wyoming also makes for an underrated summer travel idea.

Jackson Hole offers a remarkable retreat for nature lovers with nearby Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

The Aerial Tram gently glides 4,139 vertical feet in just 12 minutes to give you picturesque 360-degree views of the Tetons.

Bicycle enthusiasts can explore the immaculate Jackson Hole valley with more than 56 miles of paved pathways and 115 miles of mountain bike trails.

Cosplay as a cowboy by traversing the Wild West in a chuckwagon, by stagecoach, or horseback.

A trip to the Cowboy State would not be complete without a good old-fashioned shoot-out. Every night from Memorial Day, there is a re-enactment of a Wild West shootout in the town square.

For those who are firearm aficionados or who want to learn how to handle a gun, there is a gun range where you can be taught how to safely handle firearms.

Jackson Hole is widely regarded as a world-class destination for fly fishing with several pristine rivers.

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Mackinac Island is a charming vacation destination located between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas with the stunning backdrop of the crystal-clear waters of Lake Huron.

Mackinac Island enchants summer visitors with its magnificent beaches, quaint shops, Victorian-era architecture, cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriage tours, and delectable fudge.

You can visit Fort Mackinac, the fortification built by the British during the American Revolution. Americans captured the fort in 1796, but the English recaptured it during the first land engagement of the War of 1812 in the United States. Fort Mackinac was returned to the U.S. after the war. You can also see Fort Holmes, which was a small British outpost that was constructed after the Americans captured Fort Mackinac.

Get your camera ready to snap a photo of Arch Rock — a stunning natural limestone formation located 146 feet above the shores of Lake Huron.

Mackinac Island State Park boasts beautiful limestone bluffs, verdant woodlands, fragrant meadows of vibrant wildflowers, and unblemished blue water.

San Juan Islands, Washington

Embark on an unforgettable adventure to the San Juan Islands, where you'll discover one-of-a-kind natural beauty and wonder.

The San Juan Islands consist of 172 islands in the Salish Sea between the state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

This Pacific Northwest paradise is known for its untouched grandeur and diverse wildlife. Live this unique island life with captivating coastal scenery and lush forests.

The San Juan archipelago offers countless water-based activities such as boat charters, whale-watching, island-hopping, fishing, and kayaking.

The extraordinary wildlife available for your viewing pleasure includes orcas, humpback whales, porpoises, sea lions, river otters, harbor seals, herons, and bald eagles.

Explore the many historic lighthouses that stand high above the rugged coastline.

Several restaurants on the San Juan Islands pride themselves on offering sustainable farm-to-table dining. The restaurant chefs focus on seasonal ingredients that are sourced directly from farms, orchards, and fisheries on the islands.

St. Augustine, Florida

Near the northeast coast of Florida sits St. Augustine — the oldest city in the country. St. Augustine — also known as the "Ancient City" and the "Old City" — was founded by Spanish explorers in 1565 and is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental United States.

One of the most iconic tourist attractions in St. Augustine is the Castillo de San Marcos fort. This star-shaped fortification was constructed by the Spanish Empire in 1695, making it the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. The defensive fort is situated on the western shore of Matanzas Bay and is constructed from coquina — a form of limestone composed of shell fragments and coral. Over the years, the fort has been occupied by the Spanish, British, and Americans. The Castillo de San Marcos fort is now a national monument for visitors to harken back to the days of cannons and the Spanish colonial rule of Florida.

Another famous St. Augustine attraction is the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. According to legend, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León touched ground in the area of St. Augustine in search of a mythical spring that was said to provide eternal youth to those who drank from it.

One of the eye-catching buildings in the Floridian city is Flagler College — named after Henry Morrison Flagler, a prominent industrialist, railroad magnate, co-founder of Standard Oil, and early developer of Florida's Atlantic coast in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

St. Augustine welcomes visitors with inviting cafes, shops, and restaurants.

Sugar sand beaches and sapphire waters await beachgoers at nearby St. Augustine Beach and Anastasia State Park.

Travelers can drive 40 miles north to visit Jacksonville.

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Ireland in spring - your guide to bucket list travel and spectacular festivals

This time of year offers endless opportunities to experience the real Ireland - splendid gardens, fun-filled festivals, and breathtaking coastal road trips.

Planning a trip to the island of Ireland in spring or future Irish adventures on the horizon?

This time of year offers endless opportunities to experience the real Ireland, here are our top suggestions for making memories that will last a lifetime.

Take a trip to Ireland's parks and gardens 

One of the best ways to enjoy springtime in Ireland is to be surrounded by the abundance of nature and beauty the island has to offer. Many of Ireland's parks and gardens are also backdrops to incredible castles and estate homes steeped in rich history. 

Belfast Castle in Co Antrim sits at the foot of Cave Hill and is one of the most iconic locations to view the stunning skyline of Belfast City .  Built in the 1860s, the estate remains a perfect location to explore the surrounding natural woodland, parkland, and gardens. 

Belfast Castle, Co Antrim

In Co Kerry, the Killarney National Park surrounds the town of Killarney and is an expanse of rugged mountains with the world-famous lakes of Killarney and 19th-century Muckross House and Gardens nestled at the foot. Experience the National Park's beauty by foot, bike, or traditional jaunting car!

At Hillsborough Castle and Gardens in Co Down, explore 100 acres of stunning gardens and see where the Good Friday Agreement was negotiated at Northern Ireland’s royal residence. The glorious gardens are a joy to the senses with ornamental grounds, peaceful woodland, meandering waterways, and picturesque glens.

Keep an eye on tickets for the upcoming American Shared History Tour which will reveal to visitors the historic connection with the USA, and walk in the footsteps of presidents and peacemakers who used Hillsborough Castle as a vital backdrop in discussions around peace and reconciliation that continue to shape our lives today.

Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, Co Down

Be part of something special at these unique Irish festivals 

Immerse yourself in Ireland and its culture by experiencing the many festivals that take place across the island during spring. 

Head to Ireland's Ancient East for the Rockin' Food & Fruit Festival in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford from May 3-5. The weekend will be filled with a mouthwatering artisan food market, local crafts, chef demonstrations, and food talks. The town will also rock to the beat of Rock 'n' Roll with musicians and bands performing throughout the festival. 

Looking to celebrate the arrival of spring the Celtic way? In Irish mythology the festival of Bealtaine is seen as marking the arrival of summer and the Bealtaine Fire Festival (May 11) in Ireland's Hidden Heartlands on the Hill of Uisneach in Co Westmeath is a must-see bucket list experience.

During the festival enjoy music, traditional workshops, Irish craft stalls, games for children, yoga, mindfulness sessions, and much more. As the sun sets, the day will come to a close with the lighting of the Bealtaine Fire on the Hill of Uisneach, one of Ireland's oldest traditions.

Ireland is an island of storytellers and at the International Literature Festival Dublin (May 17-26) celebrate the best of Irish and international authors, poets, playwrights, and screenwriters. One event not to miss is a conversation with Colm Tóibín on his latest novel "Long Island", the sequel to his brilliant book "Brooklyn" which was turned into a film starring Saoirse Ronan. 

Make your soul come alive on the Wild Atlantic Way

The Wild Atlantic Way is one of the longest-defined coastal routes in the world and this year it celebrates 10 years of welcoming visitors! Here are just some of our favorite Wild Atlantic Way spots you don't want to miss on your travels:

Fanad Head Lighthouse, Co Donegal - Located in North Donegal, Fanad Head Lighthouse is an iconic heritage building at the mouth of Lough Swilly that has been operating as a working lighthouse since 1817. Hear all about its incredible history from a local guide and you can even spend the night in the lighthouse! 

Fanad Head Lighthouse, Co Donegal

Mullaghmore Head, Co Sligo -  Explore the walking route along the coastline of Mullaghmore Head and look out for the majestic Classiebawn Castle in the distance. The village of Mullaghmore is a charming fishing village with a harbor and a beautiful sandy beach with great views of Benbulben, which inspired legendary Irish poet W.B. Yeats. 

Mullaghmore Head, Co Sligo

Mizen Head, Co Cork -  Perched on the edge of the Atlantic, Mizen Head is Ireland's most south-westerly point with spectacular views. Standing on Mizen's bridge look around and take in the power of nature, crashing waves on seacliffs and the force of the Atlantic wind will leave you feeling inspired. 

Where will your Irish adventure take you?

How will you Fill your Heart with Ireland? Whether you decide to wander through 5,000 years of history in Ireland’s Ancient East , discover Ireland’s breathtaking west coast along the Wild Atlantic Way , embrace a giant spirit in Northern Ireland , or enjoy the unspoiled majesty of Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands – an experience of a lifetime awaits you.

This article is presented proudly in partnership with Tourism Ireland. To learn more about Tourism Ireland and get inspired for your next visit to Ireland, check out their website at www.ireland.com .

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Mother's Day gift ideas 2024: great presents to make mum smile on her special day

From tech to clothing, even a gift hamper, there's something here for every kind of mum

• Quick links
• Travel & Lifestyle

Flowers and gift hampers

Mother's Day 2024 is a less than a month away on Sunday, May 12, but you've still got plenty of time to find the perfect gift for your mum (or the mother figures in your life). With so many options out there, it can be hard to narrow down a gift, and sometimes, finding a gift for mum can be the most difficult task to accomplish. 

At Tom's Guide, we've curated a diverse range of the best Mother's Day gifts, from lifestyle to tech and appliances. Whether your mum is a fashion-forward trendsetter or a tech-savvy jet setter, we've got something sure to make her smile. 

Never mind if it's her first or umpteenth Mother's Day — spoiling mum can be as simple as a gift card, fresh flowers or even a new robovac that'll take the "work" out of endless housework. 

So scroll on to find some of the best Mother's Day gift ideas this year. 

Mother's Day gift ideas

Mother's day gift ideas: retailer quick links.

Here's a brief snapshot of some Aussie retailers that have specifically curated items for Mother's Day:

ASOS : shop clothing, accessories, shoes and more Adore Beauty : skincare, makeup, hair care and body and bath gift sets Amazon : shop everything from electronics to fitness wearables, home decor and more Big W : shop home and kitchen appliances, bedding, wellness and clothing Emma Mattress : save up to 40% off Emma's award-winning Diamond Hybrid mattress Groupon : gift mum a pamper day or massage, dining experiences, cocktail making classes and more GymShark : shop activewear sets, leggings and gym accessories KitchenAid : shop KitchenAid's favourites in its exclusive Mother's Day sale Myer : handbags, fashion and accessories, and so much more Oz Hair and Beauty : hair appliances, skincare and beauty products, and fragrances Princess Polly : shop clothing, activewear, accessories, shoes and trending items Sephora : makeup gifts, skincare, fragrances and more The Good Guys : coffee machines, vacuum cleaners, wearables and home appliances The Iconic : spoil mum with clothing, sleepwear, jewellery and accessories

Kitchen & Home Appliance Gift Ideas

Breville the barista express.

This espresso machine is perfect for hobbyist baristas and coffee connoisseurs alike. This manual coffee machine streamlines the brewing process from beans to latte with its integrated conical burr grinder, steam wand and precise espresso extraction — making it perfect for any mum wanting to start her morning right with a delicious at-home coffee.

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iRobot Roomba i3+

The iRobot Roomba i3+ features in our best robot vacuum roundup mainly due to its affordability and self-cleaning features. The Roomba i3+ can be controlled through an app, Alexa , and Google Assistant, so mum can automate cleaning the floors hands-free. 

Bissell Spot Cleaner

Any type of Bissell machine should be part of a home's appliance arsenal, and for good reason. Bissell's carpet washer quickly removes spots and crumbs from carpets, furniture, rugs, and more using warm water and specialised stain solution. If your mum already doesn't own one of these little machines, it may be time to give her one this Mother's Day. 

Cosori Smart Air Fryer

This Consori Air Fryer is an innovative, compact cooker — or rather, it's so intelligent that it's even in the name. Connecting via an app, you can control the cook times, temperature, and presets from your (or your mum's) smartphone. 

Buy it on Amazon .

Travel & Lifestyle Gift Ideas

Shark flexstyle.

The Shark FlexStyle is the ultimate hair tool for helping mum recreate her favourite no-frizz salon styles at home. If you're keen to grab mum this limited edition Malibu Pink colour before it disappears, you better get in quick. Otherwise, it's also available in silver or teal colourways. 

If your mum is constantly on the go, then a July bag may be up her alley. Whether it's a casual Everyday Mini Tote or a stylish Carry On suitcase , July has plenty of options to suit all her travel needs. Available in limited edition and standard colourways across all bags, you can even personalise your purchase for an extra cost, making it the perfect keepsake. 

Check out July's range on their website . 

Lululemon is not for every mum, but if she's constantly at the gym, yoga, or a spin class or spends the day in leggings because they're comfy, it may be time to upgrade her activewear. Lululemon's Align shop stocks colourful and versatile options for everyday active apparel. Despite the hefty price tags on select items, Lululemon offers great-quality exercise gear that'll last a long time, so it may be worth the splurge. 

Apple Watch Series 9

Ranked as our best smartwatch of 2024 , the Apple Watch 9 is the best one yet. It's not a significant upgrade compared to its predecessor, the Apple Watch Series 8, but this evolution is home to some super helpful features, such as the S9 processor. You can check out our full review of the wearable here . 

Tech Gift Ideas

Frameo wi-fi digital picture frame .

Currently 51% off RRP, this Frameo picture frame will enhance your mum's old photo frames. With a connected app, you can load up to 32GB of photos and videos for your mum to enjoy. Plus, the frame's touch screen makes navigating between your favourite moments super easy. 

Kobo Libra 2

Our colleagues at TechRadar call this Kobo the best-value mainstream e-reader yet, and for good reason. The Kobo Libra 2 has a 7-inch E Ink Carta 1200 screen that delivers a crisp display, 32GB internal storage and Bluetooth connectivity for listening to audiobooks.

As someone who forgets making coffee most mornings, I cannot recommend an Ember mug enough. This smart, temperature-controlled mug can be set to your preferred drinking temperature, keeping your chosen beverage hot (or warm) for up to 1.5 hours when using the battery or a full day when paired with its charging coaster.

Hamper Emporium 

With hampers available in a range of sizes and categories, it's almost a no-brainer not to shop for mum's gift at Hamper Emporium . Hampers are available for virtually any budget, and delivery is free nationwide—you can even schedule your gift ahead of time.

You can check out the full range of hampers here .

Gourmet Basket 

Gourmet Basket's Mother's Day selection is definitely geared towards giving mum that pamper day she deserves, with a range of spa-infused baskets on offer. Plus, you can even score a free personalised keyring with every hamper purchase over AU$99 if you add a gift card message to your chosen bundle — how sweet!

Check out more on Gourmet Basket .

Edible Blooms 

Edible Blooms offer more than just the average bunch of flowers. With mouthwatering, exquisite arrangements on offer, there's something for every mum to enjoy. If mum has more of a sweet tooth, a Flower Bouquet with Donuts and Strawberries could be a great choice. Or if you want to get mum a more generous-sized gift hamper, then a Gourmet High Tea bundle could be worth your pennies. 

Search for more sweet treats on Edible Blooms .

Lucy Scotting is a digital content writer for Tom’s Guide in Australia, primarily covering NBN and internet-related news. Lucy started her career writing for HR and staffing industry publications, with articles covering emerging tech, business and finance. In her spare time, Lucy can be found watching sci-fi movies, working on her dystopian fiction novel or hanging out with her dog, Fletcher.

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10 Time Travel Science Fiction Ideas

• Posted on 22 Aug, 2018

Future Invisible Inhabitants

A scientist creates a time machine and travels into the future where he finds a world that looks far more advanced than ours (which it should… it’s the future). However, despite everything looking clean, organized and new, he can’t find anyone. But they are there. He just can’t see them because they’ve discovered how to remain invisible. And the reasons they feel the need to be invisible are terrifying.

Time Travel Cures

A man from the future uses a time machine to offer sick rich people a trip into the future where their illnesses can be cured. But his motivations are different than they appear. And while most of them are cured of their illnesses, they’ve brought something from the future back with them.

Forbidden Future Technology

A man from the future secretly sells future technology to wealthy individuals. But some of it is technology that we’re not quite ready for.

Missing Time Travelers

To save his children a mad scientist sends them into the future. Now 20 years later he’s ready to greet them in the place and time that he sent them. Except they don’t arrive.

Time Travel Plagiarism

A famous and wealthy author in the year 2120 has run out of ideas. He’s hit writer’s block hard. So he buys a two way ticket to travel thirty years into the future where he stays for a month taking notes on recent best sellers from that time in order to plagiarizer them.

Time Traveling Android God

The year is 2018 but vastly different than the world we know. This alternative present was started when a high level A.I. android traveled from the future to the year 1200 and presented himself as a God. Being an immortal android he successfully controls the world, leading to a vastly different world than the one we know. But some know of this legend, and the time travel he used to travel to the past has now been discovered in present time.

Outlawed Time Travel

The year is 2005 and time travel has been outlawed. This 2005 is much different than the one we’re familiar with. After the year 2090 life on earth changed in every year dating to the dawn of man and extending to the end of times. Time travel created an infinite and ever changing wave of new time dimensions, each with their own unique creations, issues, and outcomes. The future became the past, and old influences of the past changed futures. Now the man who made that time travel possible thinks he’s created a way to travel not only through time, but also through the infinite dimensions his initial creation has already created.

Time Travel Diplomat

In the year 2121 and Tom Waterfeld is a time travel diplomat. Using a specific set of time travel rules Tom travels through time and attempt to prevent disasters created by bad politics. And he must do so without further damaging the future he’s trying to improve.

Virtual Time Travel

The year is 2200 and while time travel is not yet possible, Carter Snapperson has discovered that it is possible to at least see the past and he’s created a virtual reality device to do just that. However after “traveling” back in time virtually to several key historical events, Carter realizes that much of the past is far different that what we have recorded in the history books.

The Time Travel Experience Executive

In the year 2145 Jonathan Cowell has a dream job. For a large fee Jonathan creates “experiences” in which the worlds wealthiest time travel tourists can hire him to opportunities for them to meet their idols of the past. It’s harder than it sounds. Some of these idols are hard people to get in front of. And one new tourist has given him a particularly challenging assignment.

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Can I use Forbidden Technology? I’m really drawn into that one!

Sorry, I’m just replying. But you definitely can use it!

Virtual time travel is a good idea since it deals with the idea of a parallel or a different universe that ours or one that has been somewhat altered by journeys and changes through time. Time travel plagiarism is an interesting concept since I enjoy writing and have an affinity to famous works and short stories and what some of these may works will be in the future. My idea: A group of aliens has been on earth several weeks and they are trying to learn about the earth in the present year while it is the year 2170 on …  Read more »

I have a story line of an android detective following the trail of a crazed scientist bent on destroying the world. The scientist has created a time machine with which he sends an anti matter bomb thousands of years into the past. The detective is able to jump into the time stream and follow to where the bomb ends up. The detective is able to neutralize the bomb, but is now stuck in the past. Luckily the detectives android battery has enough power to essentially live to the time this all started. Now he faces the dilemma of should he …  Read more »

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Oscar de la Renta’s Storied Dominican Republic Home Is Back—and Just as Elegant as Ever

The palm-studded paradise transcends time and trend, just like its creator.

London decorator Philip Vergeylen's career has taken him to some of the world’s most spectacular properties and landed him and partner Paolo Moschino on every best designer list there is. Yet even Vergeylen was at a loss to describe his emotion when his longtime clients brought him to the Dominican Republic and the storied Casa de Campo property that was to be his next assignment.

“I had to pinch myself,” he confesses. “I thought, This is as close to heaven as you will ever get.” Set upon a large green lawn stretching all the way to the turquoise waters of the sea, the Balinese-inspired house was enchanting. Though somewhat fatigued from wear and a succession of owners, its spirit was intact, and its provenance was as glamorous as it was distinguished.

When built in the 1970s by legendary fashion designer and Dominican Republic native Oscar de la Renta and first wife Françoise de Langlade, Casa de Madera (House of Wood) was the epitome of relaxed elegance and unselfconscious chic. Photographed by Horst P. Horst for Vogue in 1974, the house was described by its stylish owners much as it would be today.

Said the couple 50 years ago: “To us the luxury of having a beach house is to be able to walk barefoot into the living room and sit without worrying if your bathing suit is wet. Everything costs the minimum. Everything is replaceable and washable....Apart from a few batiks, all the pillows and cushions...are natural canvas or white handkerchief linen....A house on the sand, surrounded by blue water, should be cool and dim inside.”

Neither the house nor Vergeylen had anything to prove. The most tasteful of templates was in place, and the Belgian-born designer had the grace and good sense to follow it. “I always try to respect the house and the background, the history, the location. There was just a feeling of gentle sophistication. Nothing was flashy, but everything was comfortable. And of course I wanted to keep the blue-and-white scheme.”

Some porcelain from de la Renta’s day remained, and Vergeylen added to it, thanks to a source in China who makes it “like it is 200 years old.” The iconic pagoda bed of woven bamboo was canopied in simple white cotton. Batik throws were brought from south of France flea markets. Cane and rattan furnishings were melded with colonial antiques. Woodwork, paneling, and pottery were restored or crafted by local artisans, supporting the community in the process. The main pavilion comprises an expanse of combined living and dining space, opening to several seating areas and great, wide doors leading outside.

Both the arrangement of rooms and clever hanging of mirrors along soaring walls catch the sparkle of the sea, affording ocean views from everywhere. The mirrors also allow guests to see and hear each other from one area to the next. (Gossipers and whiners, be warned.)

“The acoustics are wonderful,” Moschino chimes in mischievously. “You’re sitting here and Philip is over there, and you say, ‘Yes, Philip, I know what you just said.’” Laughing, he adds, “It’s wonderful though, and because of the mirrors, you don’t feel excluded. Wherever you’re sitting, you see the other people.” Such thoughtful design elements throughout the house reflect consummate and generous hosts.

By every chair, there are a notepad, pencils, and telephone. Alongside such refreshingly low-tech relics is the blessed absence of inscrutable lighting. Illumination is by lamp and wall switch. There are lots of pillows, some of them squashed or a little worn. “It is old-fashioned comfort,” Vergeylen says. “It isn’t about showing off,” which is something coming from someone the London Times called one of the city’s “grandest interior designers.”

Minus the grandness, “it’s impressive the way it impacts you,” he says. “It’s not about the individual objects. It’s the whole thing. The whole house is a painting.” It is an artful representation, however, and not a copy. “What you see is my interpretation of what was started by Oscar de la Renta.”

Like paintings, houses are manifestations of their creators’ visions. With stewardship and care, well-loved houses might outlast their well-loved creators, but they keep their memories alive for the ages.

Lining the breezeway, potted orchids, elkhorn ferns, and palms as well as colorful Moroccan lanterns usher in a tropical, global air.

Casual refinement reigns, thanks to locally made furnishings (the mahogany mirror, sofa, coffee table, and chairs) and timeless textiles (sofa cushions, Paolo Moschino ).

An original de la Renta cabinet displays Chinese porcelain.

Black wicker seating and a blue-and-white rug (both by Paolo Moschino ) ground the terrace.

The spirit of hospitality extends to the gazebo, where dining and lounging is accompanied by Caribbean breezes.

Dinner on the dock is served under a canopy of dried palms. Flatware and dinnerware, Buccellati

The bungalow’s blue-and-white palette extends to the gazebo’s dining table, with Buccellati tableware.

Giant Chinese urns (from Oscar de la Renta’s collection) seemingly grow out of the aglaonemas lining a brick pathway. The Moroccan lanterns are from Marrakesh.

Billiards Room

The billiards room reflects the owners’ passion for Africa, featuring photographs taken while on safari and vintage African beaded armchairs. Table lamp, shade, and sofa, Paolo Moschino

Small Sitting Room

A pair of 19th-century Chinese coromandel screens stand guard over the small sitting room’s custom sectional, dressed in an oyster-hued Paolo Maschino linen. Indonesian batik cotton fabrics cover the pillows, and the Dhurrie is from India.

Casa Loro Bedroom

The Casa Loro bedroom is wrapped in warm rattan, with a canopy bed crowned in woven Portuguese cotton as the centerpiece. A pair of 19th-century English mahogany desks also serve as nightstands. Lamps, Paolo Moschino

Primary Bath

A vintage child’s bamboo chair becomes a perch for towels in the primary bath. The custom mirror is from Tangier.

Casa Larimar Bedroom

A vintage cotton tree-of-life print climbs above Casa Larimar’s pair of locally made mahogany twin beds.

VERANDA Magazine

Featured in our May/June 2024 issue. Interior Design by Philip Vergeylen; Landscape Design by Omar Garrido; P hotography by Ricardo Labougle; Produced by Cynthia Frank; Written by Frances Schultz.

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What’s New in Meetings and Incentive Travel in 2024

Skift Meetings Studio Team

Today at 11:27 AM EDT

It's time to reevaluate the best destinations and properties for your events. Knowing what's new around the world is sure to give you plenty of new ideas.

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In the fast-paced world of event planning, staying ahead of the curve is essential. Finding the right destination with the right properties is absolutely crucial. There’s no better way to do that than knowing what’s new at key destinations worldwide.

Imagine the convenience of having a comprehensive guide at your fingertips, detailing the latest updates from over 200 destinations worldwide. Introducing the Skift Meetings guide “ What’s New in Meetings and Incentive Travel 2024 ” — your ultimate resource for discovering the newest offerings to elevate your next event.

This guide is not just a mere list of updates; it’s filled with insights curated specifically for busy planners. With more than 800 product and service updates, encompassing everything from recently opened hotels and venues to upcoming destination marketing campaigns, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to impress your clients and create unforgettable experiences.

Stay informed about the freshest trends shaping the industry, with a special focus on sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Whether you’re seeking new direct flights, innovative destination branding strategies or looking to incorporate the latest offerings from cruise companies, this guide has you covered.

Dive deeper into three featured partner destinations, each offering unique experiences and opportunities for your next event. From cutting-edge technology to immersive cultural experiences, these destinations will inspire and delight. With detailed insights and links to relevant sites, exploring these destinations is just a click away.

Elevate your events, impress your clients, and make 2024 a year of unforgettable experiences by diving into our guide today.

Entries Now Open: Skift Meetings Awards 2024

Entries are now open for the 2024 edition of the Skift Meetings Awards, celebrating the business events industry’s most respected and innovative suppliers. Apply by April 30, 2024 to secure the best entry rate.

New FTC Rule Addresses Common Event Scams

A new ruling by the Federal Trade Commission targets scammers seeking to rip off the business events industry, paving the way for direct monetary compensation from bad actors.

Pre-Register Your Interest for Skift Meetings Awards 2024

Receive an exclusive $20-off discount for your first Skift Meetings Awards 2024 entry if you pre-register before Monday, March 4.

Loews to Open Second Hotel in Arlington

The upcoming debut of the Loews Hotel Arlington features 888 guest rooms and 266,000 sq. ft. of meeting space centrally located between Dallas and Fort Worth.

A Guide to Leadership and Careers in Events

Discover the definitive handbook to unlocking your full leadership potential and carving out a successful career in the thrilling world of events.

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