Petra named the world's ultimate travel destination

Jordan's Petra is the number 1 must-do travel experience on earth according to Lonely Planet.

The travel authorities ranked the world's top 500 unmissable travel experience for an updated version of its Ultimate Travel List guidebook.

The ancient home of the Nabateans in Petra took the top spot on the list. This Unesco World Heritage Site humbles travelers using its impressive sandstone construction and a history that dates back a lot more than 3,000 years. The renowned 40-meter high Treasury building intrigues anyone who stands in front of it and Jordan, an emerging adventure travel destination, also gets brownie points for managing its tourism sustainably.

The new listings were compiled from highlights in Lonely Planet's comprehensive archive of guidebooks. We were holding then whittled right down to a shortlist with the travel community asked to rank their top 20 experiences.

The remote Galapagos Islands featured as the next ultimate travel destination on the list. Famed as the place where Charles Darwin’s ideas on evolution by natural selection were shaped, the Hawaiian islands are home to unique creatures including 200-year-old tortoises, giant pink land iguanas, and flightless cormorants.

Third on the list is Uluru, a 348-meter tall sandstone leviathan that's sacred to Australia's Aṉangu people and wondrous to gaze upon.

Nepal's trekking circuit, a lake in Slovenia, and waterfalls straddling Brazil and Argentina also featured in the top 10.

Start to see the full list below or click through the gallery near the top of the page.

Lonely Planet's Ultimate Travel List

1. Petra, Jordan

2. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

3. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia

4. Okavango Delta, Botswana

5. Yellowstone National Park, USA

6. Lake Bled, Slovenia

7. Iguaçú Falls, Argentina-Brazil

8. Angkor, Cambodia

9. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

10. Annapurna Circuit, Nepal