Bucket List Travel Barometer

Intimate Booking Survey Reveals America's Top Wants in Travel Experiences

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - July 06, 2015) - Bucket list travel ideas are in easy supply. But knowing what travel experiences American travelers truly want? That's best left to the experts with the booking numbers. Virtuoso, an exclusive network of luxury travel agents, took the pulse of the country's most avid and sophisticated travelers and came up with the definitive list -- bucket list, that is, for today's active traveler.

While the tally looked more to experiences that travelers want, rather than places they want to go, the winning wishes will not surprise. What does surprise, however, is Virtuoso's nomination list for the top hotels this year -- winner to be announced later in the summer with a dinner and a drum roll. On the bucket list for best hotel stays in 2015?

• Ashford Castle, County Mayo, Galway, Ireland
• The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India
• Finca Cortesin Hotel, Golf & Spa, Andalucia, Spain
• Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin, Germany
• One&Only Palmilla, San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico

Details of Virtuoso's bucket list travel findings are reported in this week's Travel-Intel, published by Travel-Intel. Travel-Intel is a publication that goes out weekly to more than 103,000 sellers of travel. It is also posted online at Tours.com. The publication reports from travel conferences and expos, as well as popular hotels, exotic resorts, cruise ships and ports, and destinations near and far with stories that feature the latest intel on travel. Current features and archives can be viewed at Travel-Intel.

This week's issue also features a timely article about the Lanesborough, London's latest hotel, opening this month after an extensive renovation that left the 282-year-old Hyde Park property closed for two years. The Lanesborough is a member of the Oetker Collection and also part of the exclusive Kurtz-Ahlers collection of resorts and specialty travel.

Travel-Intel also looks at Viking River Cruises, which is now offering Viking Ocean Cruises and transferring some of the cultured and refined luxury vessel experience they offer along iconic riverways in Europe to those who want what a 930-passenger boutique and upscale ocean liner can offer. The Viking Star launched in April and the company will welcome two sister ships over the next two years, along with a variety of itineraries in Europe.