Suggest me a Place to Visit

What this tool does

You want to travel, but where is the hard part. The whole world is on the table, and so you keep circling back to the same few places you already half-know. This tool breaks the loop. It throws out a destination from across the globe at random, so you have a real place to consider rather than a vague itch to go somewhere.

Press the button for a place. Press it again for another. Ask for a few at once to build a small wish list. Treat it as travel inspiration, not a finished plan, since whether a place is right for you depends on your budget, your dates, and a few practicalities that the sections below cover.

How to use it

1. Number / Quantity. How many places to pull at once, from 1 to 100.
2. Generate. Pulls a fresh destination, or a fresh set if you asked for several.
3. Starts with, Contains, Ends with. Optional filters that pare the list down before it picks. Leave them blank to draw from everything.
4. Copy. Drops the current destinations onto the clipboard as plain text for your wish list.

A destination is on screen as soon as the page opens, so there is always somewhere to dream about.

How it works

The list is a fixed set of destinations, and each press draws one at random, with no repeats inside a single set when you ask for several.

The filters let you aim. Contains keeps any place with your text in it, so typing italy brings up Rome, Venice, Florence, and more, while a country or region narrows it the same way. Starts with keys off the first letter and ends with off the last.

What is on the list

It is a big list of around two hundred destinations from all over the world, mostly cities with a few islands and regions mixed in. The classics are well represented, like Paris, Tokyo, Rome, and Bangkok, and so are the more off-the-beaten-path picks, such as Samarkand in Uzbekistan, Fez in Morocco, and Mostar in Bosnia.

Because it spans the famous and the unexpected, a pull can just as easily be a bucket-list capital or a place you have never thought to visit, which is exactly what you want when you are open to anywhere. Use the Contains box when you already have a country or corner of the world in mind.

Why deciding where to go is so hard

Choosing a destination is paralysing precisely because there are so many of them, and unlimited choice tends to freeze us rather than free us. In a 2000 study, Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper found that a display of twenty-four jams attracted more browsers but produced far fewer purchases than a display of six. The whole world as your options is that effect at its most extreme.

Barry Schwartz called the broader pattern the paradox of choice, where abundance leaves us anxious and slow to commit. A random destination gives you one real place to react to instead of the entire map at once. Even when a pick is not right, picturing it, looking it up, or ruling it out moves you forward far faster than staring at endless possibilities.

From a dream destination to a real plan

Once a place catches your eye, a few practical checks turn the daydream into a trip. Budget comes first, since the cost of getting there, staying, and spending varies enormously between destinations, and a closer or cheaper option may stretch your time and money further. Check the season, because the same place can be wonderful in one month and unbearably hot, wet, or crowded in another. Look into whether you need a visa and how long the journey actually takes, both of which quietly rule some places in or out for a given trip. Match the destination to what you want from the holiday too, whether that is culture, food, nature, or rest. Use a pick as the spark, then do that homework, and you have a real plan.

Questions people ask

Is it free, and does it save anything?

It is free with no sign-up, and nothing is stored. The picks run in your browser, so copy a wish list before you leave.

Can I get a few options at once?

Yes. Set the quantity to the number you want, up to 100, and press Generate for that many different destinations in one pull.

How is this different from the Tourist City tool?

They draw from the same list of destinations. This one is framed as broad travel inspiration for anywhere in the world, while the Tourist City tool is geared toward picking a city for a city break.

Are these realistic to visit?

They range from easy weekend trips to far-off adventures, so treat a pick as inspiration and check the cost, season, and visa rules before building a trip around it.

References

1. Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, "When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, the study behind choice overload. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11138768/
2. Barry Schwartz, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less", his talk on how more options can lower satisfaction. https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice