What is the meaning of holiday destination?

But punch in “What are the best holiday destinations in the world” and there are some surprising answers. Yes, there are the classic “bucket list” regulars of Machu Picchu, the Great Barrier Reef and the Taj Mahal in the carousel of 50  sights. But some came as a surprise to Telegraph Travel.

After enquiring about how this travel carousel is compiled, we were informed by a spokesperson from Google that their “best holiday destinations in the world” list is not curated by a panel of experts but rather it is a collation of dynamic results, generated automatically to reflect the most popular search topics.

Which makes it all the more surprising that sights like the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech, Boudhanath in Nepal and Bora Bora in the South Pacific made the cut above tourism staples like – say – the Grand Canyon, Piazza San Marco or the Pyramids of Giza.

Here we take a closer look at some of the places that feature in Google’s list of best holiday destinations in the world, as chosen by the internet. Note that, since the results are dynamic, they may have changed by the time you ask Google the question, so consider this a snapshot of what was popular on the morning of August 8, 2018.