Dominica tops AFAR’s list of 10 Best Places to Travel in October

The New York based travel magazine, AFAR, has named Dominica as the Best Place to Travel in October 2024.  

The magazine named a total of 10 destinations from across the world and placed the Nature Isle at the top for celebrating the Caribbean’s musical heritage through the World Creole Music Festival.  

While Dominica has topped the list, Marrakech in Morocco stands the second and the Albuquerque in New Mexico at third.  

AFAR noted that October is great to be spent in Dominica for experiencing the Caribbean’s musical heritage through the exciting nightly concerts which takes place during the World Creole Music Festival.  

Being held from October 25 to 27, 2024, the event will be held at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium in the capital Roseau. The festival aims to champion music indigenous to the island, which also has influences from both France and Great Britain.  

The magazine also mentioned that the festival concludes the Creole Heritage Month which is held in Dominica throughout October and draws more than 10,000 visitors from across the globe. People visit the island nation specially to hear music like bouyon, which emerged on the Nature Isle during the 1980s and has become well renowned across the entire Caribbean region.  

While several local, regional and international performers set the stage to fire during the Creole Music Festival, the festival this year will be headlined by reggae singer Valiant and Trinidadian singer Nadia Batson. 

This annual music festival in Dominica is known to be the best in the region and this time, the organisers have revealed a yet new category that is the Saint Lucia’s Dennery Segment which will be performed by Umpa and Subance, making the highly anticipated music festival more exclusive than ever. 

The Dominica Festival Committee is also anticipating that like always, this year will also be huge, attracting a huge number of crowds to the small island.  

Apart from the reason behind visiting the island, AFAR also told its readers that they can book their stay at the Fort Young Hotel & Dive Resort, which is an unusual all-inclusive option, as its rates does not just bundle food and beverages but also various activities at no extra cost including lionfish catching and hikes to Trafalgar Falls and Titou Gorge. 

While giving inside tip to the readers, the New York based magazine said that visitors must get some grilled lion ship at Keepin It Real which is a local cafe serving standout Dominica food.  

This has been outlined by Fort Young Hotel & Dive Resort concierge coordinator Viviana Alfred who also said that visitors must have souvenir that is a hand-woven basket crafted by the Indigenous Kalinago people on the island. The Kalinago's use traditional techniques to craft out these baskets which have been passed down to them through generations.  

The complete list of AFAR’s 10 Best Places to Travel in October is as follows: 

1. Dominica  
2. Marrakech, Morocco 
3. Albuquerque, New Mexico 
4. Malta 
5. The Algarve, Portugal 
6. New Orleans, Louisiana 
7. Turks and Caicos 
8. Athens, Greece 
9. Cape May, New Jersey 
10. Bariloche and Lakes Region, Argentina