8 best vacation spots for stargazing around the world

Man has looked to the stars in wonderment since the beginning of time. But in the modern world, stargazing can be next to impossible because of light pollution.

Thankfully for travelers, many national parks and reserves around the world have been designated International Dark Sky Places, where millions of stars, constellations, nebulas, and galaxies are visible at night.

Here are eight of the best spots to watch the night sky come alive:

Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the Big Island, is Hawaii’s highest peak. The Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station sits nearly halfway up the mountain and offers nightly stargazing programs and telescope “tours.” Stargazers can continue to the summit on their own in a car or as part of a guided expedition. Acclimatizing to the elevation is recommended before making the journey to the top, but the payoff is a dazzling dome of stars.

At 20,310 feet above sea level, the Denali summit in Alaska is the highest peak in North America; the six million acres of national park that surround it are home to grizzly bears, wolves, and moose. But its most striking feature comes alive after dark, when the night sky unfurls a carpet of stars, planets, and even the Northern Lights. The best time to visit is in fall, winter, or spring when the nights are longer and the pinpricks of light look almost close enough to touch.

In Northern Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert on earth, high altitudes plus low humidity equal a crystal-clear night sky, making it an astro-tourism hotspot. The areas most popular with stargazers are the Elqui Valley, which, in 2015, became the first International Dark Sky Sanctuary; and the town of San Pedro de Atacama. There are many stargazing tours to choose from that can be paired with wine tastings at high-altitude vineyards and yoga retreats.

The relative isolation of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah makes it an ideal International Dark Sky Park in which to spot thousands of stars. The park boasts one of the oldest astronomy programs in the country, offering moonlit hikes and ranger-led astronomy lessons; guests will learn to use large telescopes to spot star clusters, nebulae, and even other galaxies.

Because Sagarmatha is home to Mount Everest, its stargazing potential is regularly overshadowed; however, the UNESCO World Heritage site is peppered with more accessible hiking trails at lower altitudes. Sagarmatha’s glowing night skies can be owed to its remoteness and high altitudes, which eliminate light pollution and haze. Stargazers can spend the day traversing the trails and, come evening, check in at a guest house and spend the night looking up at the Milky Way—and beyond.

In addition to unique wildlife and ecology, the Namib Desert in southern Namibia features what the International Dark-Sky Association calls “one of the naturally darkest (yet accessible) places on Earth.” That’s because the closest inhabited regions are 60 miles away. To experience the glittering sky in all its glory, check in at Wolwedans Dune Camp and spend the night in an open-air sleep-out that’s blanketed under a million stars.

Spread across nine regions on the Iveragh Peninsula, Kerry is one of only four Gold Tier Dark Sky Reserves in the world, meaning it offers naked-eye views of astronomical phenomena like airglow. The reserve, nestled between the Kerry Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean on the Wild Atlantic Way tourism trail, is one of the rare Dark Sky Reserves where visitors can relish a sky ablaze with stars while the ocean laps at their feet.

Aoraki Mackenzie, set in the Mackenzie Basin on South Island, is one of only 19 Dark Sky Reserves in the world. Guided tours at its observatories, telescope sections, and planetarium help visitors spot the Southern Cross constellation, the Southern Lights, and the South Star.