11:11, Make a Wish: 11 Places I’d Go If I Could Wake Up Anywhere in the World

If 11:11 is the time to make a wish, November 11 seems like the perfect excuse to make eleven, so here is my bucket list, one wish per hour on the clock (well, almost). I’d like to take my coffee on the Nile, see a mountain gorilla in the wild, watch the northern lights without leaving my duvet and board a train that looks like it ought to take me straight to Hogwarts. And yes, I’d like a very good hotel at the end of most of these days. It’s my wish list. I can ask for both.

Photo Credit: Kakslauttanen

1. I wish I could watch the northern lights from bed.

Finnish Lapland

Give me a glass igloo at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, a proper duvet and a clear night, and I’d happily spend hours staring at the ceiling on the off chance it turned green. I’d book a few nights, though. The aurora keeps its own hours, and I know myself well enough to know I’d spend the first night whispering “Was that something?” every time my eyes adjusted to the dark.

2. I wish I could fall asleep in one place and wake up somewhere entirely different.

The Nile, Egypt

My first morning aboard The Oberoi Philae, I’d order coffee and see what was drifting past the window. Egypt is high on my list for the temples, Luxor above all, but the real reason I want to go by river is everything in between: the palms and fields along the banks, the light shifting across the water, the feeling of a country unspooling at its own pace. Then I want to go back to the same bed without repacking a single thing. That, to me, is luxury.

3. I wish I could climb into the clouds and find a monastery waiting for me.

Paro, Bhutan

Of all the places on this list, Tiger’s Nest is the one I most want to see appear slowly. I’d set out early from Six Senses Paro and take the climb at whatever pace let me keep looking up (and catch my breath, let’s be honest). I’ve seen the photographs of the monastery clinging to the cliff. What I want to know is how it feels to round a bend, catch your first glimpse of it and realize you still have quite a way to go.

4. I wish I could spend a night on Mars.

Wadi Rum, Jordan

I want the red sand, the sandstone cliffs and that slightly unnerving feeling that someone could drop me here with no explanation and I’d believe I was on another planet. Hollywood certainly did: Wadi Rum has played Mars on screen more than once. I’d give it a full day and a night, watching the rocks change color at sunset, sleeping at a desert camp under more stars than seems reasonable, and getting up early enough to watch the whole show happen in reverse.

Photo Credit: Delpixel/Shutterstock.com

5. I wish my Hogwarts letter had actually arrived.

The Scottish Highlands

I’m still waiting on that owl (it’s been a while), but I can get myself to Fort William. From there, I’d take the West Highland Line toward Mallaig for the moment the train rounds the curve on the Glenfinnan Viaduct. You know the one. It’s the shot that makes every grown adult want a window seat on the Hogwarts Express. The Jacobite is the steam train I’d love to book once next season’s dates are announced. In the meantime, the regular ScotRail service crosses the very same viaduct, and I’m perfectly capable of supplying my own chocolate frogs.

6. I wish I could walk into an enchanted forest.

Fanal, Madeira

I’d go on a misty morning, when the ancient laurel trees look as though they’ve been leaning in to tell each other secrets for centuries. I want to watch the branches vanish into the fog, walk far enough to lose track of time and come back with wet boots and a very good appetite. From my base in Madrid, this is the one wish I could realistically turn into a long weekend, which makes it the most dangerous one on the list.

7. I wish I could go for a swim and have a sea lion join me.

The Galápagos, Ecuador

I’d book Silversea’s Silver Origin and hope that, somewhere between getting my mask on straight and remembering how to breathe through a snorkel, a sea lion swam past. I love the idea of being in the water when one decides it has somewhere more interesting to be and shoots off in a direction I have no hope of following. I’d happily spend an entire morning in a wetsuit (not my best look) for a few seconds of that.

Photo Credit: lapas77/Shutterstock.com

8. I wish I could float over a fairy-tale landscape at sunrise.

Cappadocia, Turkey

I’d check into Argos in Cappadocia, up in the hilltop village of Uçhisar, where the rooms are carved right into the rock, and set an alarm I would normally consider cruel. The reward: climbing into a hot-air balloon before dawn and rising over the fairy chimneys just as the sun comes up, with dozens of other balloons drifting around me like lanterns. I’ve seen the photographs a hundred times. I want to be in one. Then back to the hotel for breakfast and, ideally, a very long nap in a cave.

9. I wish I could swim through the stars.

The Maldives

I’d book a water villa at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, wait for a moonless night and wade into the lagoon hoping for the Maldives’ famous “sea of stars,” the bioluminescent plankton that glow electric blue with every movement. Nobody can schedule it (like the northern lights, it keeps its own hours), which is half of why I want it so badly. Every stroke would leave a trail of light behind me. I’d probably spend the first five minutes just waving my hands through the water like a child, and I wouldn’t be the least bit embarrassed.

10. I wish I could see a mountain gorilla in the wild.

Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

I’d stay at Singita Kwitonda Lodge, right on the edge of the park, and go for the moment the guide signals you to stop. You’ve been walking through the forest, wondering when you’ll see one, and then suddenly, you do. I can imagine telling that story for years and still needing a beat before I get to that part. Back at the lodge, I’d sink into the heated plunge pool and give myself a little time to take it all in.

11. I wish Christmas looked the way it did in the books I read as a kid.

Colmar, France

I’d check into L’Esquisse Hotel & Spa Colmar – MGallery, by the Champ de Mars, drop my bags and head straight for Petite Venise. The first stop would be whichever stall smelled most convincingly of mulled wine. Colmar’s Christmas markets run from November 23 to December 29, 2026, but I’d go in December, when I can justify buying something for the tree and calling it a souvenir. I’d save the spa for the next morning. I came all this way to watch the lights come on.

So that’s eleven. Ask me again at 11:11 tonight and I’ll probably have a twelfth.

Read More

Wishing for something festive closer to home? See Haute Living’s guide to London’s best Christmas afternoon teas.