These are the best places to go in 2025 – on all seven continents. – Arati Menon and Megan Spurrell
This is part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2025 – find more travel inspiration here.
The Best Places to Go in 2025Ahr Valley, Germany
Go for: fine wines, great nature and a warm welcome back
By the end of 2025, the Ahr Valley’s train line will reopen and reunite its riverside villages with a 36-kilometre-long wine hiking trail
Crookes And Jackson
The trail leads through the scenic terraces and slopes in the wine-growing region renowned for its Pinot Noir and Blanc de Noir
Crookes And Jackson
In July 2021, large parts of the Ahr Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate were destroyed. The gently babbling Ahr turned into a raging river – with floods, flash floods and tidal waves resulting in the deaths of 135 people. The slogan “We AHR open” shows visitors are welcome again, even if the Ahr Valley is not fully rebuilt. The train through the valley will run again at the end of 2025, connecting the villages and thus the 36-kilometre-long, picturesque red wine hiking trail. The trail leads through the most beautiful terraces and steep slopes of the wine-growing region and offers numerous places to stop for a Pinot Noir, which, together with Blanc de Noir, is the region’s speciality. Be sure to try it at the wineries of Jean Stodden, Meyer-Näkel and the wine-growers cooperative, Mayschoss.
Numerous wine growers, restaurateurs and hoteliers have not only taken the reconstruction of the region into their own hands but also its further development. They have seen opportunities, invested, worked tirelessly and developed new, modern concepts. The Sustainable Tourism Concept 2025 is the joint result of all those who have already felt the effects of climate change. Most of the projects will only be initiated in 2025 – then you can watch them develop. The best examples are already here: Markus Bell, who runs the Bells Genusshof restaurant, serves local produce in a space that feels like a cosmopolitan concept store. In Altenahr, Andreas Carnott has expanded his Hotel Ruland to include a spectacular wellness area with a view of the slate cliffs; he is also considered one of the best chefs in the region. At Restaurant Brogsitter, Benjamin Schöneich regained his Michelin star in the spring of 2024 after starting there in the autumn of last year.
Around 80 per cent of establishments were open again in the Ahr Valley in the summer of 2024, and the number of hotels is increasing. New openings include the lovingly designed boutique hotel Burg Adenbach & Alter Weinbau in Ahrweiler, alongside re-openings like the Steigenberger Hotel in Bad Neuenahr at the beginning of June 2024. The grande dame of the Ahr is finally back. Not only will the large indoor pool and spa in the associated Kurhaus also reopen at the end of 2024, but concerts will take place in the event rooms again. The thermal baths will follow next year. – Lisa Riehl
Alaska, US
Go for: the 100th anniversary of a beloved cultural tradition – Native-led wildlife viewing
The year 2025 will mark 100 years since the Serum Run, which brought lifesaving diphtheria antitoxins from Nenana to Nome, making the commemorative annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race an extra-special, all-Alaskan experience
Getty
It’ll be another 34 years before Alaska as a state turns 100 years old. But some of its best-known events and attractions are hitting that milestone in 2025, like the Serum Run, a sled dog relay that brought lifesaving diphtheria antitoxins from Nenana to Nome in 1925. The event has been celebrated annually with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which enthrals visitors and locals who gather along its 1,600-kilometre course to watch top mushers and their dogs compete. To catch the start of the race, post up at the Wildbirch Hotel, Anchorage’s first new major lodging in 20 years. The boutique stay, with 252 design-forward guest rooms and partnerships with local artists, will open in early 2025 and offer unobstructed views of the Iditarod start line. Also turning 100 is the unrelentingly beautiful Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (which became a national monument in 1925), filled with rugged mountains, wild coastline and abundant wildlife. It is the ancestral land of the Huna Tlingit people, who in recent years have collaborated with the National Park Service to restore previously suppressed oral histories and cultural traditions. One endeavour was building the Xúnaa Shuká Hít tribal house, the first permanent clan house on these shores since a glacier destroyed villages more than 250 years ago. The Huna people also own nearby Icy Strait Point, one of the most exciting cruise ship destinations in southeast Alaska. Come 2025 it will welcome new sailings including Princess Cruises’ 22-day Ultimate Alaska Solstice voyage, which will depart from San Francisco in June. The itinerary takes advantage of the 19-plus hours of sunlight available during the summer solstice, giving you that much more time to take in views of Glacier Bay National Park, Hubbard Glacier, the College Fjord, and more. For an on-land adventure with a side of guided bear viewing, head to Native-owned Kodiak Brown Bear Center on verdant Kodiak Island, where small groups of visitors share space with the largest subspecies of brown bear in the world. In the summer of 2025, KBBC will open a new wellness centre built on a picturesque bluff and offer new, six-day fly-fishing programmes on the Karluk River; by evening, guests can retreat to their wood cabins that have views of the lake – after a communal Banya-style steam bath that the Alutiiq people call maqiwik. Notably, Alaska Airlines has ramped up its scheduling in 2024 by adding a daily non-stop to New York alongside its existing service to San Diego, Nashville, and Portland, Oregon, making it easier than ever to get here. – Lisa Maloney
Cuba
Go for: the return of travel to an enduring favourite and its prismatic treasures
Go to Cuba for its gelato-coloured cars and colonial buildings; stay for its UNESCO-protected cities and Afro-Cuban culture
New itineraries come packed with everything from meals at authentic Cuban paladares to private salsa lessons and music festivals
Cuba has long captivated visitors with its Afro-Cuban culture, UNESCO-protected cities, gelato-coloured classic cars – and its loquacious, quick-witted locals. Post-pandemic, travellers can enjoy all of this once more. Cuba’s new e-visas, launched in August 2024, pave the way, as does the return of several American tour companies that had paused travel to the island. Starting in January 2025, Abercrombie & Kent’s tours will take travellers first to Camagüey, Cuba’s third-largest city – and a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with churches, figurative sculptures, and celebrated ballet performances at the City’s Teatro Principal – before travelling west to spellbinding Trinidad, with a beach stay in the sparkly new Meliá Trinidad Península. Then travellers will go on to Cienfuegos, the city of columns, and Santa Clara, home to Che Guevara’s monumental mausoleum before landing in Havana. That same month, GeoEx tees up a range of immersive experiences in Trinidad, plus a live performance in Cienfuegos by the Chamber Orchestra, with meals at authentic Cuban paladares (private restaurants) and private salsa lessons. (Guests will drop their bags at tropical hideaway Mansión Alameda, which opened in 2023.) With Tauck, which returned to Havana in September 2024, there are opportunities to interact with fascinating locals: a baseball star, a tobacco farmer from the lush Viñales Valley, and the members of a vintage car club. ReRoot Travel’s brand-new programme is similarly designed to take you off the beaten track and into the homes of artists, farmers, even Santeria priests. If you want to time your visit to Havana’s dazzling festival calendar, join Project Por Amor with Cuban-born Adolfo Nodal, on new multiday trips anchored to the International Jazz Festival (January) and the Havana Biennial art fair (November through February). A flurry of gorgeous boutique stays have opened in Havana in the last 18 months including La Distancia, in an elegantly revived mansion in the leafy neighbourhood of El Vedado, and Estancia Bohemia, a luxurious stay in a reimagined 18th-century palace. By the end of 2024, Havana’s third Kempinski property will open its doors in northern Old Havana: the 219-roomed Gran Hotel Metrópolis with a rooftop pool and panoramic views. Skip sleep in favour of a night out at Mayko’s Lounge Bar, opening February 2025 in southern Old Havana. Owner Wilson Hernández is Havana’s best-known bartender, formerly of hip hideaway El del Frente, so you can expect expert cocktails, ’70s cult music and all the vibes. – Claire Boobyer
Djerba, Tunisia
Go for: a multicultural North African take on Mediterranean island vibes; culinary revivals; street art steeped in history
With 1,000-year-old villages, turquoise beaches and plenty of delicious food, it’s no wonder Djerba is called the Island of Dreams
Getty
Home to Africa’s oldest synagogue, more than 300 mosques, a Catholic church, and a thousand-year-old village bedecked in contemporary murals, Djerba is a delightfully unorthodox – and much-needed – reminder that humans thrown together in splendid isolation can get things right. This island of date palms and olive groves, which sits on the southern edge of the Mediterranean Sea and is said to be the real-life Land of the Lotus Eaters (where Odysseus’s men consumed mythical fruits that vanquished all thoughts of home), is trading in more benign forms of culinary bewitchment these days. As host of the first-ever World Capital of Island Cuisine festival in 2025, Djerba will welcome chefs representing island cuisines from around the globe in a competition for gastronomical glory, with live music and nautical activities as the anticipated supporting acts. Foodies who can’t make the festival can still enjoy Destination Djerba’s recently launched “culinary/culture” tours. An homage to the island’s artisanal olive oil industry, events like gourmet workshops (think local chefs and mixologists playing with regional flavours) and olive oil tastings are reanimating the island’s ancient underground mills. Lest you forget that Djerba is also a famous beach escape – complete with turquoise waters, flocks of flamingos, and well-dressed camels – Marriott Djerba, An All-Inclusive Resort will open on the island in the latter half of the year. Looking for something more intimate? The beloved Dar Dhiafa guest house, a gem of traditional architecture, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a renovation that promises a stunning refresh by summer 2025. Finally, easyJet’s November 2024 addition of two direct flight routes from the UK (London and Manchester), combined with Tunisia’s recently announced visa-free policy for 95 countries, makes it easier than ever to access the aptly named Island of Dreams. – Lee Middleton
Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica
Go for: land-based travel to the Seventh Continent – with excursions you won’t believe
Fewer than 1 per cent of travellers who venture to Antarctica each year explore the interior of the continent, but Ultima Antarctic Expeditions is changing the game with a new fly-in experience
Ultima Antarctic Expeditions
Of the 100,000 travellers who visit Antarctica each year – most on cruise ships to the Antarctic Peninsula – fewer than 1 per cent venture into the icy “deep-field” landscapes at the heart of the world’s largest desert.
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Publish date : 2024-11-11 18:19:00
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