Determining the best places to go in 2025 was no easy task. After all, most of our readers suffer from the same affliction we do: an insatiable desire to go everywhere, see everything, and be dazzled by the world’s rich and varied contours. Treating a new year as a blank slate for fresh adventures is overwhelming then, no matter how tattered our passports.
Perhaps that’s why we get so excited about change—as a way of narrowing down the abundance of choices. The places that are evolving. The places that are just getting started. The destinations that are being reshaped by new openings: the standout restaurants, culture-defining museums, and boutique hotels swinging their doors open in the coming months. It is those places, imbued with a sense of a fresh start, that have a way of crawling up to the top of our must-visit lists.
In 2025 one of those places is Greenland, once a feather in only the most seasoned travelers’ caps. Its rugged ice-scape will be easier to reach now that the Nuuk airport has expanded, with flights increasing throughout 2025. Also calling to us is Ho Chi Minh City, which, at 50 years since the fall of Saigon this spring, has fully come into its own as a design and dining destination. And on Queensland’s Tropical Coast, the Great Barrier Reef, with aquamarine seas and a kaleidoscope of marine life, no longer stands alone in drawing travelers to this temperate coastline—a new hiking and biking trail and bold Indigenous art exhibits make the case for staying on dry land (or simply staying longer).
These are just some of the stories you’ll find below. There are 25 in total. Twenty-five places that, no questions asked, our editors would jump at the opportunity to visit next year. (In many cases, we will be visiting them ourselves; stay tuned.) Twenty-five places we want you to know about, before your TikTok feed—or your kid’s TikTok feed—is swimming in them. Twenty-five places that speak to our values as travelers in 2025, be it innovation in conservation, astounding creativity, or a profound sense of human connection. We hope you’ll see the names not only of spots you have been waiting to visit (and consider this your sign to make it happen) but also of places you’ve never heard of. Because just when you think you’ve seen it all, we promise to shine our spotlight on intriguing new corners of the world.