The 24 Best Places to Go in 2024

This is part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024 – find more travel inspiration for next year, organised by continent, here.

In considering the destinations that excite us the most for 2024, there’s an overarching sense of possibility.

When the last corners of Asia fully reopened their borders earlier this year, the pandemic's claim on our travels finally fell away. We, as travellers, are now more able to set our sights on the farthest-reaching adventures, to dust off our bucket lists – and in many cases, return to the places we love and miss. The world remains an unpredictable and complicated place in many ways. Yet, in being reminded that travel is the greatest of luxuries, we are forced to ask the question: what should we do with our enviable power to traverse the globe in 2024? Where, we wonder, will we go first?

There are so many compelling reasons to take travel far and wide in the year ahead. Emerging boutique hotels, wellness resorts, and expedition cruises, as they vie for travellers’ bookings with new offerings, are being forced to carefully consider what it means to be relevant and exciting, yes, but also sustainable. Destinations are setting their sights on everything from pioneering eco-tourism initiatives to restorative land stewardship efforts, handing back narratives to Native communities that thread their past with their future. As for us, travellers? We get to take our pick.

To help you find the trip worth your vacation days, we’ve collaborated with Condé Nast Traveller editors from around the globe. For months we have researched, debated, and vetted, from a large pool of fantastic cities, regions, and countries with new reasons to visit. The result is this: our definitive guide to the 24 best places to go in 2024. It includes extraordinary superblooms in a new national park in Chile, up-close encounters with wildlife alongside Inuit guides in Canada, and an exciting, community-led dining destination in Rwanda. This complete list, while an immense challenge to narrow down, mirrors just how big, beautiful, diverse – and ever-changing – our world is.

Here are the 24 places that we believe should be on every traveller's radar for the year ahead. We can’t wait to see where you go. – Arati Menon and Megan Spurrell

All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveller are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Renowned for its architecture, the Hungarian capital is home to everything from art nouveau and neoclassical to gothic and baroque, with the Blue Danube connecting it all like a ribbon. And then there are the mineral-rich thermal baths, featuring ornate design flourishes. The city also buzzes with creativity, which spills over into the vibrant nightlife; the ruin bars district is a tangible example of crafting opportunity from the ashes of adversity following the brutality of Communist rule. November 2023 marks 150 years since the previously divided cities of Buda, Pest, and Obuda were unified, as well as a series of cultural events. The Chain Bridge – the city’s oldest and a “symbol of togetherness,” according to Mayor Gergely Karácsony – has fully reopened after a two-year restoration, granting excellent views of Buda Castle and the Hungarian Parliament Building. New builds such as the spectacular House of Music Hungary and the National Athletics Centre (the central stadium for 2023’s World Athletics Championships) are testament to a city with optimism for its next 150 years. The art deco W Budapest – formerly a palace and on a UNESCO World Heritage-listed street – opened in July 2023 opposite the Hungarian State Opera. Also in the Marriott portfolio is the Dorothea Hotel, with its 216 rooms and glamorous rooftop restaurant. In keeping with the musical events celebrating the 150th anniversary, the 2022 opening of the Hard Rock Hotel – Eastern Europe’s first – combines musical memorabilia (Prince’s faux-fur coat in a shade of, unsurprisingly, purple) with an in-thick-of-it location on Nagymező Street, Budapest’s legendary louche entertainment strip. – Sarah Rodrigues

Is there anywhere more popular than the Greek islands right now? This past summer, the Cyclades – an island group that includes Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Milos, and Ios – dominated social-media feeds with beautiful blue and white backdrops, thrilling beach clubs and nightclubs, and unparalleled shopping. With more smart stays being unveiled in 2024, as well as new flights, next summer is the time to make a Cyclades trip happen. Etihad, British Airways and Saudia added new routes to various Greek islands in 2023, plus the 2022 launch of Cycladic, the first inter-island airline, means it’s easier than ever to get there. Hotel business is booming. Santo Pure in Oia on Santorini has just added 20 new suites, and next year it will be joined by sister hotel Santo Mine, a 37-suite luxury resort. Slick boutique hotel Kalesma on Mykonos will launch its spa for the 2024 season, including a hammam and cryotherapy area. Five-star, 80-acre Gundari Resort will open on Folegandros next May, while a new One&Only property will come to Kea in April. Such plush hotels are rare on these islands, expanding the options for luxury stays in the Cyclades. – Ali Wunderman

For a bewitching break in 2024, go north. Yorkshire-born sculptor Henry Moore once said: “The observation of nature is part of an artist’s life.” And Yorkshire has some of the most seductive nature: sweeping landscapes like living oil paintings; undulating dales and peaks; deep-forested moors with big skies; heady lavender fields; lofty woodlands filled with birdsong; and golden sandy sweeps skirting the peppermint-blue sea. The Brontës’ romanticism is not lost. In 2024, go stargazing in Yorkshire’s national parks at the magical Dark Skies Festival. The Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta will return to its new home at Castle Howard in 2024, with rainbow-bright, early-morning mass balloon flights and night glows. There were plenty of Michelin mentions for the county in 2023, with keen eyes on the 2024 list, so restaurants with rooms are ramping up. Just up the road from The Black Swan in Oldstead, Michelin-lauded chef Tommy Banks’ latest outpost, The Abbey Inn, opened in May and its three luxurious bedrooms, care of Tommy’s mother, were launched in July. For the ultimate culinary sleepover, stay two nights and eat at both restaurants. Newbie Mýse, helmed by chef-and-sommelier couple Joshua and Victoria Overington, is a petite restaurant with rooms set among caramel-colored cottages in the sleepy village of Hovingham. Book in for its creative tasting menu, then retire upstairs to one of the cozy-cool rooms. In June, Middleton Lodge, a sustainable luxury retreat bordering the Yorkshire Dales National Park, launched the Forest Spa in the heart of a serenely wooded estate. Don’t pass by honeycomb-hued Helmsley, with its emerging culinary scene and the recent opening of Pignut a restaurant with a sustainable focus and impressive casual and tasting-menu options. Expect plenty more magic in 2024. – Rachel Everett

Mauritius’s heyday in the ’80s conjures images of striped parasols, a tanned Stéphanie de Monaco on water skis, and all of Europe’s jet set holed up in the few – but fabulous – hotels. Fast-forward three decades and the Indian Ocean island has even more to land itself on your travel list: a dynamic cultural scene and new wave of hospitality are unfolding on its shores. In the capital of Port Louis, the years-in-the-making Intercontinental Slavery Museum, located inside a restored 1700s military hospital, opened in September 2023, marking the nation’s first monumental step in making amends for its long colonial history. Culture buffs are also gravitating to the recently opened House of Digital Art (HODA) nearby: Old meets new in this historic Port-Louis building, housing a cutting-edge array of contemporary art installations. The Indian Ocean isle has always been renowned for its dreamy seaside resorts, but encouraging visitors to venture away from the beaches is the forthcoming Socio Tribeca (late 2024) – heralding the launch of a new hotel brand from the Lux Collective – which promises to be an impressive contemporary hotel with its finger on the pulse of the island. Muse Villas, a newcomer seeking to offer an elevated resort experience, enables travellers to stay on their own private islet. Meanwhile, legendary resorts Lux Belle Mare and Paradis Beachcomber just unveiled massive restorations in October, and Hotel Riu Palace Mauritius, a kitesurfers’ paradise, will emerge from its own facelift in May 2024. But beyond the well-trodden coastline of Mauritius, this may be the year its barely known little sister, Rodrigues, a speck of an island an hour-and-a-half flight east, gets its due. It’s long been a well-kept secret among even the most in-the-know travellers, but now a clutch of reimagined properties is adding a touch of luxury gloss: The island’s two historic hotels, Play Mourouk and Cotton Bay Resort & Spa, are reopening after months of renovation and reinvention (the first as of November 1, 2023; the latter in 2024). – Anissa Macaulay

Rising from economic uncertainty, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is in the midst of a luxury and wellness boom – from its tea-filled highlands to its palm-fringed shores. In the south of the country, new luxury resorts continue to entice. Among them, Kayaam House and Ahu Bay by homegrown luxury travel specialist Resplendent Ceylon; a Hilton resort next to the Indian Ocean-bordering Yala National Park, one of the best places to spot Sri Lanka’s elusive leopards; and the art deco-inspired The Charleston, which opens in December in the UNESCO-listed Galle Fort. The already established Kalukanda House – a villa in surf town Weligama by British-Sri Lankan interior designer Dee Gibson – is making its mark with retreats centred on female empowerment, with yoga, breath work, reiki, and Ayurveda included.

A comprehensive renovation of the nine-room Meraki, which employs local women and offers yoga, holistic treatments, island-sourced vegetarian fare, and artisanal crafts in the Polhena Beach district of Matara, is set to be unveiled in early 2024; and luxury fitness getaway Makahiya is gearing up to launch its own brand of bespoke retreats.

In January, the Galle Literary Festival will return after a five-year hiatus, with appearances by literary figures such as Shehan Karunatilaka and Alexander McCall Smith, while Gourmet Galle, the country’s new food festival, will spotlight 12 chefs in 12 venues, ranging from beaches to paddy fields, over a 12-week period from January to March.

Inland, development of the Pekoe Trail, a new nearly 200-mile network of hiking routes that snakes its way through Sri Lanka’s highlands, continues. Traversing historic tea plantations, colonial estates, local villages, holy shrines, and forests brimming with biodiversity, it’s a novel way to experience Sri Lanka’s lush hill country, particularly when paired with stays at boutique properties such as W15 Hanthana, the luxurious Goatfell, or the Kelburne Estate, scheduled to open in December 2024. – Zinara Rathnayake

Creating a completely new tourism destination in an area of pristine natural beauty – including coral reefs that are home to critically endangered species, unspoiled desert, and dormant volcanoes – is a fine tightrope to walk. Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea aims to navigate these challenges with ambitious efforts that will make it a centre of regenerative tourism, powered by 100 percent renewable energy. Only 22 of the more than 90 islands in the area will be developed, and nine have been designated as protected conservation areas. While many of the sustainability efforts will be behind the scenes, some are visible – and visitable.

New mangrove parks will be populated with trees currently being grown in a mangrove nursery (the project aims to plant 50 million by 2030). The first phase of the destination, which includes 16 luxury hotels, is powered by 760,000 solar panels, and the world’s first zero-carbon 5G network has already been installed. Three resorts – Six Senses Southern Dunes; Nujuma, a Ritz Carlton Reserve; and The St. Regis Red Sea Resort – are set to open in the coming months, each with its own strict program of sustainability measures, ranging from light-touch modular structures to intelligent landscaping, smart waste management, and local sourcing. Transport within the destination will be by e-vehicles, and hydrogen-powered seaplanes will eventually transport visitors between the islands. Whether a luxury tourist destination can ever truly be sustainable remains to be seen, but the efforts being made in the Red Sea are certainly testing the hypothesis. – Nicola Chilton

While it may have traditionally been overlooked in favour of, say, St. Barths or Turks and Caicos, Grenada has more than proven itself a worthy contender – especially for travellers based on the East Coast. Starting in November 2023, JetBlue is making it easier to get there, with the launch of a direct service from Boston to join existing nonstops out of JFK. Air Canada also recently ramped up service and now has up to four flights per week between Toronto and Grenada.

Several new hotels and resorts are also on their way. Six Senses has picked Grenada for its first resort in the Caribbean: La Sagesse is set to open in early 2024 and will spread out over 38 acres of land with unparalleled access to the ocean and a range of adventures, from shipwreck dives to waterfall trails. Also in January 2024, Beach House by Silversands will open its doors to a mix of 28 beachfront and cliffside villas and suites (Silversands Resort opened on the island in 2018 and boasts a 100-meter infinity pool, said to be the longest in the Caribbean). Further out, IHG has broken ground on a 150-room, 30-private-suite resort that will sit next to Six Senses and is projected to open in 2025.

August is a popular time to visit: Spicemas, Grenada’s Carnival and the island’s largest cultural event, shimmies in during this time and brings with it weeks of parades, food, dancing, and performances. This year, JetBlue added a second daily flight from JFK during the days of the festival to accommodate the diaspora and the growing number of travellers heading to the Spice Island. Things are only going to get busier in 2024. – Madison Flager

Tiny Kosovo lacks the stunning beaches of Albania and luxury resorts of Montenegro, but Europe’s newest country has sky-scraping peaks, pastoral countryside and heart-warming hospitality, a combination ideal for multi-day hiking and biking trips. 2024 will mark the 25th anniversary since the end of the Kosovo war, and there's much to discover in the region now. Following in the footsteps of cross-border adventure trails such as the Peaks of the Balkans and High Scardus, the Trans Dinarica cycling route opens in 2024, making its way past the minarets framing Prizren’s eponymous river, through the Ottoman market town of Gjakova, and on to Peja. Perched on the edge of the Rugova Gorge, Peja serves as base camp for the country’s many outdoor adventures, including via ferratas and spelunking. A new paved path will soon connect the Lumbardhi River Promenade with the popular Health Trail – the beginning of the south-to-west route through the inaptly named Accursed Mountains. Two additional forthcoming routes connect trails in the Rugova Mountains to the gushing White Drin waterfall and Radac cave. Steps from the waterfall, the sleek, modern Ujëvara e Drinit Resort specialises in rooms with a view and fresh trout dinners. Through-hikers can rest weary bones and fill hungry bellies further from town at rural guesthouses such as Ariu, where traditional Kosovar dishes include flija, made with dairy produced on-site. – Naomi Tomky

All eyes may be on Tahiti this year as Teahupo’o, a village on the south coast and home to one of “the deadliest waves in the world,” gears up to host the 2024 Paris Olympics surf competition. Spectators can watch the event on giant screens at celebration sites across the island, such as Jardin de Paofai, Papara Beach Break, and Marina of Punui. The rest of French Polynesia, a sublime blue territory of 118 islands, is continuing its dedication to sustainability over mass tourism. Keen to bill itself as a regenerative destination, Coral Gardeners, an ocean conservation group, is in the process of planting one million heat-resilient corals worldwide by 2025. It’s also working on upcycling abandoned pearl farms for coral restoration on Ahe, an atoll northeast of Tahiti. Hotels across the jumble of islands are also getting spruced up, with a flurry of rejuvenations, starting in Bora Bora. In January 2024, the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora will launch a botanical tour highlighting its carefully preserved native flora and fauna, followed by the reopening of Le Meridien as Westin Bora Bora in mid-2024.

Looking forward to 2025, on the Tuamotu Islands, Le Tikehau will reopen as a Relais Chateaux property, and the Kia Ora Resort & Spa in Rangiroa is renovating to include overwater bungalows. – Kaila Yu

Accra has steadily been cementing its reputation as the continent’s capital of cool, and a reimagination of pan-African heritage has ignited the city’s foodies. Leading the way is the Ghana Food Movement, a network of food change makers intent on surfacing the sexy in sustainable food. With the May 2024 opening of its Link-up Kitchen in the buzzing Osu neighbourhood, this meeting place–cum–test kitchen will house the Movement’s popular Dine and Dance series, where young chefs highlight local ingredients in multicourse dinners before getting down to beats by local DJs. The hub will also host pop-ups featuring up-and-coming chefs and Indigenous menus, such as those offered by Abena Offeh-Gyimah, whose food tours spotlight heirloom ingredients and a “reconnection to ancestral ways of eating.” This year also sees chef Selassie Atadika of Midunu resuming her Nomadic Dinners celebrating African ingredients, as well as quarterly chocolate tastings of her gorgeous bonbons inspired by flavours like beriberi chili and Cape Malay spice. After dinner, you’ll find the balmy West African capital’s electric club scene spoils you for choice. While the Grammys have just come to the party (the awards will feature a Best African Music Performance category for the first time, in 2024), locals have been lighting it up at festivals like Chale Wote Street Art Festival (August) and AfroFuture (previously Afrochella; December) for years. Should you find time to sleep, the December 2023 opening of the 145-room Hilton Accra Cantonments marks the brand’s debut in Ghana.

Looking ahead: A state-of-the-art cultural institution is coming just outside the city as well. Enriched by voices from the diaspora, an overdue zeitgeist to reclaim African narratives finds a physical home in the Pan African Heritage Museum, which has begun construction and will open in 2025 or 2026. Located on 10 lush acres in Winneba (40 miles from Accra), the space’s first offerings will include a music amphitheater, a youth innovation centre, and a food court. Like all its planned exhibits (you can digitally preview the collection), these will both showcase and connect the continent’s rich history and cultures to its contemporary global might. – Lee Middleton

When National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions launch their new Belize to Tikal itinerary in January 2024, travellers may be tempted to tack on a few days ashore Belize’s white sand beaches and palm-dotted islands. But Guatemala, home to the jungle-shrouded Mayan ruins of Tikal, is the extension not to skip. The country’s mix of rich Indigenous and colonial history, staggering natural beauty, and now expanding infrastructure for tourism in the form of restaurants, hotels, and tours makes 2024 the year to explore Guatemala in earnest. In the charming city of Antigua, the world class MUNAG (National Museum of Art Guatemala), which covers 3,000 years of heritage through a contemporary lens, is now open, and a second-phase unveiling is expected imminently. Nearby, the team behind Luna Zorro studio – known for merging traditional craftsmanship with modern textile design and crafting boutique trips throughout Guatemala in collaboration with El Camino Travel – is renovating a historic property into La Valiente: It will house a Luna Zorro boutique and a coffee-and-wine bar in the front, with a two-bedroom casita for rent in the back, all set to open in October 2024. Café No Sé, meanwhile, an anchor of the old city that’s touted as the first mezcal bar outside of Mexico, will continue to honour “20-ish” years of being in business with events and live music. A flush of new art spaces, like Aura Galerías, and innovative restaurants continue to characterise the capital of Guatemala City.

Air carriers have taken notice of the increasing interest in this destination – in December 2023, Alaska will begin daily service from Los Angeles to Guatemala City, marking a new year-round route for the airline. Delta is bumping up access to Latin America in general and upping the frequency of winter flights from its Atlanta hub to Guatemala. – Ali Wunderman

Western Australia’s remote Kimberley is one of the world’s last wild frontiers, known for its untouched wilderness of towering ochre cliffs, cornflower blue waters, and ancient Aboriginal rock-art sites. But it’s always been difficult to explore. That’s about to change, because in 2024, this region is set to welcome an influx of cruise lines, keen to make the most of the region’s hard-to-reach waterways. Seabourn will cruise the Kimberley for the first time with Seabourn Pursuit; Ponant has deployed its all-new Le Jacques-Cartier to join sister vessel Le Lapérouse from May 2024; and from June 2024, Silversea will replace Silver Explorer with Silver Cloud to increase capacity. Not to be outdone, Scenic’s Scenic Eclipse II will become the only ship in the region with two helicopters onboard for flightseeing and excursions. Her first Kimberley voyage will take place in May.

In Broome, a coastal town and a gateway to the Kimberley, tourism projects are heating up too. Tipping its hat at the pearling history of the region, Salty Plum Social is making plenty of noise with its new Pearling Master’s Trek which, after its inaugural walk in 2023, kicks off with regular tours from April 2024. Plus, leading tour operators have joined forces to launch Aboriginal Culture Expedition, a four-night itinerary that includes participation in First Nations experiences in and around iconic Cable Beach and Roebuck Bay – the first of its 2024 tours debuts in May. A top tip: relax with a native-ingredient craft beer, courtesy of the all-new part-Aboriginal-owned 4,500-square-meter Spinifex Brewery Cable Beach. Improving access to this incredible region is Nexus Airlines, which has joined Airnorth in servicing regional Western Australia with its first Broome-Kununurra-Darwin route – and with further services scheduled for 2024. – Dilvin Yasa

Sandwiched between steep mountains and sparkling seas in southwestern Japan, the port city of Kobe is seriously strengthening its design credentials. Taking centre stage is Vague Kobe, a new creative space by Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio (TYS). Spanning the upper levels of an elegant former 1930s bank, it houses a gallery, bookstore, café, wine bar, flower shop, and design studio. In a perfectly measured showcase of contemporary Japanese design – and a reflection of Kobe’s seafaring heritage – renovated interiors combine crafted walls of traditional Japanese plasterwork and clean minimalist lines with large windows, stone floors, and ornate tilework.

Further proof of Kobe’s design ascendency was the arrival of French artisanal perfume and skincare brand Officine Universelle Buly in mid-2023, its shop and café interiors flamboyantly layered in signature style – from Kobe beef-inspired expanses of red-veined marble to chocolate-like lacquerware and “dripping” lamps. Recent plans by Trunk, arguably Tokyo’s hippest hotel group, to make Kobe the setting for its first hotel outside the capital is further evidence of the city’s prominence. And Kobe Port Tower – a panoramic observation deck on the shores of Osaka Bay – will reopen in early 2024 with a string of new facilities, including a new museum showcasing light-themed artworks and a fancy 360-degree revolving café bar. – Danielle Demetriou

Go. Go now. Because if you’ve always dreamed of discovering Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where seasonal floodwaters transform parched sands into a filigree of shimmering channels, right now is when you’ll be spoiled for choice. A surge in demand, coupled with a proactive approach to developing community-owned concessions, has led to a flush of new lodges across the world’s largest inland delta.

Take Sitatunga Private Island, or Natural Selection’s North Island Okavango, where just three tented suites rest on an island beneath wild ebony trees. Natural Selection will add to their portfolio in May 2024 with a new build: Tawana. Set in the wildlife-rich Moremi Game Reserve, this partnership with the chief of the local Batawana tribe will offer eight thatched suites amid the grasslands lining the perennial Gomoti River. Each stay is at least 1,000 square feet in size and comes with a private plunge pool and terrace.

Water is gold in the Delta, and this past year, African Bush Camps (ABC) opened the riverside Khwai Lediba. But our eye is really on Atzaro Okavango, slated for a March 2024 debut: It’s the third Icon camp in the Delta for ABC, with 10 lagoon-side suites promising impressive levels of Delta luxe and a strong sense of place through design (both markers of the Icon portfolio).

If you’re feeling adventurous, look east to the untapped Mababe marshlands and the brand-new Wilderness Mokete (opening mid-2024) for a fresh look at under-canvas exploration – out with plush campaign-style furnishings and in with geometric lines and contemporary decor. But be quick: Mokete will only stand for two years before being replaced by a new-build permanent camp set to open in 2026. – Richard Holmes

An otherworldly land of undiscovered species and bizarre biological riches, the rugged, remote Indian Ocean isle of Madagascar has always promised to upend visitors’ senses and logistical prowess. Happily, the latter is changing as the pioneers responsible for some of the continent’s finest conservation tourism offerings are upping the ante on the world’s fourth largest island. Located inside the essentially unvisited Namoroka National Park, Namoroka Tsingy Exploration Camp’s mid-2024 opening makes seven luxury safari tents your portal to a landscape of baobabs jutting from the formations of limestone knives known as tsingy and populated by lemurs that haven’t learned to fear people.

More of a coastal explorer? Look no further than Masoala Forest Lodge, which recently launched a Blue Lagoon Expedition trip in 2022. Paddling the breathtaking rainforest- and mangrove-fringed Antongil Bay, kayakers en route to a magical island campsite will share pellucid waters with migrating humpback whales and schools of reef fish. If that’s a touch too rugged, Time + Tide’s Miavana – arguably the Platonic ideal of exclusive island luxury – is launching a kiteboarding centre and new mainland excursions (think quad biking through baobab forests), in January 2024 and March 2024 respectively, for those who enjoy a splash of adrenaline in their bliss cocktail.

Finally – and critically – 2024 sees access to the Red Island expanding. Masoala Forest Lodge and Madagascar Classic Collection are starting a new flight circuit that will link choice remote destinations, like Andasibe, Namoroka, and Masoala parks, and luxe cruise lines like Silversea, Lindblad, Swan Hellenic, and Seabourne have added the country as a port of call on new voyages. – Lee Middleton

Immortalised in Gabriel García Márquez’s classic Love in the Time of Cholera, the Magdalena River is Colombia’s largest and most important waterway. Running 930 miles from the snowcapped Andes through fertile valleys and into the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, it's the economic and cultural heart of the country. However, for many travellers, the mighty Magdalena has been off the radar.

But courtesy of luxe river-cruise company AmaWaterways, two different ships will kick off voyages in the future: AmyMagdalena, in November 2024, and AmaMelodia, in January 2025. Both ships will sail the Magic of Colombia itinerary, from Barranquilla to Cartagena, and the Wonders of Colombia itinerary, from Cartagena to Barranquilla – each taking passengers upriver to the UNESCO-designated city of Mompox, founded in 1540, where riverfront plazas and ornate churches await in this lost-in-time pueblo mágico.

Along the way, the three-story ships, which come with rooftop sun decks and balconies, stop for birdwatching and hiking. What really sets this river sailing apart from those in the Amazon River, though, is its focus on culture: From musical explorations in the town of Palenque, the first “free” town founded by formerly enslaved people in the Americas, to jazz concerts in Mompox and a special Colombian Carnaval celebration in Barranquilla, this is a journey into the exuberant heart of Colombian life.

Fly via Cartagena, with its world-class beaches, dining, and nightlife – not to mention the new Casa Pestagua hotel, situated in a lavishly restored 17th-century palace – for a soft landing before or after the cruise. There are a number of existing nonstop flights from the US, including an increase in weekly flights from Atlanta via Delta as of October 2023. – Ocean Malandra

Mongolia has long been the destination for thrill-seeking adventure travellers – as participants in the wonderfully chaotic Mongol Rally will attest – but the country is expanding beyond that niche as its tourism board sets its sights on attracting one million tourists per year. In 2023, the country launched visa-free travel for a further 34 nationalities – bringing the total up to 61 – in a campaign that is set to run until 2025.

The launch of new luxury lodges, cultural tours, and the announcement of the country’s first ever direct US flight, coming in 2024 to the $650-million Chinggis Khaan International Airport, further signal Mongolia’s tourism ambitions.

Following the success of the rugged-but-chic Three Camel Lodge, Mongolia’s luxury accommodation options are expanding with places such as Yeruu Lodge, which opened in 2023. Offbeat cultural experiences are one of the most compelling reasons to visit the country’s vast, rugged expanses and local operator Breanna Wilson offers some of the best. After a successful season of horse trekking and the Naadam Festival – a colourful display of strength, horsemanship, and marksmanship – in 2023, Wilson is expanding her 2024 tours to include a digital nomad week, a women-only retreat in Orkhon Valley, and a three-day archery training session with Namnaa Academy, an organisation that began reviving the ancient art of mounted archery in 2020. – Ali Wunderman

Made up of a patchwork of coastal towns and linked via scenic drives that take you along stunning Pacific beaches, lush valleys, and rainforests, this region has long been a popular destination for road-tripping, surfing, and trekking. Though devastated by apocalyptic floods in 2022, this northeastern corner of New South Wales is making a comeback. The region’s recovery was boosted in 2023 with the opening of the first stage of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail, which, when completed in the coming years, will link Byron Shire with a string of hinterland towns via an 82-mile mixed-use pathway. Also threading through this abundant region shaped by a now-extinct volcano is a new multiday hiking trail. Slated for a mid-2024 opening, the 24-mile Gidjuum Gulganyi Walk (meaning “old people’s track” in the local Bundjalung Aboriginal language) will pass through ancient traditional lands forming part of the World Heritage–listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia.

A highlight in March: the wave-lashed town of Byron Bay is set to host the 2024 Australian Pro Adaptive Surfing Championship, the country’s first international event for surfers with disabilities. Supporting all of this is a flurry of hotel openings in the region. Following Swell Hotel and California-style Sun Ranch in Byron Bay, Copperstone by the Range Estates will open its equestrian-style ranch in nearby Bangalow in early 2024, while in Yamba on the southern fringe of the Northern Rivers, designer and stylist Sheree Commerford’s breezy seaside inn Il Delfino is slated to open early 2024. – Sarah Reid

The largest of Canada’s 10 provinces, Quebec offers a vast stage for wide-ranging Indigenous-led experiences, from sipping beer at a Mohawk-run brewery near the US border to polar bear–watching with Inuit guides in the far north. Nunavik, Quebec’s northernmost region and homeland of the Inuit, has long been off most travellers’ radars, but new experiences offer immersion into both nature and culture.

Starting in summer 2024, Inuit-owned Ungava Polar Eco-Tours will offer five-day adventures to the uninhabited Gyrfalcon Islands in Ungava Bay. There, visitors will be able to spot wildlife from polar bears to musk ox and caribou, as well as experience some of the highest tidal elevations in the world. Even more wildlife-viewing experiences will become available in the summer when the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation opens the Putep 't-awt observation site, providing a one-of-a-kind land-based location to view a beluga whale nursery on the St. Lawrence River.

Visitors to the Quebec City region can look forward to refreshed experiences in the Huron-Wendat community of Wendake, where, in summer 2023, the Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations opened 24 new and renovated suites, and Sagamité restaurant in Old Wendake reopened after a nearly five-year closure and with plans to add a microbrewery and pub in 2024. While you’re in Quebec, definitely don’t miss the Contemporary Native Art Biennial, which will be held across Montreal throughout the year. – Karin Gardiner

Quito is finally getting its due. The city’s mile-high skyline got a lot higher thanks to the work of architects like Bjarke Ingels Group, whose 32-story IQON tower (completed in 2022) is now the city’s tallest. It's just one of several projects to come from Ecuadorian development firm Uribe Schwarzkopf, in its ongoing effort to mature the ancient Andean city into an unlikely new hub of contemporary architecture. That’s no small feat considering that Quito stands atop both the ruins of a pre-Columbian settlement and an earthquake-prone high plateau and is anchored by an untouchable colonial centre with UNESCO status. But a new generation of Ecuadorian and international creatives are pushing the city toward the future - and not just for the sake of visitors.

Moving things along in that direction, an all-new metro system will be inaugurated in late 2023, with 15 stations spanning from Quitumbe in the southern part of the city to El Labrador in the north. New hotels have been slower to arrive, but one standout is the affordable 151-room Go Quito Hotel, which opened in June 2023 with a rooftop bar-restaurant, spa, sauna, pool, and airy rooms offering unbeatable views of the city. Meanwhile, Quito’s dining scene is finally catching up to culinary neighbour Lima. Buzzy new restaurants include Cardó, where Chef Adrián Escardó makes octopus bacon and suckling pig with naranjilla sauce; Aura, which leans into native Ecuadorian ingredients like Mashua honey and Manaba cheese from the coast; and Nuema, where chef and co-owner Pia Salazar’s sweet-salty hybrid desserts – think pastries with leek with lemon verbena and tonka bean, and white seaweed with black garlic – won her World’s Best Pastry Chef 2022, a first for Quito and Ecuador, and 2023. – Adam H. Graham

With its bronzed, dusty roadways and handcrafted adobe dwellings, Chile’s oldest village has captivated adventurous visitors for decades. But now, the soulful oasis of San Pedro de Atacama is securing the spotlight as Chile’s northern star, with a variety of travellers eager to experience its rugged-chic vibe. After all, this celestial city is a hotbed of geographical wonders, with snowcapped volcanic mountains in the world’s driest nonpolar region, high-altitude lagoons dotting the Andean desert, and dazzling salt flats.

Wildlife lovers flock to Los Flamencos National Reserve for up-close encounters with the world’s rarest flamingos and native vicuñas. And the surreal, dramatic scenery of the steaming El Tatio Geysers at sunrise can only be rivaled by the fiery palette of the Valle de Catarpe canyons at dusk. In 2024, El Niño is likely to spark an extraordinary Atacama superbloom inside Chile’s new national park, Desierto Florido.

Under the clearest skies on the planet, backyard astronomers can explore the cosmos on ethereal stargazing tours. The ALMA Observatory, poised at an atmosphere-topping 16,000 feet, promises expert-led interstellar experiences. But the most otherworldly excursion might be traversing the Valle de la Luna's inhospitable yet magically serene moonscape environment. Earthly travellers can seek solace in the area’s newest luxe property, Habitas Atacama. Opened in September 2023, the elite outdoorsy design guarantees a memorable stay before you jet off to glimpse Easter Island’s annular solar eclipse in October. – Colleen Kelly

Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed film Oppenheimer may have sparked new interest in Santa Fe, the closest town of note to Los Alamos, but the New Mexican capital has held its own for centuries. One of the oldest cities in the country, it’s known for its adobe-style architecture, storied arts institutions (including the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum), and vibrant mix of Native American, Mexican, and Spanish cultures.

Fresh art and cultural programming with an emphasis on Indigenous efforts makes 2024 a banner year to visit. From May 2 to 5, the Southwestern Association for American Indian Arts will launch the inaugural Santa Fe Indigenous Fashion Week to showcase Indigenous designers, artists, and runway models. Indigenous Art Fair Contemporary, a gallery show spotlighting present-day Native American art, is slated to roll out August 15 to 18 as well, timed to the renowned Santa Fe Indian Market; and a two-block walk away, FaraHNHeight, a Native American–, First Nations–, and Indigenous-forward gallery, is new on the scene and well worth a visit. Travellers visiting before the end of April can catch “Shadow and Light,” the debut exhibition at Vladem Contemporary, the first major museum building to open in The City Different in more than a decade. (Part of the New Mexico Museum of Art, the 38,000-square-foot space is the latest anchor to join the Santa Fe Railyard arts district.)

Furthermore, 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the Burning of the Zozobra, a beloved cultural tradition that brings to mock-trial a 50-foot effigy known as Old Man Gloom. The marionette, which is stuffed with paper “glooms” such as old love letters, speeding tickets, and divorce summons, is dramatically set ablaze after dark – a moment of catharsis that encourages locals and visitors alike to release their worries and start anew. – Ashlea Halpern

With its lush rainforests and aquamarine lakes framed by snowcapped peaks, New Zealand’s South Island is steeped in superlatives – and United Airlines’ new nonstop service from San Francisco to Christchurch starting December 1 will make it all the easier to immerse yourself in it. In October 2024, the 38-mile-long Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track will become New Zealand’s 11th Great Walk. Offering panoramic views of Fiordland, it features mountaintop accommodations, like Okaka Lodge and Port Craig Lodge, that offer amenities not always found on other Great Walks, including hot showers, king-size beds, and even pack transfers by helicopter.

In Queenstown, the nine-mile Wharehuanui Trail – set to open in late 2024 – will connect the 19th-century gold-mining town of Arrowtown to the suburb of Arthurs Point. And on the West Coast, the multimillion-dollar project Pounamu Pathway, the driving route from Haast to Westport, will bring Māori history to life with four new immersive (and interconnected) visitor centres. Scheduled along the journey, they were developed by Wētā Workshop, the visual effects studio behind Lord of the Rings, and the Ngāi Tahu tribe. Launching in 2023 and opening in stages, the first to debut will be Māwhera/Greymouth in mid-December 2023, followed by Kawatiri/Westport in February 2024, Awarua/Haast in mid-2024, and lastly Hokitika in the final quarter of 2025.

Those looking for a more laid-back wilderness experience will find it here too. At the end of 2024, Flockhill, the ultra-luxury lodge in Arthur’s Pass, will expand on its offerings with 14 new villas and an on-site restaurant with acclaimed Kiwi chef Taylor Cullen at the helm. Until then, check in to one of the recently refurbished premium rooms at the historic Hermitage Hotel in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. – Jessica Wynne Lockhart

Sought out year-round for its vibrant small towns, nature preserves, culinary hot spots – and its proximity to New York City – the region is humming with new opportunities for travellers to surrender themselves to its legendary landscapes in 2024.

In the Hudson Valley, New York State Parks will celebrate the centennial of the founding of the statewide park and historic-site system. Community events and special performances are on the calendar, plus discounts on park admission fees and new opportunities to volunteer. Also in 2024, the much-loved Storm King Art Centre debuts new hospitality pavilions, a conservation and fabrication facility, and ADA-accessible pathways. And in the summer, the 160-acre Klocke Estates will open its doors, with artisanal brandy and stunning views of the Catskills.

When it comes to exceptional lodgings, the Hudson Valley has seen a wave of hospitality projects since 2020. From the aesthetic delight that is Habitas-on-Hudson, near Rhinebeck, to Inness, the chic all-in-one getaway in Accord, to Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection, a bucolic escape in the shadow of the iconic Shawangunk Mountains, the region has gone from being a New Yorker-favourite to a top draw for travellers from further afield. And there are fresh digs to look forward to in the year ahead. The Front Boutique Hotel in Port Jervis is opening in May with a 120-seat restaurant and easy access to 50 miles of trails; and in the spring, famed wellness haven The Ranch opens its first East Coast property.

About three hours away by car, the Adirondacks' towering peaks replace the Hudson river valleys. Its majestic forests, farmlands, mountains, and meadows make up a fifth of the state, and the region will be in the path of totality of April’s solar eclipse. Go stargazing at the Adirondack Sky Centre, or use the website of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism for self-guided viewing. You can also walk, bike, snowshoe, or snowmobile along the 34-mile Adirondack Rail Trail, which will be completed over the course of 2025. And on Whiteface Mountain, one of the five Adirondack High Peaks, a detachable quad lift launching just in time for ski season allows you to access more slopes than ever before. For a peaceful getaway, stay at the Lodge at Schroon Lake, which reopened in June 2023 after an extensive $21 million renovation, or NewVida Preserve, a new members club meets traveller’s oasis on 2,000 acres with 360-degree mountaintop views. – Robin Catalano