When planning your dream trip, it’s all too easy to put off planning. Put it off until next month, next year, after your new kitchen is finished, or don’t do it at all.
To combat your never-ending procrastination, National Geographic’s 2027 list of 25 destinations to visit in the coming year is one of the most timely and experience-based recommendations ever.
There are new openings, like Chile’s Cape Froward National Park, and groundbreaking commemorations, like the Beethoven Festival in Leipzig, Germany, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.
Cultural festivals such as the Arts Festival in Japan’s “snow country” and once-remote locations such as Mexico’s Maya Ca’an, now connected by train to Cancun and Tulum, have become more accessible.
National Geographic Editor-in-Chief Nathan Lamp told CNN about some of the destinations he’s most looking forward to.
California’s Pacific Coast Highway is “probably the most iconic road trip in America, other than Route 66,” Lampe said. The popular Big Sur section has reopened after three years of closure, allowing travelers to enjoy the entire stretch of road.
Lamp recommends exploring the vibrant creative communities in towns along the way, such as Mendocino and Laguna Beach. California has long attracted “artists who take inspiration from its landscapes and oceans, so you can really see and experience them on this drive.”
baltimore, maryland
America’s first commercial railroad opened 200 years ago in 1827 in Baltimore, Maryland. To mark the occasion, the city’s National Museum of Railroad History and Innovation will undergo a $38 million renovation and open its forward-looking Innovation Hall early next year.
“People tend to think of Baltimore as a maritime city,” Lampe says, but there’s a lot more to Charm City than people realize. It is “dynamic and thriving” and “continues to be revitalized and transformed in really positive ways”.
Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl I brought Puerto Rico to international attention and “allowed people to learn a little more about the culture,” Lampe said.
More than just a beach destination, the island’s music, dance and culinary traditions reflect its unique “fusion of African, indigenous and, of course, Spanish influences.”
Puerto Rico’s indigenous heritage can be traced along the Taino Route, with its historic villages, sacred caves, and centuries-old rock carvings.
The new year marks the 150th anniversary of Spicemas, a carnival held every August in Grenada, known as the Spice Island because of its cultivation of nutmeg, cloves, and other aromatics.
“It’s a beautiful island with lots of greenery,” Lampe says, adding that Spicemas is “a great time to go because there’s music, parades, street parties and so much fun.”
Grenada also offers a wealth of wellness activities, including volcanic mud baths in the Surrey River and guided yoga sessions at Royal Mount Carmel Falls, one of the island’s tallest waterfalls.
Santander, Spain
Two world-class museums have opened in Santander on Spain’s north coast, drawing new international attention to this ancient port city.
Faro Santander opened last month and showcases Banco Santander’s extensive art collection, including works by Titian, Velázquez and Goya. Next year, Madrid’s prestigious Reina Sofia Center will open an outpost in the city, housing a collection of 138,000 paintings, sculptures and manuscripts. Santander’s Museum of Prehistoric Archeology is set to move into a new $56 million home designed by award-winning Barcelona-based architect Mendoza Partida, “and now we have a wonderful archaeological museum,” Lampe says.
“If you go there, you’ll definitely be the first of your friends to go there,” says Lump of Kuelap, an ancient citadel in northern Peru built by the Chachapoya people around 500 AD.
The new trail, scheduled to open in June, will reach parts of the Marcapampa ruins, a previously inaccessible site.
Visitors “also get to observe the living ruins and the archaeologists working there, which I think is really fun and different,” Lampe said.
Venture beyond Kuelap, he says, and hikers can reach a place where they can find “a humanoid sarcophagus containing a mummy placed on the side of a cliff” of the Chachapoya people. “It’s so weird and cool.”
Ancient Egyptian tombs excavated
Luxor in southern Egypt will experience the longest period of a solar eclipse on August 2, when the sun will be invisible in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“For the ancient Egyptians, the sun was a very important part of their cosmology,” and “of all the places you can go and experience the ancient world in Egypt, Luxor probably has the highest concentration of wealth,” Lampe says.
The historic Winter Palace Hotel, where Howard Carter announced the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, is scheduled to reopen in July as the Mandarin Oriental Winter Palace.
Nile cruises, such as the legendary steamship Sudan, which inspired Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, are a “fantastic” way to see the region, but in 2027 travelers will also be able to board Egypt’s first luxury tourist sleeper train, the Guardian of the Nile.
It connects Cairo and Aswan and also stops at Luxor.
· Baltimore, Maryland
· Pacific Coast Highway, California
· Halifax, Nova Scotia
· Southern Ozarks, Missouri, and Arkansas
· Puerto Rico
· Grenada
· Cape Froward, Chile
· Kuelap, Chachapoyas, Peru
· Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
· Leipzig, Germany
· Normandy, France
· Santander, Spain
· Transcaucasian Trail, Armenia
· Tricity, Poland
· Västrand, Norway
· Luxor, Egypt
· Malawi
· Chengdu, China
· Niigata Prefecture
· Jaipur, India
· Melbourne, Australia
· Madison, Wisconsin
· Maya Kaan, Mexico
· Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
· Malaysia, Penang
