Where to Go Next: 11 Destinations Having Their Moment in 2026
Every year has its reasons to travel. But 2026 arrives with an unusual density of things that won’t happen again—at least not in our lifetimes. A tapestry leaves France for the first time in nearly 1,000 years. A total solar eclipse crosses Mallorca at sunset, the sun just two degrees above the Mediterranean horizon. Architect Frank Gehry’s final museum opens on a peninsula on the Arabian Gulf, two decades after he first sketched the plans. Route 66 turns 100. The Winter Olympics scatter across the Italian Alps in the most ambitious format the Games have ever attempted. And in September, Seoul becomes the only city where three major international art fairs run simultaneously, staking its claim as Asia’s new cultural capital.
The infrastructure is keeping pace. Getting there has never been easier. Delta is flying its most extensive transatlantic schedule in history this summer, United is pushing into European cities that have never seen a U.S. carrier, and Alaska Airlines—newly armed with Hawaiian’s widebody fleet—crosses the Atlantic for the first time. Meanwhile, ultra-luxe hotels are opening in places that have long deserved them and cities that already have everything except the right address. We sorted through the noise and landed on 11 destinations where timing, access and occasion align in ways worth acting on. Here’s where to go in 2026.
Milan and the Dolomites, Italy
- Italy’s polycentric Olympics, from San Siro to the peaks
The Winter Olympics return to Italy February 6-22, 2026, in the most geographically ambitious format the Games have ever attempted. Milano Cortina 2026 sprawls across four clusters—Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Valtellina and Val di Fiemme—spanning eight towns, three regions, and the full sweep of northern Italy, from fashion capital to UNESCO-protected peaks. The opening ceremony at San Siro on February 6 carries the title “Armonia” and features Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli and Laura Pausini performing inside the 80,000-seat stadium. For the first time, simultaneous satellite ceremonies will take place in Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo, with twin Olympic cauldrons lit at Milan’s Arco della Pace and Cortina’s Piazza Dibona. Mandarin Oriental Cristallo Cortina, the brand’s first alpine resort, transforms the 1901 Art Nouveau grande dame, where Frank Sinatra and Brigitte Bardot once stayed. Ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut, and women compete in large-hill ski jumping for the first time. The closing ceremony on February 22 moves to the Verona Arena, the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater still hosting opera under open skies. Roberto Bolle, principal dancer at La Scala, leads the finale before the formal handover to the French Alps for 2030.
Seoul, South Korea
- Asia’s new art capital arrives
Seoul has spent years building its case as a global art hub—Frieze’s 2022 arrival, the emergence of powerhouse galleries like Kukje and Gallery Hyundai, the Leeum’s quiet influence—but 2026 is when the city claims the title outright. In May, Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul opens inside the iconic 63 Square skyscraper in Yeouido, the Parisian institution’s first Asian outpost, with interiors by Jean-Michel Wilmotte (the Louvre, British Museum) and a program drawing from one of the world’s great modern collections. Then comes September, when the city transforms into a month-long art pilgrimage: Frieze Seoul returns to COEX while both the Gwangju Biennale—celebrating its 30th anniversary under Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen—and Busan Biennale run concurrently, making South Korea the only country where three major international art events overlap. The museums match the moment: MMCA Seoul mounts a comprehensive Do Ho Suh survey alongside a Damien Hirst retrospective; Leeum presents Koo Jeong A fresh from Venice; Hoam Museum stages the first blockbuster retrospective of 90-year-old sculptor Kim Yun Shin.
Boston, Massachusetts
- America’s 250th, the World Cup, and tall ships in the harbor
Boston already wears its history proudly, but America’s semiquincentennial will shine a brighter spotlight on the city where the Revolution began. The summer of 2026 delivers a convergence of events that would be remarkable anywhere but feels almost inevitable here: the FIFA World Cup arrives in June, Sail Boston fills the harbor with tall ships in July, and the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations culminate on the Fourth with the Boston Pops at the Hatch Shell. Gillette Stadium, rebranded as Boston Stadium for the tournament, hosts seven World Cup matches from June 13 through July 9, including a quarterfinal. Days later, Sail Boston 2026 arrives as the final port on the Sail250 tour, a global gathering of tall ships commemorating the nation’s founding. From July 11-16, vessels from more than 25 countries will parade into the harbor, many of which guests can board for free.
The America 250 commemorations extend year-round. Knox Trail 250 launches in January, retracing Henry Knox’s legendary 300-mile winter journey hauling 60 tons of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. Evacuation Day 250 on March 17 marks the British withdrawal with parades, a flyover and a 21-gun salute at a newly restored Dorchester Heights Monument, which received a $25 million overhaul from the National Park Service. The Freedom Trail itself is being reimagined to include the contributions of women, Black Bostonians and other figures often overlooked in the Revolutionary narrative.
Oulu, Finland
- Arctic culture with a sense of humor
Oulu sits on the Baltic’s edge, about 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle—a tech city of 220,000 that treats winter as both infrastructure and entertainment. In 2026, it will become the northernmost city ever to hold the European Capital of Culture title with more than 3,000 events across 40 municipalities. The programming lands with local specificity rather than generic Euro-festival fare: the world premiere of Ovllá, a Sámi opera exploring Indigenous identity and the legacy of silence, arrives in January; Frozen People stages electronic music on the frozen Bothnian Bay in March if the ice cooperates; and in August, a near-mile-long communal dinner table winds through the city center as part of Arctic Food Lab, celebrating northern cuisine built on wild berries, foraged mushrooms and Baltic fish. The Air Guitar World Championships return in August. Between programming, Oulu leans into its oddball résumé—floating saunas on the Oulu River followed by ice-hole plunges, northern lights that streak across reliably dark skies, and the rare satisfaction of discovering a place you’d never heard of before this year.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
- The Mother Road turns 100, and the capital throws the party
Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926, and Tulsa has spent the past century earning its claim as the Mother Road’s capital. Oklahoma holds more drivable miles of the original highway than any other state—over 400—and Tulsa sits at the heart of the most intact stretch. The centennial celebration peaks on May 30, when the Route 66 Capital Cruise attempts a Guinness World Record for the largest classic car parade ever documented: more than 3,000 vehicles cruising a 5.5-mile route from Expo Square past the Golden Driller and through downtown, ending at Mother Road Market. Beyond the parade, culture abounds. Start with an architecture walk led by the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, which offers guided Art Deco tours that decode the facades of downtown’s historic core. Then pivot to what’s next: the Gilcrease Museum, which previews its long-awaited reopening this spring with UNcrease, a free community art series running March through May. The program invites local artists to take over the new building with performances, workshops and lectures, including appearances by the Tulsa Opera and Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Finally, see Tuscany meet Tulsa at the Philbrook Museum of Art, housed in a 1920s Italian Renaissance-style villa and surrounded by 25 acres of formal gardens.
Mallorca, Spain
- A sunset eclipse and a new standard in Mediterranean luxury
On August 12, 2026, Mallorca will witness something that hasn’t happened over Spanish soil since 1905: a total solar eclipse. The path of totality crosses the island just south of Palma, turning day to twilight for roughly 90 seconds beginning at 8:31 p.m. Here’s what makes it extraordinary: the sun will be just two-and-a-half degrees above the western horizon, meaning totality unfolds as a sunset eclipse, with the darkened sun framed against the Mediterranean’s golden-hour palette. Meteorologists give the island a 75 percent chance of clear skies. The timing aligns with a luxury-hotel moment: Mandarin Oriental Punta Negra opens in July with 131 rooms near Puerto Portals, featuring Matsuhisa from Nobu and Leña from Dani García, plus access to two private coves. Finca Banyols debuts in March with 32 rooms amid olive groves beneath the Serra de Tramuntana. Book now—eclipse chasers and astronomy tours have been reserving rooms for months, and August 2026 will be the most coveted week in Mallorcan history.
Antarctica
- Two ways in: by air, or by sea through the Drake Passage
Travel to Antarctica is at an all-time high, but the crowded Antarctic Peninsula—reachable from Argentina in two days—is no longer the only option. East Antarctica, accessed from Australia or New Zealand, offers something closer to what the heroic-age explorers found: fewer ships, towering tabular icebergs, and the best chance to see emperor penguins. Aurora Expeditions’ purpose-built Douglas Mawson made its maiden voyage in December 2025, departing Hobart on itineraries that retrace Sir Douglas Mawson’s 1911 expedition; Scenic Tours’ Ross Sea voyage in January 2026 brings polar explorer Robert Swan aboard as lecturer. The journey takes about a week each way—hardly uneventful, moving from open ocean to pack ice and the 160-foot walls of the Ross Ice Shelf rising from cobalt depths. Shore excursions include Cape Adare, home to 330,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins, and the preserved huts of Shackleton, Scott, and Mawson, now open-air museums. For those who’d rather skip the Drake altogether, White Desert flies guests from Cape Town to a private blue-ice runway in Queen Maud Land, where three camps—Whichaway, Echo, and Wolf’s Fang—accommodate just 12 guests each. Rates start around $70,000 for eight days, including South Pole flights, ice climbing and champagne in a glacier bar. Fewer than 500 people visit the Pole annually; this is how they do it.
Constantine and the Roman North, Algeria
- 3,000 years of occupation, zero crowds
Africa’s largest country has long ranked among the continent’s most unsung destinations, from Roman ruins that rival anything in Italy to a capital layered with Phoenician, Ottoman and French colonial sediment, all kept at arm’s length by a famously complicated visa system. That’s changing. Algeria now offers visas on arrival for travelers on organized tours, with electronic visas in the works as part of a national plan to boost annual arrivals to 12 million by 2030. Travel operator Explore Worldwide launches its first Algeria itineraries in early 2026, including a northern route through Algiers and the historic inland cities, the regions where organized tourism operates most comfortably. (The U.S. State Department rates the country Level 2, “Exercise Increased Caution,” with Level 4 restrictions for border regions and overland Sahara travel; reputable operators stick to licensed routes in the north.) Air Algérie’s acquisition of domestic carrier Tassili Airlines should improve connections, with new aircraft arriving this year and a potential New York route under discussion. Most itineraries begin in Algiers, where the hilltop Casbah tumbles toward the Mediterranean, then move inland to Constantine, a city built on cliffs above the Rhumel Gorge and one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth. Don’t miss the Roman ruins of Timgad and Djémila nearby, both remarkably preserved and entirely free of the crowds that plague comparable sites in Tunisia and Morocco.
Kyrgyzstan
- The Silk Road’s wildest detour
Uzbekistan has the architecture, but Kyrgyzstan gets the mountains—and increasingly, the hikers. The 1,243-mile Kyrgyz Nomad Trail enters its first full season in 2026 after the final 600-mile section opened late last summer, creating the longest continuous route in Central Asia. The trail winds west to east through the Tien Shan range, passing seasonal yurt camps, shepherd families who’ve worked these pastures for generations, and landmarks that reward the effort: Kel-Suu, a turquoise lake ringed by jagged cliffs near the Chinese border; Tash Rabat, a 15th-century caravansary where Silk Road merchants once bedded down; and Saimaluu Tash, an alpine valley scattered with thousands of Bronze Age petroglyphs. The season runs from June through September, when high passes shed their snow. For something closer to spectacle, the World Nomad Games return to their birthplace August 31 through September 6, with the opening ceremony in Bishkek timed to Independence Day and the main competitions at Lake Issyk-Kul. Kok-boru—headless goat polo on horseback—is the marquee event, but the real draw is everything surrounding it: eagle hunters from Kazakhstan, yurt-building contests, horseback wrestling, and the sight of competitors arriving on horseback to pitch camp alongside spectators from eight countries.
Vancouver, Canada
- Where the World Cup meets unceded territory
Vancouver hosts seven FIFA World Cup matches between June 13 and July 7, including two Canadian national team games—the country’s first men’s World Cup on home soil. BC Place, the retractable-roof stadium downtown, sits within walking distance of False Creek’s seawall and a SkyTrain stop, meaning the entire city functions as an extension of the fan zone at Hastings Park. But the deeper draw is what surrounds the pitch: Vancouver occupies the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, whose presence predates European contact by millennia and whose cultural tourism has grown into something genuinely sophisticated. Talaysay Tours leads ethnobotany walks through Stanley Park, explaining how Coast Salish peoples have used the forest for food, medicine and technology; Takaya Tours paddles visitors into Indian Arm’s rainforest fjord aboard replica ocean-going canoes, with traditional songs, cliff pictographs and salmon picnics on remote beaches. For those who want to skip the tournament crowds entirely, Rocky Mountaineer debuts Passage to the Peaks—a limited-edition glass-domed train route between Banff and Jasper, running exclusively in June and July 2026.
Abu Dhabi
- Gehry’s last museum, 20 years in the making
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will finally open in 2026, two decades after Frank Gehry unveiled designs for what would become his final major work. The Canadian-American architect, who died in December 2025 at 96, called it his “big, late masterpiece”—320,000 square feet of clashing forms and 11 cone-like structures rising on a peninsula at the tip of Saadiyat Island. At completion, it will be the largest Guggenheim outpost, joining satellites in Bilbao, Venice and New York. The collection focuses on art from 1965 to present day, with an emphasis on West Asia, North Africa and South Asia—positioning Western heavyweights like Basquiat, Warhol and Pollock alongside contemporary artists from the region who remain underrepresented in global museum narratives. The Guggenheim joins an increasingly dense cultural district: Jean Nouvel’s Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017; Foster + Partners’ Zayed National Museum opened in late 2025; Mecanoo’s Natural History Museum opened earlier that year. In November, Abu Dhabi Art relaunches as Frieze Abu Dhabi, the London-based fair’s eighth global edition and first in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Art Basel Qatar debuts February 5-7 in nearby Doha, putting two rival fair giants within a short flight of each other and cementing the Gulf as the art market’s newest power corridor.