The 10 Best Places to Travel in 2020

Whether you're traveling solo or planning a family vacation, here are the 10 best places to visit in 2020.

What makes a place worth visiting right now? That’s what we at Travel + Leisure ask ourselves when compiling our annual list of the 10 best places to travel. Is it a show-stopping new hotel? A once-in-a-lifetime celebration? A critical mass of game-changing restaurants?

For definitive answers on the best vacation spots of the moment, we hit the books, scouring tourism statistics, scoping out major events, charting new flight routes, and logging hotel debuts. We take stock of the most compelling new restaurant openings, scroll through the Instagram posts of our most well-traveled pals, and mine our inboxes for tips. We also survey our vast network of travel experts — T+L’s A-List travel advisors, first, plus trusted writers, hospitality insiders, and other industry pros — to see what places they have their eyes on.

1.Austria

Not long ago, Austria was viewed as the meringue of the Germanic world: beautiful to look at, yet somewhat dry when one actually bit in. But the country has reinvented itself, pouring resources into cutting-edge arts institutions while lovingly elevating the cultural jewels that made it so beloved in days gone by. In Vienna, a wave of new hotels is catering to a younger, hipper crowd. None is more emblematic of the changing capital than the Andaz Vienna Am Belvedere, part of a more than $240 million development project surrounding the city’s central train station, which was completely rebuilt in 2015. Across the street, one of Vienna’s preeminent venues for contemporary art has been rechristened the Belvedere 21, and the nearby Belvedere palaces, two Baroque buildings filled with classical art, have been beautifully renovated. Over in the ninth district, the Freud Museum has moved into two temporary locations while its main building readies for a May reopening; the expanded space will give access to Freud’s family quarters and add a nearly 40,000-volume library. It’s also a celebration-packed year for Austria’s classical music world. The legendary concert hall Musikverein turns 150, and this year marks the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. His party in Vienna will last through 2020, with events like a week-long series of all of his symphonies by the Vienna Philharmonic and dozens of concerts at Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein. Plus, the world-renowned Salzburg Festival celebrates its centennial this summer with theatrical premieres and performances ranging from avant-garde chamber music to lavish productions of opera classics such as Tosca, Don Giovanni, and Elektra.

2.Baja Sur’s East Cape, Mexico

Just when you think the Baja buzz has reached a fever pitch, new arrivals make it all the more thrilling. This year, the locus of the excitement has shifted away from the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo up to the East Cape, where a dreamy new 1,000-acre luxury enclave has finally come to fruition near Los Barriles. The Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos at Costa Palmas opened in October, with 141 rooms overlooking the placid Sea of Cortéz, and the Costa Palmas Beach & Yacht Club is welcoming members and hotel guests to its pools, golf course, two miles of beachfront, and — should you need a place to park your superyacht — a glittering, lake-size marina. Keep an eye out in 2021 for the arrival of Amanvari, Aman Resorts’ corner of Costa Palmas, with 20 villas and 24 residences. But all of that is merely the gateway to the real draw: An undisturbed corner of Baja was desert, mountains, and water meet.

3.Big Island, Hawaii

Despite the eruption of Kīlauea volcano in 2018 and the subsequent tourism downturn, visitors to Hawaii’s largest island were never really in danger — the volcanic activity was limited to its east side, far from the resorts on the Big Island’s western coast. But now that the lava has stopped flowing, there’s a new energy in the air. The island’s biggest resort opening in years is set to debut in January 2020 — a reimagining of Mauna Lani by Auberge Resorts, the first Hawaiian venture by the Bay Area-based luxury hotel brand. After a yearlong, $200 million renovation, the property will unveil a redesigned spa that’ll incorporate Hawaiian botanicals grown on-property into its treatments, as well as Canoe House, a beachfront restaurant with a menu full of local items like grilled Kona lobster. Elsewhere, a new wave of artisans is taking hold, like Kona’s Big Island Distillers, which sources ingredients for its spirits — like honey, sweet potatoes, and coffee — directly from the island

4.Brisbane, Australia

Though the massive Queen’s Wharf revitalization project in the Queensland capital won’t be complete until 2022, the headway is already being made in the form of three buzzy waterfront recreation areas. Family-friendly Waterline Park courts outdoor enthusiasts with a climbing wall and other sporting equipment; Mangrove Walk focuses on indigenous culture and local wildlife, with educational signposts stationed throughout the quarter-mile path; and the initial section of a rehabilitated Bicentennial Bikeway features wider lanes, better sightlines, and improved traffic flow. A hotel boom in 2018 and 2019 brought such high-profile openings as the Calile, Ovolo Inchcolm, and Fantauzzo, but a host of five-star properties slated for the Queen’s Wharf — including a Ritz-Carlton and a Rosewood — will elevate the Australian city’s cache even further.

5.Caesarea, Israel

The happy marriage of antiquity and modernity is drawing more visitors to Caesarea, a coastal town and national park in northern Israel on the site of a 2,000-year-old Roman harbor. The new King Herod Visitor’s Center, named for the port’s founding monarch and built in the massive arched vaults that once stood beneath a temple, displays recent archaeological finds, such as colorful mosaics and gold coins recovered from shipwrecks. Admire the ancient harbor from a table at Helena Restaurant — a seaside fine-dining spot that features locally foraged ingredients and Israeli wines — then wander the ruins of bathhouses or explore submerged Roman breakwaters, columns, and cargo along with the snorkeling and scuba diving trails at the Old Caesarea Diving Center. Spend the night at the newly renovated Dan Caesarea, a posh midcentury resort built by French banking scion Baron Edmond de Rothschild.

6.Costa Rica

Several just-opened eco-retreats are offering more ways to unwind in Costa Rica. Perhaps the most-anticipated is Nayara Tented Camp, a safari-style retreat inside a sloth sanctuary. Adjacent to the famed Nayara Hotel and Nayara Springs resort, the camp debuted in December, and offers 29 family-friendly suites linked by footbridges across the rain forest. Then there’s Kasiiya Papagayo, which opened as an adventure-focused getaway; walkie-talkies and headlamps are distributed at check-in. It's five sustainably built, ocean-facing tents rest on platforms above the local flora, leaving much of the landscape undisturbed. Farther south is Kinkára Luxury Retreat, built on the slopes of the Talamanca mountain range. The wellness resort's 31 glamping tents are centered around a thatched-roof yoga pavilion and a garden. Seriously indulgent bathhouses feature indoor-outdoor rain showers; outside, you can take a dip in the waterfalls and wading pools that dot the property.

7.Doha, Qatar

Doha’s arts and culture scene are giving travelers a reason drop in before the crowds arrive for the 2022 Fifa World Cup. The National Museum of Qatar, by architect Jean Nouvel, opened last year and adds to the city’s collection of art hubs, like Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Islamic Art. And thanks to a brand-new underground railway system, it’ll be a breeze to go from Hamad International Airport to the restaurants and galleries along the palm-edged Corniche. The new Mandarin Oriental, Doha, and the Al Najada Doha Hotel by Tivoli are among the stylish hotels to arrive on the scene—both are in Old Doha, striking distance from the Souq Waqif, the city’s historic open-air street market.

8.Dubai

Expo 2020 Dubai, the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, is set to change the face of a city whose face is always, already, constantly in flux. About halfway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the 1,000-acre “District 2020” will eventually have multiple parks, a dedicated metro station, and more than 200 restaurants and food venues. (After the expo wraps, the government plans to turn the site into a LEED Gold certified tech and education hub.) The country’s fraught record on labor issues has brought heightened scrutiny to the endeavor, but a whopping 192 countries have signed on to join in the festivities, including Iran, Israel, and Qatar, three nations with whom the U.A.E. has had strained diplomatic relationships. The program will feature 60 live shows every day, including “Al Wasl,” the first Emirati opera, scored by American composer Mohammed Fairouz with a libretto by Emirati writer Maha Gargash. And for the first time ever, each and every nation, from China to Djibouti, will have its own pavilion. During its run, which begins in October, the city expects to receive around 25 million visitors. It’s not often we get to publish the words “an event the likes of which the world has never seen” — but in this case, whatever you think of the whole expo enterprise, it certainly applies

9.Istanbul

In 2019, the opening of the monstrous Istanbul New Airport — now the world's biggest — brought Istanbul back into travelers' field of vision. This year, cultural openings have the city abuzz. Arter is putting Istanbul back on the map as an art capital: The angular mosaic-wrapped building houses the city's — and country's — first permanent collection of contemporary art, showcasing more than a thousand works by Turkish and global artists throughout six floors and terraces. After a few years of slow growth, Istanbul's hotel game is heating up again, particularly with the impending christening of the new Six Senses Kocatas. An hour-long ferry ride up the Bosphorus, in a quiet seaside district, the luxury hotel brand transformed a pair of opulent Ottoman-era mansions into a boutique hotel unlike any other. Add to that the city's newest hammam, the intimate Curkurcuma Hamami — a gleaming 19th-century white marble bath that was painstakingly renovated for 11 years — which isn't in overcrowded Sultanahmet, but tucked away on the charming cobblestone streets of Çukurcuma. To top it off, the long-in-the-works Galataport cruise terminal is set to open this spring. Despite all the flashy openings, you can still visit old favorites like the Hagia Sophia Museum, Topkapi Palace, and Ciragan Palace Kempinski, because Istanbul is a city that has all but mastered the precarious art of commingling traditional with contemporary.

10.Paros, Greece

Paros is a place overtourism forgot. The rugged Greek island, located smack in the middle of the Cyclades, can only be described as the cooler cousin of more populated islands like Mykonos and Santorini. Part of what makes it so cool: The newly opened Parilio, a 33-suite high-design hotel that rises from the landscape. A neutral palette graces its interior and exterior, while traditional building techniques elevate the Cyclades’ classic cubic houses. The island is home to those white-washed and blue-roofed buildings Greece is famous for, too, but with far fewer travelers elbowing you for the perfect Instagram. It’s worth navigating the labyrinthine streets in the town of Naoussa to spot some picturesque alleys, and booking a table at the much-loved Sousouro for a colorful breakfast spread

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