Condé Nast Traveller UK has unveiled its annual list of the 27 Best Places to Go in 2027, and it reads less like a bucket list and more like a snapshot of how travel is shifting: cooler climes over crowded Mediterranean summers, slow trails over tick-box itineraries, and holidays that put money into places still recovering.
A few headline moments stand out. Luxor makes the cut thanks to a wave of new Nile cruises and, more fatefully, the "eclipse of the century" due in August 2027 — a total solar eclipse expected to draw huge crowds to Egypt. Shanghai gets a nod for its November 2027 Biennale and the cluster of new galleries in the West Bund district, across the river from the striking Snøhetta-designed Grand Opera House. And Jamaica features one year on from Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm ever to hit the island: hotels are reopening and actively inviting travellers back as part of the recovery.
Slow travel looms large. Albania's Accursed Mountains in the north offer inn-to-inn hiking, turquoise rivers and family-run wooden guesthouses, with base towns like Shkodër and the scenic Theth-to-Valbona through-hike now far easier to reach — though the piece warns the window for it feeling undiscovered is closing. Armenia gets double billing with two long-distance routes: the Transcaucasian Trail, eventually spanning nearly 1,900 miles towards Georgia and Azerbaijan, with new maps and luggage-transfer services, and the newer 620-mile Armenian National Trail, whose first sections opened in June 2026 and will link more than 100 villages with homestays and herb-forward home cooking.
Culture hunters have options too. Benin is investing over £1 billion in tourism and heritage, with major museums opening in 2027 in Cotonou, Ouidah and Abomey — the latter housing 26 royal artefacts returned by France in 2021 — plus the eight-day Vodun Days festival starting 2 January. Chile's wine country gets a chef-led upgrade: Kurt Schmidt of Santiago's 99 Restaurante is launching territory-to-table tours with Ruta de los Abastos, Concha y Toro has opened a vast new Centro del Vino, and the VIK wine hotel in Cachapoal added mirrored bungalows in 2026. Rapa Nui, the setting of a new Martin McDonagh film, is flagged as one to watch.
Closer to the classic sun-and-sand brief, Turkey's Bodrum Peninsula keeps stacking up luxury openings, with Zuma, Bagatelle and Novikov joining Aman, Mandarin Oriental and Maçakızı. And for those fleeing European summer crowds, the list points north to a new Danish riviera and south to off-season ice trekking in Argentine Patagonia.
Why it matters: the through-line is timing. An eclipse won't repeat, museum openings and trail sections arrive in a specific year, and post-hurricane destinations benefit most from visitors now. If any of these places are on your radar, 2027 is the year to book them.
