National Geographic Names Its Best Places to Travel in 2027

This year’s picks lean into milestone celebrations and lesser-known gems, with a few surprises for travelers hoping to skip the crowds. One fan-favorite island even made the cut.

National Geographic just released its annual Best of the World list, naming 25 destinations across six continents for travelers to explore in 2027.

“The core spirit behind ‘Best of the World’ is to provide people with fresh, exciting, new reasons to get out there and see the world,” National Geographic editor-in-chief Nathan Lump told USA Today.

The selection ranges from big cities to remote wilderness, including places with new openings, milestone anniversaries, cultural celebrations, or improved access.

The list was created through a process that began with hundreds of nominations from National Geographic’s global network of writers, photographers, explorers, and editors. A vetting process was used to narrow down the number, with focus on places with “a kind of a wow factor,” according to Lump. It was also important that there was a mix of locations, and that various interests, distances, and budgets were considered.

Among the standout picks this year were destinations celebrating milestones and once-in-a-lifetime events. In Luxor, Egypt, a total solar eclipse will occur on August 2, 2027. Normandy, France, will be hosting more than a thousand events marking 1,000 years since the birth of William the Conqueror, including a June flotilla of Viking-style ships along the coast. And Baltimore is celebrating the bicentennial of American railroading, with the newly upgraded National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation.

Some destinations are now more accessible to tourists, such as Kuélap, a pre-Inca site in northern Peru built around A.D. 500, and Chile, where a new national park, Cape Froward, is set to open by the end of 2027.

For people looking for a quieter, less crowded destination, Japan’s Niigata will be hosting the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale, which National Geographic calls the world’s largest outdoor art festival, next year. Lump says it’s “really awesome, but it is not one of the places that everyone goes to.”

If you’re looking for a shorter trip within the U.S., destinations like Baltimore, California’s Pacific Coast Highway, the Southern Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas, and Madison, Wisconsin, are worth visiting, according to the list.

In a social media campaign, readers were also asked to cast their votes, and Catalina Island made the cut as the Readers’ Choice winner, becoming the list’s 26th destination. The island is only an hour away by ferry from Long Beach, California.

Here’s are all the destinations on National Geographic’s Best of the World 2027 list, in no particular order:

• Baltimore
• Pacific Coast Highway, California
• Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Southern Ozarks, Missouri and Arkansas
• Puerto Rico
• Grenada
• Cape Froward, Chile
• Kuélap, Chachapoyas, Peru
• Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
• Leipzig, Germany
• Normandy, France
• Santander, Spain
• Transcaucasian Trail, Armenia
• Tricity, Poland
• Vestland, Norway
• Luxor, Egypt
• Malawi
• Chengdu, China
• Niigata, Japan
• Jaipur, India
• Melbourne, Australia
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Maya Ka’an, Mexico
• Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
• Penang, Malaysia
• Readers’ Choice winner: Catalina Island, California

So check your calendar and scour for flights, because it’s time to book that next trip!