Fresh Ideas for the Top 10 Most Popular Destinations

Yesterday I received my first Christmas card of the year, and my friend listed on it all the places she and her family visited in 2025. She's not the only one who does this, and it really shows how the trips you take become some of the best and most important memories you make all year.

As we enter the last month of December, it's a good time to start thinking about trips you'll want to fill your calendar for 2026 - if you haven't started already! The list below highlights some new ways to visit the top ten most popular countries and might inspire you, your friends, and your family.

This article brings back beautiful memories because I've traveled to many places mentioned, beginning with the Emerald Coast of Sardinia (pictured above). I was personally asked to vouch for 7Pines Resort Sardinia when they applied to become a Virtuoso preferred partner; I stayed there last summer and loved it! The resort is filled with very easy hiking trails that lead to secluded beaches just like this.

Where will you say you visited when you write next year's holiday card?

Excerpt of 8/4/2025 Virtuoso article by Elaine Glusac can be found here.

Meet the new trips of a lifetime.

We’ve always got our eyes on where travelers are going, thanks in part to the annual Virtuoso Luxe Report, culled from Virtuoso advisors’ intel on the year’s top travel trends and locales. We gathered insight from Luxe Reports between 2014 and 2025 to create this cumulative ranking of the past decade’s top ten destinations. They’re places we’ve been writing about in the pages of Virtuoso, The Magazine for 25 years now – and we’ll never tire of them, because there’s always something new to discover.

1. Italy

Settle into the (new) coast with the most.

The Vatican’s baroque glory, Tuscany’s inviting vineyards, Lake Como’s enduring style: Italy’s appeal is beyond broad. The Costa Smeralda – Emerald Coast – of Sardinia pushes that range to encompass granite headlands, turquoise bays, and sun-bleached strands, plus easy access to the 60-something islands of the Maddalena archipelago, where rock formations dissolve into pink-sand beaches. On land, trails link coastal villages and sprawling Bronze Age settlements, and a bounty of resorts channel la dolce vita at the beach. Peak choices include the 75-room 7Pines Resort Sardinia and its four secluded coves; the villagelike 121-room Cala di Volpe, a Luxury Collection Hotel; and Belmond’s 100-room Romazzino, one of our favorite new hotels of 2024. Just like the beloved Amalfi, we predict the Costa Smeralda will quickly become a legend.  

2. France

Celebrate French art, from the city to the Côte d’Azur.

France debuts a trio of prominent exhibitions in 2025. In Aix-en-Provence, impressionist Paul Cézanne’s home and studio reopened this summer as a permanent museum with more than 100 of his artworks. In Toulouse, the French-art-focused Musée des Augustins will reopen after a four-year renovation of its fourteenth-century-monastery home. And in October, Paris’ Fondation Cartier moves into a classic 1855 Haussmann building in the place du Palais-Royal, modernized by architect Jean Nouvel. Chase good art (and the light that inspired it) aboard Tauck’s soon-to-debut 130-passenger Lumière on a 13-night Paris-to-Monte-Carlo sailing on the Rhône and Saône rivers. Departures: Multiple dates, April 2 to October 30, 2026. 

3. South Africa

Pair a safari with the sauna.

In South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park, a new lodge is leaning into the concept of nature as medicine, marrying wellness programming with wilderness exploration. Guests of the eight-suite Kateka have access to nearly 40,000 acres within the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve via game drives, guided bush walks, and helicopter flights. Between wildlife watches and sundowners, there’s yoga, art therapy, and meditative beading classes; Chinese cupping and crystal chakra massages; and Himalayan salt sauna and ice-plunge circuits. Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily and a 60-minute spa treatment for two.

4. Australia

Sip shiraz in the wine region Aussies are buzzing about.  

Sure, a first visit down under calls for the requisite greatest hits, but getting off the beaten track rewards travelers with a thirst for discovery. Right now, South Australia’s under-the-radar darling is the Fleurieu Peninsula, a stretch where coastal drama and national parks meet farmland and more than 80 vineyards. Virtuoso travel advisors can work with on-site tour connection Southern World Australia to create a custom itinerary on the peninsula that balances indulgence and adventure, including exclusive access to biodynamic rising star Yangarra Estate Vineyard in the McLaren Vale wine region, hikes to the rock pools of the precipitous Onkaparinga Gorge, and tours of d’Arenberg Cube, a five-story Rubik’s-like building with vineyard views that’s home to restaurants and a museum devoted to wine making. Bonus for North American travelers: The first nonstop flight between the U.S. and South Australia debuts this December. 

5. England

Live out a Pride and Prejudice fantasy.

Quaint villages, lush gardens, high standards, and classic romance: Thanks to Jane Austen, the English gentry endures in our imaginations. This year – the 250th anniversary of the novelist’s birth – Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice superfans can explore her period settings from some of southern England’s most historic hotels. Austen’s Persuasion and Northanger Abbey take place in the spa town of Bath, where the iconic, 45-room Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa offers Austen-themed afternoon tea, and the 42-room Lucknam Park Hotel pays homage with dinners in a walled garden plus archery practice (so Emma) on its 500 acres. In her birthplace of Hampshire, Heckfield Place, a Georgian manor turned 45-room hotel, organizes guided tours of the estates and villages that shaped Austen’s life.  

6. Mexico

Skip the expected in favor of authentic culinary immersion.

Travelers’ interest in Mexico’s culinary bounty (which runs way deeper than tacos and tequila) has sparked a wave of cooking-school openings and culinary tours. In Puebla, a two-and-a-half-hour drive southeast of Mexico City, Oaxaca’s heritage flavors meet the colonial charm of San Miguel de Allende. The town’s visual feast of ornate sixteenth-century churches and glazed Talavera tiles complements a literal one of street-style chalupas (fried and topped tortillas), rich mole sauces (here’s where to find the best ones), stuffed chiles en nogada, and brioche-like cemita bread. In the historic town center, the solar-powered Banyan Tree Puebla offers cooking classes, market tours, and tequila tastings to guests of its 78 rooms. For a deeper dive, Virtuoso on-site connection Journey Mexico balances Puebla sightseeing and Poblano cooking on its five-day private culinary tour. 

7. Greece

Pedal through the Peloponnese.

For those crowded out of the islands, the Greek mainland’s mountainous Peloponnese peninsula delivers on the country’s core charms: mythological heroes, time-stilled archeological sites, and kalamata-olive groves – with enough coastline that you’ll never lose a sense of the sea. Close to Athens (about a two-hour drive from the airport), it allows travelers to slow down more quickly, which is exactly the inspiration for Backroads’ relaxed-paced six-day tour through the region. The small-group trip travels the length of the Peloponnese via e-bike, by kayak, and on foot, stringing together the thirteenth-century mountaintop town of Mystras, Venetian-influenced Nafplio (Greece’s first capital), and the beachy island of Elafónisos. Departures: Multiple dates, September 25, 2025 through October 22, 2026. 

8. Spain

Set sail on a Canary Islands expedition. 

Food, flamenco, fine art, and fashion – Spain’s pull endures. The seven-island Canary archipelago, off Africa’s northwest coast, offers a castaway take on the Costa del Sol, and visiting it via cruise ship ups the opportunities to see as many of its outstanding beaches and lush forests as possible. Over ten nights, Ponant Explorations’ 184-passenger Bellot visits four Canaries, starting on Gran Canaria, calling at Tenerife to see Spain’s highest peak in Teide National Park, and stopping at La Gomera to walk Garajonay National Park’s ancient laurel forests. On La Palma, wander the cobblestoned streets of Santa Cruz de La Palma to catch the signature sunny designs of brightly painted Canarian homes before moving on to Portugal’s botanical-rich island of Madeira and, ultimately, Lisbon. Departures: April 16 and April 28, 2026.   

9. New Zealand

Zoom in on the North Island.

Travelers flock to New Zealand for rainforest hikes, fjord cruises, deserted beaches, and alpine adventures, but Maori culture pervades life in Aotearoa (the country’s Maori name), as seen on Intrepid Travel’s ten-day tour of the North Island. Time in multicultural Auckland and trendy Wellington bookends Kiwi adventures, including a trip to the Coromandel Peninsula’s Hot Water Beach – where bathers dig their own volcanically heated pools in the sand – and the 12-mile Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a bragging-rights hike around fluorescent emerald and turquoise lakes and through a volcanic field culminating at the active Red Crater. Two days in Rotorua offer opportunities to steep in the town’s famed hot springs, attend a traditional Maori haka dance performance, and savor a Maori meal cooked in an underground oven. Departures: Multiple dates, September 12, 2025 to October 5, 2027. 

10. Iceland

Take an epic, hot-springs-centric road trip.

Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice, but that’s selling its water features short – waterfalls, thermal springs, and thousands of miles of rugged shoreline leave a distinctly aquatic impression. Travelers following the peripheral Ring Road can dip and dunk their way across the country. Here’s our itinerary: Start at the milky Blue Lagoon, about a 30-minute drive from Keflavík International Airport, before visiting the Sky Lagoon near Reykjavík, and the eight hot pools at the fjord-front Hvammsvík, about an hour’s drive north. Pause on North Iceland’s rural Troll Peninsula, where the 13-room Eleven Deplar Farm occupies a restored fifteenth-century sheep farm with its own geothermal pool and flotation tanks under sod roofs. Finally, continue to the Mývatn Nature Baths, situated in a steaming lava field that draws water from 8,000 feet below. Travel advisors can work with Virtuoso’s on-site tour connections in the country – Iceland Encounter, Luxury Beyond, and Nordic Luxury – to perfect your route.

Start planning inspired travel and read more about me and what I can do for you!

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Nine Muses Travel designs journeys to inspire artists, arts lovers and the culturally curious.

Danielle Dybiec

Founder & President

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