The best trips (and when to go) in 2020

Pass up Olympic crowds in favor of pristine nature

What to know

At the end of July, Tokyo will welcome waves of spectators to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. But Tohoku—less than three hours by train from the bustling capital—should get a gold medal for best unknown travel wonderland. Comprising the six northernmost prefectures on Japan’s main island of Honshu, this region features pristine forests, gorges and crater lakes, thousand-year-old temples and shrines, and venerable local festivals—yet less than 2 percent of international travelers come here.

Though the area’s lovely year-round, consider a winter trip: Tohoku regularly records some of the planet’s heaviest snowfalls, and ski resorts such as Appi Kogen are exhilaratingly uncrowded. You can also walk the Michinoku Coastal Trail, which runs for 620 miles from Aomori to Fukushima. The latter was devastated by the 2011 tsunami, and the newly opened trail is a stirring symbol of the area’s rebirth.

How to go

Base yourself at Koganezaki Furofushi Onsen, in Aomori, which offers 70 rooms and an open-air hot spring with views over the Sea of Japan.

—Don George

Video by BBC Natural History, Getty Images

Explore forward-thinking islands on the front lines of climate change

What to know

An environmental protection trailblazer, the Maldives became the first nation to champion the need to address climate change in the 1987 United Nations General Assembly. For the idyllic, 1,200-island archipelago in the Indian Ocean, forward-thinking sustainability initiatives—such as the effort to be carbon neutral by 2020—are a matter of survival.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, much of the Maldives—which is the planet’s lowest-lying country (average elevation: five feet) and whose territory is about 99 percent water—could disappear in decades due to rising sea levels caused by global warming. The 540-square-mile UNESCO Baa Atoll Biosphere Reserve helps protect the Maldives’ fragile coral reefs, which support a high diversity of coral, fish, and bird species, as well as sea turtles, whale sharks, and other marine life.

How to go

Environmental protection practices are common at many of the Maldives’ resorts, including Soneva Fushi, which recycles 90 percent of its waste; Soneva Jani, built entirely with sustainable materials; and St. Regis Maldives Vommuli, which helps regenerate reefs.

—Marie-Amélie Carpio, senior editor, Nat Geo Travel France

Photograph by Doug Perrine, Nature Picture Library

See a beautiful but diminishing world of ice—and the harp seals that depend on it

What to know

When you walk on sea ice, it’s easy to forget that there’s an ocean below you. This frozen world is stripped down to essentials: impossibly blue sky, bright sun bouncing off a blanket of fresh snow, wind that vibrates like a cello, whiteness all around.

Welcome to the harp seal nursery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the Magdalen Islands, Quebec, one of two Northwest Atlantic harp seal whelping grounds. Adult seals migrate here from the Arctic, the pregnant females searching for suitable ice to birth on, and males follow, eager to mate. Harp seals are an ice-obligate species: The captivating pups—with their obsidian eyes, charcoal noses, and cloud-soft fur—require a stable platform of ice to survive.

How to go

A trip in early March presents the chance to see both newborns and the older “whitecoats” born in late February. Liveaboard boat expeditions offer the luxury of time with the harp seals above and below the sea ice. Hotel Madelinot runs small-group excursions via helicopter.

—Jennifer Hayes

Video by Jennifer Hayes, National Geographic

Support an African elephant haven

What to know

Home to a rapidly growing African elephant population—some 559 in 2019 and a thousand expected by 2024—Zakouma National Park is an under-the-radar African safari destination. The park’s location in southeastern Chad, one of the world’s least visited countries, makes Zakouma a best-kept secret, one worth sharing to help ensure its continued success.

Poaching once rendered the park nearly a war zone, with 90 percent of the wild elephants killed. Funding from the European Union, along with the 2010 decision to transfer park management to the public-private conservation organization African Parks, has revitalized the region. In addition to its profusion of pachyderms, Zakouma is a playground for more than 10,000 buffalo and about 1,000 Kordofan giraffes. Among other wild things at home here are nearly 400 species of birds, as well as cheetahs, leopards, and servals.

How to go

Stay at the eight-tent Camp Nomade, open mid-December to mid-April.

—Marina Conti, editor in chief, Nat Geo Travel Italy

Photograph by Brent Stirton, National Geographic

Rediscover an American classic

What to know

There’s a lot of glimmer in Philadelphia: vibrant murals and glinting metalworks, multihued mosaics and kaleidoscopic light installations, art collectives in garages, and a traditionally Italian neighborhood famous for cheesesteaks now sprouting vegan-punk-metal coffeehouses.

Think of Detroit, Cleveland, and Cincinnati: resurgent, postindustrial American cities that are channeling creative forces to reinvent themselves for a new generation. Philly is like this but better. It’s a scrappy underdog with a heart of gold and—who can resist the Rocky reference?—the eye of the tiger. Slowly but steadily, Philly has changed from a city of industrial might in the first half of the past century to a city of ingenious makers. The evidence is everywhere, from buzzing BOK—a South Philly collective of small businesses and art spaces—to Bela Shehu’s chic and cutting-edge fashion line NinoBrand, in Rittenhouse Square.

How to go

Base yourself at The Rittenhouse for old-school Philadelphia glamour, or at the new Notary Hotel, in a repurposed Roaring 20s building. Then head out to quirky culture spots the Mütter Museum and the Edgar Allan Poe House.

—Johnna Rizzo

Photograph by Dina Litovsky, Redux

Follow far-reaching routes that get the blood pumping

What to know

Three new, fully mapped national touring routes, collectively called the Wales Way, showcase the best of this legend-filled land. At 185 miles, the Cambrian Way is the longest of the three roads, snaking north to south along the backbone of Wales. Sandwiched between mountains and sea, the Coastal Way is a sweeping 180-mile journey around Cardigan Bay on the country’s west coast. The castle-rich North Wales Way follows a centuries-old trading route 75 miles from northeastern Queensferry to the Isle of Anglesey.

Each driving itinerary is a gateway to wider outdoor adventures. Hike in Edmund Hillary’s footsteps on Mount Snowdon; inland surf at Adventure Parc Snowdonia; or go coasteering (a new adventure sport that combines rock climbing, cliff jumping, snorkeling, and more) on the Pembrokeshire coast.

How to go

Dragon Tours offers private and group itineraries tailored to participants’ interests. Owner/guide Mike Davies holds a graduate degree in medieval Welsh history and can help trace clients’ Welsh ancestors.

—Zane Henry, project editor, Nat Geo Travel U.K.

Photography by Alan Novelli, Alamy Stock Photo

Because baroque is back

What to know

Built by the Spanish in 1531, Mexico’s fourth-largest city is a bastion of baroque architecture. Puebla’s 100-block city center, a UNESCO World Heritage site, teems with ornate 17th- and 18th-century buildings. Many are adorned with Talavera tiles: brightly painted clay mini-masterpieces blending Puebla’s indigenous and European colonial influences. Few match the opulence of the Church of Santo Domingo’s Capilla del Rosario, which is bathed in 23-karat gold leaf.

To celebrate this historic art movement, the International Museum of the Baroque opened in 2016. The following year a 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook the building but didn’t deter it from its mission. The post-quake period has seen infrastructure upgrades and new hotels throughout the city. Yet Puebla remains rooted in tradition. “Puebla is not an international tourist destination,” says Antonio Prado, director of the Spanish Institute of Puebla. “So you actually get to experience an authentic Mexican city.”

How to go

Begin an individual Spanish-language immersion program (1 to 16 weeks) any Monday of the year at the Spanish Institute of Puebla.

—Maryellen Kennedy Duckett

Video by Kit Leong, Pond5

Relish an Iberian province capped with snowy summits and steeped in tradition

What to know

An autonomous region of Spain, Asturias lies along the Bay of Biscay, dense with hillside forests, dotted by wild marshland, and scalloped with tidy beaches.

“Nowhere else in Spain can you find so many flavors, such incredible variety, in such a small area. It is like an entire country,” says José Antelo, an air traffic controller based in Barcelona. He comes to Asturias three or four times a year to enjoy the province’s celebrated cuisine, from Cabrales cheese to cider (poured from on high into a glass, a maneuver intended to create froth and open up flavors). The Asturian capital of Oviedo is a compact city of roughly 220,000 separated from the larger city of Gijón by rapidly encroaching suburbs. Oviedo has the better museums, Gijón has the beach.

After the cities, head to the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) National Park, with its spiky summits and herds of sheep. Up here, trees fall away, and the view opens to a wide sky of cotton ball clouds.

How to go

A network of trails covers the region, headlined by the Camino del Norte, the quieter branch of Spain’s famous Camino de Santiago.

—Bruce Schoenfeld

Photograph by Chiara Goia

Discover one of Europe’s last true wild places

What to know

Untamed Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site and Biosphere Reserve, protects remnants of lowland Europe’s last remaining primeval forests. Spanning nearly 550 square miles and encompassing all of Białowieża National Park in eastern Poland, the vast forest creates an oasis of wilderness in the middle of a crowded continent.

Spot some of the more than 250 bird species and the most iconic of the forest’s 59 mammal species: the European bison, Europe’s biggest land mammal. Białowieża’s approximately 800 bison represent the largest free-roaming population of a species that rebounded in the forest after being hunted almost to extinction by 1920.

How to go

See wild bison and take a guided hike through Białowieża’s strictly protected primeval forest area on a four-day bison safari from Warsaw with Wild Poland.

—Martyna Szczepanik, editorial coordinator, Nat Geo Travel Poland

Photograph by FABRIZIO MOGLIA, GETTY IMAGES

Venture to an epic isle that’s wild and beautiful, faraway yet familiar

What to know

Once considered a backwater, Tasmania is now one of Australia’s fastest-growing tourism destinations. Key to the appeal of Australia’s southernmost state is its raw natural beauty, which it owes largely to a combination of its remoteness (airport expansion plans are under way, but international flights are still a few years off) and the enduring green spirit of its half million or so residents.

Swathed in 2,000-year-old trees and home to real-life devils (and even “tigers,” if you believe the rumors that the officially extinct thylacine lives on), it’s the stuff outdoor adventures are made of. After making the trek here, visitors find that most of Tassie’s attractions are surprisingly accessible. It takes just four hours to drive the length of the state. No matter where you base yourself, opportunities to become immersed in nature are never far away—nearly half the state is designated national park, after all.

How to go

National Geographic offers a 12-day “Australia: Tasmania to the Great Barrier Reef” itinerary that includes Hobart, Mount Field National Park, and Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park.

—Sarah Reid

Video by Matic Oblak, Pond5

Meet the Maya—past and present

What to know

A treasure map created using revolutionary laser technology is leading to discoveries under the jungle canopy of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. Armed with information gathered via the Pacunam Lidar Initiative, an 800-square-mile aerial survey, archaeologists are finding long-hidden pyramids, watchtowers, and other ruins of an extensive pre-Columbian civilization considerably more complex than most Maya experts realized.

While not yet accessible to the public, the latest discoveries confirm that Guatemala is the place to dive into Maya culture, then and now. Ancient roots run particularly deep in the northernmost Petén region, the jungle-cloaked heart of the Maya world. See the stone jewels of Central America’s pre-Hispanic past in Uaxactún, Yaxhá, El Mirador, and Tikal National Park. In modern, multicultural Guatemala, Maya descendants constitute more than half the population, making the country the only one in Central America with an indigenous cultural majority. Experience this culture in the Tz’utujil Maya villages around Lake Atitlán.

How to go

Tz’utujil Maya artisans lead tours, conduct workshops, and sell textiles, leather products, and yarns offered by Lake Atitlán-based Ethical Fashion Guatemala.

—Erick Pinedo, editorial coordinator, Nat Geo Travel Latin America

Video by Rick Ray, Pond5

Track artful trends in creative Kerala

What to know

The oldest European settlement in India is gaining notice as a buzzing new arts hub. Seaside Kochi, located in Kerala state on the southwestern Malabar Coast, was founded in 1500 by Portugal, the first in a parade of colonial powers (Holland and England followed) to rule the tropical port city. This multilayered colonial past is most present in historic Fort Kochi, the waterfront district where several Dutch- and British-era properties house galleries and cafés.

The four-month-long Kochi-Muziris Biennale is the largest event of its kind in South Asia. Launched in 2012, the biennale showcases contemporary international, Indian, and cross-cultural visual art and experiences, such as Singaporean-Indian artist and writer Shubibi Rao’s 2018 “The Pelagic Tracts,” a multifaceted deep dive into a world where books are the most prized commodity. Rao is curator of the fifth biennale, set to run from December 12, 2020, to April 10, 2021.

How to go

Visit galleries and attend a performance of Kathakali, the classical dance drama of Kerala, on National Geographic’s seven-day “South India: Explore Kerala” trip, offered in partnership with G Adventures.

—Lakshmi Sankharan, editor, Nat Geo Travel India

Image courtesy Kochi Biennale Foundation