While places like Italy or Greece are always popular, every year, new trendy travel hot spots start to pop up. Then it’s a race for the travel creators to get there and make the most beautiful content that convinces you that you have to book the trip. After tons of research and scrolling, I’ve compiled this list, predicting the newly trendy, up and coming, best places to travel in 2025.
If you want to beat the curve, go see these places ASAP! Before you know it, you’ll see people you follow on instagram all visiting in the same places in the same 1 to 2 year timespan.
Montenegro
Who doesn’t want to go on a Mediterranean beach vacation? The only hard part is deciding which Mediterranean country to go to. Do you pick the one with the most coastline, or the best resorts? Currently, the trend is pushing towards finding the quietest, most private beach on the Mediterranean.
Instead of going to a busy beach in Italy or Greece, people are going to different Adriatic sea towns. Recently, Croatia has had a massive influx in travel due to its less busy beaches. Dubrovnik and Split have been generally popular the past decade, but now are a travel hotspot!
With Croatia getting increasingly busier, to find a beach to yourself, people are going to start visiting smaller countries, lesser known countries with a coast line. That’s why I’ve chosen Montenegro as one of the best places to travel in 2025 and beyond!
Montenegro has a total population of just over 600,000 and 183 miles of coastline. If you are looking for your next beach destination and don’t feel like sharing the sand, check out Montenegro!
Tokyo, Japan
While Japan has always been a cool and different location to travel to, it’s becoming more and more of a mainstream location than in the past. People are realizing that you can make your Japan trip whatever you want it to be. Did you know on this island country that there are both ski mountains and also beautiful beaches? Japan also has 14,000 islands, only 420 of which are inhabited. You could visit Okinawa, called the Hawaii of Japan, where you can snorkel or dive to see coral reefs, sea turtles, colorful fish or whales.
Recently, and what I think has made Japan even more popular, is that Tokyo has become a hub for designer resale. There are certain designer brands that you can purchase on incredible discount due to exchange rates and the VAT tax. Brands like Chanel, Rolex, and Hermes are the ones most worth the price here!
Additionally, Japan is filled with endless possibilities. Do you want to hike up Mt. Fuji? You can get a brand in your walking stick at every base camp you cross through, making a phenomenal souvenir. Do you want to train to be a samurai and learn ancient sword techniques? Or if you enjoy sushi, you could take a class where you learn from a professional how to make it? Some cities even have real life Mario Kart, where you could race down the streets in go karts. If you’re an anime fan, there are a billion more activities you would enjoy.
There is truly something for everyone in Japan. If you can stomach the potentially long and expensive flight over, you would be in for the trip of a lifetime, making Japan one of the best places to travel in 2025!
Tromsø, Norway
For the nature loving people who don’t mind the cold, Norway is one of the best travel destinations to visit this next decade. The city of Tromsø has been a topic of conversation in the travel world recently. If you aren’t one of the many people who saw the northern lights from their house this past year, Tromsø is the best place to go to see them. Tromsø holds the title for the northernmost city in the world and is considered the northern lights capital of the world!
The first task is deciding how to get to Tromsø! The easiest way to get to Tromsø is by a connecting plane out of Oslo, or another Norwegian airport. You could also drive or take the bus 3 and a half hours there, but the time it’ll take is weather permitting! Once you make it all the way up to Tromsø, there are so many activities to do!
To get a magical holiday experience, you can ride a sleigh pulled by reindeer as they take you out to see the northern lights! Or you could choose a dog sled instead. Depending on the time of year, you could go on a boat ride to whale watch or see penguins. If you’re a good skier, there’s great intermediate and advanced ski trails. Tromsø has nearby ice hotels you could stay in – or honestly just to visit! A bubble hotel where you can wait for the northern lights while in bed is more my speed personally!
What I want to do most, is ride the gondola that takes you across town. You get to see beautiful panoramic views of Tromsø from up above, snow covered buildings with the mountains on all sides. If this sounds good to you and you don’t mind the weather, Tromsø might just be one of the best travel destinations of 2025!
Seoul, South Korea
The rise of KPOP has made South Korea the ideal trip destination for millions of children, teens, and adults all around the world! You don’t need to enjoy the music or the idol’s perfectly synchronized dance to have a good time in Seoul.
Seoul, and Korean beauty in general, have completely revolutionized the skincare world. People say the way to get perfect skin is to use the advanced serums, ingredients, and methods of KBeauty, and the results speak for themselves. They’ve also transformed the treatment space of the skincare world.
People are taking trips to South Korea specifically to go to these treatment centers. The skin specialists will tell you everything your skin lacks and needs to improve. In the same appointment, they’ll then take you to the provider for each and give you 5+ procedures. People online post before and after photos, and the results show up in hours to days post treatment.
Because of these treatment centers, South Korea has become the global epicenter of personal wellness and skincare. Of course, there are tons of other amazing things to do, like eating great food, visiting different palaces, beautiful parks or traditionally preserved towns. There is so much history in Korea to learn about between wars and the DMZ line. While these interests are a bit more niche, if they are something you’d enjoy, perhaps South Korea is one of the best places to travel in 2025 for you!
Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Many parts of Brazilian culture have lately come into mainstream culture. From Havaianas, to the dance battles in the streets, to the catchiest music, Brazil is quickly gaining tons of influence world wide as well as becoming a spot everyone is starting to plan a trip to. I am predicting a much larger spike than usual of travel to Brazil in the upcoming year or two.
One of the biggest reasons people want to visit Brazil is for the next level beach experience. There are videos circulating of the most stunning sunrises you’ve ever seen in your life from the beach in Rio, with mountains not far out. Or everyday people playing soccer, but being the best soccer players you’ve ever seen in your life. Sometimes people go in the ocean after a night out, hanging out with the early beach goers in search for the perfect spot. The comments on these videos are thousands of people wishing they were there. There’s this air of unrealness that comes from every Brazilian beach video I see. I hope I get to experience it one day!
Then there’s Carnival, with the intricately and colorfully designed outfits, the floats, the dance moves. Brazil also seems to have the most beautiful population of any country, no matter the age. It’s like you can see how the relaxation and atmosphere makes them all age incredibly gracefully. There’s something so youthful, freeing, and genuinely fun about Carnival that makes you jealous you aren’t there. For all of these reasons and more, I say Brazil is one of the best places to travel in 2025.
Banff, Canada
Videos of Banff, Canada have taken over my For You Page on Tik Tok, and for good reason! I personally have been looking into more adventure, nature themed trips, which Banff is through and through! I had no idea where Banff even was. It started with videos of people kayaking down the perfect listerine colored water, surrounded by mountains, and I was hooked. Before I realized this was in Canada, I thought it was somewhere in Switzerland or Italy, but I was wrong!
Banff is the perfect trip for anyone who enjoys the outdoors, no matter which season you go. There’s great skiing or hiking, or you can visit the famous icefields and glaciers. You could hit up the hot springs, or go shopping on the adorable Banff Avenue. Or you could take the gondola to the top of a mountain to eat at an award winning fine dining restaurant. Banff is also relatively affordable to travel to – flights are cheaper than you would expect, at least for me when I think about flying across North America. If this cozy, outdoorsy vibe feels right to you, maybe Banff should be the next trip you plan!
Leavenworth, Washington (USA)
If you’re from the States like me, and want to visit a town that looks like a Christmas Village, it turns out that you don’t have to go to France or Germany to find one! You should check out Leavenworth, Washington as your next winter break destination. The town was modeled after a Germanic Bavarian Village, making you feel like you’ve been transported across the globe.
If you want to embrace the Christmas spirit, here’s the place to do so! You can wander through the idyllic village, buy souvenirs at the most adorable shops, go on a sleigh ride, or to a reindeer farm. There’s tons of stunning hikes where you can walk besides perfectly blue rivers and mountain sides filled with colorful wildflowers.
The Best Places to Travel in 2025
While there are a million great places for you to visit this next decade, these are the ones that will only get busier the longer you wait to visit! Hopefully this inspires you when it comes to choosing where to go. If you’re lucky enough to go to any of these places, please take many pictures and send them my way!
Leave a Reply