The New York Times’ list of its favorite places to visit each year began publishing in January 2005, twenty years ago. Since then tourism has changed a lot. One figure summarizes this transformation: we have gone from 806 million international arrivals in 2005 to 1.3 billion in 2023, according to UN Tourism. Last Tuesday the selection of destinations for 2025 was made public, with two Spanish destinations among the 52 chosen: Canfranc, in Huesca, and the abbey of Montserratin Barcelona.
De Canfranc, on the border of the two countries in the world that receive the most tourists, according to the newspaper, highlights the station’s past as a spy zone and Allied resistance during the Second World War, and the still recent opening of a five-story hotel. stars, “magnificently restored with a cathedral-style box office converted into a lobby, a Michelin-starred restaurant in a former train carriage and rates starting at under 200 euros per night.” Soon it will be possible to arrive by train again, with the classic and serpentine Zaragoza-Canfranc line, which will reopen this year, whose spectacular final section winds between mountains and crosses nineteen tunnels.
Regarding the Montserrat Abbey, we must remember that this year its millennium is celebrated. Events include a music festival, performances by the Escolanía de Montserrat children’s choir, and an exhibition tracing the chronology of the monastery. The surrounding Montserrat Natural Park is filled with pine and oak forests and crisscrossed by hiking trails, many of which pass religious hideaways and abandoned hermitages carved into the rock.
These are the top ten destinations on the list:
1. Jane Austen’s Englandon the 250th anniversary of his birth. One place to start the journey could be her former country house, Jane Austen’s House, in Chawton Hampshire.
2. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. For the first in 26 years the price has changed, and it is not a minor change. It has doubled it (200 euros) in order to control the increase in visitors and finance the sustainability of this natural space.
3. Museums of New York. In the city that celebrates the 400th anniversary of its founding, four museums are reopening: the Frick Collection, the renovated Michael D. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Museum, which will double the exhibition space, the Studio Museum in Harlem that will reopen in a new building.
4. Assam, India. In 2024, the Charaideo Moidams, or pyramids of Assam, were inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
5. Thailand. The new season of the hit show The White Lotus has been largely filmed in Koh Samui. It is expected that many fans will decide to visit this island in the Gulf of Thailand bordered by endless beaches and known for its crystal-clear waters and jungle environment.
6. Greenland. The new international airport in Nuuk (Greenland) receives almost daily flights from Copenhagen and in summer will offer connections with the United States and Iceland.
7. Aix-en-Provence, France. Jas de Bouffan, the 18th-century mansion where Paul Cézanne’s family lived for 40 years, on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence in southern France, reopens this summer after a four-year renovation.
8. Sun Valley, Idaho (USA). The last tests of the Alpine Ski World Cup will be held there from March 22 to 27.
9. Lumbini, in present-day Nepal. It is a place of pilgrimage and Buddhist centers. Ten years after a devastating earthquake, new temples and meditation centers are opening.
10. Sydney. The Sydney Fish Market, the largest in the southern hemisphere, will open a spectacular new four-storey building in 2025.
Montserrat Abbey
And these are the remaining 42:
11. Coimbra, Portugal. 12. Angola. 13. Hamburg, Germany. 14. Nicaragua. 15. Dolomites, Italy. 16. Asheville, North Carolina. 17. Magdalena River, Colombia. 18. Los Cabos, Mexico. 19. Alishan, Taiwan. 20. Flow Country, Scotland. 21. Kristiansand, Norway. 22. Bukhara, Uzbekistan. 23. Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
24. Canfranc, Spain.
25. Benin City, Nigeria. 26. Amsterdam. 27. New Orleans. 28. Raja Ampat, Indonesia. 29. Delphi, Greece. 30. Toyama, Japan. 31. French Basque Country. 32. Kilifi, Kenya. 33. British Virgin Islands. 34. Lofoten Islands, Norway. 35. East London. 36. Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden. 37. Kutaisi, Georgia. 38. Osaka, Japan. 39. Detroit. 40. Trent-Severn Waterway, Ontario, Canada.
41. Montserrat Monastery, Spain.
42. Western Australia. 43. Washington, D.C. 44. Nangma Valley, Pakistan. 45. Cycle route along the Sicily Divide, Sicily (Italy). 46. Ollantaytambo, Peru. 47. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. 48. Huangshan, China. 49. Milan. 50. Bulgaria. 51. Rotterdam, Netherlands. 52. Montserrat Island, in the Caribbean.
A Spanish option appeared on the 2024 list: Valencia, “overshadowed by Barcelona for a long time”, chosen last year by the European Commission as Green Capital 2024.
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