Trending cities, fascinating countries, and epic regions. For Part Two of our Wanderlust Travel Hot List, our editors select their stand-out destinations for 2022...
As of 2019, it is no longer compulsory for female tourists to wear an abaya (full-length robe) to visit Saudi Arabi (George Kipouros))
For decades Saudi Arabia remained largely off-limits to travellers. That changed in 2019 with the launch of new tourist visas but, just as quickly, the chance to go was snatched away by the pandemic. Now, both visitors and country are adjusting to the new normal, and Saudi has more than embraced its role as host. The ancient ruins of AlUla, a Nabataean wonder to rival Jordan’s Petra, have already reopened, along with plush new desert resorts. By late 2022 the new Red Sea ‘mega city’ of Neom will debut its first hotels. This year also brings the reopening of At-Turaif, the birthplace of the kingdom; listed by UNESCO but long closed for renovation, it’s a marvel of mud-brick palaces, mosques and more that will help tell Saudi’s story. Finally, some wild experiences, from trekking to the Edge of the World (Jebel Fihrayn) to diving the Red Sea are now possible. There’s never been a better time to visit.
Valencia is setting the trend for going green (Alamy)
There are many good reasons to visit València. Its Gothic cathedral, long sandy beaches, colourful Old Town, free museums and shady parks are just a few. But equally appealing is that, for all Spain’s third-largest city rivals Barcelona and Madrid for culture and vibes, it witnesses a fraction of their crowds. This year also sees València named European Capital of Smart Tourism, a title that points to everything good that’s being done here. More than 150km of bike lanes have been built, public transport is going electric and the city has greened up in a bid to go carbon-neutral by 2025. From browsing the Central Market to cycling one of Spain’s largest urban parks to exploring Albufera Natural Park, there is no end of green fun to be had.
The new MUNCH museum in Norway (Alamy)
For travellers, Norway’s capital is often a jumping-off point for wonders up north: glacial fjords, whale-spotting cruises, northern lights. Yet this cultured capital has a few new incentives to make you stick around. October 2021 saw the opening of the huge MUNCH museum, dedicated to Edvard Munch (of The Scream fame). This June sees the arrival of the new National Museum, set to be the largest cultural space in all of the Nordics, housing a 5,000-strong permanent collection of works spanning design, crafts and fine art. It only adds to the bounty of cultural sights on the Bygdøy peninsula, a scenic museum district wrapped in forests. Its lauded Viking Ship Museum is closed for rebuilding until at least 2025 but you’ll find plenty on Norway’s history of exploration, with polar expeditions dissected in the Fram Museum and the life of adventurer Thor Heyerdahl unpicked at the Kon-Tiki Museum.
As well as 2022 Capital of Culture, Kaunas is also a UNESCO City of Design (Shutterstock)
You know how it is: you wait a whole year for a European Capital of Culture then three – Novi Sad, Serbia; Kaunas, Lithuania; Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – come along at once. Novi Sad’s inclusion is a hangover from 2021 (due to COVID-19), though it fits with a theme among this year’s picks: post-war industrial cities finding their mojo. Esch-sur-Alzette’s steel and iron ore industry collapsed in the 1980s only for it to rewild its old pits, turn the city’s furnace into a museum and music venue, and let the mines and villages tell their own story. It’s a pattern you’ll see repeated in Novi Sad, whose old factories now host street art and hip galleries. Kaunas underwent its makeover in the 1930s, when it was the brief capital of Lithuania (due to Vilnius being seized by Poland), and the result is like wandering a Modernist dream.
The Bird Towers in Katara Cultural village in Qatar (Alamy)
In November/December 2022 the FIFA World Cup will see masses of football fans descend on a Gulf peninsula little more than half the size of Wales. While these may be months to avoid, what precedes them is pretty exciting. Alongside new hotels and eateries, autumn sees the reopening of Doha’s Museum of Islamic Culture, designed by starchitect IM Pei (coaxed out of retirement at 91), with a setting as dramatic as the history it tells. Then there’s a rich programme of public art, with 40 sculptures by international and Qatari artists being unveiled across the city in the run-up to the tournament. Even if you’re not into sport, do cheer for the city’s very cultural revolution.
Grenoble’s Bastille cablecar is affectionately known as les bulles (the bubbles) (Alamy)
The self-proclaimed ‘Capital of the French Alps’ doesn’t disappoint those in search of big scenery. Ride the quirky cablecar up Bastille Hill and not only can you visit the imposing 18th-century fort but also enjoy views of glaciated valleys and snowy massifs. But Grenoble isn’t resting on its laurels, it’s a city looking to the future too. This year it has been named European Green Capital, thanks in part to its creation of 320km of cycle lanes and the planting of 5,500 trees since 2014. You see a focus on sustainability everywhere here, not least on the menus, which are packed with local producers. For low-impact fun, wander the cafes and galleries of the cobbled Old Town and explore the patchwork of regional parks, villages and castles nearby. Take the time to see a city heading in the right direction.
In Ibagué you may spot brightly dressed locals doing traditional Colombian folk dances (Alamy)
It’s little wonder that Ibagué was chosen to be American Capital of Culture 2022. Founded in 1550, the city is known as the musical capital of Colombia. Its celebrated conservatory, which is over 100 years old, has churned out maestros by the dozen, many from underprivileged backgrounds, while the annual Colombian Folklore Festival sees traditional Andean bands take the stage each June (just one highlight of a packed cultural calendar). Even the parks are filled with statues of musical heroes. Beyond the city, Mother Nature takes over: here you’ll find the tropical forests of the Combeima Canyon, the snow-capped Nevado del Tolima volcano (5,215m) and other wild landscapes that helped inspire much of the music to be made.
Mount Hood, which looms beyond Portland, is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt (Alamy)
The pandemic put plenty of things on hold, including the launch of the new British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Portland, Oregon. After a two-year delay, it finally starts in June, putting the food trucks and bike lanes of America’s hipster capital within a ten-hour hop. What you discover is the perfect antidote to a year of mask-wearing on crowded metros. Due to Portland’s perpetual aura of craft-beer cool, with all its barbecue joints and beloved Voodoo Doughnut shops, few realise quite what a lush, outdoorsy city it is; indeed, it’s home to some beautiful gardens as well as one of the biggest urban forests in the world. Yet it’s the hike up to Pittock Mansion, with its views to Mount Hood, that shows you what incredible wilderness lies on the doorstep. South of the city, the wine country of Willamette offers cellar-door tours and civilised fun but it’s the region’s rivers that really capture the imagination. Take a kayak trip, paddling amid impossibly tall pines, and feel the city fade away behind.
Sunset in Adelaide, Australia (Alamy)
Three years after London became the world’s first National Park City, Adelaide has just become the second. It’s a potent reminder of just how lush the South Australian hub is. The title is only given to cities where ‘people and nature are better connected’, and Adelaide is playing its hand well. Aims include bringing the endangered platypus back to the River Torrens (it’s been considered extinct on mainland South Australia since the 1970s) and plans to rewild the city with birds of prey by creating new habitats. Already, this is a wonderfully green and modern city – often touted among the most liveable in the world – and what surrounds it is just as exciting. Heady vineyards smother the hills to the west, while the bird-filled wetlands of Coorong National Park lie to the south, a great place for kayaking. And offshore, within easy reach, is Kangaroo Island, a nature-lover’s paradise. The call of the wild is never too far away here.
It’s not only Giotto’s frescoes – Padua’s Botanical Garden (one of the oldest in the world) is also UNESCO-listed (Alamy(
Long before Michelangelo, Raphael or Botticelli, there was Giotto di Bondone, the man whose talent renamed a city. It’s said that when his fresco cycle in Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel was completed in 1305, artists from across Italy flocked to see it. Padua became known as the Urbs Picta (Painted City), and academics have claimed that this work set in motion a style that would inspire the greats of the Renaissance era. Yet, for all Giotto’s influence, few travellers come here now. While Michelangelo’s handiwork in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel is seen by more than six million visitors a year, the small university town of Padua (40km west of Venice) sees a smidgen of that number. That may be about to change though, after UNESCO listed Padua’s frescoes among its 2021 World Heritage Sites. For a chance to see how one of the great artistic eras began, before the crowds latch on, go now.
Before it was razed by fire, Rio’s National Museum held a collection of 20 million objects (Alamy)
In a country that knows how to party like no other, just imagine the collective hangover when Brazil marks its 200th anniversary on 7 September this year. The date might be a matter of debate (the war of independence continued for another two years beyond 1822), but the day promises plenty of colour, with each city currently in the midst of plotting events, parties, and parades (COVID willing). Perhaps most intriguing will be the chance to see the new national museum in Rio, which was devastated by fire in 2018. The new building won’t be completed until 2026 but it’s rumoured that the public will be able to get a sneak glimpse in time for this year’s anniversary. However, if you want to see where history actually happened, head instead to the banks of the Ipiranga in São Paulo, where a monument was commissioned in 1922 to mark the spot where Portuguese Prince Regent Dom Pedro proclaimed Brazil free from its rulers with the cry: “Brazilians! Independence or death!”
Tiger's Nest Monastery can be seen on the Trans Bhutan Trail (Alamy)
There is nothing new about the Trans Bhutan Trail (403km), but March is the first time in 60 years that it will open to travellers. The route dates back much further, of course, and traces an old Buddhist pilgrim path that linked the dzongs (fortified monasteries) of the Himalaya foothills. Even up until the 1960s this was still the main route across the mountains for locals, but the arrival of the national highway saw the trail abandoned and it fell into disrepair. Now, years of renovation mean that it’s once again trek-worthy. Walkers, lead by local guides, can follow the path via lush rice terraces, whistling high-altitude passes and overnight stops in starlit camps and homestays. There are some 400 cultural sights along the way, including Tiger’s Nest Monastery, which dangles 900m above the plateau below, but perhaps the real lure is just how slowly the country unravels as you pick your way through.
Panama's UNESCO- listed Casco Viejo is home to many of the country’s oldest buildings (Alamy)
The waters off Panama’s coast are home to rare marine life that is under constant threat from fishing fleets. However, in June last year, Panama more than quadrupled its Cordillera de Coiba Marine Protected Area, raising it to 98,230 sq km – greater even than the land mass of the country. It’s part of a larger scheme that, with Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, aims to safeguard key migratory corridors. The good news for travellers is that it also protects one of the finest diving spots in Central America. Coiba island used to be a penal colony, the surrounding shark-infested waters providing ample deterrent to would-be escapees. These days it is part of a marine park that spans submerged mountains and sweeping coral gardens. Best of all, those who arrive at the right time can swim with humpbacks (July-October), whale sharks (December-April) and great schools of mobula mantas that number in the thousands (January-April).
The new protections should ensure that we can all continue to enjoy these waters for a long time, but best go soon before its reputation grows.
The Avenue of Sphinxes has reopened in Luxor (Shutterstock)
For years now Egypt has teased the opening of Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum. For a while, private tours offered behind-the-scenes peeks but that only whet the appetite. It’s finally due to open its doors this November, in time for the 100th anniversary of British Egyptologist Howard Carter’s discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. The fame (and supposed attached curse) of Carter’s discovery often overshadows just what an important find it was: he uncovered the best-preserved pharaoh’s tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. The museum will be showing its entire Tutankhamen collection in honour of the occasion. Meanwhile, in Luxor, where the date of Carter’s discovery is still a regional holiday, the Avenue of Sphinxes has reopened, after seven decades of restoration. This 2.7km walkway, discovered in the 1940s, dates back 3,000 years and connects the great temples of Luxor and Karnak. What better time to see it for yourself?
During the War, Churchill called Malta an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ (Alamy)
By the end of the two-year Siege of Malta in 1942, at the height of the Second World War, the islands had sustained 154 days and nights of bombing; some 6,700 tonnes of explosives fell on the then-British territory. This year, on 15 April, it will be 80 years since Malta was awarded the St George’s Cross for what it endured. The medal can still be seen in the National War Museum in Valletta alongside accounts of the era, including the story of a vital British supply run to the islands that weathered days of attacks to reach port. You can also visit the tunnels that hosted the Lascaris War Rooms, Britain’s wartime HQ, complete with operations and crypto rooms, while the Malta at War Museum in Birgu focuses on life for locals during this dark period. Combined, they offer a truly thrilling portrait of a heroic time.
Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring (Alamy)
In 1872 President Ulysses S Grant created the first US national park. This March sees Yellowstone mark its 150th anniversary, although with few celebrations (blame COVID-19). If you need a reason to visit, however, three evergreen ones spring to mind: wolf packs, geysers and trails. The story of the park’s grey wolves is oft told but bears repeating: by the 1920s the animals had been hunted to extinction here, only to be reintroduced in 1995 in a groundbreaking trial. Spotting the packs now raises the hairs on the back of your neck, as do sightings of the park’s many wild inhabitants: bison, bighorn sheep, black bears. Yellowstone is also a volcanic marvel, home to myriad geysers, fumaroles and hot pools such as Grand Prismatic Spring. But there’s no way better way to celebrate its creation than by walking its endless backcountry trails, untouched thanks to a signature on a piece of paper 150 years ago.
The Maldives will begin building a floating city to combat rising sea levels (Shutterstock)
It’s only been 50 years since the Maldives turned from little-known archipelago to a haven for eco-hotels, honeymooners and divers – its first resort opened in 1972. And if ever a country felt the hot breath of climate change on its neck, it’s this one: reports say that by 2050, 80% of the islands could be underwater. The trend for adopting more sustainable tourism is tinged with greater urgency here. Go now to find new eco-focused resorts; among the most anticipated arrivals are South Ari Atoll’s Villa Haven, which will grow its own fruit and veg, and the Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, home to its own house reef. Also go for rare natural encounters, from swimming with manta rays in Hanifaru Bay (May-November) to spotting magical bioluminescence lighting up the surf at night.
Akagera National Park has made a comeback (Alamy)
It’s hard to overstate what an achievement the resurrection of Akagera National Park, the largest protected wetlands in central Africa, has been. In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, more than half of its land (1,600 sq km) was given over to refugees. The last sighting of a lion here was recorded in 1999, most of them having been poisoned by farmers. Poaching meant that, by 2007, its 50 or so rhinos had all but disappeared. That was the low point. Since then, wildlife from other parks around Africa has been slowly reintroduced and successfully protected. Lions returned in 2015; last year saw the largest ever translocation of white rhinos, brought in from South Africa. Today, Akagera is the only place in Rwanda where you can see the Big Five, yet it doesn’t attract anywhere near the crowds you’ll find in other African parks. It remains Rwanda’s wild secret. For now.
California has it all – even aliens (Alamy)
What can you add to California to make it more appealing? The Golden State already has celebrity, vast national parks, hip cities and one of the world’s finest coastal drives in its back pocket. Well, more of the same, please. This year sees a huge new park open atop San Francisco’s Presidio Tunnel. Its location might not sound that glamorous but it will expand the existing national park there by 14 acres and offers fine views across to the city’s iconic bridge. Elsewhere, the new Redwood Sky Walk in Eureka allows visitors to wander 30m up in the canopies of the state’s giant trees; San Diego’s new Comic-Con Museum celebrates all things geek; and the new reservation-set Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza in Palm Springs now includes an oasis trail and museum delving into the history of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
The USA now has 184 Scenic Byways, spanning 48 states (Alamy)
It’s that sense of freedom and scale that makes an American road trip so unique; of suddenly being a small piece in a far bigger picture. And while the Ivy-league states of New England might lack the immediate raw appeal of cruising Route 66 in a convertible, the region’s seven newly designated National Scenic Byways offer just as much adventure. For a taster, try Massachusetts’ Mohawk Trail, which originally opened in 1914 as one of the USA’s first tourism roads. It follows an old Native American trail, and its pit-stops at forest walks and whitewater rivers offer a pretty rigorous way to stretch your legs. Or drive the St John Valley/Fish River route, which explores the legacy of Acadian America, the parts originally occupied by French settlers.
Specialities to look out for in Dijon include Burgundy snails, pain d’épices (gingerbread) and the apéritif, kir (Alamy)
Burgundy is home to some of France’s most seductive countryside, packed with cellar-door tours and miles of UNESCO-listed vineyards, canal-side villages and market towns. This year there’s an extra dash of star quality to the region’s usual appeal, with the arrival of the International City of Food and Wine complex in Dijon. It’s set to become a one-stop shop for gastronomes, home to myriad local producers as well as wine-initiation classes for those looking to up their skills. The further addition of a restaurant by local three-starred Michelin chef Éric Pras only sweetens the deal. Afterwards, walk off your bloat in a city whittled by the fancies of the Dukes of Burgundy, whose old palace makes for a grand town hall. Food lovers will want to finish in the 19th-century covered market (Les Halles) where you can further sate your hunger on local cheese, sausage and wine. Bon appétit!
Plan your trip to Scotland (Shutterstock)
Head to Scotland to follow the first UNESCO Trail, a route that links up 13 World Heritage-listed sites, geoparks, biospheres, cities and lonely isles. It’s a bracing reminder of just what variety there is here, and it sends you in some unusual directions. The ruins of the Roman Antonine Wall, for example, were built between Forth and Clyde some 20 years after Emperor Hadrian’s more famous defence was finished to the south. This was designed to replace it, but just eight years later the Romans fell back and its stones were repurposed by canny local farmers. Or instead plan a trip to the far-flung island of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, abandoned since 1930 but still strewn with relics of old houses and more dive-bombing skuas than you can waft an umbrella at. From hip Dundee to the Neolithic burial mounds of the Orkneys, there’s plenty more to discover than you ever knew.
Shanxi was an important trading hub on the Tea Horse Road and caravanserais can still be seen on its Square Street (Alamy)
When it comes to ancient trade networks, most travellers are familiar with the Silk Road. Less well known is China’s Tea Horse Road, which once linked the plantations of Yunnan Province with the highlands of Tibet, continuing on into Nepal and India. Tibetan horses and Chinese tea were traded back and forth on the 4,000-year-old network. Now it seems that it might finally be recognised by UNESCO in 2022, prompting fresh interest, although travellers have sought out its trails for years. The ‘road’ exists as much in concept now; most routes were unmarked and are long since lost, but in Yunnan’s Lijiang, Shuhe and Shaxi you’ll still find old caravanserai. Or head into the subtropical lowlands of Xishuangbanna where Dai villages, jungles and tea terraces can easily be reached on the newly opened high-speed Boten-Vientiane China-Laos Railway.
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