Today, TIME reveals the annual list of the World’s Greatest Places, highlighting 100 extraordinary destinations to visit and stay.
Of the 2024 list, TIME editors write: “Travel industry trends often reflect the id of humanity: what the collective we desires most when unburdened from daily stressors and responsibilities. In 2024, that includes other-worldly art and design, like at China’s Aranya; active travel, like Natural Selection’s Guided Cycling Safari in Botswana; learning more deeply about the communities and areas we’re traveling to, like at Antarctica’s White Desert, Maui Cultural Lands in Hawaii, and Kamba in Republic of the Congo; and learning more deeply about ourselves, like at New Mexico’s Modern Elder Academy…While last year’s list featured 50 cities, this year we decided to explore even more—and more specific—establishments that stand out in their field, and the world. The result: 100 extraordinary destinations to visit and stay this year.”
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2024 WORLD’S GREATEST PLACES:
Maui Cultural Lands, Lahaina, Hawaii — Restoring paradise: “So when Maui officially reopened to tourism in November, it leaned more heavily into a new type of travel that encourages visitors to support the islands: regenerative tourism…Maui Cultural Lands, one of the longest running indigenous-owned nonprofits in the Lahaina area, provides visitors hands-on ways to give back on their vacations.”
Kamba African Rainforest Experiences, Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of Congo — AI-aided Ape Viewing: “The famously diverse area is home to more than 600 types of trees and 10,000 species of animals, including the endangered western lowland gorilla. It’s an area little visited by travelers…However, Kamba, a company that focuses on low-impact ecotourism adventures and is the only private operator in the park, is working to change that, as well as advance our understanding of one of our closest cousins on the evolutionary tree.”
White Desert, Antarctica — Polar protection: “Now, White Desert welcomes fewer than 300 guests per eternal-daylight season at two luxury camps made up of convivial bubble huts in Queen Maud Land, surrounded by majestic nunataks, or rocky outcrops. Once-in-a-lifetime activities include visiting the South Pole and the emperor penguin colony at Atka Bay, and exploring ice waves threaded with turquoise rivers.”
Modern Elder Academy, Santa Fe, New Mexico — Midlife self-care: “YYouth is venerated, old age commemorated, but entrepreneur and author Chip Conley is on a mission to radically reframe the popular view on middle age, giving it the glowing appellation “midlife chrysalis.” He’s not just spreading his ideas about the potential for profound transformation and growth in those often denigrated decades through his books (Learning to Love Midlife, published in January) or TED talks, he also founded Modern Elder Academy (MEA) in 2018 to offer direct instruction and inspiration.”
Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, Koh Samui, Thailand — White Lotus preview: “Since filming that first season on location at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Hawaii, and making San Domenico Palace, Taormina, a Four Seasons Hotel in Sicily the backdrop for last year’s star-making crime drama, the third season takes aim at the white sand beaches of Koh Samui, Thailand’s second largest island—the upcoming season is filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, HBO confirmed exclusively to TIME. Given the popularity of past locations, travelers will want to plan their own unscripted holiday at the five-star resort before the new season hits the small screen in early 2025.”
Mine + Farm Inn, Guerneville, California — Smokable Sonoma: “The radiant green valleys of Sonoma County are famous for their vineyards. But at Mine + Farm in the small town of Guerneville, outside the 805-acre Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, a different green is part of a unique guest experience.”
Le Grand Mazarin, Paris, France — A top-to-bottom showstopper: “With hundreds of hotels in Paris, Le Grand Mazarin still manages to stand out for its luxury and aesthetic. While you might miss the discreet entrance in Le Marais, inside guests are instantly transported to architect and designer Martin Brudnizki’s fanciful reception where a seafoam green pleated silk ceiling and tasseled wall sconces create an atmosphere of salon-like sophistication.”
WA EV Network, Western Australia — Go electric: “Travelers looking to road trip in Australia—a country positively made for hitting the highways and backroads with the wind in your hair—tend to default to popular east coast routes…once complete, the WA EV Network’s 4,300 miles of roadway will connect the capital of Perth to Kununurra in the far north and to Eucla near the border of South Australia.”
Silvestre Nosara, Nosara, Costa Rica — A family-friendly surf resort: “Now Silvestre, which means ‘wild’ in Spanish, is transforming the hotel landscape in the area, offering everything family or group travelers need for an active and luxurious trip to Nosara.”
teamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan — A world out of bounds: “Immersive art experiences are a dime a dozen these days, but when they’re done well, they’re exceptional. teamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum puts an atmospheric twist on a genre that’s become a social media cliche.”
One Za’abeel, Dubai, UAE — A world-first skyscraper: “Even in a city with no shortage of gravity- (and logic-) defying skyscrapers, the new One Za’abeel development by Japanese firm Nikken Sekkei is a head turner. The complex’s dual towers rise from either side of a busy highway, and are bridged improbably by a horizontal structure hovering 300 feet in the air that’s nearly as long as the buildings are high.”
Olivia Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico — A stunning art hub: “Set in a neoclassical townhouse from the early 1900s, the Olivia Foundation draws on the private collection of a Mexico City-native couple who, for the sake of discretion, named the project after one of their eight dogs, a long-haired dachshund. The family began collecting seriously around 2022, following the move from Mexico City to California, focusing their attention on post-war female artists like Helen Frankenthaler and Ruth Asawa as well as a new generation of creators including British artist Jadé Fadojutimi and the Brazilian painter Sophia Loeb.”
Zeyrek Cinili Hamam, Istanbul, Turkey — A spa with history: “When visitors recline on the polished marble platform inside the Zeyrek Cinili Hamam, ready to be scrubbed clean under its soaring dome studded with star-shaped skylights, they’re not just bathing in luxury—they’re bathing in history…It was originally built in the early 1500s atop one of Istanbul’s massive Byzantine-era cisterns by Mimar Sinan, the Ottoman Empire’s greatest architect.”
International African American Museum, Charleston, South Carolina — Honoring the Black experience: “Proposed publicly by former Charleston mayor Joe Riley more than 20 years ago, and championed by Congressman Jim Clyburn, the nation’s second largest African American museum finally opened last summer…Connecting past and future on a more personal level, the IAAM’s Center for Family History also offers genealogy services and records oral histories.”
Read more about how TIME chose the 2024 World’s Greatest Places list: here
