The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2024

Shinta Mani Mustang, Nepal

COURTESY OF SHINTA MANI MUSTANG

A once-forbidden kingdom is now home to some truly palatial digs. Nepal’s Mustang district, which opened to outsiders in 1992, is a place to watch in 2024 thanks to this stunning, 29-suite hotel, which welcomed its first guests in August. Shinta Mani Mustang, the latest property from the Bensley Collection, delivers the luxurious wellness experiences and thoughtful design that devotees of the brand have come to expect. Guests can spend their days trekking the surrounding Annapurna and Dhaulagiri mountain ranges, searching for rare wildlife like the Pallas’s cat and Tibetan wolf, horseback riding, and visiting local villages. “What caught my attention was that the outstanding aesthetics and architecture are in sync with sustainable and responsible tourism,” said Carole Cambata, an advisor on T+L's A-List and expert in Himalayan travel. “They sourced local building materials and used Indigenous construction methods.” The noteworthy opening comes at a time of positive change: in April, the Nepal Mountaineering Academy and the Nepal Tourism Board partnered on a program to educate the country’s first-ever class of LGBTQ+ trekking guides, CNN reported, in an effort to make Nepal’s hiking and climbing industries more inclusive. “Nepal is one of Asia’s most progressive countries for LGBTQ+ people due to laws that forbid gender identity discrimination,” said John Clifford, another A-List advisor. “Visitors to the country can even select ‘other’ as an option for gender identification on their visas.” — Samantha Falewée

Tallinn, Estonia

NINA RUGGIERO/TRAVEL + LEISURE

This country’s literacy and secondary education rates consistently rank near the top in Europe, especially among women, so it should come as no surprise that Tartu, the university city to the southeast of Tallinn, has been designated Europe’s Capital of Culture for 2024. Still, for first-timers to the Baltics, there’s no better place to get schooled than the country’s capital city, Tallinn: its walled Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best-preserved examples of Medieval architecture in the world. PoCo Art Museum, which opened in May with pop art by Andy Warhol, Banksy, David Hockney, and Jeff Koons, is now one of nearly 50 art institutions in the city, joining Fotografiska (world-renowned photography), Kumu Art Museum (contemporary Estonian art), and Kadriorg Art Museum (early European and Russian art). After soaking in the culture, head for the Noblessner district, an industrial shipyard area turned seafront hot spot that’s now bursting with stylish cafes, shops, and Estonia’s first restaurant with two Michelin stars, 180° by Matthias Diethe. (You might also try a “smoke sauna” at Scandi-chic Iglupark.) As for where to stay, the new Nunne Boutique Hotel has views over Old Town’s Towers Square. — Nina Ruggiero