Locations That Are Worth Visiting in the Year 2023

Capri, Italy
Smart travellers know that staying overnight on Capri is the best way to avoid the crowds and enjoy the nightlife after the daytrippers have left. When it opens in spring 2023, the much-anticipated Hotel La Palma, which is part of the Oetker Collection and was designed by Francis Sultana, will be the most stylish new place to stay on the island.

Big Island, Hawaii
If The White Lotus’s first season made you want to go to Hawaii, you’re in luck. Kona Village, a Rosewood Resort, will open on the Big Island in 2023. Hawaii-born architect Greg Warner of Walker Warner and Nicole Hollis will design the resort to fit in with the area. It first opened in the 1960s and will have stand-alone houses with thatch roofs and many restaurants and bars, including a new Shipwreck Bar.

Santa Ynez Valley, California
The wine world has been paying more attention to the Santa Ynez Valley, which is just north of Santa Barbara. Now, the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, which is part of the Auberge Resorts Collection and is in quiet Los Olivos, is putting it on the design map. The well-known design firm AvroKO is turning the historic property, which has a tavern and separate cottages, into a chic but laid-back vacation spot that will open in February 2023.

Copenhagen, Denmark
In 2023, UNESCO will name Copenhagen the “World Architecture Capital.” This is a big deal because Copenhagen has always been a leader in architecture and design. Throughout the year, the city will be home to 300 events, such as Open House Copenhagen and the UIA World Congress of Architects.

Edinburgh, United Kingdom
With the opening of three exciting hotels, the hotel scene in the Scottish capital is getting a bit more glitzy. Gleneagles Townhouse, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, opened last year in a restored historic building with a chic design by Aime Studios. Next, in the spring, 100 Princes Street by the Red Carnation Hotel Collection will open, and by the end of 2023, a W hotel will be there.

Paris, France
The City of Light will have many exciting cultural events, such as the opening of Maison Gainsbourg, the home of musician Serge Gainsbourg, which will have a museum, bookstore, and café/bar; a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death; and a Manet/Degas exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay. The icing on the cake is the opening of Le Grand Mazarin, a fancy new hotel in the Marais designed by Martin Brudnizki.

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The Rijksmuseum will have the largest Vermeer show ever, which will bring art lovers from all over the world. Check out the recently remodelled Leading Hotels of the World hotel Hotel de l’Europe or the brand-new Anantara Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, which has a Michelin-starred restaurant and a relaxing spa.

Ladakh, India
Ladakh, which is in the Himalayas, used to be an unexplored area, but now it has new luxury hotels, restaurants, and things to do that are bringing adventurous travellers there. Fans of architecture should go to see the vernacular architecture, which includes Buddhist monasteries that are hundreds of years old and safari-style camps that are made to encourage slow travel. Let Extraordinary Journeys plan your trip, and you’ll see snow leopards along with monasteries, palaces, and stupas.

Lombok, Indonesia
Since there are too many tourists in Bali, smart travellers are starting to go to Lombok, which is just east of Bali. And in 2023, the island will get two new Design Hotels: Innit Lombok, which has two-bedroom villas inspired by traditional Lumbung-style houses, and Somewhere Lombok, which is designed for barefoot luxury with natural materials, an Indonesian fusion restaurant, and a calm spa.

Kyushu, Japan
This fall, Japan finally opened its borders to tourists again after being closed for 2.5 years because of a pandemic. Plan to go to the less-known island of Kyushu in 2023. It has a lot of hot springs and traditional inns called ryokans. The InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa, which opened in 2019, and the Hoshino Resort KAI Yufuin, which was designed by Kengo Kuma and opened last summer, are just two of the new hotels that are coming to the area.

South Africa’s Cape Town
In recent years, Cape Town has become one of southern Africa’s best places for design. It has a lot of exciting galleries and showrooms, such as the long-standing Southern Guild, the cutting-edge Fourth, and the new retail destinations Always Welcome. Meanwhile, the renovated V&A Waterfront is getting more and more attention. A new Marble restaurant is about to open, and the One & Only Cape Town resort has gotten a stunning makeover that puts emerging artists front and centre with a contemporary African art gallery and design elements like ceramics and beaded pots. And it’s easier than ever for people in the United States to get there thanks to United Airlines’ new direct flights from Washington, DC, and its increased number of year-round direct flights from Newark/New York.

Mykonos, Greece
Mykonos has been known for its busy (and sometimes too busy) nightlife for many years. But the well-known Greek island is so much more than that. Mykonos has always had a lot of charm thanks to its whitewashed homes, streets, and chapels. But now the island is also becoming known as a place to go for design. Cali Mykonos is a dream come true for beauty. It is on the southeast tip of the island, far from the noise and parties on the western end. This hotel, which was made by STFN Labs and is focused on sustainability, is a haven for people who want to refresh their souls and eat good food.

Sydney, Down Under
If you haven’t been to Australia since it reopened its borders earlier this year, you might want to plan a trip. The Art Gallery of New South Wales has finally opened the extension that won the Pritzker Prize and has been called one of the most important cultural changes since the Sydney Opera House opened in 1973. It took 10 years to finish the project, which nearly doubled the museum’s exhibition space and put Indigenous art in the spotlight.

Okavango Delta, Botswana
The safari lodges in northern Botswana haven’t been busy for the past couple of years. Animal lovers haven’t been able to get to this beautiful part of southern Africa, which is known for its natural beauty, abundance of wildlife, and small human footprint. But Wilderness Safaris is now ready for all the excitement and demand that have been building up. The famous brand not only rebuilt its famous DumaTau Camp in the Linyanti Reserve but also added the smaller Little DumaTau Camp (perfect for group buyouts). Meanwhile, a short, beautiful plane ride away in the Okavango Delta, Wilderness has thoughtfully updated its popular Vumbura Plains Camp by using local materials and craftsmanship, such as light fixtures made from baskets woven by Vumbura team members. Jao Camp, on the other hand, is finally showing off its 2019 renovations, which include thatched suites, two show-stopping villas, an epic spa, and what might be the Delta’s most amazing pool, topped by a thatched dome. And that’s not even mentioning the elephants, giraffes, lions, and impalas that will be there.

Quito, Ecuador
As the first World Heritage Site designated by UNESCO, Ecuador’s capital has long attracted tourists who want to see its Spanish Colonial architecture. But now, this South American city is becoming a leader in modern architecture. Jean Nouvel, Bjarke Ingels Group, and Carlos Zapata are building skyscrapers and other eco-friendly buildings that are changing the skyline of the city and paving the way for a more eco-friendly future.

Little Rock, Arkansas
You might not think of Little Rock as a place for art lovers to go, but when the Museum of Fine Arts reopens on April 22, 2023, after a huge renovation and expansion by architect Studio Gang, it will be full of people. When it first opened in 1937, the museum was the biggest of its kind in the state. With its new 133,000-square-foot footprint, it will have plenty of room for its 14,000 works.

Amboseli, Kenya
A safari in the Maasai Mara could be combined with a trip to Amboseli, which has great views of Mount Kilimanjaro and a lot of wildlife. And by the end of 2023, travellers who care about design will have a new reason to go: Angama Amboseli, which was made by the same talented people who made Angama Mara, will open. Most flights from the US land in Nairobi, where you’ll want to stay at the stylishly eclectic Eden Nairobi, an intimate hotel in the former family home of fashion designer Anna Trzebinski and her husband Tonio. You might also spend a few days in the Maasai Mara at Sir Richard Branson’s high-design safari camp, Mahali Mzuri.

Baltimore, MD
In the beginning, tobacco and grain were brought to Baltimore by ship. But now, the city is a very different place to visit. Artists from all over the Eastern Seaboard come to the city for a luxurious vacation. All of this is because ASH’s new hit, Hotel Ulysses, is on the AD100 list. The refined, eclectic, and at times delightfully kitsch lodgings—complete with the showstopper Bloom’s lounge—have been an overnight success, bringing overdue attention to a city that, for many, had fallen off the radar. Baltimore has a lot of history to discover, from the packed rooms at the Walters Art Museum to the Matisse galleries at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the beautiful stacks at the Peabody Library. On a recent trip, a group of New Yorkers who were hard to please could be heard asking, “What took us so long to get here?” “When are we coming back?” came right after.

Menorca, Spain
Menorca, the chicest and most authentic of Spain’s Balearic Islands, is where the most interesting designers and artists are going. Galéria Cayón, Lithica Foundation, and Hauser & Wirth, which will open in Menorca in 2021, are all must-see exhibition spaces. You can stay at Can Albert, a small, high-end hotel in a palace from 1740, or at Villa Le Blanc, a new Leading Hotels of the World member with white walls.

New York’s Buffalo
Buffalo has long been a place that people who like architecture go to visit. During the city’s industrial heyday, some of the best American buildings of the early 20th century were built, including Louis Sullivan’s tile-covered Guaranty building and Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Martin House, which has been brought back to its original glory (and joined by an ethereal visitor centre by AD100 maestro Toshiko Mori). In the 1800s, Frederick Law Olmsted built a network of parks here. In 1940, Eero and Eliel Saarinen opened the beautiful Kleinhans Music Hall, and in 1962, Gordon Bunshaft added a modernist auditorium to what is now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. This old institution will add to Buffalo’s long history of great architecture next spring when Shohei Shigematsu of OMA opens a spectacular new wing and makes other smart changes. Soon, it will be more important than ever to spend a weekend in Buffalo.

Punta del Este, Uruguay
Fly to Montevideo and spend a few days exploring Uruguay’s lively capital. Then, move on to the beaches of Punta del Este, which are popular during the summer in the southern hemisphere. There, you can go to the new Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Atchugarry, Uruguay’s first modern art museum, and then go to nearby Jose Ignacio to see Skyspace at Posada Ayana by James Turrell, which will open in 2021.

Puerto Escondido, Mexico
This under-the-radar surf spot on the coast of Oaxaca is starting to attract more sophisticated travellers thanks to the recent opening of the beautiful Casona Sforza and Hotel Terrestre, which is a member of Design Hotels by Grupo Habita and was designed by Alberto Kalach in the Brutalist style. It joins Casa Wabi, an art foundation founded by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi and designed by Tadao Ando, as a landmark in the town and a pilgrimage site for design fans.

Antarctica
The White Continent, which was once only visited by scientific expeditions, is now becoming more accessible to tourists thanks to new ships and routes from luxury cruise lines like Viking, Aurora, Hurtigruten, Silversea, and Seabourn. Go now while you still can, because these expeditions let you see climate change up close in a way that only scientists usually can.