Women Who Travel Podcast: Why This Is the Year to Visit Greenland, Kyrgyzstan, and More
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It’s a few weeks into the year and, already, we’re planning everywhere we want to go next. Lale chats with her well-traveled colleagues Megan Spurrell and Arati Menon about the best places to go in 2025—everywhere from Greenland and Alaska to India and Uganda—and gets tips on how to pull some of those ambitious (and more attainable) trips off.
Lale Arikoglu: Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and today on Women Who Travel, I'm in the studio with two editors and writers from Condé Nast Traveler who I know very, very well.
Megan Spurrell: I think when we talk about this big, beautiful world, it represents what we're all interested in.
LA: It's Megan Spurrell, Associate Articles Director, who's been on the show many times. She most recently talked to us about reporting in Tahiti on Olympic surfers, where you shared your love of raw fish, among other things.
MS: I'm so glad I'm getting known for that, over here with the audience,
LA: It is arguably your brand. And also with me today is Arati Menon, our Global Digital Director.
Arati Menon: Thrilled to be here in this warm, cozy studio.
LA: It is very warm and cozy, I will say.
We do best places to go every year. It runs on our US website and across multiple editions of Condé Nast Traveler. This is a list that's for everyone who's curious about the world, which is I imagine everyone who's listening to this podcast right now. This is a list for dreaming as much as it is a list for planning. There are places that probably feel like you're never going to make it to, but that doesn't mean that you can't entertain the idea. And I will caveat that while some of the hotels and experiences are of a higher price point, there's plenty that are affordable and much more wallet-friendly. And I'd also say that this is just inspiration for a place. This is to say, "Go and experience it." You don't have to do everything newsworthy on this list. Treat it as a guide.
Last year was 24 places to go in 2024. This year is 25 in 2025. That's self-explanatory, but how is this year different?
MS: I think what's cool is every year we put out this list, but we've kind of been growing it, so we now have our main list of the 25 best places to go in 2025, but we also do a list for every continent later on. We have some new stuff this year. Arati, maybe you want to share about that?
AM: Yeah, like we say, I mean more is more, so it's always more lists, more places to go to, but the world is a big old, beautiful place, so you can't blame us. Yes, we have something new actually this year. So given that food has become such a beautiful prism through which we all, you, me, Megan, explore destinations and understand cultures and people, we decided-
LA: Raw fish in Tahiti-
AM: Raw fish in Tahiti being a great example.
MS: Exactly.
AM: We decided that the time was right to launch a “best places to eat” list this year, which will sit within the best places to go package, but will be a list all unto its own, and contain 10 destinations that you can explore just for the food. So look out for that.
LA: What is your criteria for somewhere that becomes a best place for the year?
MS: Our criteria that exists every year is we basically try to find places that have news. I mean, because otherwise how do you narrow down the 25 best places to go in one year? It's an impossible task. So we try and think about what are the places that maybe are getting easier to get to? Some are really remote, really adventurous, but there's going to be a new airport or more flights and now it's actually manageable for more people to do. What are the places that maybe used to not be as ready for tourism and now have a ton of new offerings or new hotels that you want to stay at. So we're not looking at stuff that opened last year. We're telling you what is coming in 2025 and that's basically how we choose the destinations, looking at every bit of the world.
AM: Yeah. As Megan said, I think this list is anchored in newness, but there's a larger value that it supports, which is that understanding that places, destinations, cultures, people are ever-evolving things. Think of a destination as always changing and finding new ways to reach its audiences as people move into destinations, waves of immigrants or refugees and cultures that adapt, and those are the places that we are really excited about. So it speaks to that larger value to always be open to this ever-changing, ever-evolving world.
LA: What are some of the emerging destinations this year?
MS: Well, one I'm really excited about because I hope I'll be going there is the Emerald Coast in Nicaragua. I think-
LA: Oh, I really want go there.
MS: I mean literally look at the article and before you even read the blurb and just see the photos, it's like, "I need to go to this little quiet bit of coast where there's surfers and boutique hotels and swaying hammocks."
LA: You're Condé Nast Traveler's unofficial surf reporter now.
MS: I'm trying so hard to be. But I travel a lot to and in Latin America and I think Central America is so exciting because there's so much evolution there. There are new hotels in this part of Nicaragua. There are new things to do and see. But it's exciting to hear about somewhere that maybe had some instability a number of years back that maybe American travelers were a little less comfortable going to and now we can be like just buy a flight, show up, take a taxi to one of these hotels that we think is fabulous and you'll have a great trip and it's exciting to get to talk about those places. So that's one for me.
LA: Arati, what about you? Where's somewhere that maybe wasn't necessarily on your radar or you didn't think was somewhere that was easy to get to that you are now excited about?
AM: Well, if you're talking about easy to get to and a really, really surprising destination, I'm going to have to talk about Space Coast in Florida.
MS: Yes.
AM: I think we were all fairly surprised by it, but I think we can all say that that was definitely a place that we're all excited to see at some point. So it's a 72 mile coastline on Eastern Florida and it's home to the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral. It's long attracted astro tourists, people coming to see rocket lunches, but also it has some hidden gems. You can go kayaking in bioluminescent rivers. You can see sea turtles hatch. They've seen great success with preservation efforts around protection of sea turtle nests along the coast. But the reason why space travel, and Space Coast Florida in particular, will be super relevant in 2025 is that space travel will hit actually a historical milestone because NASA is going to send humans around the moon for the first time in five decades and Space Coast offers the perfect vantage point.
LA: Not quite as far-flung as the moon, but still quite far away is Greenland. How was that selected? Because That really intrigues me. I'm excited about that one.
AM: I remember the writer pitching Greenland to us and the first thing she said to me was, "I just want you to know that the last time I went to Greenland, it took me 30 hours to get there from Miami. And everything's going to change this year and I'm going to be able to get there within, let's say, half a day."
LA: What was making it so hard? Because clearly then it's not the sort of physical distance itself from Miami. What was making it take so long?
AM: So we are really heartened because the thing that's going to be a real game changer for Greenland is the opening of Nuuk Airport to sort of long distance jets, and the expansion of Nuuk Airport is going to mean that there's going to be a lot more connectivity into Greenland. But of course the flip side of that is there's going to be a lot more people pouring in to Greenland. And one of the things that we are really heartened by is the fact that the government in Greenland is getting ahead of that. They signed onto a pledge for that they call, I think, the Pledge to Better Tourism that anticipates overcrowding before it actually happens and makes sure that local communities are not kind of thrown to the wolves as it were.
LA: I imagine that's also kind of a challenge when you're putting this list together because you have all this news and often it's somewhere becoming more accessible which means more people. And so it's this sort of double-edged sword where we're telling you to go there because it's easier and this is an opportunity, but at the same time it's like how's this going to change the place?
AM: 100%. And we want our readers to feel like these places are within grasp. I mean yes, you want them to dream of the impossible, but you want the impossible to also feel fairly possible. So we want to say that these hulking icebergs and these beautiful fjords and this primordial landscape is all within reach, but know that this is a precarious landscape, know that the government is working on it, and know that this represents a different kind of luxury. So it's also making a commentary on sort of what does luxury really mean?
MS: I would add to that. Like in the case of Nicaragua, we mentioned there's these new hotels. You can be on certain beaches with no one else on it. We mentioned that there is a new highway coming later in the year that will make it much easier to get to all the small towns and may change it and that's part of why we are saying go this year before that. It's this balance between wanting things to feel accessible but also knowing that sometimes it's go before it gets more accessible.
AM: Yeah.
MS: Because it is, in the case of Nicaragua, it's not as far from the US as Greenland, so maybe it's okay if it's a little harder to get to and that means fewer people.
LA: Still kind of on the topic of Greenland, but there are a few other places with some pretty cold weather. I am personally very drawn to Alaska. It's somewhere I've never been. That's on the list. There's New Zealand's bird sanctuaries on sub-Antarctic islands, which I will trust you guys that that's somewhat easy to get to.
MS: It's nice if you're going to Australia or New Zealand anyway.
LA: Yeah, if you just happen to be there already.
AM: Also we never said it was easy. We said it would be well worth it.
MS: Yes, that is a great point.
LA: And I've done some trips both personal and on assignment where it has taken me a long time to get somewhere and it is always worth it.
MS: What's interesting about sub-Antarctic islands as well is they're different. When you look at photos, the landscape is different, the wildlife is different. And I think for an area we think of as kind of a monolith, it's really interesting to see that if you did spend two weeks going around different parts of the Antarctic region, you could see a lot of different stuff. Which again, to the point of like, if you're going to do this once in a lifetime trip, make a few stops.
AM: Speaking of Antarctica, this is the first year that this global list that we always hope to be as diverse and geographically spread out as possible actually includes all seven continents. So for the first time we have Antarctica mentioned. And the reason why Antarctica is here is not for the polar expedition ships, but because for the first time travelers will be treated to opportunities for land-based travel. Which means that out of all the travelers that visit Antarctica each year, the bulk of them still go on cruise ships and very few people actually explore what is the world's largest desert.
But we have a new operator called Ultima that is flying people on a very small sort of 12 seater plane from Cape Town and alongside travelers will be polar scientists and researchers. So what you're doing is the travelers are actually cross-subsidizing some of this scientific research and explorations that allow you to explore land and interior sort of ice fields and you're in cabins or sort of cozy camps and eating good food, but this is absolute luxury. And for those who can't afford the price tag that comes with it, Ultima actually offers a 24 hour taste of Antarctica. So you fly in, get 12 hours there, fly out.
LA: Before we leave cold places behind, I also want to mention the Iditarod, which is the dog mushing competition which is very historic. It's 100th anniversary this year in Alaska. It's something I am scheming to try and go and witness myself for a story. We'll see if that happens.
MS: If you open the link to this list, there's a video of the very cute dogs running across the Alaskan landscape.
LA: Lale just wants to go and see the dogs.
MS: Mush, mush, smush the dogs.
LA: Of course I do and I want to be taken for a spin with the dogs. That's literally all I want to do.
AM: There's another birthday in Alaska, birthday celebration, and it's Glacier Bay National Park that's celebrating 100 years of officially becoming a national monument. So there's lots of birthdays all around in Alaska. And the thing that I'm really excited about in Alaska I have to say, being a massive sort of wildlife person is Kodiak Island. There is the native-owned Kodiak Brown Bear Center on the island, and if you sign up to be a visitor and want to go in and stay in one of their lovely cottages, there's the opportunities to sort of share space with the largest subspecies of brown bear in the world. And this both terrifies me and makes me all warm and tingly inside.
In 2025, the Kodiak Brown Bear Center is actually opening up a new fly fishing program and a new wellness center. So there's going to be like banya style steam baths and saunas and whatnot.
LA: So you can come face to face with a bear and then go to your steam bath to process what happened that day.
MS: If I come to face with bear that day, I better get a steam bath.
AM: Or share the steam bath with a bear. I mean, stranger things have happened.
LA: I love to dive into the details and the reporting that surround each of the destinations on this list, but it's also just beautiful to look at and I feel like incredibly, sort of loathe to use this word, but kind of wanderlust-y when I'm sitting at my desk thinking about where I could go next. I just find myself gawking at these images.
AM: I'm glad you say that because we put a lot of thought into sort of the supporting visuals because we want them to inspire you.
LA: And more about these visuals after the break.
We're back with Women Who Travel and the best places to go in 2025 with Megan Spurrell and AM. We're talking about all the fabulous images that are representing these places on the list. What are a few that just visually have you gawking at them?
MS: Well, the picture that grabs me is of Karakol, Kyrgyzstan.
I was looking at Arati because I didn't know if we were both going to say the same one and I had to rush to claim it. But it's just like the photo is this beautiful kind of green and pink multicolored mountain. There's like buffalo and horses on the ground and it just, I mean are those buffalo, some animal. Cattle? It just looks like, I think when you read a list, you're not going to go all 25 places, so I know a lot of this is just to give you inspiration and is just to be enjoyed as a read, and looking at Kyrgyzstan, I would love to go there. Not sure if I'll make it in the next 12 months. But I will look at a lot of pictures of it.
AM: I will talk about a picture that's a little different visually from the rest, and it's the picture that accompanies the entry to Prayagraj Allahabad in India.
MS: So beautiful.
AM: This is a really interesting entry. Well, the picture is of rows and rows of what appear to be religious Hindu devotees sitting in rows eating what looks like exactly the same meal. So I imagine it's sort of like a massive gathering of devotees for a meal that is prepared in some sort of central kitchen. But the entry for Allahabad is particularly interesting because every 12 years this gigantic human gathering congregates. By some measure, it's 100 million people over four days that gather on the banks.
MS: Sorry, 100 million people?
AM: 100 million over four days. Try and imagine that for size.
LA: I mean that's sort of terrifying.
AM: It's absolutely terrifying. So the Kumbh Mela happens once in 12 years. It's the biggest human gathering in the world and essentially it happens on the banks of one of many sacred Hindu rivers in India. And its devotees, its saints and seers, and ordinary travelers and gawkers, of course. It is a pilgrimage, but it is also a celebration of community. Naturally some commerce, there's lots of little marketplaces. And so while there are religious discourses, there are fun fairs as well and plenty of entertainment. So you don't have to be a devout Hindu to attend this is, I guess, what I'm trying to say. Where do you want to go next, Megan?
MS: Well, I'm just scrolling, looking at all these photos longingly. I mean I'm really excited that Cuba's on here. I think in the past we've done Women Who Travel trips to Cuba. It is such an intoxicating destination. And the pandemic really impacted some of the US tourism operations there. And so it's on our list because a bunch of group trips are restarting and I think Cuba, because it can be complicated for travelers with US passports to navigate all the rules, it's so helpful to find a group trip with an organization you think really understands the culture and just hop on. That's how I went to Cuba. It was great. So I'm glad to see that there. There's so much happening. Young, cool Cubans are starting new hotels and restaurants and I would love to be there.
LA: In contrast to millions of humans, there's plenty of wildlife. What are the more kind of like, I guess I was going to say, wildlife forward, that's a sort of ridiculous term. How can you see animals in 2025?
MS: Do you want to talk about the safari stuff?
AM: Sure. Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, and I hope I'm saying it right, don't hate me if I'm not. But essentially what it's for is, it's a little different from let's say wildlife viewing in South Africa or Botswana. You're actually viewing game at the edge of a volcanic crater.
MS: Which can we just pause there? I can't even wrap my head around the visual of that. That's crazy.
AM: Can you imagine? You can sort of peep in to-
MS: It's obviously not active, right?
AM: It's not active.
MS: Dumb question.
AM: Well, we maybe we should check that. Dormant? Active?
LA: No, it's not spouting lava.
AM: It's not spouting. No, it is not spouting lava.
MS: The lions are jumping between the lava coming up, I mean.
AM: They're adept.
MS: They are.
AM: But the crater floor is absolutely teeming with wildlife, whether it's lions, spotted hyenas, or rhinos, it's teeming with them and beautiful new lodges that are opening up at the edge of the crater and a little bit beyond as well. But the reason I love our Tanzania entry is it does something that a lot of people love to go to Africa and do, which is combine bush and beach. And so you can do Ngorongoro and then you can head off to Zanzibar and to its glittering beaches.
LA: I did that very combination a few years ago.
AM: Did you? Lucky you.
LA: Well, I didn't go to the crater unfortunately. I was in the Masai Mara, but then I went to Zanzibar after and it is a luxurious combination to do.
Right at the top of this episode, you mentioned that we have a food list that accompanies the main best places to go list. There are a couple that I have bookmarked for myself. One is Ho Chi Minh City. It also has a huge fashion moment right now and a huge design scene, but obviously when it comes to food, Vietnam is kind of up there.
MS: Yeah. I mean also this year will be the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, so it'll mark 50 years since reunification, which is again just a landmark that makes us be like what has happened in the past 50 years? And it's exciting to see Ho Chi Minh has, so much has just bubbled up in that time. So when you go, you're going to need to eat at Anan Saigon and Pot Au Pho, which are both part of why we included Ho Chi Minh. In 2023, the Michelin guide awarded the first star to Anan Saigon in the city. But the chef, Peter Cuong Franklin, has now opened a new noodle soup focused spot.
Another place that I also want to shout out for the food is La Paz in Bolivia. I think again, we got another anniversary, it's the bicentennial of the country, but also when you talk about South America and food, so many people talk about Lima, but La Paz hasn't gotten really a lot of credit until now, and they also have a lot of Amazonian food traditions, an incredible bounty of ingredients.
LA: You mentioning Amazonian foods reminded me that the Peruvian Amazon is also on the list.
MS: Yeah, I mean this is another, it's hard to narrow down the Amazon, but in this stretch of this gigantic amazing rainforest, there are some new fabulous river cruises and new boats coming. There are a couple really cool treehouse lodges.
AM: I actually love that you bring up the treehouses and the amazing river cruises in Peru and the fact that everyone talks about Machu Picchu, but like 60% of Peru is covered with the Amazon forest. And it brings up a point that you mentioned earlier about thinking of places as monoliths or having sort of just one singular defining preconception about a place. And I think one of the things that we value about this list as we work on it is we're here to sort of break some of those down. Whether it's thinking of Africa and thinking safari or bush and then us saying, "Actually in Benin city in Nigeria, there's going to be this milestone landmark West African museum that opens in 2025."
You can't talk about Nigeria without talking about Lagos and the fact that it's a really, really dynamic cultural destination. So Lagos is a cultural capital, in its own right. It has plenty of great festivals to mark up on your calendar and plan your travels around. There's the annual art fair, it's a banner event on the cultural calendar. There are really cool music festivals like the International Jazz Festival in April and a Fela Kuti felebration as they call it every October.
LA: Felebration.
MS: So cute.
LA: (Singing). Nevermind.
AM: And so there's plenty happening in Lagos itself and honestly, you could sort of plot your travels to one of these amazing events and not be disappointed.
LA: And we'll have more on music festivals and music heritage coming up.
And now we're back with Arati and Megan on Women Who Travel.
Picking back up, music festivals. Megan, earlier we were talking about Cuba. Sort of impossible to talk about Cuba and Havana without talking about music.
MS: Yeah. I mean in January, so another plan it quick trip, Havana is going to have their annual International Jazz festival and Project Por Amor is run by Cuban-born Adolfo Nadal, and he's planning this itinerary that's really artist-led where you'll get to go to the festival but also have music experiences throughout the country. So I feel like if you want music in Havana, that's the thing to do.
AM: You know where else you can experience music? Marseille. Marseille is actually expecting a bumper crop of musicians in 2025 ranging from Ed Sheeran. Good old Ed.
LA: Wow. Didn't have that one on my bingo card. God, he gets everywhere.
AM: He is everywhere. I hear he's going to be in Bhutan soon. Ed Sheeran to Bruce Springsteen. So lots of concerts.
LA: This is interesting because I was imagining you were going to start talking about thinking of Marseille as this incredibly diverse destination with a huge immigrant community, I was like, "Oh, I wonder what genres of music we're going to be talking about." But what I realize you're onto is the wider trend of people traveling halfway across the world to see some of their favorite artists.
AM: Sometimes you need to play to the gallery, Lale, and a good old Ed Sheeran concert does wonders for the soul.
LA: You haven't seen Ed Sheeran until you've seen him on the stage in Marseille. That's what they say.
AM: But you know what I think it is about this bumper crop of pop stars landing up in Marseille, is that there was so much infrastructure that was built up for the Olympics, that's sort of ready for use. And actually that's a good reason to go there because there's all this great infrastructure, but there's no crowds anymore. Or there will be if everyone follows our guide.
LA: We've run through so many wonderful places in the world. I want to go to all of them. I've already rubbed it in that I've been to a few already. Which of them are you planning to go to or at least are trying to hatch a plan to get to in 2025?
MS: A little one-two combo that would really make me happy is, so we have the top end of Australia, which our colleague Erin Florio went to last year. It's kind of just like the northern top, as Aussie's call it, the top end, the northern bit of Australia that has a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kakadu National Park that just looks like these really remote, sprawling landscapes with trees and slow winding rivers. And I think I would love to go there. I also think it would pair very nicely with Palau, which is also on our list. I remember talking about the photos for Palau and it was so difficult to choose because they're all just like these crazy blue waters and little islands and schools of tropical fish and it looks super wild. So I think I would definitely hop on the Four Seasons Explorer and zip around Palau if someone would send me there.
LA: That sounds luxe.
MS: It does. But there's more attainable spots too.
LA: Arati, what about you?
AM: It's so hard to pick, isn't it? I was waiting to see what Megan would pick. I know there's a couple of places-
MS: This is a game we play every year.
AM: This is a game we play every year and often there's at least a couple of places that we both want to go to and the only way to do it is to go together.
MS: Group trip.
AM: Which I'd be totally down for. But one place that I'm really, really excited about going to is Uganda, in the heart of Africa. There's a whole host of luxe lodges that are opening up that give you unprecedented access to its mist shrouded forests and it's beautiful gorillas and snow-capped mountains even. There is one lodge, I think it's called Padigi Lodge, and the reason why it's very interesting is it's opening on the location of a former Jane Goodall research center. And ever since I was a little kid, I was fascinated by Jane Goodall. And just even having this sort of a few steps removed access to where she lived and studied and researched gorillas would be a dream come true.
LA: I love that. Full circle moment.
AM: Full circle moment.
MS: My bragging moment is that I got to interview Jane Goodall during the pandemic and she was exactly as wonderful as you would expect and think that would be.
LA: I can imagine that. So cool.
AM: I would be a blubbery mess. I think I would just sort of cry.
MS: I probably did, especially given that this was done in 2020. I was surely emotional and raw.
LA: It all sounds amazing. It's a little overwhelming to think of. And it's January. People are probably tightening their budgets a little bit after all of the holiday travel. If someone's listening and they feel like this isn't the year that they're going to make it to a different hemisphere, where can they turn to?
MS: This is a list for dreaming and feeling really inspired, but ultimately we do want to give you places you can go. So last year was the first year we, in addition to this big list, also made a list of the best places to go in every single continent. We've done it again this year. So if you're based in North America, we have a list on our best places to go landing page of the best places to go in North America and the Caribbean. Find somewhere that's closer to home.
AM: And I will say that there's a lot of play on scale on each of these lists, so don't assume that it's going to be the big splashy, fancy spots. It's also sometimes a little town that you can get in your car and drive to. Or sometimes it's a neighborhood. So speaking of accessibility, one of the places on our list is actually quite close to your hometown of London. It is the Sussex.
LA: The Sussex.
AM: I was going to say the Sussexes and I was like, "No, no, no, we're not talking about Prince Harry."
LA: No, not them. Don't make me go see them.
AM: Any plans for going there any anytime soon?
LA: I love Sussex. I mean, I do think you're guilting me into having not visited my parents in a little while.
AM: You said it.
LA: But next time I go home, Sussex is a beautiful place for blustery country walks and good pub lunches. And I have many childhood memories of Brighton, so I will definitely be going there when I go home.
AM: Lovely.
LA: If listeners want to follow along with where you end up in 2025, where can they find you?
AM: So listeners can find me on Instagram @aratimenon, A-R-A-T-I-M-E-N-O-N.
MS: I'm @spurrelly, so S-P-U-R-R-E-L-L-Y.
LA: And follow CN Traveler on Instagram because throughout the year we will be sharing stories about these places.
MS: We actually have a channel on Instagram so you can join it and you can get updates when we share anything about best places to go.
LA: Where can people find the list?
MS: It is cntraveler.com. If you just search Conde Nast Traveler, best places to go 2025.
LA: And then bookmark it.
Guys, this was so good.
AM: Thank you.
MS: Thank you having us.
LA: A lovely way to spend the afternoon.
MS: Appreciate it.
LA: Thank you for listening to Women Who Travel. I'm Lale Arikoglu and you can find me on Instagram, @lalehannah. Our engineers are Jake Lummus, James Yost, Vince Fairchild, and Pran Bandi. The show is mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Jude Kampfner of Corporation for Independent Media is our producer. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer. And Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's Head of Global Audio.
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
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