Miami Beach, USA
For a while, the city of Miami has been getting all the heat (check out our guide to on how to do downtown right), but 2026 is set to be the year Miami Beach roars back. In March, Art Deco hotel the Delano will reopen following a major renovation, and its legendary pool will once again be one of the places to be seen in the city.
Also new to the beach is another reimagined Art Deco beauty in the form of Le Particulier, which opened in late 2025. All powder pinks and ’50s palm prints, it perfectly captures the easy-breezy style of the neighbourhood. Oh, and the beach is the best base for the World Cup: Miami is hosting seven games including a quarter-final and the third-place match.
Adelaide, Australia
South Australia’s under-visited capital is looking like it might be Australasia’s breakout star in 2026. The area around the city’s much-loved Central Market is getting a facelift and there are new hotels popping up everywhere you look, including an outpost of the Treehouse group –famed for its irreverent design. Ten years on from its major renovation, the Adelaide Oval remains one of the world’s prettiest sporting venues, and an amazing place to experience the cut and thrust of Aussie rules.
Beyond the city, in the Adelaide Hills, a new gallery is being built to house the work of father-and-daughter art-world superstars Hans and Nora Heysen, another major draw for a region that already has some of the country’s most beautiful vineyards.
Oaxaca, Mexico
Mexico’s southern belle is having a bit of a moment. The state’s capital, Oaxaca de Juárez, has always been one of the country’s major draws with its Zapotec heritage, incredible food and magnificent mezcal, but the region’s epically beautiful Pacific coastline has always flown under the radar a little. Visitors tend to be put off by the hairpin bends on the roads through the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, which separate it from the rest of the country.
These days, though, there are more flights into Puerto Escondido and Huatulco, and savvy travellers are flocking to the state’s beaches with their incredible surf breaks and stack of seriously on-point new hotels, including Hotel Humano in La Punta Zicatela and La Valise Mazunte near the surf town of Mazunte.
Northumberland, UK
How long until Northumberland finally takes its place at the top table – alongside the Lakes, the Peaks, the Cotswolds and Cornwall – as one of England’s most visited destinations? It’s got everything: epic empty beaches, world-renowned Roman ruins, heather covered hills and one of the country’s great walks in the coastal path.
Base yourself in Alnwick, which is, as our founder Oliver Spencer puts it, ‘everything you could possibly want from an English market town’. It’s got great pubs – not least the Adam and Eve, with its farm-to-table Sunday roasts – and, as of last year, a fantastic new hotel in the Bailiffgate, which sits on the doorstep of the Duke of Northumberland’s stunning castle.
Bavaria, Germany
Germany’s Free State stands alone. Sure, it hits all the Alpine high notes: fairytale castles, pristine lakes, abundant lederhosen. But it’s also weirder than that. Wolves and Eurasian lynx stalk the forests and in the remoter regions there are wild pagan festivals like Berchtesgaden’s Buttnmandllauf, which sees the town’s unmarried men running amok, dressed up in bushels of hay.
There are plenty of reasons to visit in 2026 – not least the 150th anniversary of Bayreuth’s annual Wagner festival, which will see the town host 150 events commemorating the great composer. No trip would be complete without a couple of days in Munich where hip Irish hoteliers, the Dean Group, are planning to open an outpost this year, and the food scene is on the up, as local boy Hermes Gehnen explains.
Coimbra, Portugal
For a while, it was all about Lisbon. Then Porto had a moment as the in-the-know-gang’s destination of choice. Will 2026 be Coimbra’s year in the sun? The Moorish-inflected, Unesco-listed university city was the country’s capital in the medieval period, and you get a great sense of its storied history walking around its tight-packed, atmospheric streets.
Its location, in central Portugal, makes it a great base to explore the region’s surf-friendly beaches and the majesty of its interior. The mountainous massif of the Serra da Estrela Nature Park is a couple of hours’ drive and, closer to the city, the forests are dotted with ruined castles and waterfalls. The hip place to stay – if you’re young, at least – is the Zero Box Lodge, a 1930s garage that has been fitted out with pod-style wooden boxes, in which you can sleep for as little as £42.50.
David Annand is editorial director of Secret Trips
