In January 2005, The New York Times published the first version of its “Places to Go” list, with suggestions for dozens of voyages for people itching for new adventures.
The list that publishes next week will mark the 20th anniversary of the list (the index varied in length and name before, in 2014, settling in at “52 Places to Go,” in line with the weeks of the year). Over these last two decades, travel has been dramatically transformed. In 2023, there were 1.3 billion international arrivals worldwide, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. That number in 2005: 806 million.
A traveler consulting our 2005 list had no smartphone, no Instagram, no Google Maps. Most of them saw the list in the printed paper. They may well have been carrying traveler’s checks (or, at the very least, currency). “Overtourism” and “sustainability” were not part of the conversation. Airbnb was not yet a company, let alone a verb.
What hasn’t changed? Each year, the central question is, Why now? Why should a destination be included this year? Is there an exciting event? A big anniversary? New infrastructure, new flights, a new atmosphere? Sometimes the absence of a destination like China, which last made the list in 2020, and Russia, which last appeared in 2019, is as telling as what’s made it on.
We have highlighted hotel and museum openings across Europe, in the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa; rare natural occurrences like eclipses; and international gatherings like the Olympics. We have included places most of us couldn’t really get to, like “Space” in 2012. On occasion, a destination prompted debates among readers, like the 2017 inclusion of the South Bronx.
Predictions can go awry: In 2019, we chose Los Angeles, where the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was supposed to make its debut. It ended up opening in 2021. In 2020, Egypt made the list because the Grand Egyptian Museum was about to open (it partly opened in October 2024). Sometimes the list is sadly accurate: In 2019, we included Hong Kong, noting that “dazzling new infrastructure makes travel easier but could threaten independence.” By the time Sebastian Modak, that year’s 52 Places Traveler, who was supposed to visit all the places on our list, made it there, the city was engulfed in protests, and today that independence has been sharply curtailed by Beijing.
In total, we’ve recommended 145 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe. We do choose a No. 1 destination, but the others are not ranked. We’ve covered all seven continents, with Antarctica making it onto the 2010 and 2012 lists. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States has appeared the most: 155 times. Italy has appeared 29 times and France has been on 28 times. There are 52 countries we have never recommended. In 2021, “The World” made the list as people eagerly awaited vaccines and a resurgence of travel after the pandemic.
Countries have emerged from conflict as others were engulfed by it; places like New Orleans and Morocco have recovered from natural disasters; and a global pandemic that halted travel in its tracks has given way to a recovery that some called “revenge travel.”
Here, a look at the 20-year journey of the “Places to Go” list.
20 Years Later, a Look at The New York Times’ 52 Places to Go
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