There will be plenty of events worth traveling for in 2026. The Winter Olympics are coming to Italy in February, the FIFA World Cup will sweep across North America in June and in July, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday.

But alongside those calendar highlights, there are plenty of other reasons to pack a bag and hop on a plane—whether it’s to dine at the latest culinary cathedral or see a dazzling museum exhibition.

From Greece to Grenada, here are Forbes Travel Guide’s 20 top places to travel in 2026:

Abu Dhabi has long been the cultural capital of the UAE. In the Saadiyat Cultural District, buildings like the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s floating starry dome and the new falcon-winged Zayed National Museum are just as noteworthy as the treasures inside them. While art lovers await the opening of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi next year, travelers can peruse new destinations, including the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and the digital art museum TeamLab Phenomena. The area also has a Five-Star hotel, The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort.

The most popular destination in the Turkish Riviera draws travelers seeking relaxation along its warm turquoise waters. Over in Kemer, luxurious all-inclusive resorts also deliver. Amid pine forests, the sleek all-suite Maxx Royal Kemer Resort has six pools and three beaches. Regnum Carya entices with a pristine coastline, seven pools and 557 rooms. And both resorts have a waterpark for families.

One of the hottest destinations for 2026 is the frozen continent. Sail there in style aboard expedition ships like Ponant Le Commandant Charcot, a 245-passenger polar icebreaker (which made FTG’s 2025 Edge List for adventure travel) with an Alain Ducasse restaurant. Silversea will help passengers ease into the voyage with its first hotel, The Cormorant at 55 South, opening in Puerto Williams, Chile, in 2026. The world’s southernmost hotel will be the gateway for Silversea’s luxurious Antarctic ships, like the all-suite Silver Endeavor.

Croatia continues its tourism boom, climbing to the fifth most popular global destination, according to the 2026 Virtuoso Luxe Travel Report. It’s no wonder—the Eastern European country has everything from Dubrovnik’s well-preserved Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture to Hvar’s sun-splashed shores. See the island aboard Four Seasons I—the hotel company’s first yacht will debut in the spring with voyages along the Dalmatian Coast. Helmed by cruise trailblazer Captain Kate McCue, the vessel will include the Funnel Suite with a showstopping floor-to-ceiling wraparound curved-glass window.

If travelers want to catch some World Cup action next summer, Dallas will stage more games than any of the 16 host cities. But there’s plenty more going on around town: pop into the new National Juneteenth Museum, which honors stories of freedom, and the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, an underrated........

© Forbes