The opening of St George’s Hill (358m) to visitors, a steep, grassy climb overlooking the Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat, offers a unique window on the volcanic history of this Caribbean island.
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2026
Too good to miss: Rising Stars
Words by the Wanderlust Team
Dominica & Montserrat
Visitors can now join guided tours on a route that has been closed for the last 30 years – since the eruptions of 1995 that devastated the island – letting you gaze over the exclusion zone and what remains of the old capital, Plymouth, now completely buried in ash. But this isn’t about a tragedy; it’s about how the island was shaped – both its land and its people – and how the community has rebuilt and adapted. And with a new airport in Dominica opening up the region in 2027, the future is looking bright.
Gothenburg, Sweden
Those who know Gothenburg will not be surprised to hear that it has been named the UN Sustainable Lifestyle Hub for 2026.
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Electric trams, bikes and buses hug the city streets, while some 96% of hotels here now have some form of eco-certification, with standouts including the wind-powered Hotel Eggers. Some of the more ambitious schemes include the waterfront park Jubileumsparken, created from reclaimed industrial land, and the Neoclassical mansion of Gunnebo House, whose kitchen is stocked by the estate’s gardens. The latter is a trend now seen across town, where trips to urban farms like Asfaltsträdgården invite you to preview what you might be eating later. It’s a great time to explore a city riding the crest of a green wave.
South Greenland
The arrival of a new airport at Qaqortoq in spring, offering connections to Greenland’s little-seen south via Nuuk, is set to open up a region full of adventures.
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Tiny Qaqortoq is a friendly hub for escapes to the remote Uunartoq Hot Springs, where you can bathe while watching icebergs float by through the steam, or delve into the area’s ancient Norse past at the UNESCO-listed Hvalsey. But the highlight is surely the Tasermiut Fjord, dubbed the ‘Patagonia of the Arctic’, where 1,000m-high granite monoliths and the world’s second-largest ice sheet can be visited from remote wilderness camps deep within the lush fjord.
The Red Sea, Saudi Arabia
For all the impressive cultural sites unveiled so far in Saudi’s tourism push, the Red Sea project remains its showpiece: an archipelago of five-star stays across 30 islands and the north-west coast, offering front-row seats to 2,000km of untouched barrier reef.
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A smattering of stays have opened since 2023, but the first wave of high-end hotels on the region’s new hub, Shura Island, has just emerged, with the solar-powered Red Sea Edition setting the bar for both design and what’s to come. By the end of 2026, ten more should follow, offering a base to explore reefs and islands unseen by many, while new coastal wellness hub AMAALA has also had its first openings. With promises made by its developers to improve the region’s growth of mangroves and other native flora by 30% by 2040, we’re curious to see the project finally taking shape.
