1 JANUARY 2017 · 6:00AM
From the charms of Chile to glorious Granada and the beaches of Bermuda, our experts select the 20 best destinations to visit in the coming months.
1. Chile
If Brazil owned South American travel last year, Chile takes over for 2017. Slowly, methodically, the continent’s most overlooked wonderland has become arguably its most desirable adventure tourism destination – precisely the gong it picked up at last year’s World Travel Awards.
And why? Because it’s a whopping 2,650 miles long, yet never more than 150 miles wide – and is packed with ecosystems, biodiversity, topographies. It has 36 national parks, some of the most extreme environments on Earth, from deserts to fjords to subpolar islands, and the roads and footpaths and necessary infrastructure to make these accessible.
Non-stop flights to Chile start in 2017
The major novelty for 2017 is a new British Airways flight from Heathrow, non-stop, four times a week. It takes 14 hours and 40 minutes to get there, but it still speeds up and smoothes the journey to Santiago.
Is Santiago the coolest city in South America?The capital is awash with new boutique hotels – Luciano K and Magnolia are the latest – and fine dining, including four restaurants in the influential San Pellegrino Top 50 ranking for 2016. Fourth-placed Boragó was well above any in Buenos Aires.
Chile’s wine tourism scene is the most developed south of Napa, with the Maule Valley opening up to visitors with a smart new five-room boutique hotel at Casa Bouchon.
Santiago CREDIT: ALAMY
View our best luxury holidays in South AmericaUrban pleasures sorted, it’s time to head for extremes: the Atacama Desert in the north, where there are new hot-air balloon flights over the salt lakes; and Patagonia, where escapists can set off on a slow drive along Aysén’s lonely Southern Highway and stay at Parque Patagonia, Chile’s newest, and least overcrowded, protected area. (Chris Moss)
How to go
British Airways flights between London Heathrow and Santiago cost from about ￡740 return (
ba.com); a two-week trip to Chile, including Santiago, self-drive in Aysén, stay at Tierra Atacama, and a balloon flight over the desert, flying from most UK airports in February 2017, costs ￡5,900 a head with Audley Travel (01993 838600;
audleytravel.com). For more information see
chile.travel.
View our best escorted tours of South America2. Canada
It’s a big year in a big country as 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, the moment Canada became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire – a country, in other words. Today, although it plays second fiddle to Russia in terms of size, it’s hard to think of a country more beautiful or more varied – a good reason to visit at any time, let alone a year that promises to be one long, nationwide birthday party.
The big landscapes – the Canadian Rockies – are well known. Less celebrated, perhaps, is the splendour of the scenery elsewhere. Pockets of British Columbia, for example, contain desert (around Osoyoos) and warm-wintered enclaves of vines and olives (the Okanagan). On the west coast the Inside Passage – a labyrinth of fjords and islands – features North America’s finest seascapes. Alberta’s prairies contain eerie badlands (at Drumheller); the autumn colours of New Brunswick’s forests are the equal of anything in New England; and Prince Edward Island contains some of the loveliest pastoral countryside on Earth. And over it all arches the vast, ethereal beauty of the Canadian Arctic, hundreds – thousands – of miles of sublime, windswept nothing.
Why you should visit Canada in 2017
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Big landscapes and big distances, of course, make for big journeys. By road Canada offers, among other great drives, the Icefields Parkway through the heart of the Rockies and the Alaska Highway north towards the Yukon and the old goldfields of the Klondike. By train there’s the epic Trans-Canada route or the shorter but more spectacular trips between Jasper and Prince Rupert or across the tundra from Winnipeg to Churchill on Hudson Bay.
Beyond the landscape are cities worthy of visits in their own right. Vancouver, often rated one of the world’s most liveable cities, and Montreal, a vibrant francophone enclave, are my favourites, but historic Quebec, unsung Victoria and dynamic Toronto are also compelling. (Tim Jepson)
How to go
Audley Travel (01993 838700;
audleytravel.com) can tailor-make trips across Canada. A nine-day, self-drive Highlights of Canada’s West tour, taking in Vancouver and the Rockies, costs from ￡2,040 per person, including flights from a choice of six UK airports. Visit
canada.pch.gc.cafor details of “Canada 150” events.
View our best escorted tours of Canada3. Chandigarh, India
What an intriguing mix of innovation and tradition. In northern India the bold, modernist architecture of Chandigarh has been awarded classic status, while just outside this striking city a brand-new hotel celebrates Rajput and Mughal heritage with quite some panache.
One of Le Corbusier''s creations in the Indian city CREDIT: ALAMY
Chandigarh is one of the world’s most remarkable urban creations; a purpose-built city designed by Le Corbusier in the Fifties. After Partition in 1947, India’s state of Punjab needed a new capital – Lahore having been ceded to Pakistan. So prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned the great Swiss-French exponent of modernism to devise a completely new city expressive of the country’s faith in the future. The result is a masterpiece in concrete – and green spaces too. It’s a very liveable place loved locally for its wide avenues and parks.
How Le Corbusier changed the worldIn October its government buildings, the Capitol Complex, were among a number of Le Corbusier’s finest works worldwide to join Unesco’s World Heritage list. Pretty much simultaneously, the Oberoi group was adding final details to a new resort of great splendour, which is set on the edge of 8,000-acre Siswan Forest reserve, about half an hour’s drive from the city centre.
Formally opening next month , The Oberoi Sukhvilas offers a modern take on time-honoured Indian palace life. The landscaping is superb, with fountains and reflective pools, courtyards and colonnades. There’s a bar adorned with warrior frescoes, and there are 60 sumptuous bedrooms in a choice of villas, tents or suites. Explore the reserve with an on-hand naturalist then marvel at meticulously planned Chandigarh, from grand, naturally air-conditioned civic buildings to manhole covers etched with maps of the city. (Harriet O’Brien)
View our best escorted tours of Germany Five hundred years on, Luther’s theologocial breakthrough is being marked in towns and cities across Germany including Berlin, Nuremberg and of course Wittenberg itself, a lovely town on the River Elbe. As part of Wittenburg 2017 Lutherhaus will host exhibitions from April 13 to July 2 and August 3 to November 5, 2017 (
martinluther.de) and a panorama called Luther 1517 by artist Yadegar Asisi depicting the events that took place in Wittenberg 1517 is now on display in a specially-built rotunda in the old part of the city (tickets cost €11/￡9.50). Celebrations will culminate in a Reformation Festival on October 31 with festive church services, exhibitions, lectures and concerts. (Jane Archer)
How to go
Saga has a 10-night 500th anniversary voyage from Wittenberg to Amsterdam that starts with a tour of sites associated with Martin Luther (from ￡1,449 per person departing May 21, 2017;
travel.saga.co.uk). Viking River Cruises’ Elegant Elbe voyages bookend six days on the river with two nights in each of Berlin and Prague. A night in Wittenberg includes a tour of Luther’s house and St Marien’s Church, where he preached (from ￡2,595 per person departing on July 3, 2017;
vikingcruises.com). French line CroisiEurope will launch second ship on the Elbe in 2018. On sale through Noble Caledonia the sailings include a half-day tour of Wittenberg (From ￡2,595 per person departing on June 13, 2017;
noble-caledonia.co.uk). All prices include flights. More information:
www.lutherstadt-wittenberg.de/en/ 17. San Francisco, United States
Back in 1967, a generation of baby boomers responded to a siren call emanating from the San Francisco Bay Area. The tiny district of Haight-Ashbury, abutting Golden Gate Park, had declared itself the centre of an evolution in human consciousness. A baffled mass media reported bizarre happenings: sexual licence, strange hairstyles and mind-altering drugs. The censorious coverage introduced the word “hippie” to the world and had the unintended effect of inspiring tens of thousands of young people to descend on the city for the Summer of Love. The meaning of that moment is likely to be debated as long and rancorously as the Trump Presidency or Bob Dylan’s fitness for the Nobel Prize.
San Francisco CREDIT: ALAMY
This summer, San Francisco is marking the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love with a huge array of events: major exhibitions on the art of the period, concerts and street theatre. This is all in addition to the walking tours, bus tours and residual bohemians that already commemorate the city’s flower-power heritage. The details of what’s happening are still being confirmed, but 2017 will be a fascinating time to be in San Francisco, to reflect on the city’s past, the hope and illusions of the Sixties, and to celebrate the music and art that the era produced.
Today San Francisco is the centre of a different kind of revolution: its hi-tech industry dominates the world. But it still has a claim to be America’s most charming, most beautiful, most literate city. Beyond Haight-Ashbury, there are its extraordinary Chinatown, the historic Mission District, and the neighbourhood of North Beach that was co-opted by the Beat Generation. If all that weren’t enough, the wine country of Sonoma and Napa Valley is barely an hour’s drive to the north. (Marcel Theroux)
How to go
Virgin Atlantic (
virginatlantic.com) flies non-stop to San Francisco from London Heathrow from ￡664 return. From summer 2017, the airline is adding three flights a week from Manchester.
San Francisco is home to the headquarters of Airbnb, but the analogue traveller will also feel at home at Hotel Zeppelin on Post Street (
telegraph.co.uk/tt-hotelzeppelin).
For what’s happening when, see
sftravel.com/summer-love-2017.
18. Oman
Embracing modernisation while preserving the past is no easy task, but it’s something that Oman, on the south-east corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is managing with aplomb. While neighbouring Dubai favours man-made marvels and eye-popping luxury, the Sultanate remains a heady blend of ancient traditions, humble hospitality and spectacular scenery, with excellent infrastructure to boot.
The low-key capital, Muscat, is a jumble of whitewashed low-rise buildings punctuated by minarets and backed by craggy mountains. Two hours’ drive away, Jabal Al Akhdar (Green Mountain) rises nearly 10,000ft at its peak and is famed for its damask roses. The interior desert, part of the fabled Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter) that covers a third of the peninsula, is wild and untamed, while the unspoilt coastline stretches some thousand miles. In the south, the summer khareef (monsoon) turns Salalah, once the centre of the ancient frankincense trade, gloriously green.
Adding to its charms, in 2017 Oman will be even easier to access. On April 1, Oman Air will launch daily flights from Manchester to Muscat, following the introduction last year of a second daily Heathrow service. British Airways recently began direct flights between Heathrow and Muscat, eliminating a stop-off in Abu Dhabi. The arrival of two Anantara resorts – on the edge of a canyon in Jabal Al Akhdar and by the beach in subtropical Salalah – provides compelling reasons for visitors to venture further afield. It’s not the only big name to make its debut. Kempinski is set to take up residence near the Greg Norman-designed Almouj golf course in Muscat, while Jumeirah will open a spa resort in a secluded cove at the other end of town. Go now, before word really gets out. (Lara Brunt)
How to go
Seven nights, half board, at Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar, flying from Heathrow, costs from ￡1,799 a head with British Airways Holidays (0344 493 0787;
ba.com/holidays). More information:
omantourism.gov.om.
19. Lech, Austria
Lech in Austria has always had a lot going for it, appealing to the rich and famous with patrons including Diana, Princess of Wales, the Dutch royal family and Princess Caroline of Monaco. The town is the epitome of Alpine charm, complete with ancient timber chalets, a meandering river and onion-domed church. In the car-free satellite of Oberlech, 200m above Lech (1450m) and connected by lift, there is extensive ski-in/ski out accommodation. Lech’s snow record is exceptional, receiving on average, more than 7m a year while the nearby village of Zürs, with which it shares its slopes, receives nearly 12m. Its largely intermediate runs are well groomed and the Lech Zürs ski area doubled in size in 2013 when a new lift linked Lech with the Warth-Schr?cken ski area.
The only real niggle with this Vorarlberg resort was accessing the ski area of neighbouring St Anton, in Tirol, covered by the same lift pass. Until now you could only get from one to the other by bus or taxi. This issue has now been addressed. Thanks to a massive investment of ￡37.5m in four new lifts, the areas are connected for this season, creating the largest lift-linked ski area in Austria (the Arlberg), with 87 lifts and 305km of runs. Of the four new gondolas, the key linking lifts will be the Flexenbahn from Rauz in the St Anton ski area and the Trittkopfbahn 1 from Zürs, which meet on the ridge between the resorts. Lech is also to benefit from an upgraded cable-car to Oberlech. The new cabins will carry 80 people rather than the existing 32, eliminating queues and giving more room to transport luggage. (Henry Druce)
The mountains near Lech
View our best luxury holidays in AustriaView our best luxury Danube river cruises How to go
Crystal Ski Holidays (020 8939 0726;
crystalski.co.uk) offers packages at the four-star Hotel Gotthard in Lech from ￡1,320 per person for seven nights half-board including flights and transfers.
20. Liuwa, Zambia
Make this the year to visit one of Africa’s most remote national parks. Liuwa is a part of the upper Zambezi floodplains in Zambia’s wild Western Province. As the annual floods recede, they leave behind a flower-strewn wilderness as yet barely touched by tourism: one of the few places in the world where you can look in any direction and see nothing but an unbroken horizon of grass.
In places, the plains are stippled with wooded islands and water-filled pans that attract endangered wattled cranes and black-winged pratincoles in the tens of thousands. You can expect to see more than 300 species including pelicans, bustards and numerous birds of prey. But Liuwa is best known as the home of Africa’s second-largest wildebeest migration. Blue wildebeest – at least 43,000 of them – are joined every year by herds of zebra, tsessebe and lechwe antelopes, pursued by cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas and a handful of lions. As a spectacle it may not match the Serengeti, but you will have it all to yourself.
Liuwa has been a national park since 1972, but getting there, allied to a lack of accommodation, has always been a challenge – until African Parks arrived on the scene. The result is Mambeti, a safari lodge with six en-suite villas on raised decks beside the upper Munde Stream, an oasis of luxury in the heart of the plains with access by charter flights from Livingstone. (Brian Jackman)
