Nov 20, 2024 • 8 min read
04.11.2024 - 23:39 / cntraveler.com
Greenland’s new international airport opens in the capital of Nuuk on November 28, making the Arctic island more accessible than ever. But for the people of Greenland, it’s about more than adding global flight routes—it’s a signal that their historically isolated home is now officially open for tourism.
It’s a major shift for the world’s least densely populated nation, 80% of which is covered by one of Earth’s two remaining ice sheets. The autonomous Danish territory, called “Kalaallit Nunaat” in Greenlandic, is home to around 56,000 people—around the same population as Bozeman, Montana.
Following 40-plus years of planning and debates, Greenland has invested DKK5 billion ($720 million USD) into building three new international airports that will expand on or replace existing terminals, whose runways are too short to handle large passenger planes. This November, the first one opens in Nuuk. An additional two airports, located in Ilulissat (the country’s ‘tourism capital’ in western Greenland), and Qaqortoq in South Greenland, are slated to open by the end of 2026.
Travel in Greenland has always been logistically taxing: the country has just 56 miles of paved roads across its entire 830,000 square miles and no drivable routes exist at all between settlements and towns, meaning transport is primarily by boat, plane, or helicopter. The new airport in Nuuk puts the capital city at the heart of transit links in the country; previously, international travelers had to fly into Kangerlussuaq, an old US air base located in the center of the west coast, and then transfer to a smaller plane for any onward travel.
Designed by the Nordic architecture firm Zeso, the new Nuuk airport reflects the rocky environment around the city.
The newly constructed Nuuk airport has already resulted in airlines adding flight routes to and from Greenland. The first was inaugurated this summer: a direct Air Greenland flight from Nuuk to Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut in Arctic Canada—linking two of the Arctic region’s Inuit communities who otherwise had to take a 36-hour flight via Europe. The seasonal route has been renewed for 2025 and is expected to run from June to October.
In major news for American travelers, United Airlines recently announced that it will be launching twice-weekly service between Newark, New Jersey and Nuuk starting on June 14—making it the only carrier to fly direct between the US and Greenland. The nonstop flight will be shortly over four hours long.
Starting June 27, Denmark’s flag carrier SAS will offer direct flights between Copenhagen and Nuuk during the peak summer season.
The new airports will continue to run existing routes from Air Greenland and Icelandair to Copenhagen and Reykjavik, Iceland, with
Nov 20, 2024 • 8 min read
A record-setting nearly 80 million Americans are set to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday this year, packing roads across the country. But while traffic may be unavoidable, leaving on certain days is worse than others.
Millions of travelers are expected to take to the skies for Thanksgiving, leading to record-breaking numbers and busy airports.
Even six or seven years ago, the whispers about Lanzarote still came with an element of implied surprise. “It's actually really cool,” I remember a photographer friend telling me before I went with my partner in 2018. We ended up staying among the palms and black-ash vineyards at Finca Malvasia, part of the first generation of cool boutique hotels, and falling for the island's big skies, duotone volcanic landscapes, and singular brand of nature-facing modernism.
To arrive at our list of the Best Places to Go in North America and the Caribbean in 2025, we painted with the broadest strokes possible. Quite literally, because these destinations test the physical bounds of the region. From Alberta to Cuba, and Denver to Greenland (which, yes, is technically part of North America), we’ve left no possibility unturned. Within this wide geographical stretch, there’s also a diversity of travel inspiration—from nature explorations to food and wine trails and cultural immersions. In Alaska, where the much-loved Glacier Bay National Park celebrates 100 years of being made a national monument, Native-run adventures abound on Kodiak Island, where small groups of visitors can share space with the largest subspecies of brown bear in the world. In Canada’s Banff and Lake Louise, a sprawling new wellness center at a beloved Canadian Rockies hotel will offer health and vitality alongside dazzling views. Out and away in Greenland, new access to parts previously untrammeled means more visitors can enjoy its majestic fjords and incandescent northern lights from land and sea. If that doesn’t feel soaring enough, there’s Space Coast, Florida, where you can claim your spot to witness historic rocket launches (and sample more earthly adventures like kayaking through its bioluminescent waters). It’s not all space travel and remote landscapes. If you’re drawn to more intimate experiences, perhaps you’ll consider Barbuda: the 62-square-mile gem in the eastern Caribbean Sea will come alive with fresh energy (there’s also a new Nobu Beach Inn arriving) as its airport reopens after the devastation of 2017’s Hurricane Irma. Or maybe Alexander Valley, California—where the establishment of a new wine region is underway—calls out to you, for Cabernet Sauvignons that rival the best of ‘em and gastronomic delights that range from Michelin-star meals to family-style spreads. In the end, whatever catches your fancy, we hope that you’ll bookmark this list, and use it to plan where you’ll visit in North America and the Caribbean in 2025. See you out there! —Arati Menon
I knew early on that I wanted to front-load my travels — to see the world while I had the freedom and energy instead of waiting until retirement.
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Determining the best places to go in 2025 was no easy task. After all, most of our readers suffer from the same affliction we do: an insatiable desire to go everywhere, see everything, and be dazzled by the world’s rich and varied contours. Treating a new year as a blank slate for fresh adventures is overwhelming then, no matter how tattered our passports.
Nov 11, 2024 • 3 min read
It's that time of year when white-sand beaches, palm-studded resorts, and cruise ships that gleam against turquoise waters start to sound pretty damn fine. We've got all that for you here, plus a few surprises, to inspire your next vacation to the world's best place for soaking up the winter sun.