The Best Places to Go in Europe in 2025

17.11.2024 - 09:51 / cntraveler.com / Sarah Allard / Sarah James

As we edge closer to the end of each year, we begin to look. What are the best places to go in Europe in 2025? In essence, what are the destinations we’re most looking forward to visiting (and recommending to you, our fellow travelers) for the following 12 months? We always ask our expert contributors from all four corners of the globe to nominate the spots that are on the up—the places that are on their radar thanks to a flock of hotel openings, major cultural moments, new flight routes, or concerted conservation efforts taking root. These nominations make up the Best Places to Go in 2025—the places worthy of your precious annual leave and hard-earned spending money.

This year, in addition to turning our gaze to global destinations in the Best Places to Go in the World in 2025, we’re also looking to the spots that are making waves on each continent right now. This list is an edit of Europe's countries, regions, cities, and neighborhoods that are deserving of your time and attention next year.

All 11 destinations are places we’re keeping a keen eye on right now: from new hotel openings in Marseille to celebrations of musical legends in Vienna, and Geneva taking center stage in the global sporting arena. Happy travels. —Sarah Allard and Sarah James

This is part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2025—find more travel inspiration here.

Go for: fine wines, great nature, and a warm welcome back after the flood

In July 2021, large parts of the Ahr Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate were destroyed. The gently babbling Ahr turned into a raging river—with floods, flash floods, and tidal waves resulting in widespread tragedy. But now, visitors are welcome again, as demonstrated by the slogan “We AHR open”—even if the Ahr Valley is not yet fully rebuilt. The train that cut through the valley will run again at the end of 2025, connecting its villages with a 22-mile-long, picturesque red wine hiking trail. The trail leads through the most beautiful terraces and steep slopes of the wine-growing region and offers numerous places to stop for a Pinot Noir, which, together with Blanc de Noir, is the region’s speciality. Be sure to try it at the wineries of Jean Stodden, Meyer-Näkel, and the wine-growers cooperative, Mayschoss.

Numerous wine growers, restaurateurs, and hoteliers have not only taken the reconstruction of the region into their own hands but also its further development. They have seen opportunities, invested, worked tirelessly, and developed new, modern concepts. The Sustainable Tourism Concept 2025 is the joint result of all those who have already felt the effects of climate change. Most of these projects will only be initiated in 2025—after which you can watch them develop—but some of the