12 Under-the-Radar Places You Should Travel to Now, Before They Get Popular

There are plenty of places that everyone wants to visit, and for good reason. The Taj Mahal, Paris, all of Italy . . . But there’s a whole rest of the world out there, too, with lots of fantastic destinations that don’t make it onto many travelers’ radars. Ideally, you should visit these places before everyone else hears about them and the masses arrive—and, more important, before the local residents get sick of us travelers. To that end, we interviewed several travel advisors and tour operators to find out what destinations are in that sweet spot now, so that you can experience them before they become popular in the next few years.

Albania

Photo by Johnny Africa/Unsplash

In the next five years, I think Albania will be a place to go, but in the next 10 years it will truly blow up. This is an alternative to the French Riviera. It has the same amazing riviera, but the Albanian Riviera has a fraction of the people who visit. It has all the beautiful nature, the water is just as clear, it has the beaches, it has the cliffs. It could also be an alternative to the Greek islands or the Italian coast. It has a cuisine that’s a mixture of Greek and Georgian. Why now? Have you been to the French Riviera? It’s so crowded. Croatia is just as crowded. Albania is right there. It doesn’t necessarily have all of the luxury hotels yet, but it has some good hotels, and they’re a fraction of the cost.

—Kristin Winkaffe, Winkaffe Global Travel; executive director of Travel for Better Foundation

Chachapoyas, Peru

Photo by Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock

I went on a trip with Big Five Expeditions in 2017 to the Sacred Valley and then to Chachapoyas in northern Peru. It’s a challenge to get to: There are only one or two flights a day from Lima. But once you’re there, there’s an archaeological site called Kuelap [a stone fortress built by the Chachapoyas people in about 600 C.E.]. It’s older than Machu Picchu and is a lookout point on top of a mountain. There’s very little tourism in this area, and you start driving, and all of a sudden there’s a state-of-the-art gondola to get you to the top. It’s made the site accessible, and you don’t have to hike for hours.

It’s an active archaeological site, and it is cool to see it being actively unearthed. It’s a beautiful setting—all these stone rings. It felt very different from Machu Picchu, which is stunning, but no one goes to Kuelap because no one knows about it, and there’s not a lot of infrastructure there, but I think that’s going to be changing. I think people will discover Kuelap as it continues to be excavated. There’s also the huge Gocta Waterfall nearby, with a really cool hike. They didn’t build that gondola for nothing; they’re expecting people to start coming.

—Erin Green, Pique Travel Design

Greenland

Photo by Carsten Snejbjerg

Airlines now have a direct route to Greenland, so that’s really changed things. One of the big trends we’re seeing is that [travelers want something] like a place but less well-known. Greenland is often compared to Iceland in terms of landscape and remoteness—and it has a quantum less tourists than Iceland. We’re going to see and to hear a lot about Greenland the press, which creates its own swell. We launched a trip just recently in the last three to four months, and I think you’ll see more people wanting to go there.

To put some context around it, Iceland drew 2 million visitors last year. Greenland had around 150,000. So I think we will see that number rise, but what is going to constrict it is flight occupancy; there won’t be the same level of flights to Greenland because Iceland is often a route to Europe, so it has more. And as a tour operator, we’re only operating a minimal amount of departures. So I think there will be a steady increase to Greenland, but I don’t think it will be a flood, which is a positive thing. It will grow over time, and that’s where some of the challenges will come in.

—Leigh Barnes, President, the Americas, Intrepid Travel

Laos

Photo by Suthikait Teerawattanaphan/Shutterstock

With the new high-speed train [the Laos-China Railway between Vientiane and Boten on the border with Yunnan, China], it’s getting easier to explore Laos. In the past, itineraries were usually two nights in Luang Prabang on top of Vietnam or Thailand, but now there’s potential to go to Laos for a week to 10 days and dive into the natural beauty and ecotourism opportunities that are easier to get to. [The capital] Vientiane is a little more of a business-focused city, so Luang Prabang and northern Laos are what appeal to our travelers for natural beauty, the temples, the food, the night markets. Vang Vieng is a hot spot for kayaking, hiking, and caves—more of the natural outdoor activities.

Thailand has always been big, and it’s about to be bigger with The White Lotus, and I think people have started to get a taste of Southeast Asia with Thailand or Bali and now are thinking, I loved that part of the world. What can I do that’s different? And the tourism infrastructure [in Laos] is solidifying a little more. The train is interesting . . . and as a tourist, it does really help make the transportation easier. It’s very economical, you’re not on a bumpy road, you cut down on carbon. It will help turn Laos into a destination rather than an add-on, as it’s been in the past.

—Erin Green, Pique Travel Design

Madagascar

Photo by Yasmine Arfaoui/Unsplash

My clients are looking for those places that feel untouched. They want to be immersed, and Madagascar really is that. It is a great spot for nature and wilderness lovers and also for families; the wildlife rivals something like the Galápagos. Obviously it doesn’t have the Darwin history, but it has the lemurs, the chameleons, the whales, the baobab trees. It is a place that feels like . . . if you imagine paradise, Madagascar is what comes into my mind. It has some incredible luxury hotels: Relais & Château properties, Time + Tide is there as well. The country is under the radar now because there are [other] places that are easier to get to, but I think [the crowds are] coming, because they’re starting to work on their infrastructure for tourism; it’s starting to become easier to travel to, and a lot of people have done the big things—they’ve done the Big Five safari, they’ve done South African wine country, and they are looking for something new and different. And Africa as a whole is becoming a lot more accessible to Western travelers.

—Kristin Winkaffe, Winkaffe Global Travel; executive director of Travel for Better Foundation

Oman

Photos by Nathalie Mohadjer

For clients curious about Arabia and really authentic local culture who maybe are not ready or politically prepared to go to Saudi Arabia, there’s Oman. It gives a contrast with somewhere like Dubai or Abu Dhabi, which are extremely commercialized, but here it’s all local Omanis who live there versus so many expats who live in Dubai. And all the guides and most of the hotel staff are Omani and are very welcoming. There are lots of interesting experiences and some of the gorgeous desert camp experiences that people go after in other countries that are super commercial.

—Kelly Torrens, VP of Product, Kensington Tours

Pakistan

Photo by Nataliia Gr/Shutterstock

There’s more tourism going there. We launched tours there, and Pakistan will continue to open up as its safety continues to get better and better. I think it’s an amazing experience, amazing trekking. Some of the scenery is out of this world—and you don’t have the same volume of tourists that you’ll see in other parts of the world.

—Leigh Barnes, President, the Americas, Intrepid Travel

The Pantanal, Brazil

Photo by Miroslav Chytil/Shutterstock (left); Walter Mario Stein/Shutterstock (right)

People think about the Amazon for wildlife, but I hadn’t quite realized the density of wildlife in the Pantanal—and it’s the easiest place to see a jaguar in the world. Birders would be in heaven in the Pantanal too. It’s the [world’s largest tropical] wetland and a UNESCO Conservation Area; it has some unique wildlife lodges you can stay at. People always love wildlife, and in South America, it’s primarily been the Amazon that draws travelers—but this region is less visited. Natural Habitat’s group trip would be a great way to do it; they take a chartered flight and have [wildlife guides]. It’s still hard to get to—but some of the best places are the hardest ones to get to.

—Erin Green, Pique Travel Design

Slovenia

Photo by Julia Nimke

My focus is on sustainable luxury travel. One of the places I’m torn on is Slovenia: I can’t decide if it’s already big or if you have a year or two left until it really blows up. But it’s one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. It’s got the best of Italy and France and Croatia, kind of all in one. My favorite fact about it is that the wine region Goriška Brda is literally right across the border from Italy, and it shares the same soil conditions as Tuscany. But when I went about five years ago, I was the only tourist there. You can sit on a beautiful patio with the owner of a vineyard, sipping his wine while he tells you about all the different varieties and how his grandparents planted the land after the end of Communism. It’s an incredible experience that you cannot have in Tuscany anymore because Tuscany is overcrowded; everything is very commercial. Slovenia also has beautiful mountains for hiking, and it has a river that is so turquoise blue and clear that I thought it was fake when I first saw it. You can do all the adventure sports: white-water rafting, kayaking, rock climbing. And Ljubljana is a really quaint, charming city out of a fairy tale where everything is made of this grand stone in a fantastic architectural style. The eastern side [of the country] has untouched wilderness that you can go out and explore. It’s a really special place, but people are starting to discover it, so you’ve got a year or two.

—Kristin Winkaffe, Winkaffe Global Travel; executive director of Travel for Better Foundation

Uzbekistan

Photo by Rena Effendi

Uzbekistan just introduced a much easier visa system with e-visas, and I think Central Asia as a whole is up and coming. Uzbekistan has amazing cities, and it’s on the former Silk Road, so it has ancient architecture with all the mosques and bazaars and walled cities—that really is kind of magical. It also has a really good train system that makes getting around easy and convenient, and a lot of travel in Central Asia can be difficult, so that’s refreshing.

—Kristin Winkaffe, Winkaffe Global Travel; executive director of Travel for Better Foundation

Wales

Photo by Tomas Marek/Shutterstock

We’re finding that availability and cost is tricky in England, Ireland, and Scotland—but Wales has a lot of the type of offerings that people are looking for in terms of experiences: castle stays, sheep-dog demonstrations, all types of food and beverage experiences, whether it’s whiskey distilleries or cheesemongers. You can find all that in Wales in a compact area for about 60 percent of the cost of Scotland.

—Kelly Torrents, VP of Product, Kensington Tours

West Africa

Photos by Michelle Heimerman

With that United flight going direct to Senegal [from Washington, D.C., starting in May], I think Benin, Togo, and Senegal are going to have a moment in the sun with the availability and the [interest in heritage] tourism. A mixture of those three will be quite cool.

—Leigh Barnes, President, the Americas, Intrepid Travel