Simon Calder’s top five destinations to discover in 2025

Visit these five enticing places this year before the crowds move in, says our renowned travel correspondent

Get there just in time: that is the strategy for the traveller wishing to make the most of global adventures in 2025.

From a distance, the pace of change in the travel industry is glacial. Freddie Laker and Richard Branson opened up transatlantic travel over 40 years ago; ever since, New York City, Florida and California have been by far the most popular destinations for British tourists. Spain became the top overseas destination for British holidaymakers in 2002 (taking over from France) and will doubtless continue to be for decades to come. Conversely, though I urge you to visit the German North Sea island of Heligoland, its relative inaccessibility means it will remain off the horizons of almost every UK passport holder.

Yet each year there is a crop of destinations that catch the attention of airlines and holiday companies. When they decide to go into a “new” location, they will throw heaps of marketing spend – usually part-funded by the lucky host community – to make sure it is a success. Only rarely do such projects come unstuck: the most notable failure was the attempt to lure British holidaymakers to the budget Caribbean island of San Andres; travel agents did not always make it clear that this was part of then civil war-ravaged Colombia, and their clients came home with a combined total of nine notifiable diseases during a single season.

Far more likely, though, is that the British public will come to whatever the travel firms build – just ask the tourism businesses in Ohrid, North Macedonia. This landlocked Balkan nation may struggle to live up to its description as “Lake Como on the cheap” but there are enough bargain-seekers to fill two flights a week from Manchester each summer.

My recommendations for 2025 are not quite “last chance to see” – but they are all locations that are soon to become mainstream, and are best enjoyed in relatively quiet solitude.

Tbilisi, Georgia

Top shot: Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, has a superb location (Simon Calder)

You wait 12 years for British Airways to return to the Georgian capital from Heathrow, and then suddenly easyJet turns up as well. From the end of March (corresponding with the start of “summer”, at least in aviationland), the most alluring of the Caucasus capitals will be ultra accessible – including on a midday plane from Luton.

Tbilisi has a superb natural setting beneath the mountains and astride the Kura River – the main waterway through Georgia. The capital has a medieval old town, part of a fascinating repertoire of architecture that also includes Art Nouveau and Soviet-era structures. Tbilisi is also an excellent base for exploring the east of Georgia, including the magnificent monastery at Mtskheta to the north and the fascinating city of Gori – Stalin’s hometown – to the west.

Poros, Greece

Waterside wandering: Poros is only 500 metres from the Greek mainland (Charlotte Hindle)

This lovely island, just 500 metres off the east coast of the Peloponnese, enjoys the “insulation factor” that benefits every Greek isle without a big airport. The need to take a ferry hugely reduces the appeal to many holidaymakers. Yet Poros is different – accessible by fast ferry from Athens’s port, Piraeus, in just 75 minutes.

Before other islands constructed airports for the jet age, the pine-clad island with uncrowded beaches and a preposterously pretty main town was in the brochures for British holiday firms. It returns for the summer of 2025 with Jet2, the UK’s biggest holiday company. An early visit will brighten your spring. It also provides easy access to the almost-island of Methana to the north, which is mountainous and untamed.

Rotterdam, the Netherlands

City skyline: Rotterdam has impressive late 20th-century architecture (Simon Calder)

For far too long, Rotterdam has been in the shadow of Amsterdam. But on 16 May, the latest addition to its stunning city skyline will open. In a theatrically transformed structure (once part of the world’s biggest warehouse) in the Katendrecht district, Fenix promises to be: “The first museum in the world that tells stories of migration through art.”

It will surely be only a matter of months before UK city-break takers realise how well connected Rotterdam is with the UK: from Hull by P&O Ferries; from Harwich on Stena Line; and from London St Pancras via Eurostar, as well as British Airways flights from London City.

Durres, Albania

Bay watch: the seaside at Durres in Albania (Simon Calder)

Tirana is now firmly on the city break map, thanks to frequent links from airports across the UK. But the smart traveller who touches down at Mother Teresa international airport heads west, not east – to the coastal city of Durres. It boasts Roman remains, a decent beach and many appetising restaurants at implausibly low prices.

You can also learn about the secret history of Albanian tourism at a new attraction, Peeping Tourists Museum, which reveals how holidaymakers who made it to the reclusive republic when it was under brutal communist control were spied upon. I predict that at least one giant tour operator – possibly Tui – will move into Albania at scale in 2026.

Algiers, Algeria

Under tourism: a street scene in Algiers (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Quite apart from giving you a possible edge in a pub quiz (“What’s the largest country in Africa?”), a visit right now to the Algerian capital will reveal a big African city with almost no tourists. “La Blanche” has a superb harbour, an ancient (and Unesco-listed) kasbah, colonial architecture and gardens from the period of French rule, the impressive National Museum of Antiquities, and much more. Furthermore, an efficient modern metro links many of the main sites.

Above all, most of the people you encounter are friendly and welcoming. Some essential tourist pleasures, such as a drink at a waterfront cafe, remain thin on the ground. But with visas now available on arrival, providing you have set up a trip with a tour operator, and new cheap flights for 2025 from London Stansted, this is the year to discover the North African antidote to overcrowded Marrakech.

Simon Calder’s travel podcast on the best city breaks for 2025