ByNational Geographic Staff
Published January 30, 2024
For our annual Best of the World list, National Geographic’s global community of editors, writers, photographers, and explorers share their picks for the top museums, festivals, and other cultural spots and experiences worth a trip this year. From Morocco to Mongolia and New Orleans to New Zealand, these places illuminate and immerse you in traditions, communities, and history—and inspire you to dig deeper.
U.S. & Canada
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Fans of the Bard will find the world’s largest collection of Shakespeareana at this newly renovated and expanded museum and library reopening in June. Located in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the Folger has more First Folios—the rare 1623 book containing all of Shakespeare’s plays—than anywhere else in the world (82, in fact). An Elizabethan-style stage presents both classic and new works (such as Mohegan playwright-performer Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong February 15 to March 10). Newly accessible entrances lead to interactive exhibits and a garden planted with rosemary, lavender, and other plants mentioned in Will’s works.
National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
The National WWII Museum’s new Liberation Pavilion—the campus’s final permanent exhibit hall—focuses on the end of the war, the Holocaust, and the postwar years of reckoning and rebuilding. Visitors can step into re-creations of the secret annex in Amsterdam where Anne Frank’s family lived or a salt mine where the Monuments Men and Women uncovered treasured works of art hidden by the Nazis. Michael Bell, an executive director at the museum’s Institute for War and Democracy, says he hopes visitors leave with a better understanding of “the immense human sacrifices that paved the way for peace and postwar prosperity.”
NorEste Trail, Puerto Rico
An hour’s drive east of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s first backpacking path, the NorEste Trail, lets visitors “hike in a rainforest, be at a mountain peak in the clouds, and go to the beach, all in the same day,” El Yunque forest supervisor Keenan Adams told Nat Geo. Organizations like Love in Motion connect hikers with local culture through resident-led wellness experiences and family-owned traditional food stalls along the 40-mile route.
Canadian Canoe Museum, Ontario, Canada
One of the best things about visiting the world’s largest collection of canoes and kayaks? You can actually paddle up to it. The sleek, boat-shaped facility, which has its grand opening in May, is located lakeside in Peterborough (about 80 miles from Toronto by car). After goggling at the museum’s more than 600 watercraft or taking a lesson in carving paddles from Anishinaabe artists, visitors can embark from the onsite dock on a group boat tour of Little Lake.
Caribbean
Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park, Grenada
In Grenada, snorkelers and divers might spot not only green and hawksbill turtles and schools of neon-hued tangs. They can also encounter La Diablesse and Mama Glo. These Caribbean folklore characters stand submerged 3-7 meters off the island’s west coast—just two of the 31 new life-size figures at Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park. Made of stainless steel and pH-neutral marine cement, the art installations can be eerie, surreal, whimsical. The older sculptures in the park date from 2006 and are now covered in a collage of corals, sponges, and other marine life.
Liamuiga Natural Farms, St. Kitts
On Phillips Mountain, in St. Kitts, this coffee and citrus farm recently started hosting three-course lunches for visitors. The Kellys and the Mikes, the two families which operate the farm, serve dishes using local produce and specialties including fig chips, saltfish (salted cod), pickled turmeric, and homemade coffee ice cream. “As you explore Liamuiga Natural Farms, you’re not just a guest,” says co-owner Tiffany Mike, “you’re a part of our mission to preserve the environment, uphold Kittitian traditions, and create a sustainable future.”
Mexico & Central and South America
Islas Marías, Nayarit, Mexico
Visitors to this former penal colony turned UNESCO Biosphere Reserve off Mexico’s Pacific coast book a ferry to María Madre Island from either San Blas or Mazatlán on the Riveria Nayarit, then spend the night in renovated 20th-century prisoner housing (think modest apartments, not drab jail cells). While there, they can bike the island, head to the beach, or take nature walks to spot the Tres Marías amazon, an endemic yellow-headed parrot.
FotoFestival Manzana 1, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
Running November 20 to 24, this international photo festival offers the chance “to discover the unknown side of Bolivia,” says festival director Ejti Stih. The country’s biggest city plays host to novice and expert photographers, photo editors, and local photo enthusiasts, who gather for talks, workshops, exhibits, and concerts at a former police headquarters turned inclusive cultural hub. The main exhibit—presenting more than 200 works of photo reportage—remains on display in the gallery for two-and-a-half months after the festival.
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Europe
Tartu, Estonia
The oldest city in the Baltics, founded as early as the 9th century A.D., was named a European Capital of Culture 2024 due to its 17th-century university, clutch of museums, and buzzing performing arts scene. Estonia’s café-filled, riverside city celebrates throughout the year with dozens of events, including classical music concerts, art exhibits about Surrealism, and Kissing Tartu. The last salutes an iconic 1948 sculpture of smooching students with a massive kissing contest.
Museum of Royal Collections, Madrid, Spain
Goya paintings, 17th-century horse carriages, and other treasures collected by Spanish monarchs have a new home in this modernist building on Madrid’s showy Plaza de la Armería. Museum of Royal Collections’ bright spaces showcase pieces such as Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán’s 1692 Saint Michael Slaying the Devil. (Scholars believe Roldán modeled the handsome diablo after her husband.) “With such extraordinary pieces,” says director Leticia Ruiz, the gallery is “a museum of museums.”
Battersea Power Station, London, England
From the 1930s until the 1980s, this hulking brick coal plant provided up to a fifth of London’s power. A decade-long, $6 billion renovation means the smokestack-capped, 1.5 million-square-foot building is now a stylish shopping, dining, and entertainment hub. Repurposed elements include Control Room B, a cocktail bar amid the dials and synchroscopes of a onetime command post, and Lift 109, a glassed-in viewpoint atop one of Battersea’s iconic 357-foot-tall smokestacks. Visitors can stay onsite at the Art’otel with its rooftop pool and art gallery.
Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey
In Istanbul’s Karaköy neighborhood, Renzo Piano’s 110,000-square-foot showplace for Turkish and international contemporary art wears a shimmering aluminum facade mimicking the Bosporus just outside its door. Enormous, glassy rooms hold oversized abstract paintings by Istanbul-born Fahrelnissa Zeid; bright, blocky sculptures by Ayşe Erkmen; and cutting-edge video works. The rooftop, with its café and infinity “pond,” offers dazzling vistas of Asia just across the water.
Middle East & Africa
MAP Marrakech, Morocco
In Marrakech’s Kasbah (walled citadel), Le MAP (Monde des Arts et de la Parure) museum is dedicated to the sort of human adornment that cultures have donned for hundreds of years (carnelian-inlaid belts from Montenegro, Moroccan silk caftans, Bedouin silver brooches). “These remarkable artifacts may well represent one of humanity’s earliest expressions of culture,” says curator Alaa Eddine Sagid. Head to the museum’s rooftop restaurant for fattoush salad or buy your own bijoux at the onsite store. (The facility escaped lasting damage during the devastating earthquake in the region in September 2023.)
The Manor, Johannesburg, South Africa
At The Manor, a project space that is the brainchild of acclaimed visual artist (and Beyoncé collaborator) Trevor Stuurman, exhibits and themed gatherings celebrate modern African culture and experience. A happening might include a curated menu by influential South African chef Mo Mosoneke, fresh music from a soulful Johannesburg band, or poignant works from an up-and-coming artist. But keep a close watch on its website, tickets to these pop-up events sell out quickly.
Asia
Chinggis Khaan Museum, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Adventurers headed out to sleep in yurt resorts in the vast Gobi Desert or hike through Gorkhi-Terelj National Park often just catch a connecting flight through Mongolia’s busy capital. But it’s worth an extra night in “UB” to see this impressive new museum chronicling the country’s history, archaeological riches (dino bones, ancient stone carvings), and—of course—Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Khan), the legendary 13th-century warrior king who expanded the Mongol empire.
”Visitors see traditional saddles, horse-headed fiddles, and other artifacts showing how culture has remained unchanged here over centuries,” says Undraa Buyannemekh, president of Nomadic Expeditions, which runs tours of the Gobi from its plush Three Camel Lodge.
Museum of Art and Photography, Bengaluru, India
This new art museum was intentionally built in the heart of India’s third largest city to give locals the opportunity to explore the galleries, dine in its restaurant or café, and attend lectures. The primary goal, says founder Abhishek Poddar, is to share its more than 60,000 artworks—from 19th-century wood carvings to Bollywood memorabilia—with people who don’t typically come to museums. “I think if we just create the right atmosphere, art will do its magic,” he says.
Guangzhou Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Covered in 21,008 pieces of “fish scale” glass, designed to mimic a blooming hero flower, and boasting a five-story atrium, the Guangzhou Art Museum is unapologetically ostentatious. Located on the banks of the Pearl River, this landmark of China’s fifth largest city (population 18 million) features seven floors of exhibits displaying Chinese paintings, watercolors, calligraphy, sculpture, illustrations, comic books, lacquerware, and photography from ancient to contemporary times.
Australia & New Zealand
Ōmataroa Eco-Tours, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
This Māori-owned and -operated tour company leads excursions in the Ōmataroa forest, a semi-coastal region on the North Island, educating visitors on native trees like the rewa-rewa and wildlife such as the kārearea, New Zealand’s only native falcon species. “You are guided by tangata whenua [people of the land] who have knowledge that has been handed down through the generations,” says tour manager Jade Elliot. If you’re lucky, you might spot the national bird, the kiwi.
Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand
When it reopens in mid-2024, the redeveloped $64 million Sarjeant Gallery, on New Zealand’s North Island, will be a dazzling showplace for 400 years’ worth of the country’s art and artifacts. Its original domed 1912 building has been shored up against earthquakes; an outsized new wing has an innovative wood and glass facade mimicking the nearby Whanganui River. Inside, over 8,000 works and artifacts range from WWII political cartoons and prehistoric bird bones to paintings by Colin McCahon, a New Zealand painter known for his modernist landscapes and dramatic abstractions.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
The 153-year-old Art Gallery of New South Wales added a dramatic new building to its museum campus in December, the SANAA-designed Sydney Modern Project. Its glass-walled galleries display works by international and Aussie artists, such as outsized videos and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sculptures and dot paintings. Interactive installation “Archive of Mind” by Korean artist Kimsooja encourages visitors to sculpt a clay ball then pile it with hundreds of others on a mammoth wooden table. “It’s been a hit,” says Michael Brand, director of the museum. “Many balls of Australian clay have been rolled by thousands of hands from all over the world.”
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Reporting by Heather Greenwood Davis and Connor McGovern.
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