Picture the Year Ahead
Where will you open gifts this December? Perhaps not in the living room again, but around a villa table on Mexico’s Pacific coast, with the whole family sun-warmed and barefoot.
When spring break arrives, you could follow steam rising through the mountains of southern Japan or wake within the tiled quiet of a Moroccan riad. By summer, the sun may still be hanging over Norway at midnight, or elephants could be crossing the shallows beyond your camp in Botswana.
The trips that shape a year rarely come together at the last minute. The right villa, private guide, small inn, or safari camp begins with deciding that someday has come close enough.
These are the trips worth planning now.
Riviera Nayarit: The Pacific, With Room for Everyone
Along the Riviera Nayarit, the forested foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental meet the Pacific.
Villas disappear into the green and long beaches curve out of view. Your friends head out for an early surf while you linger over coffee by the pool. By dinner, everyone is back around the table with sand still between their toes.
That freedom makes this stretch of Mexico ideal for a festive trip. Private residences and connecting rooms let you gather without sharing every moment, leaving space to retreat.
December brings dry, sunlit days and the beginning of whale season. If several bedrooms and a table for everyone are part of the plan, this is the time to claim them.
Also great for: grandparents gathering the generations and couples spending the holidays with friends.
Puerto Rico: An Island Holiday Without the Complicated Arrival
On Puerto Rico’s northeast coast, your children are already heading toward the water while you settle beside their grandparents in the shade. There's still time for another coffee. Nobody needs everyone to be ready at once.
An afternoon in Old San Juan takes you along blue cobblestones and beneath balconies before lunch stretches longer than planned. Tomorrow, you might trade the beach for rainforest trails or paddle across water glimmering in the last light of the day.
For U.S. citizens traveling from the mainland, no passport is needed. With friends and relatives arriving from different cities, that's one less detail to coordinate.
A shared suite or residence gives everyone somewhere to gather when the day winds down. If Christmas or New Year’s is the occasion, start with finding room for the whole family.
Also great for: grandparents gathering the generations and couples spending the holidays with friends.
Kyushu: Japan Beyond the Golden Route
Steam rises beyond your window, and the mountains are still catching the morning light. By evening, you have crossed tea country, stopped for a lunch worth lingering over, and slipped into a hot-spring bath.
On Kyushu, Japan’s southern main island, your partner is already choosing the next place to eat in Fukuoka. You follow your curiosity through Nagasaki, take in Mount Aso’s volcanic landscape, then return to the quiet of a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn.
If you already know Tokyo and Kyoto, this is a reason to come back. On a first visit, a few days in either city can lead naturally into Kyushu’s slower rhythm.
In spring, you linger in another village, wander through a garden, or take the long way back before dinner. For Spring Break 2027, start with a small inn to return to each evening and a local guide who makes the detours worthwhile.
Also great for: Japan enthusiasts ready for a return visit and parents with food-curious teenagers.
Morocco: A Journey Told in Contrasts
In Fès, you pause beside a workshop as an artisan taps a pattern into metal. Calls to prayer carry over the rooftops, and a narrow lane leads you into a tiled courtyard, suddenly quiet.
By Marrakech, you and your friends have found a familiar rhythm: market lanes in the morning, a long lunch, then a garden or gallery when you want to slow down. Beyond the cities, the Atlas Mountains fill the view from your window. Farther south, you step outside after dinner to a desert sky scattered with stars.
Leave room for the unexpected stop, the conversation, or another pot of mint tea. When you finally have everyone together somewhere entirely new, those moments deserve time. Begin planning with a guide and a route that gives you enough nights to settle into each place.
Also great for: couples celebrating an anniversary and families with older children drawn to art and history.
Lofoten: Summer Stays Up Late
You pull over to a red fishing cabin beneath a mountain, then again to a pale beach tucked between the peaks. The water looks almost tropical until it reaches your ankles.
Above the Arctic Circle, Norway’s Lofoten Islands keep giving you reasons to stop.
After dinner, your partner suggests a walk, and there is still daylight to follow the shore a little farther. On another evening, you might be paddling across glassy water while the mountains catch the late light. Nothing needs to be staged. The landscape supplies its own drama.
Follow a hike or boat trip with a sauna and a slow meal, just the two of you. For Summer 2027, choose your base early. Places to stay are limited, and the cabin you return to is part of the experience.
Also great for: friends who follow a hike with a sauna and parents whose teenagers would rather be outside.
Botswana: Where the Water Finds the Desert
Your guide eases the mokoro, a slender canoe, through the reeds. You lower your camera for a moment and listen: birds calling, water brushing the hull, and nothing else.
In Botswana’s Okavango Delta, water spreads into the Kalahari through channels, lagoons, and islands. From a safari vehicle, you might watch elephants cross the shallows while your partner quietly nudges you to look at the smallest one. Back at camp, the sighting is still the subject of dinner.
The anniversary trip you have discussed for years belongs here. Each morning brings a new possibility, with a small camp to return to at the end of the day. Planning Summer 2027 now gives you more choice in where you stay and how the adventure unfolds.
Also great for: friends celebrating a milestone birthday and families bringing their grown children on safari.
Give Someday a Date
You may already know who would join you at that villa table, follow you down an unfamiliar street, or sit beside you as elephants cross the water.
Now picture the moment you tell them you’re going.
The year ahead still has room for a different holiday tradition, a long-awaited reunion, or an anniversary worth crossing the world for.
Give it a place. Give it a date.
Reach out to your advisor to explore dates, stays, and experiences for your festive escape, spring getaway, or summer adventure.
