2025 travel destinations in Florida and beyond

Get your 2025 calendars out! Now is the time to secure those travel adventures for next year and make sure you don’t miss out on the annual events you have always wanted to check off your bucket list.

Naples Winter Wine Festival

Wine aficionados love the Naples Winter Wine Festival taking place Jan. 24-26, 2025, at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón. The annual event dates back to 2001 and offers guests the opportunity to bid on a variety of auction items, from truffle hunting in Italy to a South African safari. According to Wine Spectator magazine, this benefit is the highest-earning charity wine auction in the country.

As the president and owner of The Ronto Group, Anthony Solomon is proud to participate as a corporate partner again next year and help give back to the community.

“I have been attending (the) annual Naples Winter Wine Festival for several years,” he said. “Not only do I have a personal passion for fine wine, but I always look forward to meeting some of the top vineyard owners in the world and enjoy their celebrity chef-hosted dinners, brunch and auction. It’s all for a good cause.”

Guests enjoy world-class food and wine during intimate dinners in elegant, private homes and other landmark settings throughout Naples and are invited to bid on once-in-a-lifetime travel and wine experiences during an electrifying live auction. To celebrate the festival’s 25th anniversary, the 2025 lineup includes master sommeliers and other top wine professionals who have participated in the event for years, as well as several new participants.

Ticket packages for the 2025 Naples Winter Wine Festival start at $17,500 per couple. For additional information, visit napleswinefestival.com/about-the-festival.

Proceeds from the event go to the Naples Children & Education Foundation, founded in 2000 to support charitable programs that improve the physical, emotional and educational lives of at-risk children in Collier County.

Beach lovers rejoice at the Ritz-Carlton

On Florida’s west coast, check out the five-star and newly renovated The Ritz-Carlton, Naples resort. Sunset at their casual beachside Gumbo Limbo restaurant is a cool hot spot for a lobster quesadilla and a tropical craft cocktail overlooking the Gulf. The brand’s largest Club Level Lounge in the Vanderbilt Tower is a new and wow-worthy asset to match the 51,000-square-foot destination spa.

The hotel chain recently opened an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant and bar, Sofra, named No. 6 in USA Today’s 2024 10Best Hotel Restaurants in the U.S. list. With an emphasis on local produce and catch, the menu focuses on seasonal dishes, with light, shareable favorites including braised artichokes, roasted meats and house-made olive oils served with fresh, regionally authentic breads.

Named for the Turkish word for a shared dinner table, Sofra celebrates the authentic, coastal food culture of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel with fresh, vibrant and nutritionally focused foods.

New York Fashion Week

Book your hotel well in advance if you long to overlook the runway, enjoy new collections and trends and network with the international fashion world during New York Fashion Week in September 2025.

But where to sleep? If your travel bucket list includes staying in some of the best hotels in the world, The Carlyle is a must. This Rosewood Hotel is a classic, ranked as the 30th-best hotel in the world. Located in the Upper East Side, it opened in 1930, is designed in the art deco style and is named after Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle.

For half the price (about $500 a night) my personal favorite place in Manhattan is the Hotel Elysée, also located on the Upper East Side on East 54th Street. It’s the kind of boutique hotel (only 100 rooms) where “everybody knows your name.” Breakfast is complimentary in the second-floor lounge, and you’ll enjoy all the accents as guests are mostly European. It’s convenient to have the popular Monkey Bar restaurant located outside the lobby door. Walk a few blocks to Ralph Lauren’s place, The Polo Bar, for the ultimate in celeb watching, or have a drink at The St. Regis across the street.

Your family might enjoy staying in The Lion King’s Royal Suite, brought to you by Hilton New York Times Square. Inspired by the Broadway musical, the suite includes a variety of fun items for the kids. Rates start at $500 per night.

New England’s new luxury boutique

The new waterfront luxury boutique Delamar Hotel is perfect for New England leaf peeping. This Connecticut getaway is a welcome retreat in a part of the state known more for its Colonial-era inns than luxury hotels. Guests enjoy complimentary admission to the Mystic Seaport Museum and can enjoy the La Plage Restaurant & Oyster Bar. History buffs will love it.

On the other side of the world in Bangkok

Some call the Capella Bangkok a sanctuary. Overlooking the Chao Phraya River, it was just named No. 1 on The World’s 50 Best Hotels list for 2024. It opened in 2020 and features 101 rooms that are spacious and filled with light. The riverside villas have private gardens and plunge pools, and they are a unique highlight of this five-star offering on Charoen Krung Road, Bangkok’s oldest paved road. Enjoy a little moment of Zen with the sanctuary, the garden and beautiful trees full of birds.