The 10 best cities to visit in 2025, according to Lonely Planet

• Lonely Planet named the top 10 best cities to travel to in 2025.
• Popular cities like Osaka, Japan, and Genoa, Italy, made the list.
• It also includes lesser-known cities like Pondicherry, India, and Bansko, Bulgaria.

With travel gradually returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, the possibilities of where and how far you’ll go in 2025 are endless.

To help jump-start your travel wish list for the upcoming year, a team of experts from Lonely Planet curated a list of the top 10 must-visit destinations worldwide.

In 2025, vacation-goers will prefer to explore quieter, lesser-known cities over popular tourist hot spots, according to a travel trend report from Expedia. In the company’s annual survey, almost two-thirds of travelers said they would likely visit an under-the-radar destination on their next vacation.

In line with this trend, Lonely Planet’s list features cities that aren’t global tourist hot spots yet but promise a memorable trip, including Pondicherry, a coastal city in South India, and Bansko in Bulgaria. They appear in the list alongside crowd favorites like Osaka, Japan.

From the pristine white-sand beaches of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to the lush botanical gardens in Curitiba, Brazil, here are the top 10 cities to visit in 2025, according to Lonely Planet.