By Nikki Ekstein
Bloomberg News
It may be an American holiday, but Memorial Day weekend seems to kick off summer travel everywhere, unleashing the highest-spending tourists on their annual sprees to the Greek Isles, Italy, and beyond.
True, this season may be a slower burn with U.S.-based tourists pulling back over the economy, geopolitics, aviation safety, immigration policies, and more. But for those who remain undeterred—and their eager-to-travel European counterparts—there’s a deep well of unique destinations to consider this summer.
The five spots recommended below, all pulled from our master list of where to travel in 2025, represent paths that are currently less taken. (And they’re priced accordingly!) They’re not going to stay out of the spotlight much longer. Go this summer to be ahead of the trend and brag about it on your return.
Skane, Sweden
Mix the castles of the Cotswolds, the seaside bliss of the French Riviera, and a sprinkle of Scandinavian hygge (coziness), and you’ve got the recipe that makes Skane, Sweden, such a special little region. It’s here in the town of Glumslov that the 100-year-old Maryhill Estate opened as a 163-room hotel over the winter—strange timing, considering its charms revolve around four pools with floral-printed sunbeds and sprawling gardens. Now it’s in full bloom, with racquet sports, boule, a diving board, a playground for kids, and club access for chic Copenhageners who can make the trip in 90 minutes.In keeping with the Danish capital’s culinary prowess, Skane is becoming a bit of a food mecca: Legendary chef Magnus Nilsson is working on a project in Bastad that will include an ambitious restaurant with hotel rooms atop. By June, its first phase—a sweet little bakery—will be ready for prime time. Bonus: The rooms at Maryhill Estate start at around $225 per night.
Cap Ferret, France
If your summer mood board consists of oysters heaped on silver platters and bottomless pours of wine by the sea, your senses are pointing you in the direction of Cap Ferret. A string of fishing villages-turned-tony little towns, the surf-friendly cape protects the Bay of Arachon, just a 45-mile drive from Bordeaux on France’s dune-lined southwest coast.In the past year or so, Cap Ferret has seen a spate of hotel openings that pack an outsize punch, like the delightfully retro 12-room Hôtel de la Plage (from around $390 per night) and the Philippe Starck-designed La Co(o)rniche, with glass-box rooms facing the sea (from around $600). If you want a proper swim, it’ll be in an infinity-edge pool or the Atlantic, on the peninsula’s west coast; to the east, slow-lapping tides in the shallow bayside waters amply supply the area’s oyster shacks.
Rotterdam
It’s hard to imagine a museum more timely than Fenix, Rotterdam’s new exhibition space dedicated to the sprawling subject of human migration. A former shipyard building on the edge of the city’s quay has been renovated and topped with a futuristic lookout platform called “the Tornado”—named for its swirling, double helical shape—designed by MAD Architects. The installations inside, from big-name artists such as Steve McQueen and Francis Alÿs, ask questions about home and identity. There are also historical and contemporary photographs of people remaking their lives, suitcases packed, to tell the stories of people escaping from persecution—plus a section of the Berlin Wall.
But Fenix is just one reason Rotterdam feels ripe for the current moment. At a time when travelers are seeking uncrowded European cities, it certainly qualifies, even though it’s just a 30-minute train ride from Amsterdam’s airport. And its attractions, which include loads of (free) public art and a Michelin-starred “food lab” built underneath railroad tracks, speak to Rotterdam’s diversity and deeply creative, sustainable mindset. Stay at Morgan & Mees, a 20-room boutique hotel in a Bauhaus building in the artsy Nieuwe Binnenweg neighborhood. You can still find a room there this summer for less than $150.
Greenland
Looking for an island vacation but want something more adventurous than Greece or the Caribbean? Try Greenland—the world’s largest island—with copious reasons to visit that have nothing to do with politics. It’s a place where you can go paddleboarding under the midnight sun, speedboat around puffin-populated fjords, or fish for arctic char with your bare hands.And no, you won’t need to rough it like Bear Grylls. Thanks to luxury-leaning trips by outfitters like Black Tomato, you can helicopter to remote settlements where locals operate safari-style camps packed with five-star amenities—though it’s probably the 3,200-foot-tall icebergs and spectacularly starry skies you’ll be writing home about instead. Guided six-night itineraries with the operator run from around $19,435 for two people, minus airfare. No, not cheap, but more efficient and private than some of the (similarly priced) cruises that help travelers explore this untapped frontier.
Hikers in Greenland walk next to a beach shorn smooth by tsunamis resulting from ice crashing into water from the nearby Eqip Sermia glacier, also called the Eqi Glacier, on July 31, 2019, at Eqip Sermia. Sean Gallup/Getty Images/TNS
Portillo, Chile
When we published our annual Where to Go guide in December, we talked about Portillo as the southern hemisphere equivalent of Niseko, Japan’s ultimate ski haven. This year, its event-filled 75th anniversary season lasts from June 21 to Sept. 27. And it’s a great time to consider a broader sweep of Chile’s Andean resorts. Valle Nevado, which is one of the region’s more famous ski spots (and doable as a day trip from Santiago), is covered on several multimountain season tickets, including the $639 Mountain Collective pass and the $849-a-year Power Pass. (The latter also includes up to 10 days at Valle Nevado’s intermediate-friendly neighbor, La Parva.) Pick up either of those options now, before prices climb, and you’ll be making your summer and winter plans in one fell swoop.Copyright 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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