Overlooked vacation destinations

The summer is going by fast—it’s now less than two weeks until Labor Day—and we’ve been busy booking travel for our clients well into 2026 and even ‘27. Just about everything is popular: cruises, Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, adventure travel. You might think that there aren’t any new places left to visit. Well, you might want to reconsider that. Let’s take a look at three destinations you might not otherwise think of. We’ll start with the closest.

·         Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Perhaps you’ve never been to Europe and aren’t quite ready to take that first transatlantic flight. You’ll stay over dry land—except for a brief time over the Great Lakes—by visiting Montreal, one of the most historic and interesting cities in Canada. Founded by French explorers in 1642, the city retains much of its French heritage with a charming mix that includes British and even American influence. (The U.S. tried to annex Montreal and all of Canada twice, during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, but gave up when the British and Canadians proved a little too resistant to the idea.) You can fly direct from Minneapolis and be there in less than five hours. Once there, you’ll find Montreal to be a pedestrian-friendly city with efficient public transportation, not to mention nearly 700 miles of bicycle lanes. The historic Old Montreal district is home to art galleries, museums, restaurants and quaint hotels. If you speak even a little French (the official language of Quebec), c’est magnifique! Start your day with a bagel, available everywhere and a source of local pride; they’re boiled in honey water before being baked in wood-fired ovens. For a midday snack that really is a full lunch, order poutine. After dinner, the city offers a thriving night life. Coming home from Montreal isn’t as daunting as the long flight back from Frankfurt or Rome or Amsterdam; just five hours back to Minneapolis, and you’ll be home with half your day still to go.

·         Cuba. For more than a half-century after American troops helped liberate Cuba from Spain in 1898, the Caribbean’s largest island was a hot destination for U.S. travelers, especially those interested in Havana’s night life and gambling. That all changed around 1960, after Fidel Castro’s communist revolution. Official U.S. tourist travel to Cuba was banned in 1963, but restrictions were eased somewhat in 1999, allowing “people to people” travel. While the larger issue of full access to the island by Americans is a perpetual political football being kicked around in Washington, U.S. citizens can still travel to Cuba and enjoy the island’s vibrant culture and natural beauty. One of the ways that’s growing in popularity is the bicycle tour, which my husband and I are considering for 2025. Several Cuba-based companies offer tours that cover different parts of the island, but if biking isn’t your thing, there are many other tour opportunities waiting for you. Cuba welcomes millions of tourists every year, with about one-third of them from Canada, which has always maintained full diplomatic relations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s chief trading partner, the island nation realized that it had to move its economy more toward tourism. Cuba scored some initial successes in renovating hotels and resorts to attract more Europeans and Canadians, but then tourism slowed somewhat. Today, the Dominican Republic draws more visitors than Cuba, but the “Pearl of the Antilles” still has much to offer. Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba if they meet the requirements for one of twelve categories of legal travel, such as visiting family, journalism and religious work. One of the categories is “Support the Cuban People,” which allows tourists to qualify by engaging in activities as benign as visiting marketplaces, cultural sites and interacting with local residents (which is always a good idea anyway). And Cuba is relatively cheap. Renting an Airbnb house in Germany can run into the hundreds of dollars per night, but a casa particular in Cuba can go for as little as $15-20 per night.

·         North Korea. Well, okay, this one’s a little way off the radar for most Americans, but the government of the Democratic People’s Republic announced last week that it would resume international tourism to its northeastern city of Samjiyon in December, and possibly the rest of the country in 2025. After years of strict Covid-related border controls, North Korea appears ready to start opening up, or as much as its government will allow. International flights to Pyongyang resumed last year. So far, most of the foreign tourism has come from Russia. Samjiyon, by the way, is where the government has been building what it calls a “socialist utopia, a model of a highly civilized mountain city” with new apartments, hotels, a ski resort and commercial, cultural and medical facilities. DPRK-based tour groups are putting together itineraries now, hoping to entice North American visitors to the “Hermit Kingdom.” But be advised, our State Department still has a level-4 “do not travel” advisory for North Korea travel, saying there is a “serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals.”

Well, that might be a little too adventurous for me, but Montreal and Cuba sure do sound tempting, don’t they? Give us a call, and we’ll help you plan your trip while you brush up on your français or Española…or maybe both! 

         Sue Tindell