The beginning of a new year is always a good time to ponder what you want to accomplish in the months ahead, and that includes considering where you want to visit next. We’ve turned to travel experts from around the globe to help you, asking them to share the places on their radar for 2026. Covering entire nations as well as regions, cities, and even individual neighborhoods, Condé Nast Traveler’s Best Places to Go features destinations in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and even extends all the way south to Oceania. For the first time this year, we’re highlighting destinations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for this global bucket list. Where can you enjoy wellness in this area long known for its spas and baths? Where will you find plenty of festivals and new hotel openings that are worth a detour? And where can you just find some peace and quiet? Here are six places we enthusiastically recommend that you discover in the year ahead.
This is part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2026—find more travel inspiration here.
The best travel destinations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2026
Amrum, Germany
Highlights: Miles of beaches promising peace, sea breezes, and wide-open spaces
You rarely hear the Frisian dialect of Öömrang spoken anymore on Amrum, as Diane Kruger does in the film she stars in that’s named for the North Sea island. And young locals these days would rather pursue surf instructing than whaling. But some things will always remain: If you’ve seen director Fatih Akin’s Amrum you’ll recognize the island’s stunning beach right away—it alone is worth the trip.
More than seven miles long and up to half a mile wide, the Kniepsand sandbank that faces the open sea shifts slightly every year. That seemingly endless expanse of sand that spreads out before you after you’ve traversed the dune belt on wooden boardwalks is one of the most breathtaking beaches in Europe. When you rent a traditional wicker Strandkorb beach chair, you’re free to decide yourself just where to place it—perhaps in the family area watched over by volunteer lifeguards or maybe you’ve found a splendid and more isolated spot among the shifting dunes. Amrum’s west coast is also ideal for wind- and kitesurfing, or trail running along a 16-mile route around the island.
Facing the mainland, Amrum’s east side is gentler and merges into the intertidal Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. Tracing the coastline by foot or on a rental bike, you see how truly varied this landscape is. You can get a deeper sense of it on a guided Wattwanderung, a hike over the Wadden mudflats to the neighboring island of Föhr. A botanical tour of the salt marshes is a highlight for many cooks and gourmets.
You’ll want to make dinner reservations at the reliable Seekiste restaurant and also pop into the Seeblicker Esszimmer restaurant where they experiment with regional products and host summer barbecues on the terrace. For traditional raisin and cream Frisian cake or fresh crisp bread, head to Café Schult or the Claussen bakery. The iconic pub Blaue Maus is perfect for a nightcap.
All these establishments have been around for a long time, and while appealingly stylish new openings are rare, they do happen. Starting in early 2026, the team at the Eldorado bike shop will put their design skills on display in three airy apartments that will be available for rent. In any case, both residents and visitors agree that the island’s natural beauty will always be the main draw. While the picture-perfect lighthouse and the moving St. Clemens cemetery—whose “talking gravestones” have long biographies carved on them—are definitely must-sees on Amrum, ultimately it is the peaceful atmosphere, the rhythm of the tides, the wind, the big skies, and those magical shifting dunes that make this island an extraordinary destination.
