The best place to travel right now depends on the season and the kind of trip you want. Our best places to visit by month roundup matches destinations to the time of year, so you get good weather and better prices. For a specific trip type, jump to our family, honeymoon, beach or solo roundups for a ready-made shortlist.

We rank destinations on the quality of the experience, how well they suit the specific trip type, value for money, ease of getting there and around, and the best time to visit. We’re honest about who each place suits and who it doesn’t, and our rankings are never influenced by commissions — we recommend the places we’d genuinely choose ourselves.

For a first international trip, choose somewhere friendly, easy to navigate and well set up for travellers — much of Europe, popular parts of Asia and established beach destinations all work well. Our solo travel and family roundups highlight especially easy options, and each links to a destination guide so you can plan with confidence.

For most international trips, booking flights about two to three months ahead balances price and choice, and securing accommodation early matters most in peak season and at popular beach and honeymoon spots. Once you’ve picked a destination from a roundup, our flights and hotels guides cover the timing sweet spots in detail.

Some links in our roundups are affiliate links, so if you book flights, hotels or tours through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you — it keeps our guides free. Crucially, this never affects our rankings: we pick destinations on merit and only recommend places and services we’d use ourselves.