The most beautiful places to Travel in 2021
Alaska’s Coast
n the midst of the pandemic, Alaska's entire May to September cruise season was cancelled in 2020. That left some 1.3 million travelers unable to board ships to experience thunderously calving glaciers, frolicking humpback whales, lively gold rush towns, and fascinating Alaska Native arts scenes. Tourism providers missed serious income. Cruise lines and local officials express muted optimism about 2021, which may be the best year to see Alaska given that cruise ships are unlikely to sail full and coastal towns won't have their typical crowds even post-vaccine rollout. Or skip the civilization part: Vast national parks such as Glacier Bay, Misty Fjords, and Kenai Fjords are best reached by boat. Small ship soft-adventure lines such as UnCruise Adventures and Lindblad Expeditions — and ultra-luxurious Seabourn with its zodiac and kayak exploration program on the 450-passenger Seabourn Odyssey — have one-week itineraries that spend most of their time in the wild. For more privacy, rent the six-passenger, 78-foot Sea Mist for a luxury yachting experience in Prince William Sound, home to more active tidewater glaciers than anywhere else in the world. — Fran Golden
Astoria, Oregon
Goonies never say die, and neither does the nostalgia of visiting Astoria, the northwestern Oregon town at the mouth of the Columbia River where the '80s cult classic film was shot. The oldest American settlement in the West, this charming seaside town evokes a simpler time with its colorful Victorian houses and treasure-filled antique shops. Around these parts, freshness matters only for fish and beer. A new mobile passport program by the North Coast Craft Beer Trail ensures drinkers find their way to both big names like Fort George Brewery — famous for its IPAs — and smaller spots like the 20-barrel Buoy Beer, built in a former fish cannery right on the river. It's one of many old cannery sites that have found new lives here, most notably the boutique Cannery Pier Hotel, where new ownership plans a February unveiling of renovations to its spa — famed for the Finnish sauna and water-view hot tub. Though the town made its name on tinned fish, Astoria now thrives on the direct connection to fresh seafood at places like South Bay Wild Fish House, from the family behind a fishing vessel of the same name. At their restaurant, sustainably caught Dungeness crab, Oregon pink shrimp, black cod, and more goes direct from boat to bánh mì.
Florida’s Middle Keys
The closest you can get to a Caribbean vacation without leaving the continental U.S., the laid-back islands between Key Largo and Key West took the brunt of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and are where you want to visit in 2021 to connect with one of the country’s most fragile ecosystems, both above and below sea level: astronomer-led stargazing walks at the family-friendly Hawk’s Cay on Duck Key; Grimal Grove, where community organizer-turned-tropical fruit farmer Patrick Garvey is raising five varieties of nutritious breadfruit to fight hunger insecurity; the Turtle Hospital on Marathon, whose recent 911s include caring for babies beached by Hurricane Eta and endangered Kemps-Ridleys cold-stunned (like hypothermia for turtles) in Cape Cod. While unseasonably chilly water spells trouble up north, warming seas and a still-unidentified infection has bleached up to 98 percent of the Keys’ local reef — the largest in North America — but the young scientists at the MOTE Elizabeth Moore marine lab on Summerland Key are in the midst of a promising project to rejuvenate the crippled reef through lab reproduction (like IVF for coral). You can even participate in a hands-on underwater coral transplant through a new partnership with Captain Hook’s dive center on Big Pine. To balance good work with sybaritic indulgence, there’s no beating the scalloped pool and impeccable residences at Marathon’s recently reopened Marlin Bay Resort & Marina. The resort is walking distance to Keys Fisheries, the best place in the islands for stone crab, a sustainable specialty that goes for $3 a claw in season at the pleasingly disheveled upstairs bar.
