10 AMAZING PLACES TO TAKE YOUR KIDS THIS YEAR

A new year, a new decade. Make 2020 the year you take your family somewhere different, the year you all try something new. You’ll find plenty of inspiration in our list of exciting destinations, from spotting cheetahs in Southern Africa to bear-watching in the Carpathian mountains, and from learning kendo in Japan to hopping on the new direct train service to Amsterdam. Where will you go in 2020? It’s time to start planning your next adventure. Happy Travels!

BIG TRIPS

Recently declared one of the safest countries in the world to visit, NORWAY is a pristine wilderness of primeval forests and rocky plateaus. The great outdoors is never far away, whether you’re riding the Bergensbanen train as it chugs past waterfalls and burrows through mountains, or spotting whales and puffins on a boat trip in the remote Lofoten Islands. For scenery on an epic scale, head to the Western Fjords, where you’ll cross the inky waters on little ferries and follow empty roads to glaciers, wooden churches and a network of national parks that provide some of the best family day-hikes in Scandinavia; the pretty town of Bergen makes a great base for exploring the region.

Fresh off the back of a brilliant Rugby World Cup, JAPAN is set for even greater things in 2020. All eyes will be on Tokyo when it hosts the Olympics in the summer, but visit earlier in the year and you’ll reap the benefits of the big event – getting around is much easier now thanks to the addition of English-language signs in most of the country’s train and metro stations – whilst avoiding the masses. You’ll also enjoy much better weather, swapping the heat and humidity of July and August for the cherry blossoms of spring. Take in the capital’s cutting-edge museums and neon-drenched neighbourhoods before moving on to learn kendo in Kyoto, explore a samurai castle in Himeji, stay in a temple on Koya-san and discover a different side to Japan on the rural island of Shikoku.

In 2020, NAMIBIA celebrates 30 years of independence. And there’s an awful lot to celebrate. Few countries can boost such a variety of jaw-dropping landscapes, from the rolling orange sands of the Namib Desert and the game reserves of the lush Caprivi Strip to the shipwrecks and seal colonies that dot the Skeleton Coast. The world’s largest population of wild cheetah can be found here, along with the tallest dunes on the planet; in Etosha National Park, Namibia has one of the most exciting wildlife reserves in Africa, where large numbers of big game gather at dwindling waterholes on a stretch of salt pans so big that they can be seen from space. And unlike a lot of African countries, Namibia is set up for a self-drive holiday, even on safari, so you can discover this spectacular country at your own pace.

Croatia meets Italy in SLOVENIA, but without the price tag. Compact enough to cover in a week or two, this pretty little country in Central Europe has valleys, vineyards and Venetian-style cities, and a short stretch of lovely coastline. Low-key Ljubljana is one of the greenest capital cities in the region; Lake Bled is famous for its fairytale island church. Away from the tourist hubs, Slovenia is also a paradise for adventure-seeking families. Go mountain hiking around glacial lakes in the Julian Alps, take a white-water rafting trip on the turquoise waters of the Soča River or try caving in a network of enormous karst caverns: Škocjan Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage site; Postojna Cave – so big it’s accessed by an underground train – is home to a creature that looks like a baby dragon and can live up to 100 years old.

We tipped SRI LANKA for great things in 2019, but the tragic events in Colombo last Easter effectively ground international tourism to a halt. Ever resilient, the country is bouncing back, but its people need visitors now more than ever. Visit the Teardrop Isle in 2020 and you’ll get to explore ruined palaces and charming colonial towns without the crowds. Take a trundling train ride through the tea plantations of the verdant Hill Country, spot leopards and sloth bears on a safari through Yala National Park and kick back on the fabulous palm-fringed beaches of the South Coast. Airlines and hotels are likely to continue offering discounts well into 2020, and if you go very early in the new year, you won’t have to pay for a visa either – citizens from nearly fifty countries, including the UK, Ireland and the US, can travel on a free one-month visa until the end of January.

MINI BREAKS

Food will be near the top of your agenda on a trip to NAPLES. This is the home of pizza, and you should really try several versions in several restaurants – all in the name of research, of course – if you want to help settle the argument of who does it best. Desert is a scoop or two of soft gelato, in dozens of different flavours. There’s plenty to do in Naples itself, from riding the funicular up to Castel Sant’Elmo to touring the labyrinthine Napoli Sotteranea, a city beneath the city. But make sure you also allow enough time to visit Pompeii, one of the world’s most famous ruins, and to take a drive past the brightly coloured cliffside towns along the zigzagging Amalfi Coast.

If you’re flying long haul in 2020, why not take a break en route in DUBAI, where the desire to make everything bigger and brighter and better has created a city of superlatives. Here you can ride the fastest lifts in the world to the top of the tallest building on Earth (the Burj Khalifa) and stock up on confectionary in the world’s biggest sweet shop in the world’s biggest shopping mall. In 2020, things are going to get even more eye-popping with the arrival of the six-month-long World Expo and the expected opening of the Museum of the Future. We’ll have more on what to see and do in Dubai when our new series on Stopover Cities launches in the spring.

Take a trip back in time in 2020 with a mini break to TRANSYLVANIA, the wild, forested central region of Romania that has barely changed since the Middle Ages. The fictional home of Bram Stoker’s famous vampire is chock-full of medieval towns and Gothic fortresses, and locals still get around by horse-drawn cart. In four or five days, you could visit Saxon Brașov, scare yourselves silly at “Dracula’s Castle” in Bran, and go bear-watching or wolf-tracking in the Carpathian mountains. You can even stay with a real-life count in the village of Miklósvár. Spring and summer are the best times to visit – if you’re feeling brave, though, you might want to wait until the October Half Term and tie in a trip with Halloween.

For a totally unique city break, it’s hard to beat ISTANBUL. No other city in the world straddles two continents; no other city has served as the capital to two mighty empires. It’s this blend of Europe and Asia, of Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques, that makes a trip to Istanbul so different. The condensed Old Town area of Sultanahmet is packed with history, but it’s the little things, like steaming in a traditional hammam, taking a ferry across the Bosphorus and feasting on plates of tasty meze, that you’ll remember the most. You won’t have it to yourself – Istanbul is now the third most-visited city in Europe – but as the Turkish lira continues to fall in value, this could be the bargain break you’ve been looking for.

Every year is a good year to visit AMSTERDAM, but in April 2020 the Dutch capital will get a whole lot closer when Eurostar launches its first ever direct return service from London, shaving almost an hour off the current journey home – your train will roll into Centraal Station just 3 hours and 55 minutes after leaving St Pancras, with a similar journey time for the return leg. Wander the pretty canals with their wonky gabled merchants’ houses, explore the world-class art museums, visit a floating flower market and pootle about on the water on a pedalo or electric boat. No one should miss the Anne Frank House; renovated in 2017, this poignant museum now has an impressive Virtual Reality tour that brings her Secret Annex to life.