Italy's fashion capital will focus on the future of food for Expo 2015, when an estimated 20 million visitors will hit Milan.
Not sure where to go on vacation next year?
To help get you motivated, we've identified 10 destinations that are sure to make headlines in 2015.
Some will host major
global events, while others will celebrate anniversaries, unveil new
attractions or stand in Mother Nature's spotlight.
- As the European Capital of Culture, Mons, Belgium, will host more than 1,000 cultural and artistic events in 2015
- The Broad Museum's honeycomb-encased gallery will be the crowning jewel of downtown LA's ongoing revival
- Singapore will celebrate its Golden Jubilee with parades, fireworks and the unveiling of its National Gallery
The Bahamian Riviera
With four hotels, 200,000
square feet of convention space, a 2,000-seat performing arts center,
18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, 30 restaurants and bars, 14
distinct pools and a 100,000-square-foot casino large enough to rival
any in Las Vegas or Macau, the $3.5 billion development known as Baha Mar is kind of a big deal.
In fact, the so-called
"Bahamian Riviera" is the largest single-phase luxury resort project in
the history of the Caribbean and the most substantial currently in
development in the Western Hemisphere.
Located along Nassau's
famed Cable Beach, Baha Mar is expected to send ripples across the
Caribbean when it opens to the public in late spring 2015 with a grand
gala produced by music and entertainment legends Jamie King and Emilio
Estefan.
The event is meant to
herald the arrival of a new Riviera -- one full of 21st-century
entertainment located right in Florida's backyard.
Mons, Belgium
Mons, Belgium,
has a population of just 93,072 people, but the small city expects 2
million visitors to ply its medieval streets when it hosts more than
1,000 cultural and artistic events in 2015 as the offical European
Capital of Culture.
Highlights of the
yearlong celebration include an illuminating new Van Gogh exhibit, three
multidisciplinary arts festivals, numerous public installations and
art-infused parties.
Van Gogh's "The Diggers" will be part of Mons' new exhibit.
Moreover, Mons will
unveil not one, not two, but an astounding five new museums in April,
including The Artotheque (art library) and Mons Memorial Museum.
Think of 2015 as a coming out party for this former mining and industrial center that's completely reinventing itself.
Downtown Los Angeles
A decade ago, you'd have struggled to find life on the streets of downtown Los Angeles after the office lights went dim for the night.
But what was once the
city's dark center has rapidly transformed into one of its most exciting
neighborhoods, with more than 500 shops, restaurants, bars and clubs
opening their doors in the past five years alone.
Exciting new hotels like the Ace,
stores like Acne Studios and food venues like the revamped Grand
Central Market -- in addition to the recently completed $3 billion
sports and entertainment complex known as L.A. Live
-- have injected downtown with a jolt of energy that's helped lure
visitors and residents away from LA's sunny perimeter and into its urban
core.
The downtown scene is expected to heat up in 2015 when billionaire art collector Eli Broad's $140 million vanity project, the Broad Museum, opens to the public in the fall.
The honeycomb-encased
gallery has been heralded as the crowning jewel of downtown LA's
revival, and will house works by some of the most prominent artists of
recent decades, including Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and Cindy
Sherman.
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands
have never really had their moment in the spotlight, but a dance with
darkness in 2015 may finally put the remote archipelago between Norway
and Iceland on travelers' radars.
This self-governing
country within the Danish Realm is one of just two places in the world
that will witness a total solar eclipse on March 20, 2015, when the moon
passes between the earth and sun, plunging daylight into darkness.
Several travel agencies
are already filling up tours and cruises to the storybook isles for this
once in a lifetime astronomical event.
Though it'll last just 2 minutes and 47 seconds, Europeans won't see anything like it again until 2026.
Coober Pedy has bargain basement deals on dazzling opals.
Coober Pedy, Australia
Alice Springs and Uluru
(Ayer's Rock) have long served as the two pinnacles of Outback
Australia's tourism duopoly, but an increasing number of visitors are
venturing further south along the Stuart Highway to explore the
"underground town" of Coober Pedy, where 80% of the world's opal comes
from.
Coober Pedy
will celebrate its Centenary in 2015 with a year's worth of events,
including an opal festival, gem show, marathon, dances and street
parties.
Tourists heading into
town for the celebrations will have the opportunity to sleep as the
locals do in subterranean dugouts that promise a consistent temperature
of 25 C (77 F).
There will, perhaps, be
nowhere else on earth in 2015 where you can shop for bargain-basement
gems, march in a street parade and retire to your underground hotel room
... all in one day.
Singapore
Singapore has a reputation for being pretty and dull in equal measure.
However, the undeniably
attractive isle of Singapore will be anything but boring in 2015 as it
celebrates 50 years of independence with fireworks, parades, shows,
youth rallies and a new walkway from the Civic District to Marina Bay.
Yet, Singapore's Golden Jubilee isn't the only reason to visit in 2015.
The long-awaited National Gallery
will finally open to the public in November and join recently unveiled
attractions like River Safari and the massive Singapore Sports Hub in
diversifying the city's offerings.
Salta, Argentina
What if you could visit the Grand Canyon and Napa Valley within the course of one afternoon?
That, in essence, is what's on offer in Salta Province, a dusty patch of Andean Argentina where the country bumps up against Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay.
Salta is home to colorful colonial towns, gnarled mountainscapes and the highest altitude wineries in the world.
With a $160 million plan
underway to turn this largely domestic destination into the eco-tourism
capital of Latin America, this is a cat that's about to be let out of
the bag.
If you like your wine
with a side of adventure -- and want to take advantage of Argentina's
exceedingly favorable "blue dollar" exchange rate -- Salta will be ready
and waiting in 2015.
With spectacular pavilions like this, architecture will dominate Milan's Expo.
Milan
The World's Fair has
left the planet with many icons -- the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle,
the first Ferris wheel -- but the legacy of Expo Milano 2015 will likely be in the ideas it generates, rather than any architectural marvels.
Travelers from around
the world are expected to converge on Italy's second-largest city
between May and October to ruminate on the future of food within a 1.1
million-square-meter fairgrounds plotted out like a classical Roman
metropolis.
The event promises to
put participants from more than 140 counties in touch with an estimated
20 million visitors across 60 pavilions, a record number exceeding even
the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai.
Expect exotic food tastings, educational lectures and rich, multi-sensory experiences.
Mekong and Irrawaddy rivers
Small cruise vessels
have long been a staple of European rivers, but with river cruising
ballooning into the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry
(according to industry reports), many boats will find new homes in 2015
along two of Southeast Asia's most important waterways: the Mekong and Irrawaddy rivers.
More than a dozen new
ships from a half-dozen companies (including Viking, Haimark and Avalon
Waterways) will set sail in 2015 on journeys through Myanmar or across
the Vietnam-Cambodia border from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap.
Soaking up the world's best culture
For those who always
wanted to see Southeast Asia, but didn't want to deal with the hassle of
tuk-tuks and touts, there's never been an easier (or more comfortable)
way.
Abu Dhabi
Dubai may have exploded into a theme park of superlatives, but its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi has steered a different course in a multibillion-dollar bid to become the cultural capital of the Middle East.
At the heart of Abu Dhabi's reinvention is the 24,000-square-meter Saadiyat Island Cultural District.
This intellectual
playground is set to house the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in 2017, the Zayed
National Museum in 2016 and, if all goes according to plan, the first
Louvre Museum outside Paris by the end of next year.
Add to the mix a
performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid, and it's clear that both
the skyline and city below are about to get a lot more inspiring.
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