Bloomberg, January 3

We miss the world. Although 2021 brought some encouraging cracks in the pandemic’s barriers to travel, there were still too many places we couldn’t go. And painfully, seeing everyone we missed was impossible. When planning group trips, attempting to reach distant loved ones, or trying to attend social events abroad, we faced obstacles at every turn. The current wave of the Covid-19 omicron variant has us feeling we may never again get together the way we once did.

So for this edition of the most compelling places to visit in the year ahead, we focus on new ways to gather. Whether it’s a villa in the lush mountains of Portugal that caters to groups, a cruise in the Galápagos that matches families with kids the same age, or a hotel in Thailand that encourages drinking games, these recommendations intend to conjure a feeling of joyful reunion, no matter your risk tolerance.

Revisit a Family-Friendly Classic in Newport, R.I.

By the time Julian Fellowes’s period drama Gilded Age makes its debut on HBO in late January, its backdrop—Newport—will be toasting a new golden era of its own. And it’s not just because of Hollywood’s spotlight.
 
First came the Brenton and Hammetts hotels, a pair of nautical boltholes that arrived downtown just in time to welcome droves of East Coast residents looking for drivable getaways. They joined the Wayfinder, a boho-chic hotel owned by several local chefs that has 197 pet-friendly rooms and rainbow floaties in the pool.
 
In the second half of 2021, Auberge Resorts Collection took over the Vanderbilt, a stately historic hotel in need of a face-lift, and infused it with handsome interiors and a restaurant with dishes created by April Bloomfield. (Its 33 redesigned rooms will be unveiled in early 2022.) The Sailing Museum opens on the waterfront in May; one of its interactive exhibits will let you test your strength on the grinders that power the America’s Cup boats. It was once considered a little old-fashioned, but now the City by the Sea has something exciting for everyone.