20 Places To Go In 2020

Conscious luxury, landmark anniversaries and the hottest emerging destinations— here’s our holiday list to tick off this year.

- Saumya Ancheri

JAPAN The Olympic Games return to their first Asian host, Tokyo, from 24 July to 9 August (tokyo2020.org). The Paralympics follow from 25 August to 6 September. Plans are underway for humanoid robots to guide visitors at the Olympic Village and a potential fleet of driverless cabs. Fans can drop by Kyoto to stay at the upcoming Ace Hotel Kyoto (acehotel.com), designed by Kengo Kuma, the architect behind Tokyo’s rebuilt New National Stadium that was the main venue for the 1964 Olympics. Extend the trip north to Tohoku at the tip of Honshu island to hike, ski, temple-hop and soak in hot springs.

SHANGHAI, CHINA The country’s most cosmopolitan city has a new swathe of swanky hotels: the serene Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai (mandarinoriental.com) with its lively Qi Bar; the Bvlgari Hotel Shanghai (bulgarihotels.com) with fab views from La Terrazza cocktail bar; and Capella Shanghai (capellahotels.com) in the former French Concession area. Go bar-hopping and admire the Art Deco architecture along the Bund, take the kids to Shanghai Disneyland or on a guided food tour, and explore the artsy West Bund. Also, the first Eden Project (edenproject. com) outside the UK will open in Qingdao, a little over an hour’s flight from Shanghai, in 2020. It will be themed around water.

KOCHI, KERALA