The 41 Places to Go in 2011- ERZURUM

18. Erzurum, Turkey
Skiing in Turkey? A winter sports capital emerges in Anatolia.

Published: January 7, 2011

Salsa remains Cali’s lifeblood. If the dance floors of Tin Tin Deo or Zaperoco are too full, try La Fuente, a pint-size bar jammed with sweaty students who spill out onto the street most nights. Or, follow the sounds of Latin jazz to Guayusa, just next door. Those with serious salsa chops hitch a cab out of town to the suburb of Juanchito, whose dance floors do not fill up until after midnight (but go in a group, as this section gets dicey at those hours). Also be sure to check out a performance of Delirio, the monthly cabaret that is part Cirque du Soleil, part salsa clinic.
— LIONEL BEEHNER

11. The Danube
From Budapest to the Black Sea, new cruises on a storied river.

For years, high-end river travel in Europe has focused on western European waterways like the Rhine and the Rhone. But recent developments have brought the high life to the principal river of central and eastern Europe: the Danube.

Last year, California’s Viking River Cruises launched new cruises on the river, and in 2011, another tour company, Tauck, will introduce riverboat trips from swinging Budapest to the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the Kempinski Hotel River Park recently opened on the Danube’s banks in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The blue Danube threads its way through four capitals (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade) and touches 10 countries, passing by majestic scenery, outrageously great wine regions and castles, fortifications and ruins dating back centuries. What better way to see all these treasures than from the water?
— EVAN RAIL

12. Niseko, Japan
An Aspen emerges in Asia, with luxury to spare.

It was the snow that first brought the Australian ski bums here, the great powder blown in by Siberian cold fronts. Then chefs and designers discovered that this sleepy town on Japan’s northern Hokkaido island was actually a lovely spot in itself, with natural hot springs, family-owned inns and spectacular views of impossibly symmetrical Mount Yotei. Now with the development of stylish restaurants and a network of fashion-forward chalets (like the foodie must stop Kamimura and the 10 zenlike lofts at Suiboku), the well-heeled are arriving on direct flights from all over Asia to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport, creating the region’s answer to Aspen and Courchevel.

Expect that to intensify when a high-speed train line, now planned to begin service in 2015, cuts the trip up from Tokyo to under four hours. This month the fully revamped 200-room Green Leaf Niseko Village, stylishly renovated by the New York-based Alexandra Champalimaud, is reopening its doors, while a Banyan Tree and Tadao Ando-designed Capella complex are in the pipeline.
— ONDINE COHANE

13. Oahu
Hawaii’s most developed island adds resorts and attractions.

The nature that abounds on Maui and rural Kauai often overshadows the attractions on Oahu, the most populous Hawaiian island. But this year Oahu offers travelers fresh incentive in the form of name-brand resorts and other tourist attractions.

Disney plans to open Aulani, a 359-room resort 17 miles west of the Honolulu airport, in August. The 21-acre compound, part of the manicured Koolina Resort & Marina, will emphasize Hawaiian culture over Disney animation by offering hula lessons, lei making and storytelling (Disney movies will be stocked in the kids club). In addition to standard pools and a lazy river, a conservation pool supports stingrays that kids can safely touch.

For grown-ups, in October the hotelier Ian Schrager unveiled the first in a boutique hotel chain that he is creating for Marriott: the 353-room Waikiki Edition. Though it’s not on the beach — it’s a five-minute walk to the ocean — the resort makes up for it with an outdoor movie theater, a restaurant by the Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, surf-and-bikini boot camp and yoga. It has four bars, including one hidden behind a revolving bookcase.

But there’s more than sunsets and mai tais to Oahu. A $56 million visitors’ center and museum at Pearl Harbor opened Dec. 7 featuring interactive exhibits about the World War II attack that trace the path to war from both American and Japanese perspectives.
— ELAINE GLUSAC

14. Antwerp, Belgium
A new breed of boutiques have made it a fashionista’s paradise.

There hasn’t been so much fashion buzz in Antwerp since the dawn of the Antwerp Six, a group of designers including Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester who rose to prominence in the mid 1980s. And while the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts is still churning out avant-garde talents, it’s Antwerp’s latest crop of shops that is causing the current buzz.

“The fashionistas I know have suddenly fallen in love with Antwerp,” said Lulu Townsend, the managing director of the London travel company Chic Retreats. “It’s a shopper’s paradise.”

In the last year alone four destination-worthy concept stores have opened, among them the fashion shop-cum-gallery Ra, which sells local and international labels and also hosts art and fashion events. Next door is Your, which offers everything from “a 2-euro pack of bubble gum to 14 brands of jeans and a 350,000-euro Alfa Romeo 8C,” said Jorrit Baars, who conceived the space.

Then there are the posh new boutiques Graanmarkt 13 and Renaissance, which features designers like Alexander Wang along with a chic Italian restaurant simply called Ristaurante. While you are in the building, check out the latest exhibition at Antwerp’s fashion museum, MoMu.
— GISELA WILLIAMS

15. Melbourne, Australia
New hotels plus big-name chefs put Sydney on notice.

With a bunch of new hotels and restaurants led by notable chefs cropping up, Melbourne has been stealing the spotlight from its sister city, Sydney.

The most notable addition comes from the luxury brand Crown, which is investing 1 billion Australian dollars (about the same in U.S. dollars) to expand its sprawling Crown Entertainment Complex on the southern bank of the Yarra River. In April it opened Australia’s largest hotel, the 300-million-dollar 658-room Crown Metropol, which has an infinity pool on the 27th floor with 180-degree views of the city, and is home to the Maze and Maze Grill, the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s first endeavors Down Under. The complex also includes the Crown Towers hotel, which has four private penthouse gaming salons with 360-degree views of Melbourne’s skyline.

The city’s thriving arts scene now has stylish boutique hotels to match, too. Three Art Series Hotels, inspired by (and featuring the works of) famous artists, opened in the last year. The Olsen, named for the landscape painter John Olsen, is the flagship of the group, with 229 rooms (from 215 dollars a night) and a heated, glass-bottomed swimming pool.

Visiting foodies will be able to choose from a number of new restaurants. In October, the Australian chef Neil Perry, of Rockpool in Sydney, opened Spice Temple, a 200-seat contemporary Szechuan restaurant next door to his Rockpool Bar & Grill in the Crown complex, as well as a new bar, the Waiting Room, in the lobby of the Crown Towers hotel. Also within the Crown complex, a new seafood restaurant, the Atlantic, will debut in February with Donovan Cooke as executive chef.
— MICHELLE HIGGINS

16. Tlemcen, Algeria
An ancient Islamic city dresses up for a gala year.

There’s a buzz of anticipation — and power tools — in the streets, squares and souks of this ancient Algerian city. Named a Capital of Islamic Culture for 2011 by Isesco (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Algeria’s spiritual heart is preparing for a yearlong gala that will include some 300 exhibitions, concerts, screenings, theater performances, lectures and readings. The ruins of medieval ramparts and towers are being refurbished. Time-worn mosques and hammams are being dusted off. Cultural centers and museums are being started. And a first generation of five-star hotels — notably a Renaissance by Marriott— is rising from the ground.

Why Tlemcen? As the seat of a medieval dynasty that controlled much of North Africa, Tlemcen has long been a center of Islamic learning, culture and art. Skilled craftsmen ply their wares around the Kissaria market, traditional orchestras show off their chops every summer at the city’s festival of Arabo-Andalusian music, and the Muslim faithful pour into magnificent religious edifices like the Great Mosque and the tomb of Sidi Boumediene — a revered 12th-century Islamic scholar. With the approaching festival, the city should at last recapture some of its past glory.
— SETH SHERWOOD

17. Sopot and Gdansk, Poland
Poland’s Baltic coast welcomes party hoppers and soccer fans.

Every country with a coastline has its version of the Hamptons. In Poland, it’s Sopot. In the summer, the small city — with its white beach, fin-de-siècle villas and lively cafe- and club-lined boulevard — is packed with young party hoppers from all over Poland and Scandinavia, dancing at flashy venues like the new Dream Club. Vladimir Putin has been known to stay at the palatial Sofitel Grand, which looks over the sea and nearby pier, the longest on the Baltic.

Sopot and the neighboring city of Gdansk (formerly known as Danzig) are gearing up for the 2012 European soccer championships, which will take place throughout Poland and Ukraine. Already there has been a flurry of openings, including a new boutique-style Hilton in Gdansk’s historic center, the Ergo Arena between Sopot and Gdansk (Lady Gaga was one of the first to perform), and a symphony hall with a stylish restaurant in Gdansk that was formerly a power plant. But the biggest debut is further off: the reopening of the beloved Forest Opera, an amphitheater in Sopot, which by 2012 should have 1,000 additional seats and a new roof.
— GISELA WILLIAMS

18. Erzurum, Turkey
Skiing in Turkey? A winter sports capital emerges in Anatolia.

Turkey may not be the first place people think of for skiing, but it’s got mountains — big, snowy ones. Now the government is making a push to turn Erzurum, a city of 785,000 in eastern Anatolia, into a winter sports capital in time for this month’s 2011 Winter Universiade (sort of an Olympics for university students). Two and a half miles from town lies the ski resort of Palandoken, which the Iranian skiers who come here know has the most challenging skiing in Turkey. Three lifts have been added to the bald mountain that rises nearly 3,000 feet from its base to its summit at 10,498. The number of runs is a modest 18 — but the fun skiing is off-piste, between the runs, on Palandoken’s 2,200 acres.

About 11 miles from Erzurum sits the new Konakli Ski Resort, which opened this winter with six chairlifts and 3,000 acres of skiing. A new five-star hotel is scheduled to open next season; until it does, rent a car for day trips and stay at Palandoken’s Renaissance Polat Erzurum Hotel.
— CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON

19. Hyderabad, India
Dynastic grandeur in the heart of modern India.

Even in the 16th century, Hyderabad, in southern India, famous for its diamond trade and sultans’ palaces, was a city with serious bling. In the last decade, a new sort of wealth has arrived — the outsourcing of international companies, which has inspired a boom of sleek cafes and restaurants such as Fusion 9.

The latest buzz is the debut of two five-star hotels, both connected to the Nizam family, rulers of Hyderabad for the two centuries before India’s independence. The first, Park Hyderabad, is a futuristic structure designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with an aluminum and glass facade inspired by the settings and metalwork found in the Nizams’ jewelry collection. The new Taj Falaknuma Palace, on the other hand, is a window into the past. It’s a wedding cake of a building that still belongs to the Nizam family, and it took the Taj Hotels group 10 years to renovate the European-style castle. “The Falaknuma Palace will complete the Indian palace tour for the south,” said Shanti Kohli, of New Delhi-based Amber Tours. “It makes a trip to Hyderabad worthwhile just on its own.”
— GISELA WILLIAMS

20. Manchester, England
An industrial city reinvents its famed musical past.

The cold and gritty factory city that famously inspired the post-industrial anguish of bands like Joy Division and the Smiths has transformed into a thriving cultural hub. Several new music venues are cashing in on “Madchester” nostalgia, including FAC251, an indie-music club that opened in February in the old Factory Records building. The owners of the popular Trof cafe, which bills itself as a “dandyish den of opulence,” recently opened a new multiplatform cultural venue called the Deaf Institute. For those who want a taste of the city’s favorite depressive sons.
— CHARLY WILDER

21. Tallinn, Estonia
The beautiful capital city aims to shed its stag-party past.

Soon after EasyJet began flights from London and Berlin to the Estonian capital in 2004, Tallinn became known as the Las Vegas of the Baltics, luring hordes of party tourists with its cheap liquor and wild seaside night life. But now, with the city’s selection as a 2011 European Capital of Culture, cash is flowing in and pulling Tallinn out of its stag party adolescence.

Some seven years after Estonia joined the European Union, large-scale infrastructural and restorative work, including several rebuilt museums, a waterfront promenade and a large arts venue, KultuuriKatel (Culture Cauldron), are reshaping Tallinn’s cultural identity. Much of Northern Europe’s arts community will converge on the city this year, as it debuts a yearlong schedule of European Union-sponsored events, including the student-focused contemporary art triennial Exsperimenta! and “Stories of the Seashore,” a project that enlists writers, actors, artists and musicians to reflect on the sea that has been so central to Estonia’s development.
— CHARLY WILDER

22. Fogo Island, Newfoundland
An art colony blooms on remote and rugged shores.

A remote island off the coast of Newfoundland with a dwindling population of 3,000 residents might not strike you as an important cultural enclave. But it soon could be, thanks to a local resident, Zita Cobb and a Norwegian architect, Todd Saunders. They teamed up to create a series of innovative artists’ studios in former saltbox houses and deconsecrated churches that perch over the North Atlantic and rugged pristine landscapes. Two are complete, and four more will be unveiled in June as part of the Fogo Island Arts Corporation. The effort, with the help of government financing, puts more than $15 million into showcasing the island as an arts and eco destination.

Besides the cutting-edge studios, which will host artists and writers as part of an international residency program, the foundation will also open a 29-room hotel next year. For the moment visitors can stay at country spots like Foley’s Bed and Breakfast and Peg’s B&B and rent a car to tour the architectural showcases. Talk about island innovation.
— ONDINE COHANE

23. Singapore
With new resorts and casinos, the city lets its hair down.

For years, this island country was considered oppressive and humorless. But recently Singapore has started to have some fun with new supersized resorts, design hotels and restaurants.

“There has been a big change in the Singapore scene in the last two or three years,” said the hotelier Lik Peng Loh, who recently opened Wanderlust, which he calls an “adult playground.”

Singapore’s decision six years ago to allow gambling led to the recent opening of two complexes: the Resorts World Sentosa, with a casino, Universal Studios theme park and four hotels, including a Hard Rock; and the Marina Bay Sands.
— GISELA WILLIAMS

24. Port Ghalib, Egypt
A low-key beach escape with clear water and sea creatures.

The once unspoiled beauty and calm of Sharm el-Sheikh, on the Red Sea in Egypt, has suffered from an influx of tourists (not to mention a recent series of shark attacks). Those looking to skip the crowds should turn to Port Ghalib, across the Red Sea from Sharm, on the eastern Egyptian coast. Ghalib’s beaches offer soft, snow-hued sand and translucent water that divers love.

Since the area’s rich marine life hasn’t yet been sullied by packs of visitors, the coral reefs are undamaged and ripe for exploring. Admiral Travel, a Florida-based travel consultancy that specializes in trips to Egypt, arranges customized diving expeditions to Elphinstone Reef (a few miles from Ghalib) that allow clients to swim with hammerhead and gray reef sharks. Port Ghalib also offers affordable lodging options, with several attractive hotels. Four resorts operated by the InterContinental Hotel Group include the upscale beachfront Palace Port Ghalib Resort, which features a Six Senses spa.
— SHIVANI VORA

25. Whistler, British Columbia
The Olympians are gone. Now it’s your turn.

You don’t need a lifetime of training or a Spandex unitard to retrace the strides of the best Nordic skiers in the world. The 2010 Winter Games left behind a tremendous structural legacy: Whistler Olympic Park, which is now open to the public. The park, and its partner facility, the Callaghan Country Lodge, offer some 55 miles of trails that range from easy to Olympian.