The test we applied was simple: what is true about this place in 2027 that was not true in 2026? A new airport, a tournament, an Expo, a route that did not exist before. Somewhere being beautiful is not a reason to go next year rather than any other year.
Three of these are driven by events that will move hotel prices sharply in a defined window, so they come first. If you want the destination and not the crowd, the useful information is which months to avoid.
Belgrade gets a world Expo
Expo 2027 Belgrade: 15 May to 15 August 2027. Theme: "Play for Humanity: Sport and Music for All". Over 120 countries expected.
Belgrade is already one of Europe's better value city breaks and one of its genuinely distinctive ones: a confluence-of-two-rivers capital with a fortress, a brutal and fascinating 20th century, and a nightlife reputation it has earned. Expo brings a purpose-built site, a wave of infrastructure spending and international attention it has not had in decades.
Serbia is outside the EU and the Schengen area, so a Belgrade trip does not touch your 90-day Schengen allowance. That is a quietly useful fact if you travel in Europe a lot.
What catches people out: Serbia is not in the EU, so a GHIC does not apply and you are paying for treatment or claiming it back. The dinar is the currency, not the euro. If you are going for Expo, book accommodation early, because a three-month event in a city this size will absorb the hotel stock.
The Women's World Cup comes to South America
FIFA Women's World Cup: 24 June to 25 July 2027. 32 teams across eight host cities. The first time the tournament has been held in South America.
Brazil in a World Cup year is Brazil at its best and its most expensive. Eight host cities means the tournament reaches a lot of the country, and the shoulder either side of it, May or August, gives you the improved infrastructure without the tournament pricing.
If you would rather go for the country than the football, the Amazon, the Pantanal and the northeastern coast are all a long way from any stadium.
What catches people out: vaccination lead times. Yellow fever requirements and recommendations vary by Brazilian region and change; some vaccines need several weeks to become effective. Check TravelHealthPro at the point you book, not the month you fly. Brazil is nowhere near GHIC territory, so your policy's medical and repatriation limits are the ones that matter.
The Rugby World Cup returns after 25 years
Rugby World Cup: 1 October to 13 November 2027. Expanded to 24 teams and 52 matches across Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney and Townsville.
Australia has not hosted since 2003 and the tournament has been expanded for the occasion. It lands in the Australian spring, which is close to the ideal time to be there anyway, and the seven host cities span the continent, so following a team is a genuine road trip.
Flights from the UK for that window will be booked out by British and Irish supporters long before the pool draw resolves into anything sensible.
What catches people out: paying for a free visa. British citizens qualify for the eVisitor, subclass 651, which costs nothing, but search results are thick with agents charging for it and with the paid ETA subclass 601 aimed at other nationalities. Use the Australian government's own site. And a genuinely little-known one: a UK GHIC is valid in Australia, used as proof to access Medicare.
Three new airports change what is possible
Nuuk's international airport opened in late 2024. Qaqortoq followed on 16 April 2026. Ilulissat's new airport opens late in 2026, with direct Copenhagen flights from 29 October 2026.
This is the most substantial change on the list. For decades reaching Greenland meant routing through Kangerlussuaq, a former US airbase in the middle of nowhere, then taking a domestic hop. Three new airports rewire that entirely: Ilulissat, the town beside the icefjord where most visitors actually want to be, gets direct jets from Copenhagen for the first time, initially one a week on Wednesdays, rising to two through the winter tourist season in March 2027.
2027 is the first full year of that network. It will not stay quiet for long.
What catches people out: Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark but is not in the EU, and does not appear on the NHS list of places a GHIC covers. Denmark being an EU member does not help you here. Medical evacuation from a remote settlement or a boat is among the most expensive in the world, so the repatriation limit on your policy is the line to check first. Weather cancels flights and boats routinely, so build in slack days.
The last cheap Mediterranean coast, while it lasts
No visa required for British passport holders for short stays. Albania is outside the Schengen area, so time there does not count against your 90 days.
The Albanian Riviera around Saranda and Ksamil has the water clarity of Greece at a fraction of the price, and Ottoman hill towns like Berat and Gjirokastër inland. It has been "the next big thing" for a few years now and is, visibly, becoming the current big thing. 2027 is probably the last year the phrase "undiscovered" can be used without embarrassment.
Tirana is a genuinely interesting capital: a communist-era city painted in primary colours by a mayor who was a painter.
What catches people out: the roads and the driving. Albania's road safety record is poor by western European standards and mountain routes are demanding. If you hire a car, take the excess waiver seriously and be certain your policy covers you to drive there. Outside the EU means no GHIC.
The Silk Road, now genuinely easy to reach
Visa-free for British passport holders for short stays. High-speed rail links Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara.
Samarkand's Registan is one of the half-dozen most spectacular built spaces on earth and, for now, you can stand in it without queuing. Uzbekistan has spent the past few years removing the friction that used to make Central Asia hard work: the visa is gone for UK travellers, the trains are fast and modern, and the hotel stock has improved enormously.
Spring and autumn are the seasons; high summer is punishing.
What catches people out: medical facilities outside Tashkent are limited, so the thing your policy needs to do is move you, not treat you locally. Check the repatriation limit and that the insurer has a 24-hour assistance line that actually operates in the region. Currency is the som, and card acceptance thins out fast outside the cities.
Gorillas, and a country built around getting to them
Visa on arrival for British passport holders. Kigali has become a significant regional aviation hub.
Rwanda has made conservation tourism its national economic strategy and it shows: Volcanoes National Park for mountain gorillas, Nyungwe's rainforest canopy walk, and Akagera, restocked with the big five after decades of absence. Kigali is safe, orderly and easy, and the road network is excellent by regional standards.
Permits are strictly limited and expensive by design, which is what keeps the gorilla population growing. Book many months ahead.
What catches people out: gorilla trekking is a strenuous hike at altitude through steep, wet forest, and people underestimate it badly. Some policies treat trekking above a certain altitude as an excluded activity. Check the altitude clause and the wording on organised excursions. Yellow fever certificates are required for entry from some countries, so confirm the current rule on TravelHealthPro before you fly.
The one with a health-cover quirk almost nobody knows
A UK GHIC is valid in Montenegro, despite it being outside the EU. It is one of only a handful of non-EU countries on the NHS list.
The Bay of Kotor looks like a Norwegian fjord that took a wrong turn into the Adriatic, with a walled medieval town at the end of it. Durmitor in the north is a serious mountain range, and the coast south towards Ulcinj is far quieter than the cruise-ship end.
Montenegro uses the euro despite not being in the EU, so the money is simple. Read our tale of the bay and the village almost nobody bothers with.
What catches people out: in a good way, this time. Most people assume that outside the EU the GHIC is useless, so they never check, and Montenegro is one of the exceptions listed by the NHS. It still does not repatriate you and does not cover private clinics, which is where a lot of tourists end up. The mountain roads are spectacular and genuinely dangerous.
AlUla, before the rest of the world catches up
Online tourist visa available to British passport holders. AlUla's main visitor season runs roughly October to April.
Hegra at AlUla is a Nabataean city of rock-cut tombs by the same civilisation that built Petra, and it receives a tiny fraction of Petra's visitors. The surrounding desert landscape of sandstone outcrops is extraordinary. Saudi Arabia opened to tourism only in 2019 and is investing at a scale that will change AlUla substantially within a few years.
Go in the cooler months. Summer in the Saudi interior is not a holiday.
What catches people out: the legal and cultural rules, which are not suggestions. Alcohol is prohibited entirely, there are dress expectations in public, and some medications ordinary in the UK are controlled substances there. Check the FCDO page on local laws before you pack a first aid kit. Mecca and Medina are closed to non-Muslims. Read the FCDO advice properly rather than assuming it is like the UAE.
Winter sun with a short flight and no jet lag
Direct flights from several UK airports, around six hours. One hour behind the UK in winter, so effectively no time difference.
The case for Cape Verde is almost entirely practical: reliable heat in January and February, a six-hour flight, and no jet lag at the other end. Sal and Boa Vista are the package islands with the beaches; Santo Antão and Fogo are for walkers and are a different holiday entirely, all volcanic ridges and terraced valleys.
Add the music, which is genuinely one of the reasons to go.
What catches people out: the healthcare gap. Cape Verde is an Atlantic archipelago, medical facilities are limited especially on the smaller islands, and serious cases mean evacuation to Europe. That is a repatriation cost, not a treatment cost, and it is exactly the thing cheap policies cap too low. Watch the Atlantic surf, which is stronger than it looks and accounts for a lot of the trouble people get into.
The thing everyone else's 2027 list will get wrong
ETIAS does not have a confirmed start date, and any article telling you otherwise is guessing. The EU's €20 travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors was scheduled for late 2026. In July 2026 the European Commission removed that date from its own website and replaced it with a statement that it will communicate the specific start date several months before launch. There is also a transitional period after it does launch, during which travellers can still enter without one.
So: you may or may not need an ETIAS for a European trip in 2027, nobody currently knows, and the answer will be announced with months of warning. What you should not do is pay one of the many lookalike sites offering to "pre-register" you. When it arrives it will cost €20, be free for under-18s and over-70s, last three years or until your passport expires, and be applied for directly. Check the EU's own ETIAS page and nowhere else.
What has already changed is the border itself. The EU's Entry/Exit System became fully operational on 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamps with biometric registration: fingerprints and a facial image on your first crossing, checked against that record afterwards. It applies in 25 EU countries plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Ireland and Cyprus are outside it, and the UK-Ireland Common Travel Area is unaffected.
Rollout has been uneven, with several countries permitted to suspend checks temporarily when queues became unmanageable, so allow extra time at Dover, Folkestone and St Pancras in particular.
Eight of these ten are outside GHIC territory entirely. Serbia, Brazil, Greenland, Albania, Uzbekistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde all leave you paying for treatment. Australia and Montenegro are the two surprises that do work. Either way the card never covers repatriation, which is the cost that actually ruins people. See the six mistakes people make buying travel insurance.
