41 travel destinations for 2015

In September, Hurricane Odile tore up huge chunks of Cabos San Lucas and San José del Cabo, closing more than half the area's lodgings, along with scores of restaurants and other businesses and the airport.

But these twin towns at the tip of Baja have too much at stake to lie still. The airport and more than two dozen hotels reopened in October and November.

Long known for its beaches and culture, Cuba became mostly forbidden territory for American travelers soon after Fidel Castro seized control in 1959.

But relations have gradually thawed in recent years, leading to a watershed agreement announced Dec. 17 by President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro (who took over from brother Fidel in 2008).

These normalized relations could mean a rush of U.S. tourists to Cuba.

In the last five years, the city has added eight hotels (with a ninth, a Kimpton, coming in 2015) and built a convention center, an aquarium and the new Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will hold an induction ceremony April 18.

You can expect more prettification around town; the city will host the Republican National Convention in 2016.

Buildings and food, people. This architecture-rich city, born in the late 17th century, is where the Civil War began (in 1861 when Confederate troops attacked Ft. Sumter at the mouth of Charleston Harbor).

Scores of historically important buildings survived the war, an earthquake (1886) and hurricane (1989) and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1977, the Spoleto Festival USA (May 22-June 7) has been filling the city with opera, dance, theater, jazz and chamber music.

This site in Normandy — a tiny island at the mouth of the Couesnon River, subject to dramatic tidal surges and home to a 1,000-year-old abbey and hamlet — has been seducing visitors for generations.

Mont-St.-Michel, with a population of less than 50, ranks as France's third most popular tourist attraction. But over the decades, silt has been accumulating around the island, as have parking spaces and a causeway used by countless tourists.

As a result, it was often surrounded by mud flats instead of water. To bring back the water, French officials have spent years building a dam, moving sand and devising a shuttle system.

More trains, more hotels, more visitors and Olympics on the horizon — that's Japan in 2015.

With Tokyo's 2020 Olympics in mind, officials say they want to double foreign tourism in the next six years.

New bullet-train service will shorten travel times from four hours to two hours and 30 minutes from Tokyo to Kanazawa, which is known for its Kenrokuen Garden and Chaya (teahouse) districts.

As Machu Picchu gets busier and the tourist economy surrounding it gets bigger, people will consider visiting this Inca ruin, about 30 miles away.

To reach Choquequirao, a mountaintop stone complex that dates to the 15th century, travelers drive five hours from Cuzco to the village of Cachora, then trek two days. (If you like, you can continue the trek to Machu Picchu.)

In January, mark the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death by going to his family's Blenheim Palace just outside Oxford.

In March, queue up at Leicester Cathedral to see the reburial of the remains of Richard III, which were found in 2012 beneath a parking lot. In June, stop by the British Library to glimpse a copy of the Magna Carta, the foundation of Britain's common law, signed by King John at Runnymede 800 years ago.

This capital of design and art history has been a fetching destination for years. Besides its vital fashion industry and many iconic buildings (including the 14th century Milan Duomo, the Sforza Castle and the skylighted hall of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II), it is home to Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper."

In 2015, it gains an additional charm: Expo Milano, set to open May 1 and close Oct. 31. Granted, world's fairs aren't the world-shaking spectacles they used to be.

For years, the city-state of Singapore has been one of the easiest places in Asia to visit — great street food, sparkling streets, dozens of high-end shops and hotels along Orchard Road.

But 2015 will be especially festive, because it's Singapore's golden jubilee.

A lot has happened in the last year, including the openings of the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage in May and the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center and the Triada Palm Springs hotel in November.

Several more restaurants and hotels are due in 2015, along with the 25th Dinah Shore Weekend (a lesbian-centric celebration that's now officially the Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend) April 1-5.

On May 1, the Whitney Museum of American Art opens on Gansevoort Street in the old meatpacking district between the High Line (more on that in a minute) and the Hudson River.

The new Whitney building, designed by Renzo Piano, replaces the museum's longtime home (now closed) on Madison Avenue near East 75th Street, which will be taken over by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

No important anniversaries in Iceland in 2015, no new major museums, no revolutionary tours. But wild, remote, cool Iceland is beckoning.

It would be good to get in and out before the next unpronounceable volcano erupts, and the coming year is as good as any to confront the glaciers and fiords, the expanses of Vatnajokull National Park (which covers 13% of the country), the sleek urban design of Reykjavik, the northern lights and that steaming blue lagoon you've seen in ads.

Neither a nation nor a state, Patagonia is the southernmost stretch of South America — a 386,000-square-mile outback of wind-scrubbed mountains, glaciers, lakes and coastline, shared by Chile and Argentina.

On the Argentine side: Los Glaciares National Park and, farther north, San Carlos de Bariloche, the foremost ski resort in South America. On the Chilean side, there's Torres del Paine National Park (which includes a 52-mile trekking circuit with breathtaking views). There's also the Patagonia National Park project led by American activists Doug and Kristine Tompkins, which covers nearly 200,000 acres in rugged Chacabuco Valley, including the Lodge at Valle Chacabuco.

The park (which closes for the South American winter) had its soft opening in October, with a grand opening planned sometime in 2015.

Formerly colonized by Germany and ruled by South Africa, this southern African country celebrates 25 years of independence in 2015.

Though its population is just 2.2 million, its territory is epic, with remarkable landscapes, including the Kalahari Desert and the Skeleton Coast. The coast is renowned and feared for its remote, wind-raked shipwrecks, dunes and whale bones. At one edge is Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, opened in 2013 and affiliated with Wilderness Safaris.