2026 Not Hot List
Intrepid releases 2026 Not Hot List
September 2025
Intrepid Travel has released its annual Not Hot List, showcasing 10 lesser-known destinations ready to welcome more visitors in 2026. The list is designed to direct curious, conscientious travellers towards regions where their presence can have an outsized positive impact. All of the destinations on the list currently attract relatively few international visitors but with new investments, experiences and improved infrastructure being introduced or announced this year, they’re ready – and deserving – of more travellers. Alongside the list, Intrepid has introduced brand-new trips to six of the featured destinations, including Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Turkey, Romania and El Salvador.
The Not Hot List is developed with insights from Intrepid’s global product and operations experts in 32 countries, alongside travel trend agency Globetrender. Using third-party statistics, trends and expert local insight, the 10 destinations have ultimately been selected based on three key criteria: (1) being less-visited, with lower awareness and fewer visitors than comparable places; (2) demonstrating tourism readiness, with new initiatives to support and promote tourism; and (3) with particular relevance in 2026.
The 2026 Not Hot List includes:
Tiwai Island, Sierra Leone
Tien Shan Mountain Range, Kyrgyzstan
Sierra Norte, Mexico
Vis Island, Croatia
Gaziantep, Türkiye
Arunachal Pradesh, India
Via Transilvanica, Romania
Ruta de las Flores, El Salvador
Oulu, Finland
Great Basin National Park, Nevada, United States
The 2026 list features a combination of lesser-known regions in popular tourism destinations such as Croatia and Mexico, as well as emerging countries like Sierra Leone and Kyrgyzstan, which international visitors have long overlooked. Notable highlights include Sierra Leone’s Tiwai Island, recently inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site; Finland’s Oulu, named European Capital of Culture 2026; and Kyrgyzstan’s Kyrgyz Nomad Trail in the Tien Shan Mountains, which has been expanded by 1,000 km.
Erica Kritikides, General Manager of Experiences at Intrepid Travel, commented:
“We know that 80% of travellers visit just 10% of the world’s tourism destinations and we recognise that we have a role to play in influencing that. The selection criteria for our Not Hot List reflects an approach to tourism that we’ve long championed. While some destinations receive millions – even tens of millions – of visitors each year, many lesser-known places go virtually unnoticed by travellers. A key consideration when we’re developing trips is how we can spread the economic benefits of tourism more widely and how our presence in a destination can positively impact the communities we’re visiting.”
To further support tourism development in these countries, Intrepid has launched brand-new trips to six destinations on the Not Hot List, including Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Turkey, India, Romania and El Salvador. This latest iteration of Intrepid’s Not Hot List builds on the success of last year's list which highlighted Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan, later featured in The New York Times ‘52 places to go in 2025’ list, as well as Disko Island in Greenland, with the country now on track to open two new international airports in 2026 to support tourism growth.
To learn more about the destinations, download Intrepid’s 2026 Not Hot List here.