Top 10? For Whom?
Every year, the travel press announces Top 10 destination lists. With chronic consternation, we find that 7 of the top 10 “best places” are conventional destinations in Western Europe and the Caribbean. (Combined, those two areas account for just under 1% of global land mass.)
Really? What about the other 99% of our planet’s beauty, history, and culture? Would I really want to squeeze into 1% of the planet’s territory with other Top 10 list readers? We find these lists wanting.
LANDED’s Top 10 for 2026
What’s almost always missing from these travel decalogues is anything south of Mexico. As travel experts long bewitched by Central America, South America, and Antarctica, we formally object. We dissent. We counter.
For those who seek the solace of open spaces, freedom to travel at your own pace, and standout experiences beyond the bucket-lists, we present LANDED’s Top 10 Places You Should Vacation in 2026.
10. Cordoba, Argentina
Argentina is resurgent. The national creative spirit is thriving in the country’s second city, Cordoba. Less hectic than the country’s capital, Cordoba pulses with creativity: music, visual art, fashion, and innovative culinary expression. We love how the city preserves it’s cultural legacy while fostering the avant garde.
Cordoba is also the gateway to the equestrian ranches and vineyard estates of the rolling sierra. It’s a place where Argentina’s intellectual spirit and urban energy merge with its rural heritage.
9. Pucon, Chile
Pucon is often compared to Jackson Hole or Banff, but you’d need a time machine there to duplicate Pucon’s welcoming, adventure-focused philosophy. The town is backdropped by the snow-capped symmetry of Villarrica Volcano—a fuji-esque pyramid presiding over forests, lakes, and steaming earth.
Pucon’s outdoor options include volcano climbs, white-water rafting, fly fishing, heli- everything, lake kayaking, horseback riding, and trekking in uncrowded national parks. Nearby hot springs provide a soothing finish to the day’s adventures.
By night, the vibe softens into warmth and woodsmoke. Our favorite stay? A family-friendly private villa with a yoga deck, sauna, and forest hot tub. Let’s have tonight’s barbeque by the natural pool.
8. Islas Secas, Panama
Islas Secas is barefoot luxury amid Pacific wilderness—a 14-island private retreat with maximum occupancy of 24 guests. These jungle-draped islands dissolve into warm, turquoise seas.
Spend your days snorkeling the reefs, kayaking tranquil coves, e-foiling with dolphins, or marveling as humpbacks breach just offshore from your villa. Evenings unfold in lanternlight and ocean hush. Islas Secas is an intimate sanctuary that will help you reset to nature’s rhythms.
7. Inhotim, Brazil
Inhotim is a fluent dialogue between art and nature, where monumental contemporary works rise from 5,000 acres of lush botanical gardens. Meander through palm-lined paths to encounter more than two-dozen immersive galleries, mirrored pavilions, and sound installations.
The indoor and outdoor collection includes works by Paula Zasnicoff Cardoso, Yayoi Kusama, Anish Kapoor, Matthew Barney, Adriana Varejao, and Dan Graham.
This is Brazil’s applaudable addition to the likes of Naoshima and Middelheim. It’s an experience to be savored at a gentle pace over multiple days. The Inhotim experience can be woven into journeys that include Minas Gerais, Ibitipoca, and Rio de Janeiro.
6. The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
The Galapagos Islands captivate visitors. These islands surprise, challenge, and enchant. For children, the Galapagos sorcery is amplified; encountering a giant tortoise is like coming face-to-face with a Jurassic figment. That’s powerful island alchemy, but much more awaits. Swimming with a penguin is pure joy. Seeing a pod of orcas on the hunt is thrilling. Gazing into the Milky Way on a moonless Pacific night is deep magic.
A journey here is time travel to a pristine age awash in life—an example of what once was and what can be again. The memories you make here are unforgettable.
At LANDED, we work directly with the Galapagos’ most respected naturalist guides, charter vessels, villas, tented camps, conservationists, and boutique operators. We understand how to unlock rare experiences while honoring these islands’ fragile ecosystem.
5. Colca Canyon and Tinajani, Peru
Colca Canyon is one of the deepest chasms in the world, and one of the South America’s most dramatic landscapes. Imagine horseback riding, biking, and trekking to traditional artisan towns and Inca sites. Visit geysers and thermal baths, or marvel as condors soar above an ancient fortress. In the evenings, rejuvenate at a cozy lodge or elegant tented camp.
Remote and elemental, Tinajani feels like a forgotten world. Best experienced from a stay at Tinajani safari-style tented camp, this natural wonder should be explored slowly and reverently. The canyon, 160 miles northeast of Colca and worlds away from the crowds, has been sculpted by wind and time into towering spires—sentinels among the altiplano’s surreal silence.
Journeys to Colca Canyon and Tinajani compliment stays in Lake Titicaca and Arequipa. Naturally, those can be paired with Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, and Cusco.
4. Rio Perdido, Costa Rica
In the volcanic highlands of northern Costa Rica, Rio Perdido Hotel & Thermal River is a sanctuary of well-being and active living. This intimate retreat rests in a 1,500-acre private reserve at the confluence of a black rock river gorge and a volcanically heated river.
Hike and bike through the tropical dry forest, fly across ravines on the carbon-fiber zipline, tube the rolling whitewater canyon, or soak in mineral-rich hot springs. Each day you can unwind with spa treatments, yoga, meditation, and nourishing meals.
LANDED’s friendship with Rio Perdido runs deep. We’ll help you craft the perfect Costa Rica vacation, adding destinations that fit your style and requirements.
3. Antarctica
Welcome to a great adventure —a genuine expedition. Antarctica is a place of extremes; it is the driest, coldest, highest, brightest, and windiest place on earth. It’s also a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with nature at her wildest and purest.
Antarctica is not void, bland, or null. It is wild and fresh, pure and raw. It is an exquisitely detailed new world teeming with life at the continental margins. This is a land beyond, known and beloved by a favored few. Why Antarctica? Why live fully and flourish? Why explore and experience?
Perhaps you have saved this great adventure for the time when you can savor it with prowess and wisdom.
For more than 20 years, LANDED has designed creative, original itineraries for discerning travelers. Journeys to Antarctica can be combined with destinations across Chile and Argentina, including Patagonia. Let us help you experience Antarctica with intention, comfort, and confidence. Request your private Antarctica consultation.
2. Jose Ignacio, Uruguay
Perched on Uruguay’s sun-drenched Atlantic coast, the peninsula of Jose Ignacio is a whisper of a fishing village, home to barely 400 souls. Yet this unassuming outpost is a prized catch for lovers of art, wine, sand, and sun.
Come December, the tide of the world’s glitterati rolls in—private soirées on the sand, impromptu concerts under open skies, and villas that disappear from booking lists a year in advance. But this is a town that knows balance. Once Carnival fades and the high season dissolves, the celebrities vanish. José Ignacio returns to its natural, elemental rhythm: windswept beaches, silent dunes, and the quiet pulse of the Atlantic waves.
LANDED has exclusive access to world-class private villas. We’ve got the right contacts at boutique hotels, toes-in-the-sand restaurants, galleries, art spaces, nearby vineyards and sculpture parks. Journeys to Jose Ignacio combine naturally with stays in Buenos Aires, the Argentina’s wine country, Rio de Janeiro, and intimate Brazilian beach towns.
1. Parque Patagonia, Chile
Parque Patagonia (Patagonia National Park) is a masterpiece of stone and sky. Turquoise rivers thread through rugged valleys framed by Andean silhouettes.
This is Patagonia at its purest—away from the tour busses and cruises. On many of our hiking days here, we’ve encountered no more than three other adventurers. We’ve had lakes, beech forest, and vast expanses of the Patagonia Steppe entirely to ourselves. It can feel like a private national park.
Established in 2018, the park is a model for ecological restoration and rewilding. Visitors can stay at one of our favorite small lodges, and spend days trekking the remote trails with expert guides. Other options include fly fishing, kayaking, mountain biking and horseback riding.
Parque Patagonia is a place of profound solitude, where nature’s scale and grace are felt in every step.
Why LANDED?
For more than 20 years, LANDED has been the source for private, tailor-made travel across Latin America and the Antarctic.
Our expert travel designers are recommended by countless travelers; more than 90% of our requests are from repeat clients and their referrals.
See why Conde Nast Traveler has listed LANDED as a “top travel advisors” every year since 2000. Request your private vacation consultation.