If you still haven’t checked into the Silo Hotel in Cape Town or snapped an Instagram shot underneath the hammerhead shark exhibit at Miami’s new Frost Science Museum, you’ve got some work to do. And fast.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg anointed the 20 most exciting destinations for 2017. Given that the year is two-thirds over, it seems a good time to take stock of your adventures—and figure out how to use your remaining vacation days.
Where to begin? Use this cheat sheet as your guide.
Miami
Art Basel means that December is always an exciting month in Miami. But go a little earlier and you’ll find that these days, the South Florida art world is in full swing, full time. An exhibition about dominoes at the Pérez Art Museum Miami sounds odd until you consider how the game has become an emblem of Cuban culture; the Bass Museum reopens in early October with a technicolor retrospective by Swiss mixed-media artist Ugo Rondinone; and in September, Faena Art will become part-roller skating rink, part-art installation, with a floor and DJ booth covered in massive, psychedelic murals.
If that feels like a lot to take in, consider this: The brand-new Frost Museum of Science has an exhibit dedicated to the science of looking. It’ll make you think twice about your perspective, in ways that are both figurative and literal.
Have vacation days left? Here are six inspirational trips to squeeze in this year https://t.co/4MEsgp4ABF pic.twitter.com/BaXZW0DZcG
— Bloomberg Pursuits (@luxury) August 29, 2017
Cape Town
After checking into the Silo last month, I’m happy to report that one of the year’s most hotly anticipated hotel openings has somehow exceeded the hype. The geodesic, dome-like windows! The crystal decanters with complimentary brandy! The layer cakes at tea time! Even if weather shuts down the stunning rooftop pool, you’ll never want to leave. Which is just fine, because come September, the ground floor will transform into the continent’s first contemporary African art museum, the Zeitz MoCAA. Inside will be the world’s largest collection of its kind, with nine floors of exhibition space that will include works from such cutting-edge artists as Swaziland’s Nandipha Mntambo and South African Wim Botha. Cape Town minus the epic outdoor adventures? It’s suddenly an appealing proposition.
Finland
The Northern Lights are in a dimming cycle, which means that they’ve been progressively appearing less frequently since 2015 and will continue to decline for an additional eight or so years. (The decade-long trend is part of normal solar cycles.) Even so, sightings are still easy to come by in Finland’s northern Lapland, starting in September and stretching all the way through March.
Avoid going during the festive season, since the town of Rovaniemi explodes with Santa Claus-everything around then—it’s dubbed itself the “official hometown” of the bearded gift-giver, with an amusement park dedicated to bringing the Christmas spirit to life. But keep an open mind about Santa Park if you go in the fall: it contains the Arctic Treehouse Hotel, one of the most striking places to see the skies light up in greens and purples. Its striking suites have panoramic windows and whitewashed interiors, creating an illusion of continuity into the snow-covered countryside.
Feeling cold just thinking about it? Warm up at Loyly, a newly minted sauna on the Helsinki coast that’s restoring glamour to a once-ubiquitous tradition: open-to-the-public bathhouses.