10 Most Underrated Destinations We've Visited (2019-2026)

The places nobody told us about before we went. The ones we showed up to with low expectations or no expectations at all, usually because we were there for a wedding or a conference or a family obligation, and left making plans to come back. Not the Instagram spots. Not the bucket list cities. The destinations that surprised us.

Nobody goes to McAllen on purpose unless they live there or have family there. It's in the Rio Grande Valley, about as far south as you can go in Texas before you're in Mexico. The border is a 15-minute drive. The city has a population of about 150,000 and a food culture that puts cities ten times its size to shame.

G and I went in November 2025 for Social Fest, the first social media conference in South Texas, and the food was the story. The barbacoa breakfast tacos from an unlisted spot near the hotel were the best I've had anywhere, and I include Austin and San Antonio in that comparison without hesitation. We crossed the border into Reynosa one evening and ate slow-roasted cabrito (young goat) over an open fire for $35 total for four people, with glass-bottle Mexican Coca-Cola. The taco shops in McAllen don't have Instagram accounts. They don't need them. G tried to find our breakfast spot on Google Maps and it didn't have a listing. It has a screen door and the best barbacoa in Texas.

McAllen is proof of something I've suspected for years: the best food in any country is found within an hour of a border. I haven't disproven this theory yet.

Read more: 2025: McAllen, Texas

Everyone talks about Marrakech. The Instagram photos are all Marrakech. The travel blogs are Marrakech. Fes is the one that stays with you.

The medina (Fes el-Bali) is the largest car-free urban area in the world. Over 9,000 streets, many so narrow that two people can barely pass each other. The tanneries, where leather has been dyed in stone vats since the 11th century, look exactly the same as they did in medieval paintings. The Bou Inania Madrasa has carved plaster and cedar woodwork and a marble courtyard that made G stand still for five minutes without moving, which is her reaction to spaces that affect the air. We had dinner on a rooftop riad one evening and the call to prayer echoed from multiple mosques simultaneously, each slightly out of sync, creating a layered sound that filled the entire city. You don't visit Fes. Fes happens to you, and you're not ready for it, and that's the point.

The food is its own category. A tagine at a signless restaurant in the medina. Chicken pastilla (sweet and savory, sounds wrong, tastes like genius). Ras el hanout purchased fresh from a spice vendor who ground it while we watched. We went in February 2026 and five nights wasn't enough.

Read more: 2026: Morocco

We went for a wedding in 2023 and I expected a flat Midwestern city with a football stadium and chain restaurants. I was completely wrong. Columbus has one of the most interesting urban layouts I've seen in the Midwest: the Short North Arts District is a mile-long stretch of galleries, restaurants, and bars between downtown and Ohio State's campus. German Village is a 233-acre neighborhood of restored brick houses that's the largest privately funded historic restoration in the country. The Book Loft in German Village is a bookstore with 32 rooms. Thirty-two rooms of books. G spent an hour in there and came out with four.

Schmidt's Sausage Haus serves cream puffs the size of softballs and sausages that have been made the same way since 1886. The Pearl does oysters in a space that would fit in any coastal city. Schiller Park in German Village has a European feel that nobody expects in central Ohio. The whole city operates with a quiet confidence that comes from not needing to prove anything to anyone. Columbus is the most underrated city in the eastern half of the United States and I will argue about this with anyone.

Read more: 2023: Columbus for a Wedding

Not technically a destination, but it's further from Times Square than most tourists will ever go and the food there is better than anything in Manhattan at a third of the price. Flushing is the largest Chinatown in New York City, bigger than the one in Manhattan, and the food operates at a level that makes most of the city look like it's not trying.

The New World Mall food court in the basement is legendary: hand-pulled noodles, Sichuan dry pot, xiao long bao, Taiwanese fried chicken, and about 30 things I pointed at because I couldn't read the menu. I spent $15 total across two days of eating in December 2025 and every single meal outperformed restaurants in Manhattan that charge five times more. The main street is loud and crowded and smells like five different cuisines at once and nobody is performing for tourists. It's a neighborhood running at full volume for the people who live there, and you're welcome to join but nobody's going to slow down and explain anything. That's the appeal.

Read more: 2025: December in New York

A port city on Canada's Atlantic coast that I'd never been to despite growing up in Ottawa, four hours west. I went for my brother's law school graduation in 2025 and discovered a city that has its own personality in a way that most Canadian cities outside of Montreal and Vancouver don't.

Halifax is walkable. The waterfront boardwalk runs for kilometers along the harbor past the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, restored warehouses turned into breweries, and the ferry terminal. The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse on Prince Street does live Celtic music and fish and chips, and by 10 PM the whole bar is singing along to songs I didn't know the words to but could feel. The Halliburton is a boutique hotel in connected heritage houses from the 1800s. Stories restaurant inside does lobster risotto that stopped a conversation mid-sentence. And the fog. Halifax fog rolls in from the harbor and the city disappears into it gradually, buildings fading, the water going grey, the foghorn sounding from somewhere you can't see. It's beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with sunshine.

Read more: 2025: Halifax for My Brother's Graduation

Not Williamsburg. Not Park Slope. Not any of the Brooklyn neighborhoods that show up on "where to stay in NYC" lists. Bushwick is the one that's still converting warehouses into galleries and studios and restaurants while maintaining the Dominican and Puerto Rican food culture that's been there for decades.

I stayed at The Ridge Hotel in December 2025, a converted factory with rooms that have more space than most Manhattan hotels at half the rate. The rooftop has a view of the Manhattan skyline across the river that competes with any hotel in the city. I had a $12 pernil plate on Knickerbocker Avenue that was one of the best meals of the trip. I ate ramen at a place with a 45-minute wait and broth that had clearly been simmering since before I was born. The conference I was at was in a converted warehouse with folding chairs and an audience that was 90% under 30 and 100% paying attention. Bushwick has the energy of a neighborhood that's still becoming something. Nobody's putting it on travel lists yet.

Read more: 2025: December in New York

Everyone goes to Lake Como. The Clooneys live there. The Instagram photos are all Como. Sirmione on Lake Garda is the quieter, less expensive version with a medieval castle (Scaligero Castle) sitting on a peninsula that juts into the lake, Roman ruins (Grotte di Catullo) at the tip, and water so clear the mountains reflect in it like someone Photoshopped the scene except nobody did.

We drove there from Venice in 2023 and it was the surprise of the entire Italy trip. The town itself is small and walkable and the gelato shops outnumber the residents. The lake is swimmable and warm in summer. The views compete with anything in northern Italy and the crowds are a fraction of what you'd deal with at Como. G said "when are we coming back?" before we'd found parking, which is her highest compliment and also the fastest she's ever deployed it.

Read more: 2023: Venice and Lake Garda

A small university city near Frankfurt. Nobody outside of Germany has heard of it. I spent two weeks there in 2020 for work and discovered Mathildenhöhe, a Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) art colony that's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A Russian Orthodox Chapel appears out of nowhere on a hillside with golden onion domes that look like they were airlifted from Moscow. Europa-Park is an hour south and is legitimately the best theme park in Europe.

The bread at the hotel breakfast buffet was better than artisan bakeries in most North American cities. The traditional Hessian restaurant Bockshaut near the Hauptbahnhof served pork knuckle and Apfelwein (apple cider) that I still think about. Darmstadt is the kind of city you go to because you have to and leave wondering why nobody talks about it.

Read more: 2020: Two Weeks in Darmstadt

Everyone knows Napa. Paso Robles is California wine country without the crowds, the pretension, or the $75 tasting fees. The vineyards roll across the hills the same way they do in Napa, but the winery tasting rooms are smaller and friendlier and the pour is heavier. The Allegretto Vineyard Resort looks like it was transported from Tuscany. The Madonna Inn in nearby SLO is one of the most singular hotels in America: 110 rooms, each with a different theme, all completely committed.

We went in January 2026, off season, and had the Central Coast practically to ourselves. The light in January on the Central Coast is low and golden and turns the vineyard rows into something that looks like a painting. It's where I proposed to G. But even without the personal significance, I'd put Paso Robles on this list for the wine, the food, the landscape, and the absence of the crowds that make Napa feel like a theme park during peak season.

Read more: 2026: San Luis Obispo: The Question

My hometown. I grew up here. I spent 18 years thinking it was boring. Then I moved away and started coming back in the fall, and I realized the city I grew up in is one of the best fall color destinations in North America.

The Gatineau Hills across the river from Parliament turn red and orange and gold in a display that rivals New England without a fraction of the press or the leaf-peeper traffic. The Champlain Parkway drive on the Quebec side is world-class. Shawarma Palace is still better than anything in Miami. The canal walk from the National Arts Centre to Dow's Lake with the leaves reflecting in the water looks like someone oversaturated a photo except it's real. My dad and I drove the parkway in October 2025 and he pointed out every tree like I was seeing them for the first time, which is a dad thing I've stopped finding annoying and started finding endearing.

G said "your city is prettier than you give it credit for." She's right. I never notice the canal until she points at it.

Read more: 2025: Ottawa in October

The most underrated places share one thing: nobody told us to go. We went for a wedding (Columbus), a conference (McAllen), a graduation (Halifax), work (Darmstadt), a family trip (Ottawa), or to propose (Paso Robles). The best travel discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. If you're going somewhere that wasn't on your list and you're disappointed before you arrive, give it a chance. The places that surprise you are always the ones that weren't trying to impress you.