Lonely Planet’s Hottest New Travel Experiences for 2016

In a new collection released this week, Lonely Planet – the world’s leading travel media company – names 31 of the best new openings and attractions that 2016 has to offer. New in Travel (www.lonelyplanet.com/newintravel2016) is a free ebook featuring the year’s most exciting travel experiences from all over the world.

The travel experts at Lonely Planet have once again scoured the globe to create New in Travel, now in its second year. The ebook provides travellers with all the inspiration and information they need to choose their next holiday destination. Each featured attraction has either recently opened, or is due to open this year.

Experiences vary from the extreme (zip-lining Cuba’s Valle de Viñales, deep-sea-diving in Singapore, volcano-climbing in Nicaragua, and jetting across Japan in a new bullet train); and the artistic (exploring indoor and outdoor art installations, openings and extensions, such as London’s Tate Modern and the all-new Louvre Abu Dhabi); through to the solemn (Albania’s ghost island and Guadeloupe’s slavery museum); and the silly (a Mamma Mia! restaurant in Stockholm and a Dr Seuss Museum in Massachusetts).

With attractions and adventures to appeal to every taste, New in Travel outlines where to go and when, as well as the reasons why each of the following 31 experiences made it on Lonely Planet’s radar this year:

1. Centre for Extreme Tourism near Nicaragua’s tallest active volcano (October 2015) 
2. Hokkaidō Shinkansen, Japan’s new bullet train route (Spring 2016) 
3. New lions in Akagera National Park, Rwanda (Early 2016) 
4. First-ever airport on Napoleon island, St Helena, British Territories (Mid-2016) 
5. Louvre Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (2016) 
6. The Floating Piers art installation on Lake Iseo, Italy (June 2016) 
7. Panama Canal’s $5 billion expansion (April 2016) 
8. Field of Light installation in Uluru, Australia (1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017) 
9. Amazing World of Dr Seuss Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts (June 2016) 
10. David Hasselhoff’s BASK island resort in Gili Meno, Indonesia (2016) 
11. World’s first inland surf lagoon, Surf Snowdonia, Wales (2016) 
12. Fortin Canopy Tours ziplining in Viñales, Cuba (Autumn 2015) 
13. Mémorial ACTe, largest museum 
14. on slavery, in Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe (July 2015) 
15. Fatbike bicycle tours in Gansbaai, Western Cape, South Africa (Mid-2015) 
16. Sisters’ Islands Marine Park Dive Trail in Singapore (November 2015) 
17. Southern Albania’s Cold War ghost island, Sazan (July 2015) 
18. China’s latest Magic Kingdom, Shanghai Disney Resort (Spring 2016) 
19. Stratford-upon-Avon 400th anniversary Shakespeare celebrations (April 2016) 
20. National Blues Museum in St Louis, Missouri (April 2016) 
21. Mamma Mia!-themed restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden (January 2016) 
22. Rio’s water park, Praia de Rocha Miranda in Parque Madureira (October 2015) 
23. Te Ara Hura walking tours on Waiheke Island in New Zealand (November 2015) 
24. National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC (US Autumn 2016) 
25. Tate Modern extension in London, England (June 2016) 
26. FIFA World Football Museum in Zürich, Switzerland (European Spring 2016) 
27. Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York (September 2015) 
28. Renovated Klauzál Square Market in Budapest, Hungary (October 2015) 
29. Transformation of Monnaie de Paris, the oldest French institution (Mid-2016) 
30. Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, Illinois (October 2015) 
31. Macau’s Hollywood-themed casino resort, Studio City (October 2015) 
32. Musée Rodin reopening in Paris, France (November 2015)

For more on the latest openings and travel updates, visit www.lonelyplanet.com/news and follow on Twitter @lptravelnews

To learn more about what’s hot in 2016, Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2016 is now available on www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel.