Photo: The Image Bank RF
2025 has just begun and what better way to kick off the new year than by adding a few trips to the calendar?
Life is short and the world is wide. There is no better time than the present to explore the places you've always wanted to see, so let's get planning!
If you find it difficult to narrow down travel destinations for the year because there are simply so many to choose from, look no further than Travel + Leisure's list of the 50 best travel destinations in the world.
Per the list, the three best places to visit in California in 2025 are Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Monica. These standout destinations were also named among the 50 best places to visit across the globe.
Here's what Travel + Leisure had to say about the California destinations named among the best places to visit in the world for 2025:
Sacramento:
"Sacramento International Airport’s $1.3 billion renovation is set to be completed in 2025, with terminal expansions, 13 new food options (many of them locally sourced), additional parking, and better traffic flow. The improved SMF will also accommodate new nonstop flights to Mexico City, Orlando, Nashville, Austin, and more in the year ahead. And while Sacramento is also famously just a few hours’ drive from San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite National Park, there are plenty of reasons travelers are finally taking California’s capital city seriously as a destination in its own right."
San Diego:
"The Southern California standby that’s home to sunny weather, beautiful beaches, and a robust food scene is getting even more exciting these days, as new openings further bolster San Diego’s global culinary cred. In the summer of 2024, Tara Monsod, executive chef of Animae and the first San Diego chef to be a James Beard Award finalist, opened the modern French steak house Le Coq."
Santa Monica:
"2025 marks Santa Monica’s 150th anniversary. Of course, much has changed in the iconic Southern California beach city since 1875, but this moment is a particularly exciting one thanks to a spate of new restaurants, shops, and hotels — including Ocean Avenue’s Sandbourne Santa Monica, Autograph Collection, designed by buzzy Icelandic architect and designer Gulla Jónsdóttir, and the just-opened Regent Santa Monica Beach next door."
For a continued list of the best places on Earth to travel to this year, check out Travel + Leisure's full report.