By Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times
Editor’s note: For those looking to planning their vacation prospects over the coming months, here are the rest of the year’s must-visit destinations.
NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI
THIS small Mississippi city, about 170 miles upriver from New Orleans, celebrates its 300th anniversary this year. Natchez is on a bluff above the Mississippi and full of tragic, surprising history (it seems to be the oldest settlement on the river) and elegant architecture. It’s also the southwestern end of the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile scenic highway through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee that was once a Native American trail. No billboards, no businesses, no commercial vehicles but plenty of cars and bicycles. Natchez has home and plantation tours; horse-drawn carriages; art galleries; a Museum of African-American History and Culture; more than 40 bed-and-breakfasts and Natchez National Historical Park. That park preserves Melrose, the antebellum Greek Revival mansion of plantation owner John McMurran, and the downtown brick home of African-American barber and diarist William Johnson. Johnson’s brick home and McMurran’s white-columned mansion give different windows onto life in Mississippi before the civil war. The city’s birthday celebration at Fort Rosalie on August 3 will feature a 300-gun salute.
Info: www.visitnatchez.org; www.nps.gov/natr; www.natchezms300.com
PARIS
Many travelers canceled their Paris plans within a week of the terrorist attacks against the city on November 13. (City tourism officials say the hotel-occupancy rate dropped 15 points between November 13 and December 8.) Yet, many other travelers, eager to send a message of defiance, resolved to get there as soon as possible. You can join the latter group any time in 2016 and, chances are, get a warm welcome. The main attractions reopened quickly.
At the Grand Palais, the blockbuster Picasso.mania exhibition, which explores the artist’s influence on those who came later, will stay up through February 29. The Philharmonie de Paris, a 2,400-seat music venue in the Parc de la Villette, opened last year. And the Musee de l’Homme, which explores anthropology, reopened last October after six years of renovation. But Paris officials expect first-quarter tourism to be down 10 percent to 15 percent. That, along with the strong dollar, seems to be reducing hotel and tour operator prices.
Info: https://en.parisinfo.com
PENANG ISLAND, MALAYSIA
George Town (population about 500,000), Penang’s main city, is a United Nations for Education, Science and Culture World Heritage site with a 500-year history of trading and a hotel boom in progress. As many as 10 new hotels may open in 2016, and a bevy of cruise lines call at the port. With luck, this growth will leave intact the city’s most historic architecture and encourage its lively food scene. George Town was a British trading post from the early 19th century (hence its name) until Malaysian independence in 1957. It gives you British echoes, Malay essence, Chinese and Indian commercial traditions, scattered rickshaws and a stew of religions.
Info: www.tourismpenang.net.my
SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN
This city, part of the Basque Autonomous Community on Spain’s northern coast, is one of Europe’s two 2016 cities of culture. Stroll the creamy sands of Concha and Ondarreta beaches. Take a boat ride to uninhabited Isla Santa Clara. Try surfing at Zurriola Beach. Learn the word pintxo (peen-cho), which are the small plates that figure prominently in Basque cuisine. Bilbao, home to the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum, is about 65 miles to the east. San Sebastian also has a long roster of civic celebrations, including notable festivals of jazz (July) and film (September).
Info: www.sansebastianturismo.com/en; www.dss2016.eu/en
ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, COAST
This territory is about as pleasant as California gets. And as these four examples show, improvements continue. In Dana Point, the completion of a $30-million overhaul at the Saint Regis Monarch Beach is expected in the spring. (It has two goats on site to supply fresh goat cheese for the restaurants.) Another five-star property, the Montage Laguna Beach, upgraded its spa offerings and further gilded its Catalina, Sunset and Aliso suites. The former Aliso Creek Inn has been reborn as the Ranch at Laguna Beach. Many rooms opened in late 2015; the rest, as well as a lobby and restaurant, are due to open early this year. The property aims to be a four-star “ranch chic” resort (with nine-hole golf course and spa). Rates start at about $249 a night, but once all work is complete, they’ll jump up. At Newport Beach’s Island Hotel—the former Four Seasons property next to Fashion Island—a major upgrade was completed in 2015, delivering a new Oak Grill and bolder colors in the hotel’s 292 rooms.
Info: www.stregismb.com; www.montagehotels.com/lagunabeach; www.islandhotel.com; www.theranchlb.com
SEATTLE
The Seattle light-rail system in April will add stops in Capitol Hill (perhaps the city’s best restaurant neighborhood) and the University of Washington. Later in the year, a new streetcar line will connect Capitol Hill to Pioneer Square. Meanwhile, Pike Place Market will sprout a new western entrance, terrace and plaza area called Marketfront, making room for 47 new market stalls. A Thompson hotel is due to open this year at First Avenue and Stewart Street.
Info: www.visitseattle.org
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, ENGLAND
Because a mysterious writer and actor named William Shakespeare died in 1616 at age 52, his hometown makes an especially ripe destination. The Royal Shakespeare Co., with two theaters in Stratford, will mount productions of Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cymbeline and Don Quixote (written by Shakespeare’s Spanish contemporary Cervantes between 1604 and 1615). In Stratford, where legions visit Shakespeare’s birthplace and grave, a “Shakespeare’s Schoolroom” attraction is to open in April in the city’s 15th century Guildhall. April 23, long celebrated as the day of the bard’s birth and death, will be especially busy.
Info: www.shakespeare400.org; www.lat.ms/1O9wUE6
WASHINGTON, D.C.
When its doors open in the fall, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture will become the 19th museum in the Smithsonian family, a project more than a decade in the making. Meanwhile, D.C. tourism leaders estimate that more than 200 restaurants have opened in the last three years—pretty good for a city just 10 miles square. Alongside the Potomac River, the long-closed Watergate Hotel is due to reopen in March after a $125-million renovation. Among its features: a rooftop bar (Top of the Gate); staff uniforms designed by Mad Men costumer Janie Bryant; and rates north of $500 a night. Also, no matter the results of the November 8 election, there will be a new Trump in town—a Trump hotel, due to open in the fall after a $200-million renovation of the Old Post Office building.
Info: www.washington.org; www.s.si.edu/1uQwVU5
WILLIAMSTOWN, KENTUCKY
Here’s a destination for the traveler who’s been everywhere and done everything. In Williamstown, a devoted creationist group is building an ark, a 510-foot-long wooden sailing vessel that matches the one described in Genesis. If all goes as planned, the Ark Encounter (and petting zoo) will open on July 7, a date chosen based on another passage in Genesis. The builder is Answers in Genesis, which also runs a Creation Museum nearby in Petersburg, Kentucky.
The Cincinnati Enquirer estimated the project’s cost at $92 million, paid for with private money, loans and advance ticket sales. Tickets are $40 per adult, plus $10 parking.
Info: www.arkencounter.com; www.answersingenesis.org