Traverse City listed alongside Maui, Morocco and Malta among must-see world travel destinations in 2025
(CBS DETROIT) — A favorite tourist spot in Northwest Michigan has been named a must-see world travel destination.
Traverse City was spotlighted in the Wall Street Journal's "10 Best Places to Go in 2025" list. It's one of three U.S. cities to make the cut, joining Maui and Macon, Georgia.
To help compile its annual list, the publication considered "every traveler: the relaxer and the adventurer; the culture hound and the outdoor cat; the road tripper and the frequent flier," the story said.
Writers highlighted Traverse City's picturesque coastline and proximity to one of northern Michigan's many gems: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
"Though Traverse City can feel surprisingly cosmopolitan for its size, nature is never far. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with its towering sands and azure water is a 30-minute drive away and Downtown's newly redone Grandview Parkway feeds into a regional bike trail network of more than 60 paved miles," wrote Andrew Nelson in the Wall Street Journal.
Known for its dozens of wineries, writers also highlighted the area's vibrant restaurant scene and variety of distilleries and microbreweries.
"The city's restaurant scene is shining bright. Nearby, the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas—the last two fingers of the state's famous mitt—beckon visitors with bucolic vineyards and pristine shorelines. Within a short drive of downtown, visitors have their pick of more than 50 wineries, and an ever-growing list of microbreweries, cideries and distilleries," wrote Nelson.
Amsterdam; Malta; Morroco; Niseko, Japan; South Caicos, Turks and Caicos; Magdalena River, Colombia; and Madhya Pradesh, India rounded out the list of top travel destinations.
