FROM NORWAY TO AUSTRALIA, AND FROM JAPAN TO PUERTO RICO, HERE'S OUR PICK OF DESTINATIONS – ENOUGH TO KEEP YOU BUSY FOR EVERY WEEK OF THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.

OLD SAN JUAN, IN PUERTO RICO.
PHOTOGRAPH: TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. PUERTO RICO

After a devastating hurricane, an island on its way back.

For as long as I can remember growing up in Puerto Rico, El Morro, the indestructible fort with the endless lawns at the entrance to San Juan harbour , was where you went to fly a kite. And on a recent sunny afternoon, just as expected, a couple and their young son were there trying to catch an updraft to loft a plastic butterfly with a long blue tail into the sky.

On Fortaleza Street, an art installation of colourful umbrellas hovered above pedestrians, triggering countless selfies. A short ferry ride away from the old city, at the Bacardí rum distillery in the town of Cataño, visitors sipped cocktails in an open-air pavilion with a roof shaped like a bat in flight.

But as Puerto Rico tries to come back as a premier Caribbean destination after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, just a short drive from the pricey beachfront hotels, hundreds of residents are still living under leaky tarps, their poverty on display in glaring bright blue.

Full story at Irish Times.