With January now in full swing and the Christmas holidays but a distant memory, we turn our thoughts to the next big adventure and where we would like to explore in 2024.

Whether you’re seeking inspiration for a lengthy, immersive journey to somewhere remote, or a short city break to experience a different culture, the New York Times has published a helpful article listing 52 places to go, one for each week of the year.

The interactive, scroll-down list, which includes exotic, far-flung destinations, culinary hot-spots, and well-known (and not so well-known) cities for unique cultural experiences, is wide-ranging and eclectic, offering something to suit every taste, whether you’re traveling solo, with a partner, or with the family.

Naturally, we think that no travel list for 2024 would be complete without at least one Greek destination on offer. In this case, the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki has cut, coming in at Number 43, with the author singling out its extraordinary history, beautiful waterfront, and this year’s EuroPride festival, which runs from June 21 to 29.

Thessaloniki Pride

Noting that the “squat, round White Tower is to Thessaloniki, … as the Acropolis is to Athens,” the NYT entry for Greece’s second-largest city describes how the iconic monument will “glow with rainbow colors” this year, “as thousands of the L.G.B.T.Q travelers gather” to celebrate EuroPride. The famous tower, built in the 15th century during early Ottoman rule, was “once known as the Tower of Blood,” the entry continues, “painted white in the late 1800s by a prisoner in exchange for his freedom.”

Thessaloniki, renowned for its UNESCO World Heritage monuments, clubs, cafés, and burgeoning restaurant scene, was scheduled to host EuroPride in 2020, but was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The pan-European international event, inaugurated in London in 1992 and dedicated to LGBTI pride, is hosted by a different European city each year. This summer’s event will be the first time it is held in Greece.

The entry for Thessaloniki goes on to describe how it was founded in 316 BC, and “named for a sister of Alexander the Great,” the all-conquering Macedonian king. It recommends that you “savor a glass of ouzo along the bay – unlike Athens, Thessaloniki is right on the water – and see if you can spot Mount Olympus.”

Other European destinations are well-represented on the NYT list, including Paris; Geneva; Manchester; the Massa-Carrara province in northwest Tuscany, Italy; the scenic mountains of Bannau Brycheiniog in Wales; Valencia; Almaty in Kazakhstan (straddling Europe and Asia); Waterford in Ireland; the world’s largest puffin colony at Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland; Vienna; Normandy, France; the Albanian Alps; and the city of Dresden in Germany.

The best of the rest runs the gambit from North America – the first entry describes a sweep of destinations across the continent hosting total solar eclipse events on April 8th – to Lake Toba in Indonesia, the world’s largest crater lake, the vibrant arts scene in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, and even an underwater sculpture park on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean!