Each year, the choice of where to travel could be the culmination of months of planning—or the happenstance of seeing an airfare sale or someone mentioning a place to you. Maybe you make a split-second decision based on seeing an inspirational photo and thinking to yourself, “I’ve got to go there.” Whatever the trigger, sometimes other people have the same thought and a destination starts trending. American Express’s annual list of Trending Destinations highlights those places. The list was compiled based on travel bookings by cardmembers as well as consulting with travel consultants.
Of the 10 that American Express has designated as the most trending destinations, two are in the U.S. (and not the New York – Los Angeles – Miami that you might expect). No, nestled among locations in Greece, Japan, Brazil and others were two cities you might not think would show up on such an international list: Sun Valley, Idaho and Moab, Utah.
Sun Valley is a ski resort town that people find appealing because it isn’t as crowded as some others. Its gorgeous Bald Mountain rises 9,150 feet to give a good ride to skiiers and boarders. It just added new state-of-the-art chair lifts and 91 more acres of glade terrain (and new fire safety measures). Fun fact: The first chairlift was installed at Sun Valley, adapted from the systems used to move banana cargo onto ships in Panama. When you ride one, you are really just a large banana to the mechanism. In summer, Sun Valley turns into a fishing and white water rafting destination.
Moab is known for its dramatic desert red rock landscape close to Arches and Canyonlands national parks. It offers great Dark Skies starwatching, and visitors can hike, mountain bike, go rafting and enjoy learning about when dinosaurs roamed the earth at the Moab Giants Dinosaur Park.
The full list of American Express Travel’s 2025 Trending Destinations, listed alphabetically:
- Brisbane, Australia
- Brittany, France
- Franschhoek, South Africa
- Koh Samui, Thailand
- Macau, China
- Moab, Utah, United States
- Nikko, Japan
- Paros, Greece
- Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Sun Valley, Idaho, United States