The cheapest countries to visit in every month of 2026

Uzbekistan is having a moment. Featured in prestigious lists including the New York Times’ Places to Travel in 2025, and CN Traveller’s Best Places to go in Asia, the Silk Road city of Samarkand has just been named the best solo travel destination in Asia.

Metro‘s Travel Editor Alice Murphy was ahead of the curve when she explored Uzbekistan in April 2024. With growing interest in the country’s otherworldly landscapes, check out her journey to see why you should follow in her footsteps.

Let’s play a game. What is the only country in the world without traffic lights, that first allowed television in the 1990s, and prioritises gross domestic happiness over gross domestic product?

The answer is, of course, Bhutan, an isolated kingdom in the eastern Himalayas with a reputation for being a modern-day Shangri-La.

Landlocked between India and China, tiny Bhutan – with its cliff-hanging monasteries, verdant valleys and eastern mysticism – is a playground for eco-conscious travellers. The world’s first carbon-negative country, Bhutan’s constitution requires at least 60% of the country to be covered with forest; plastic has been banned since 1999.

Our reporter Gergana Krasteva explored all it has to offer in 2025. See what she found here.

Ok, not all of Georgia, but its glorious capital, Tbilisi.

Founded over 1,500 years ago, this hidden gem in the South Caucasus is the perfect antidote to Europe’s crowded cities, with world-leading wine, a spunky underground scene and a dark but fascinating history.

In a 2016 episode of Parts Unknown, the late Anthony Bourdain observed that few people can place Georgia on a map.

Almost ten years later, as our Travel Editor Alice Murphy explores Tbilisi’s enchanting Old Town and the dramatic valley that cradles it, she writes that there are moments when she still gets the sense of going where no tourist has gone before.

Home to over 11.5 million people and welcoming approximately one million tourists a year before October 2023, Jordan has long reaped the benefits of a healthy tourism industry.

Its most famous attraction, the ancient city of Petra – one of the new Seven Wonders of the World – once drew 5,000 visitors a day.

However, with the devastation in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, which borders Jordan to the west, and a general misconception of the entire region being unsafe, the country now faces tens of thousands of cancelled bookings.

Writing from Amman and an eco-reserve in the desert, award-winning travel writer Karen Edwards says that the best time to go is now.

Hong Kong might beknown as the financial capital of Asia (third in the world behind New York and London), but long before that, it was something else.

We sent our TikTok maestro Alex O’Loughlin out there to tell us five good reasons to visit Hong Kong — and the side tourists rarely see.

Few islands do the Caribbean dream quite like Barbados.

But while it is justifiably famed for its showstopping beaches and bright turquoise bays, I travelled to the ‘land of the flying fish’ for something different: to indulge in its sumptuous, decadent, and world-class food.

Barbados is known as the culinary capital of the Caribbean, with hundreds of restaurants serving everything from pickled pork to cou-cou and fried flying fish with spicy gravy, the moreish national dish.

In November, we sent out food writer Lola Alao to find out what Barbados’ iconic food and rum festival is all about. You can read all about it here.

Our Travel Editor Alice Murphy is a proud Irishwoman, so without further ado, here’s some of her favourite places to explore on the old sod:

• Ireland’s rebel city that’s in the midst of a revolution
• A ‘troubled’ city that is so much more than its history
• An Irishwoman’s guide to Ireland’s most underrated county
• A guide to the perfect weekend in Ireland’s best-kept secret
• The ‘best’ Irish county, according to Lonely Planet