2025’s Best Food, Books, and Travel Destinations

EDITOR’S NOTE

Happy Saturday. You know that friend whose recommendations never miss? The one you text before trying anything? Not to brag, but that’s kind of our whole deal. We pop into your inbox every Saturday with the best low-effort, high-reward recipes, the most captivating books, and the dreamiest vacation spots. But we know it’s a lot to keep track of, so we’ve compiled the most popular picks of the year in one place. Consider it your second chance to revisit everything you bookmarked and promptly forgot about. It can’t be just us, right?

— Jamie Feldman / Writer, Culture & Lifestyle / Brooklyn, NY

Your favorite recipes:

1. If the words “warm salad” make you instantly suspicious, fair. But Ambitious Kitchen’s Warm Roasted Vegetable Harvest Couscous Salad converted thousands of you this year.

2. When in doubt about anything, make a ridiculously cozy soup. Specifically, Dishing Out Health’s Pasta e Ceci, which requires one pot and just over 30 minutes to whip.

3. How Sweet Eats’s Baked Vodka Sauce Gnocchi with Burrata. One look at that name and, well, you get it.

The year’s top trends:

The question that defined 2025: But does it have protein? Nothing was safe from getting…beefed up this year, including Pop-Tarts, Uncrustables, popcorn, and yes, Starbucks lattes. Only one other trend came close: Dubai chocolate, which went way beyond the not-so-humble candy bars. Think Shake Shack milkshakes, Costco cakes, Baskin-Robbins ice cream, Crumbl brownies, and IHOP pancakes. TikTokers also served up a fresh batch of viral food trends, like one-pan dumpling bakes, charcuterie nachos (aka “the ultimate girl dinner”), two-ingredient onion ring chips, and summery heirloom tomato flights.

What experts say is coming in 2026:

• “The return of the Waldorf salad — a dish so retro, this ‘comeback’ will be a first encounter for many. Given our current obsession with contrast and crunch, a salad of crisp apples, juicy grapes, toasted walnuts, and silky [dressing] will be right at home.” — Lucy Simon, Food & Wine special projects editor

• “In 2026, everyday comforts get luxury glow-ups. At Seattle’s Phê, matcha is upgraded with a scoop of banana pudding on top. Ceres, an NYC pizza spot, serves $63 pies loaded with burrata and aged balsamic. Even hot dogs have gone couture, from Wagyu versions in LA and NYC to ‘sea dogs’ [near] Boston to octopus-stuffed buns in San Francisco.” — Arden Shore, The Infatuation editor in chief 

• “The rise of restaurants that aren’t quite restaurants, like Potential New Boyfriend in Asheville, North Carolina, which is filling that third-space need with desserts, beverages, and a focus on community. The wine bar and small plates trends also show no sign of slowing down, but in NYC, I’m excited to see so many new places pairing wine with Asian dishes, like Lei’s Chinese-inspired menu, Vietnamese at Lai Rai, and banchan at Sunn’s. Bring on more wine bars with food outside the Spanish/Italian/French trifecta.” — Stephanie Wu, Eater editor in chief

• “Making eating in cool again. More dinners are happening at home, but nobody wants that to feel like the same old routine. So expect playful twists: breakfast for dinner, picnics in the living room, homemade food served in takeout boxes, even dumping a pot of spaghetti onto a plastic-wrapped table just for the fun of it.” — Ivy Odom, Southern Living senior lifestyle editor and My Southern Kitchen author

Your favorite books: 

1. Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June follows a mother of the bride through an exceptionally chaotic wedding weekend involving job loss, ex-husband drama, and a bombshell that threatens to derail everything.

2. In The Tell, powerhouse businesswoman Amy Griffin opens up about what was going on beneath the surface of her picture-perfect life — and how psychedelic therapy allowed her to confront the childhood trauma she’d spent years outrunning. 

3. Cross a Kennedyesque family with Succession-worthy drama, and you get Sara Sligar’s Vantage Point, in which siblings Clara and Teddy face a family curse and explicit videos that surface just as Teddy launches his Senate campaign.

This year’s top trends:

While romance remained head of the class, dark academia proved to be the year’s breakout star — with buzzy releases, like RF Kuang’s Katabasis, Mona Awad’s We Love You, Bunny, Olivie Blake’s Girl Dinner, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Bewitching. Even more notable than what we read this year is how we read. Bookstore bars continued to take off, as did reading retreats, where booklovers enjoyed, yes, uninterrupted reading time, but also literary-themed dinners and activities. One more thing we couldn’t ignore? Book covers themselves — particularly, the trend of slapping bright neon type onto centuries-old paintings.

What experts say is coming in 2026:

• “The Witch, one of my favorite short novels from French writer Marie NDiaye, is finally getting an English translation nearly 30 years after it was originally published. Ben Lerner’s Transcription is about a man who falsifies an interview he failed to record — and the perils of shared and unshared memory. And Hanna Johansson’s Body Double sounds a little like Single White Female, a little like Vertigo, and exactly like the queer doppelgänger story I’m dying to read.” — Jasmine Vojdani, New York magazine senior newsletter editor

• “Romance fans will agree that 2026’s most anticipated book is Kennedy Ryan’s Score. It’s a sequel to what’s widely regarded as one of her best books, and captures the smart sexiness she’s known for. Meanwhile, Kelly Yang, who has written brilliant YA and children’s books, is finally publishing her adult debut, The Take, which is about two women in LA who want what the other has — and the lengths they will go to acquire it. And Caroline Glenn’s Cruelty Free feels like my personal favorite brand of f*cked up. An A-list actress returns to Hollywood a decade after the kidnapping of her daughter, with a revenge plot and a beauty brand? Comparisons to The Substance? Sold.” — Mackenzie Newcomb, Bad Bitch Book Club founder

• “After being pleasantly surprised by the amount of real reflection in Jennette McCurdy’s nonfiction debut, I’m interested to see her foray into fiction with Half His Age. Also, Glory Edim, the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, was a big influence when I started my Bookstagram, so I’m excited to read Bsrat Mezghebe’s I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For — part of her Well-Read Black Girl book series. And as soon as I read the summary of Leila Renee’s Soft Spots and saw it compared to Raven Leilani’s Luster, one of my favorite books, I had to have it.” — Chinelo Ikem, Interested in Black Books founder 

Your favorite destinations:

1. Ilulissat, Greenland, is the Arctic bucket-list destination that suddenly feels doable, thanks to direct flights to the island that launched earlier this year.

2. The Highlands, North Carolina, is the Asheville-meets-Aspen mountain town you’ve been sleeping on, complete with waterfalls, luxe lodges, and superb restaurants.

3. Islamorada, Florida, is the Key West alternative that’s just as cool, just as charming, and way less crowded.

This year’s top trends: 

In 2025, people took “on the run” quite literally. Enter: “Run-cations,” where sightseeing doubles as your exercise. Not a Running Person™? Or think working out on vacation is a crime? Thankfully, maximizing PTO took many other forms too: Detour destinations made it possible to see multiple places in one getaway; gig-tripping had people flying to catch Beyoncé in Houston or Oasis in Manchester; and set-jetting continued to soar, thanks in large part to season 3 of The White Lotus. TV wasn’t the only source of travel inspo — many also took a page from their favorite books. But the hands down best trend? Trips catering to solo travelers, for a change. 

What experts say is coming in 2026:

• “Food is becoming the main character of travel plans. Smaller cities — like Philadelphia — are earning serious recognition for their restaurants, and more travelers are booking trips specifically to experience a chef’s tasting menu or explore a region’s culinary scene, whether that’s truffle hunting in Italy or hitting up night markets in Asia. Many are also seeking alternatives to the usual hotspots (Asturias instead of Barcelona, Hamburg instead of Berlin), which offer the same experiences, landscapes, and culture — without the crowds. Finally, big cultural and sporting events will drive more travel decisions than ever, with the FIFA World Cup, Winter Olympics, and major anniversaries anchoring people’s 2026 plans.” — Jacqui Gifford, Travel + Leisure editor in chief

• “We’re seeing a gravitational pull toward destinations where the sky and nature are putting on extraordinary shows — like witnessing the great European solar eclipse in Spain’s Basque Country or stargazing in Chile’s Atacama Desert. In terms of top vacation spots for 2026, leading the pack is Europe’s rising star: the Albanian Riviera. The affordability factor, combined with the vibrant towns and breathtaking coastline, is turning it into the go-to beach spot for savvy travelers. Stateside, Route 66 is also back in the spotlight, perfect for those wanting to celebrate the [250th anniversary] of the US with a classic road trip.” — Karen Magee, Valerie Wilson Travel president

Unleash your competitive side with today’s games and puzzles. Choose from an anagram word search, digital jigsaw puzzle, or crossword (with a twist). Better yet: Try them all.