For the ninth year in a row, the travel company Intrepid Travel has put together a Not Hot List, which showcases destinations that fly a little under the radar and deserve more attention. We think that’s a great idea to better spread the tourism butter—and maybe this year’s still-tepid destinations will be next year’s hot spots. The Not Hot List focuses on 10 worldwide destinations, and for 2026 only one U.S. location made the list. It’s a national park you may not think of until after you mentally run through Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Zion.
If you guessed Great Basin National Park in Nevada, well done! Intrepid praises it for a host of reasons: ancient 4,000-year-old bristlecone pine forests, alpine lakes, the only alpine glacier in the state, its status as an International Dark-Sky Park (you can see dark skies everywhere in the park, and the wheelchair accessible Astronomy Amphitheater offers ranger-led dark sky programs)...and for being a quieter park not overrun by massive amounts of visitors. Only 152,000 people visited last year, compared to the 12 million who entered the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited U.S. national park.
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“High season typically takes place between June and September but even then, it can often feel like you have the park to yourself,” says Tracie Barnthouse, chief communications officer for Travel Nevada, told Intrepid Travel.
At Great Basin, you can camp year-round, as opposed to some spots where snow makes it harder, and the number of campgrounds expanded this year. The park system is planning to rewire the interiors of the Lehman Caves in what Intrepid cleverly calls a “glow up.” This national park, alas, does not have any gateway towns, so you may have plan a little more carefully for your trip there.
Since national parks will take a huge hit if proposed federal budget cuts become reality, it’s important to visit our parks to provide a “vote of confidence” for our important nature-filled wonderlands.
“We know that 80 percent of travelers visit just 10 percent of the world’s tourism destinations and we recognize that we have a role to play in influencing that,” says Erica Kritikides, general manager of experiences at Intrepid. “A key consideration when we’re developing trips is how we can spread the economic benefits of tourism more widely and how our presence in a destination can positively impact the communities we’re visiting.”
Last year’s Not Hot List positioned the Adirondacks at #4 on the list as the only U.S. entry.
The 10 emerging destinations on Intrepid’s ‘Not Hot List’:
1. Tiwai Island, Sierra Leone
2. Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan
3. Sierra Norte, Mexico
4. Vis Island, Croatia
5. Southeastern Antolia, Türkiye
6. Arunachal Pradesh, India
7. Via Transilvanica, Romania
8. Ruta de Las Flores, El Salvador
9. Oulu, Finland
10. Great Basin National Park, USA