I usually really feel that we live in atavistic occasions. Despite (or due to) the breakneck tempo of human-caused change in (and to) the world, the calls appear louder than ever to return to some prelapsarian time when the planet was a greater, simpler place, at the least for a few of its occupants. I get it. The future can really feel scary. But dwelling in the previous feels scarier, as a result of it makes progress and development not possible.
So from a traveler’s perspective, I discover it deeply heartening to look at how the previous is being reevaluated and remixed round the world (an thought we come again to usually in these pages) to mirror all that we have discovered in the ensuing years and sign the place we hope to be headed. Take two quintessentially American cities that can play a key position in subsequent 12 months’s semiquincentennial: Charleston and Boston. Both are actively looking for, by means of meals, historical past, and artwork, to broaden the narrative of how they got here to be and to incorporate all the voices that made them nice in a means that aligns with their various, dynamic presents. Take Cairo, which, with the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum and quite a few resort and way of life initiatives in the central metropolis, is channeling millennia of historical past by means of the lens of modernity. Or even Malta, which, by means of redevelopment efforts and bold curatorial initiatives, has made itself a lot greater than a dusty dwelling museum on an island in the Med.
One of the most thrilling technique of participating with the previous from a up to date perspective is thru design. In a group of tales, we discover every part from what it means to replace icons like W Hotels and the Orient Express to how modern-day artisans are respiration new life into centuries-old textile traditions in locations as assorted as Alabama and Okinawa. It all provides as much as a reminder that the previous is not mounted, that historical past is alive, and that by taking a look at it anew, time and again, we’ll be higher geared up to face the future.
This article appeared in the September/October 2025 difficulty of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the journal here.