The Best Places to Go in Europe in 2025
"By the end of 2025, Ahr Valley’s train line will reopen and reunite its riverside villages with a 22-mile-long red wine hiking trail. In July 2021, large parts of the Ahr Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate were destroyed. The gently babbling Ahr turned into a raging river—with floods, flash floods, and tidal waves resulting in widespread tragedy. But now, visitors are welcome again, as demonstrated by the slogan “We AHR open”—even if the Ahr Valley is not yet fully rebuilt. The train that cut through the valley will run again at the end of 2025, connecting its villages with a 22-mile-long, picturesque red wine hiking trail. The trail leads through the most beautiful terraces and steep slopes of the wine-growing region and offers numerous places to stop for a Pinot Noir, which, together with Blanc de Noir, is the region’s speciality. Be sure to try it at the wineries of Jean Stodden, Meyer-Näkel, and the wine-growers cooperative, Mayschoss. Numerous wine growers, restaurateurs, and hoteliers have not only taken the reconstruction of the region into their own hands but also its further development. They have seen opportunities, invested, worked tirelessly, and developed new, modern concepts. The Sustainable Tourism Concept 2025 is the joint result of all those who have already felt the effects of climate change. Most of these projects will only be initiated in 2025—after which you can watch them develop—but some of the best examples are here already. Markus Bell, who runs the Bells Genusshof restaurant, serves local produce in a space that feels like a cool concept store. In Altenahr, Andreas Carnott has expanded his Hotel Ruland to include a spectacular wellness area with a view of the slate cliffs; he is also considered one of the best chefs in the region. At Restaurant Brogsitter, Benjamin Schöneich regained his Michelin star in the spring of 2024 after starting there in the fall of last year. Around 80% of establishments were open again in the Ahr Valley by the summer of 2024, and the number of hotels on offer are on the rise too. New openings include the lovingly designed boutique hotel Burg Adenbach & Alter Weinbau in Ahrweiler, alongside reopenings like the grande dame of Ahr, the Steigenberger Hotel in Bad Neuenahr at the beginning of June 2024. Not only will its large indoor pool and spa reopen at the end of 2024, but concerts will take place in the event rooms again; and thermal baths will follow next year."
