eclipses

THE year is flying by, so much so that it’s time to think about your next holiday. So where is set to be big in 2027?

With events like the Ryder Cup, football tournaments, eclipses and K-pop festivals – these are the spots you should book a holiday to next year.

Algarve… for Formula 1

The Algarve could be a great should for fans of Formula 1 as in June, it will return to Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão.

It will be the first time the F1 has been to the track since 2021.

If you fancy a holiday there as well as a thrilling race, Portimão has an old quarter to explore along with a busy marina and lots of pretty beaches.

From the UK, you can get direct flights from 21 UK airports to Faro – which is the gateway airport to the Algarve region.

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Burgas… for Eurovision

After their win in Vienna with 516 points, Bulgaria will host the Eurovision Song Contest next year.

Anyone wanting to witness countries going head-to-head with bizarre performances should head to Arena Burgas next May.

The city on the Black Sea coast is also one of the cheapest spots for a family holiday with 89p beers and all-inclusive holidays for under £280.

One-way flights to Burgas can cost as little as £17 and are direct from nine UK airports.

Brazil… for FIFA Women’s World Cup

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 will have 64 fixtures across eight host cities throughout June and July.

Locations include Salvador, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro which according to Deputy Travel Editor Kara Godfrey is ‘just like the movies’.

It’s home to Sugarloaf Mountain where you’ll see one of the Wonders of the World, Christ the Redeemer, and the city also has the famous Copacabana Beach.

Rio de Janeiro has direct daily flights from London with British Airways, taking just over 11 hours.

Luxor… for the eclipse

For those who enjoyed the recent partial eclipse in August – a total solar eclipse will block out the sun over parts of North Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Luxor in Egypt is a spot that will see a lot of the eclipse – it will be dark for a total of six minutes and 22 seconds.

The city is known for having the historic Valley of the Kings tombs, and Karnak Temple.

There aren’t any direct flights to Luxor – indirect journeys can take nine hours with a stopover at Cairo.

Australia… for Men’s Rugby World Cup

Between October 1 and November 13 2027, rugby will dominate Australia at the Men’s Rugby World Cup.

Matches will take place across the country in Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle, Sydney, Brisbane and Townsville.

Of course heading to Australia isn’t just a weekend break for Brits – so make the most of it by planning excursions, heading to its beautiful coastline and even go on a safari.

It’s about to get easier to travel to as with new direct BA flights to Melbourne next January while Qantas will launch the longest ever flights called Project Sunrise between Sydney and London in 2027.

Madrid… for UEFA Champions League

The Premier League season is already underway and soon enough the UEFA Champions League will be too.

Paris Saint-Germain are the ones to beat – and the final match will take place at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid on June 5, 2027.

There’s plenty to do in Madrid too from visiting its world-class art museums like Prado and eating at Mercado de San Miguel where pintxos (open sandwiches) start from £1.30.

One-way flights take two and a half hours and start from as little as £13 and depart from six UK airports.

Limerick… for the Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup golf tournament between teams from Europe and the US will return after two years being held at the Golf Course at Adare Manor in Limerick.

The competition takes just three days, so there’s plenty of time to explore the city.

Take a stroll along the riverside, tour King John’s Castle and enjoy a pint at JJ Bowles which is considered the oldest pub in Limerick.

The nearest airport is Shannon which is a 30-minute drive away from the city. One-way flights are as little as £15 and it takes an hour and a half from UK airports.

Florida… for Disney

Any fans of Disney will want to head to Florida next year, with a number of new exciting launches.

There’s the new Disney World attraction at the Glob Theatre called “Welcome to Monstropolis”, with the monsters in the show introducing visitors to Monstropolis.

And the new cruise ship Disney Believe is set to launch in late 2027 – with a Moana-inspired Grand Hall, Tinker Bell on its bow and Woody and Buzz Lightyear on the stern.

Airlines like BA, Norse, American Airlines, Finnair, and Iberia offer direct flights to Orlando.

Seoul… for K-pop

Calling any K-pop fans – you might want to book flights to Seoul.

Next December it will launch Fanomenon, a festival with concerts and award shows centered around K-pop will debut on December 2 which hopes to rival Coachella.

Head of Sun Travel, Lisa Minot, even tried out a K-pop dance class when she visited as well as exploring K-beauty shops in Myeong-dong and popped into a cat cafe.

Virgin Atlantic launched new flights from Heathrow to Seoul earlier this year, with return flights from £840.

Goodwood… for the races

If you don’t fancy hopping on a plane, then stay right here in the UK.

In West Sussex the Goodwood Estate hosts races throughout the year, and scheduled for 2027 is Qatar Goodwood Festival between July 27 -31.

It will also host a motorsport Festival of Speed between July 15-18.

There’s also live music, lounges, a roof garden, private bars and boxes.

The path of totality crosses the western part of Iceland and they hope to find a spot in the Westfjords peninsula to witness it.

Although they’ve heard rumours of roads being closed to stop too many people overwhelming the area, so are keen to get there a couple of days before the spectacle.

Samantha, who her husband describes as an “obsessive travel planner”, is all over the Facebook groups and social media pages being used by eclipse hunters to share information and advice.

She’s expecting a good turnout given the number of eclipse glasses she’s seen people with in Iceland. “They’re really trying to prepare everybody,” she says.

“What I expect, as we start inching westward, is we’re going to see more and more of them.”

Andrew Wills is also going to an island to see the eclipse, albeit a much warmer one: Majorca.

He’s travelling with his wife and his dad, who is 90. Father and son witnessed Europe’s last total solar eclipse together in 1999 while stood atop St Agnes Beacon in Cornwall.

The landmark, believed by some to be a Bronze Age bowl barrow, offers panoramic views across the Cornish countryside and out to the Atlantic. It was a cloudy day, remembers Andrew.

“We didn’t see the shadow rushing across the sea towards us, though we did see the dawn appearing and it getting closer very quickly,” he says. “It was awe-inspiring.”

In many ways, the most ambitious World Cup in history — which kicked off Thursday in Mexico City — has inspired more angst than anticipation, more fear than fervor.

The competition, returning to North America for the first time in more than three decades, has expanded to 48 teams and 104 matches, to be played over 39 days in 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The complex planning was eight years in the making.

Yet even before the competition opened with Mexico facing South Africa at the iconic Estadio Azteca, it has been marred by a number of controversies that threaten to overshadow the soccer and cloud the tournament’s legacy.

“I view this World Cup as the most politically combustible World Cup in recent history. And that’s saying something,” said Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at the University of Portland and author of eight books on the politics of international sport.

“We’re in uncharted territory in many ways.”

Relations between the host countries, once strong, have been strained by the Trump administration’s tariff policies and disagreements over border security. Travel bans have barred potential World Cup visitors — and even support staff and match officials — from entering the U.S. and others are fearful of making the trip, worried about ICE raids and immigration roundups.

The U.S. is at war with a tournament qualifier, Iran. And Iran has fired missiles and drones on Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, nations that also are World Cup participants.

The International Sports Press Assn. said Iranian and African journalists have been denied visas to cover games in the U.S., and Iran protested after more than a dozen members of its support staff had their requests to enter the U.S. rejected. The Iranians, who were forced to move their training base from Tucson to Tijuana, will spend limited time in the U.S. during group-play games that will take place in Inglewood and Seattle.

Players and journalists from Senegal, Uzbekistan and Iraq have been detained at U.S. airports for up to seven hours by immigration officials. Then on Monday, Omar Artan, a decorated referee and the first Somali official selected to work a World Cup, was turned away at Miami International Airport.

In addition, ticket prices have been so high and the lottery process for obtaining them so opaque, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have begun formal investigations into FIFA practices. Other states, including California, hosting tournament matches have begun asking questions as well.

All that has conspired to produce a World Cup that is struggling to catch on with the public. According to a recent poll by Yougov.com, a majority of Americans — 54% — say they are not at all interested in the tournament and nearly six in 10 say they will not watch any matches.

“People are just in a bad mood,” Boykoff said. “It’s a tough time.”

FIFA president Gianni Infantino remains optimistic, promising this will be “the biggest, the most inclusive, the greatest FIFA World Cup ever.” He made the same claim about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2018 tournament in Russia.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino speaks during a news conference on Wednesday before the start of the World Cup.

(Carl Recine / Getty Images)

“The World Cup should be understood as both a global sporting celebration and a major commercial enterprise, with these two dimensions being mutually enforcing rather than contradictory,” said Steve Georgakis, a lecturer on sports studies at the University of Sydney and a frequent author on soccer.

This year’s tournament is projected to swell FIFA’s coffers by nearly $9 billion and the TV ratings, it says, will be massive.

“Its universal appeal combined with the participation of 48 nations ensures that it remains a genuinely global sporting event,” Georgakis said.

Boykoff has his doubts.

“In this particular political moment, with the Trump administration being erratic and impulsive and needing a win from this tournament and the fact there’s so many moving parts geopolitically, I don’t have confidence that it’s just going to end up being a soccer-focused next five weeks,” he said.

This is not the first World Cup to kick off under some kind of black cloud.

The 1974 tournament in West Germany was tarred by the geopolitical fallout of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Four years later Argentina’s military dictatorship used the World Cup to sportswash a “Dirty War” in which as many as 30,000 people were tortured, murdered and disappeared.

The 2010 and 2014 World Cups were troubled by cost overruns and delays in the construction of stadiums and other infrastructure and the threat of labor unrest while global outrage over human rights violations and discrimination against women and LGBTQ people hung over the last two tournaments.

Those issues never fully disappeared but were overshadowed by the brilliance of the soccer. Jonathan Wilson, a columnist with the Guardian and author of “The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup,” expects the same this summer.

“The other stuff will still be there in the background,” he said, “but fundamentally the football will, for the vast majority of people, take over. It’s just sort of a natural cycle.”

Argentina star Lionel Messi controls the ball during an international friendly against Iceland on Tuesday.

(Butch Dill / Associated Press)

And as with every World Cup, there undoubtedly will be unforgettable moments.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the top scorers in soccer history, will be playing in their sixth and final World Cups — Messi chasing a second straight title and Ronaldo pursuing the only prize that has eluded him.

Kylian Mbabbe will be trying to take France to a third consecutive final while young superstars like Erling Haaland of Norway and Lamine Yamal of Spain will be looking to put their mark on their first World Cups.

Four teams — Jordan, Curacao, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan — have qualified for the tournament for the first time.

And there will be other storylines no one saw coming, all of which will contribute to the narrative of this World Cup.

“Major sporting events have a way of capturing public attention and shifting the conversation toward what is happening on the field rather than off it,” Georgakis said.

How much the actions of the Trump administration affect that calculation remains to be seen.

There are travel restrictions in place that fully or partially bar citizens from 39 countries — including a number of World Cup participants — from entering the U.S. And the administration has said ICE and Homeland Security personnel will have a visible presence at World Cup venues, including SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the American team will begin play Friday.

“There will be federal agents,” confirmed L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, who added that he could not guarantee immigration sweeps would not take place. “ They told us that specifically would not be occurring,” he said. “Any of that’s subject to change.”

Mexico fans celebrate during a watch party at Plaza Mexico in Lynwood on Thursday.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

The difficulty in obtaining visas and the fear of being rounded up by immigration agents are being blamed, in part, for less-than-expected tourist traffic. Hotel operators in all 11 World Cup host cities say bookings for the tournament are well below projections. Several countries have issued warnings about travel to the U.S.

Then there are the own goals from FIFA over tickets and parking prices as high as $900 at some stadiums, weather issues and a short-lived ban on water bottles.

FIFA has defended its policies on ticket prices by arguing that premiums are necessary to maximize revenue, which it will invest in global soccer development. Variable, market-based pricing, it said, simply reflects standard entertainment practices in North America. The organization did, however, reverse its ban on fans bringing bottles into games. Spectators are now allowed to enter stadiums with one soft, plastic 20-ounce water bottle.

And despite a warning from climate scientists that one in four World Cup games could be played in dangerously hot conditions, FIFA will start 40 of them at 3 p.m. or earlier local time, the warmest time of day, to accommodate European TV viewers.

Georgakis said the play on the field will have to overcome all those issues if this World Cup is to earn a favorable place in history.

“Ultimately the success of the World Cup will be judged by what happens on the field,” he said. “If the football is compelling, dramatic and memorable, the tournament will likely be remembered as a great World Cup. If the play falls short, then the off-field issues such as ticket prices, extreme heat, ICE enforcement activities, the Trump administration will receive great attention and could shape perceptions of the event.”