How many of our 50 destinations for 2015 did you manage? It's not too late to squeeze in another trip before Christmas...
Manhattan
45 of 50
Photo: Danica Jorge
“New York is a living organism that’s constantly evolving—it always has and always will reinvent itself,” says Sean MacPherson, whose new hotel The Ludlow is another catalyst in the gentrification of the Lower East Side. Still, 2015 is shaping up to be an especially transformative year for Manhattan. The center of the media universe is shifting downtown, with Condé Nast’s move to 1 World Trade and Time Inc.’s migration to Brookfield Place in November. A rush of development has followed, with new restaurants, food halls, and shops, as well as the new light-filled Fulton Center and, slated for 2015 completion, the World Trade Center transit hub with Calatrava’s wildly expensive winged design. Century-old Pier A is now a multilevel oyster bar and event space with a promenade that faces the Statue of Liberty. (Look for a makeover of the South Street Seaport and the debut of retail-entertainment-park complex Super Pier on the Hudson in the next few years.) But that doesn’t mean things have been quiet in midtown. Just take a walk along 57th Street, where new ultra-luxe towers soar above what has come to be called Billionaire’s Row. The prospective buyers of $25 million condos will need someplace to repair to, and no doubt others will be tempted to follow them to the Park Hyatt or the ravishingly refit Rainbow Room—thirsty for some old-fashioned, unapologetic glitz. —Nathan Storey
