Compare and Contrast: The Points Guy’s 2026 Destinations Through a Historical Lens

Hook: Why this comparison matters for teachers, students, and curious travelers

Planning a class unit on tourism or trying to justify a research project to a skeptical supervisor? You’re not alone. Students, teachers, and lifelong learners often struggle to find reliable, classroom-ready frameworks that connect contemporary travel reporting with the long arc of tourism history. The Points Guy’s Jan. 16, 2026 ranking — "Where to go in 2026: The 17 best places to travel" — is an invaluable snapshot of present-day preferences, but its value multiplies when set beside travel guides from earlier decades. This comparative lens reveals not only how tastes change, but how geopolitics, sustainability, and technology reshape what counts as desirable travel.

Topline findings (inverted pyramid)

Comparing The Points Guy’s 2026 list to travel guides from the 19th century, the jet-age 1960s, the backpacker-led 1970s–80s, and the early digital era of the 2000s uncovers three major shifts:

• From prestige to participation: Older guides emphasized arrival and accomplishment; 2026 guides emphasize experiences, local relationships, and longer stays.
• Geopolitics reorders accessibility: Conflicts, visa policy changes, and pandemic-era border management continue to rearrange tourism flows.
• Sustainability is mainstreamed: Where mid-century guides rarely discussed environmental impact, 2026 coverage embeds regenerative practices and carbon-conscious choices.

How to read the 2026 list against the long arc of travel history

To make this concrete for research and classrooms, I frame the comparison as three intersecting axes: destination type (city, nature, emerging market), driver (status, curiosity, sustainability), and access (air routes, visas, digital bookings). Below I map those axes across four periods and then apply them to the patterns revealed by The Points Guy’s 2026 recommendations.

1. The pre-mass-tourism era (late 19th – early 20th century)

Guides like Baedeker and early Michelin focused on routes, inns, and routes’ reliability. Travel was still largely a pursuit of elites with time and resources. The pulse: navigation and narrative authority. Destinations were valued for cultural prestige and accessibility via rail or steamship.

2. Jet age and package tourism (1950s–1970s)

The democratization of air travel and the growth of package tours shifted attention toward seaside resorts and curated itineraries. Guides emphasized convenience and the novelty of far-flung places. Geopolitics—a safe and stable destination—mattered more than ever.

3. Backpacker & independent travel era (1970s–1990s)

Lonely Planet’s founding in 1973 and the rise of budget carriers refocused travel on authenticity, budget, and subcultural discovery. Guides targeted travelers seeking immersion rather than status symbols. This was the era of the “open road” as cultural ideal.

4. The digital, experiential, and climate-aware era (2000s–2026)

From the early web’s user reviews to the Points-and-Miles economy and the post-pandemic recalibration (2020–2024), travel coverage has become both more practical and more ethically aware. By late 2025 and early 2026, three developments are particularly salient:

• AI-driven trip planning and dynamic loyalty optimizations reshape how travelers choose and book destinations.
• AI, heightened personalization, and short-form social media have accelerated how places trend.
• Climate-related events and overtourism push sustainability from niche to mainstream policy and editorial coverage.

What The Points Guy’s 2026 list signals — themes, not just places

The Points Guy’s approach is inherently practical: it encourages readers to book using points and miles. Read through a historical lens and the editorial decisions tell a larger story about travel preferences in 2026. Here are five trends the list reveals.

Trend 1 — Experience over possession

Where mid-20th-century guides prized glamorous hotels and landmark checklists, 2026 favorites emphasize hands-on cultural experiences: craft workshops, community-led walks, farm stays. This mirrors the shift from travel as a mark of social status to travel as a means of personal transformation.

Trend 2 — The geopolitics of welcome

Destinations rise and fall in guidebooks based on diplomatic relations and safety perceptions. Since 2022, the war in Ukraine, changing China-West relations, and pandemic-era policy changes have reshaped air routes and visa access. Travel editors in 2026 factor in not only desirability but also access and moral considerations—whether to encourage travel to regions facing humanitarian crisis, for example.

Trend 3 — Sustainability as baseline editorial criteria

Unlike guides from the 1950s, many modern lists evaluate destinations on regenerative initiatives, visitor caps, and community benefit. The Points Guy’s 2026 picks frequently include notes on sustainable tourism enterprises and low-impact ways to experience a site—mirroring broader industry commitments to carbon accounting and destination stewardship emerging in late 2025.

Trend 4 — Points and proximity: economic creativity

The Points Guy’s focus on redeeming miles reveals how loyalty economies influence destination selection. In 2026 we see creative routing to avoid expensive airfares, prioritizing destinations reachable via regional carriers or multi-leg awards—an evolution from the single-itinerary recommendations of classic guides.

Trend 5 — Tech-enabled discovery and curation

AI, heightened personalization, and short-form social media have accelerated how places trend. But editorial curation remains important for trust. The 2026 list balances algorithmic discovery with on-the-ground reporting, a hybrid model that editors of historical guides could not have anticipated.

Case studies: reading a single destination across time

To illustrate how the comparison works in a classroom or lesson plan, pick one destination from the 2026 list and trace it across guidebooks. You’ll teach students how cultural and political contexts determine what is recommended.

Example assignment (classroom-ready)

1. Choose a destination appearing on The Points Guy’s 2026 list.
2. Gather one guidebook entry from each period above (Baedeker/Michelin excerpt for early era, a 1960s package-tour brochure, a 1980s Lonely Planet excerpt, and the 2026 Points Guy entry).
3. Analyze language: what adjectives are used? What is implied about the traveler’s identity?
4. Map reasons for travel across time—prestige, novelty, budget, sustainability.
5. Present findings focusing on how geopolitics and environmental concerns changed recommendations.

Actionable travel advice for 2026 — planning with history in mind

Whether you are a student on a study-abroad budget or a teacher planning a field trip, these practical steps translate historical insight into better decisions for 2026 travel.

Step 1: Cross-check desirability with accessibility

Don’t assume editorial enthusiasm equals easy entry. Before you redeem points for an award flight, verify current visa policy, local entry rules, and recent advisories. Use embassy websites and airline advisories; compare with the on-the-ground reporting in the 2026 guide for nuance.

Step 2: Prioritize regenerative choices

Choose accommodations and operators that demonstrate local benefits—community-run lodgings, conservation fees that actually fund preservation, and small-group operators. For classroom trips, insist on operators who can document local partnerships.

Step 3: Use points responsibly

Points and miles can democratize access, but they also can fuel high-carbon flights. Consider shorter hops, premium economy for longer stays (better carbon per person-day), or routing through lower-carbon carriers when possible.

Step 4: Build historical context into itineraries

Include a visit to a local museum or archive and ask students to collect primary documents—tickets, guidebook excerpts, interpretive panels. These artifacts make excellent primary sources for later analysis; use a simple field kit (camera, audio recorder) and a tested storage workflow so assets are preserved.

Classroom resources and pedagogical takeaways

Here are quick, classroom-ready resources and activities that link the Points Guy list to historical inquiry.

• Primary source packets: Compare Baedeker entries with a 1980s Lonely Planet excerpt and The Points Guy’s 2026 entry on the same destination.
• Map time-series: Have students overlay historical travel routes (steamship, rail) with current air routes and visa corridors to visualize accessibility changes.
• Debate: Should sustainable criteria ever exclude a destination from a “best places” list? Assign positions and require evidence from both contemporary and historical guides.
• Project: Produce a classroom zine that reimagines a 1920s guide for 2026 travelers, integrating modern sustainability practices.

Advanced strategies for researchers and travel writers

For editors and scholars, the comparison suggests methodological moves that improve accuracy and trustworthiness in tourism writing.

• Triage verification: Corroborate editorial picks with visa and health data, airline capacity reports, and local community sources.
• Longitudinal framing: Situate each recommendation in a 20–50 year arc to show how economic, political, and environmental forces shaped desirability.
• Ethical note: Be transparent about partnerships and commercial incentives. The Points Guy discloses affiliate relationships; follow similar disclosure practices when publishing comparative analyses. If you’re an editor building coverage plans, pitching to big media or partnering with outlets, document conflicts and agreements in your packet.

Limitations and cautions

Comparative work has pitfalls. Guidebooks have different editorial aims; a commercial list centered on points and miles will look different from a conservationist guide. Treat each source as a document with an agenda. Also, geopolitical and climate conditions change rapidly—what is safe and advisable in early 2026 may shift within months.

"Use guides as conversation starters, not final authorities." — an editorial maxim for teachers and travelers alike

Practical checklist for using this analysis

1. Identify the 2026 Point(s) of interest and collect corresponding historical guide excerpts.
2. Confirm current entry and health requirements via official government sources and campus/trip health playbooks (see campus health guidance).
3. Prioritize regenerative operators and verify their claims with local contacts or NGOs.
4. Plan itineraries that maximize time-on-site to lower per-day carbon and improve learning outcomes.
5. Document the trip: collect brochures, take photos of interpretive panels, and record oral histories where appropriate.

Future-facing predictions (late 2025 → 2027)

Looking ahead, several plausible developments will further reshape the relationship between editorial lists and historical context.

• AI-curated micro-guides: Expect curated, hyperlocal itineraries generated by AI, but validated by human reporters for ethical and factual accuracy.
• Policy-driven tourism flows: Visa facilitation and regional travel blocs could create new intra-regional tourism booms.
• Regenerative destination branding: More destinations will market themselves based on measurable social and environmental impact.

Conclusion: Why this matters for your next syllabus, article, or trip

Comparing The Points Guy’s 2026 "17 best places" with travel guides from past decades transforms a simple list into a historical document. It helps students and teachers connect travel recommendations to larger narratives about mobility, power, and environmental responsibility. For travelers, it converts glossy editorial enthusiasm into a nuanced decision-making process that considers access, impact, and learning. For writers and researchers, it offers a template to balance immediacy with historical depth.

Call to action

Turn this analysis into an active project: pick one destination from The Points Guy’s 2026 list, assemble historical guide excerpts, and run the classroom assignment outlined above. Share your findings with the historian.site community—submit a short reflection or a digital zine. If you’re a teacher, adapt the checklist into a field-trip policy that centers sustainability and historical context. Together we can make travel not just about seeing new places, but about understanding why we go there—and how we can do it better.