Congratulations, Traverse City: For Christmas this year, you’ve made another global list of top travel destinations.

On December 19, the Wall Street Journal published its rundown of “The 10 Places to Go in 2025.” Traverse City is one of just three destinations in the United States to make the list, with the other two being Maui, Hawaii and Macon, Georgia. Other featured locations include Niseko, Japan; Malta; Amsterdam; Morocco; South Caicos, Turks & Caicos; Magdalena River, Colombia; and Madhya Pradesh, India.

“To compile our annual to-go list, we considered every traveler: the relaxer and the adventurer; the culture hound and the outdoor cat; the road tripper and the frequent flier,” the article begins. “For all these, here are 10 places deserving of precious vacation days this year.”

Traverse City in particular was praised for its “bucolic vineyards and pristine shorelines,” its restaurant scene, and its wealth of wineries, microbreweries, cideries, and distilleries. Earning specific shout-outs in the text are local businesses like Mammoth Distilling, for its effort to resurrect the long-lost Rosen rye varietal, as well as spots like Farm Club, Modern Bird, and Northern Latitudes Distillery. The blurb on Traverse City also notes the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the “newly-redone” Grandview Parkway, and “a regional bike trail network of more than 60 paved miles.”

“Outgoing transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg has publicly said that a desire to be closer to his husband's family triggered his 2022 move to Traverse City, Mich., but we suspect other factors were also at play,” travel journalist Andrew Nelson writes in the piece.