Paris has claimed the top spot on Travel And Tour World's list of the 50 best Thanksgiving travel destinations for 2026, edging out New York City and Plymouth, Massachusetts — a ranking that carries clear implications for hospitality operators catering to American holiday travelers worldwide. Cancún, Liberia (Costa Rica), London, Toronto, Punta Cana, Leiden, and Rome round out the top ten, underscoring the growing appetite for international Thanksgiving experiences rooted in festive dining, cultural immersion, and seasonal hospitality.
What Drives the Rankings
The editorial assessment weighted destinations on a broad matrix of criteria: Thanksgiving heritage and historical significance, parade and public celebration programming, festive dining and regional culinary experiences, harvest festivals, religious and community gatherings, and overall visitor accessibility. The methodology explicitly distinguished between American Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving, and culturally distinct harvest traditions — including Japan's Labour Thanksgiving Day on November 23, Liberia's national observance on the first Thursday of November, and European Erntedankfest traditions — rather than treating them as interchangeable. That nuance matters for hospitality operators building menus and programming around the holiday season, since demand and timing can differ significantly market to market.
For restaurant and hotel operators, the list highlights specific food-and-beverage opportunities at nearly every destination. In Paris, venues such as Joe Allen are cited for turkey dinners and expatriate gatherings. Cancún and Punta Cana beachfront resorts are noted for blending traditional turkey menus with regional specialties — a model increasingly common in Caribbean and Latin American hospitality. San Juan's pavochón, Puerto Rico's spiced take on roast turkey served alongside mofongo, illustrates how properties can localize the holiday rather than simply replicating a generic American spread. New Orleans takes a similarly distinctive approach, with turducken feasts, jazz programming, and the Bayou Classic driving what the report calls a "uniquely Louisiana celebration of food and culture."
Operator Takeaways
Several destinations on the list reveal underserved opportunities for foodservice and lodging operators. Leiden, Netherlands — ranked ninth — draws historically minded American travelers connected to the Pilgrims' pre-voyage residence there, yet the city's Thanksgiving dining infrastructure remains limited compared to major European capitals. Similarly, Norfolk Island's Kingston (ranked 43rd) maintains a documented Thanksgiving tradition rooted in 19th-century American whaling connections, featuring community meals centered on local produce — a heritage-driven food experience with limited commercial development. Prague and Budapest both surface partly on the strength of St. Martin's Day traditions featuring roasted goose and young wines in early November, suggesting a natural programming window for operators to capture holiday-adjacent food tourism before American Thanksgiving itself.
The broader signal for hospitality professionals is that Thanksgiving is no longer a domestically contained demand spike. American travelers are actively seeking holiday dining experiences abroad, and properties that build credible, locally inflected turkey-and-harvest menus — rather than generic American imports — appear best positioned to capture that segment. For operators tracking global food and beverage travel trends, the list also reinforces the rising commercial relevance of harvest-season programming in European and Caribbean markets well beyond the traditional U.S. holiday window.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
