This Hidden Island Was Just Named the No. 1 Underrated Destination for 2026

Overtourism is increasingly top of mind, but one company is helping steer travelers away from crowded cities by listing the best lesser-known destinations.

Tour company Intrepid Travel released its “Not Hot List” for 2026, highlighting hidden gems that see fewer international travelers, but feature new investments and improved infrastructure, the company shared with Travel + Leisure. These lesser visited spots include places like Tiwai Island in Sierra Leone, which was the top underrated destination for 2026.

Renowned for its primate population, rich Gola Forest, and 2025 inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the island is ripe to welcome visitors. Intrepid, which runs an 8-day tour in the country, said Sierra Leone as a whole only welcomed 60,000 international overnight visitors in 2024.

“We know that 80 percent of travelers visit just 10 percent of the world’s tourism destinations and we recognize that we have a role to play in influencing that. The selection criteria for our Not Hot List reflects an approach to tourism that we’ve long championed,” Erica Kritikides, the general manager of experiences at Intrepid Travel, said in a statement shared with T+L. “While some destinations receive millions—even tens of millions—of visitors each year, many lesser-known places go virtually unnoticed by travelers.”

Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan Mountain Range took the second spot on the list, described by the travel company as a “trekker’s paradise.” The mountains are home to the Kyrgyz Nomad Trail, a more than 1,200-mile-long route that expanded this year. Intrepid’s 10-day tour explores the high-altitude routes while staying in community-run yurts for an authentic experience.

Mexico’s Sierra Norte came in third on the list, located in what the company called “Mexico’s less-visited highlands.” That’s where the Pueblos Mancomunados sits, a cooperative of eight self-governing Zapotec villages, now easier to reach thanks to the opening of the Barranca Larga–Ventanilla highway.

Kritikides said a “key consideration when we’re developing trips is how we can spread the economic benefits of tourism more widely and how our presence in a destination can positively impact the communities we’re visiting.”

To compile the list, Intrepid considered destinations that were less-visited with lower awareness, demonstrated tourism readiness with new initiatives, and had particular relevance in 2026.

This is Intrepid’s full list of “not hot” destinations for 2026.

1. Tiwai Island, Sierra Leone
2. Tien Shan Mountain Range, Kyrgyzstan
3. Sierra Norte, Mexico
4. Vis Island, Croatia
5. Gaziantep, Turkey
6. Arunachal Pradesh, India
7. Via Transilvanica, Romania
8. Ruta de las Flores, El Salvador
9. Oulu, Finland
10. Great Basin National Park, Nevada, United States