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The 20 countries to put on your travel list for 2026

Find new charm in the familiar, or forge a fresh trail. Here are the under-the-radar nations and re-emerging classics set to define travel in 2026.

  • Ute Junker

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An RAAF Wedgetail flies in formation with Australian and US jets in a file photograph.

Inside Australian spy plane’s secretive night over Europe

The crew know that when their screens light up, it means terror is coming to someone on the ground below.

  • David Crowe
Antwerp Palace of Justice.

The Sydney Opera House’s little sister and the other jewels of Antwerp

Belgium’s second city Antwerp comes first in the realm of boldly embracing old and new architecture.

  • Julietta Jameson
Charles Leclerc (Scuderia Ferrari) qualified third on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, alongside pole position qualifier Lando Norris and second-placed qualifier Oscar Piastri, both of McLaren.

‘It’s Piastri v Norris’ for the F1 title – and the Australian just pulled further ahead

Australian Oscar Piastri extended his lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris with victory from second on the grid in a rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix.

  • Hannah Kennelly
Several countries have been trying to regulate children’s access to social media in some way, not always successfully.

What other countries do to control children’s social media access

Australia will now have a ban. Some other countries also have regulations, but huge numbers of their children have social media accounts.

  • Charlotte Van Campenhout and Terje Solsvik
Sydney couple, Anjelika Elliott holds her husband Dr John Elliott’s hands as he attempts to rise from his hotel room bed in Zurich 26 hours before going to the Dignitas clinic where he ended his life in 2007.

The legal status of assisted dying around the world

A number of countries have recently passed or introduced laws to permit a form of euthanasia for people who meet certain criteria. Here’s a list.

  • Sarah Young
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Okahirongo Elephant Lodge, Purros.

Ten of the world’s greatest immersive travel experiences

If you like to get under the skin of a destination – with a few indulgences to boot – then these extraordinary global experiences are for you.

  • Traveller team
Who is watching who? Rene Magritte’s The False Mirror (1929).

Surrealist master heads to Australia for a summer of blockbusters

The first retrospective of Belgian artist Rene Magritte ever held in Australia is coming to the Art Gallery of NSW in October.

  • Linda Morris
Flanders.

I thought this place would be boring. Instead, it reduced me to tears

When I saw a day roaming a World War I site on the itinerary, the word ‘boring’ came to mind. Now I think every Australian needs to visit it.

  • Julietta Jameson
Singapore Airlines has recommenced flying to Brussels.

Singapore Airlines resumes alternative Europe route after 20 years

The move offers an alternative entry point into north-western Europe to the busier, bigger Amsterdam and Paris airports.

  • Julietta Jameson