Detroit Makes the List! Discover Why It’s One of the Top 52 Places to Travel in 2025
Asheville, New Orleans, New York City … Detroit is in good company thanks to a recent recognition by The New York Times, which enshrined the Motor City in its list of “52 Places to Go in 2025.”
The annual lineup recognizes 52 locations around the globe that people should experience each year. Detroit was named No. 39 on the 2025 list, heralded for its “remarkable signs of renewal” in a description written by Lauren Matison.
The city’s accomplishments include the Gordie Howe International Bridge (targeted for completion later this year), the rehabilitated Michigan Central Station, and the soon-to-open Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park on the Detroit Riverfront.
The “1.5-mile Gordie Howe International Bridge will be North America’s longest cable-stayed bridge when it opens in the fall, connecting motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians to Windsor, Ontario, and the Trans Canada Trail,” said Matison in quoted material from the Times shared by the Detroit Free Press. “Public art and signs near the U.S. and Canadian ports of entry on both sides of the bridge commemorate the Underground Railroad, reminding visitors of the thousands of African Americans who fled enslavement into Canada or found sanctuary in Detroit.”
The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, at West Jefferson Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard, is slated for a fall opening. The “lush 22-acre haven,” as the Times calls it, will feature green spaces with trees, a sports house pavilion, a water garden, a 4-acre playground, and a 20-foot slide shaped like a brown bear.
Lauded as an example of “Detroit’s comeback tale,” the Michigan Central Station revitalization received high praise by The New York Times. It acknowledged the transformation of the formerly abandoned Beaux Arts train depot into a hip, start-up tech hub made possible by a $950 million investment by the Ford Motor Company.
