Picture a room with three walls. The fourth side is open to the mountains, and a private infinity pool sits in front of it with no glass between you and the view. That is a room at Jade Mountain, one of the cliffside hotels on St. Lucia, the island Expedia put at the top of its 2026 Island Hot List.
Time Out, which covered the list in July, framed it as a way out of overcrowded hotspots. The list is Expedia’s roundup of fast-rising islands, and it runs ten deep.
The top four
St. Lucia takes first place. Beyond the resorts, Time Out pointed to the street parties in Gros Islet, where rum and grilled fresh fish are the draw, and to a dormant volcano whose crater visitors can drive into. Its mud baths are loaded with natural iron and sulfur. The steaming black water smells of rotten eggs, Time Out noted, but locals swear it soothes sunburn and mosquito bites.
Porto Santo is second. It is a small island in the Madeira archipelago with a nine-kilometre stretch of golden sand made of ancient coral and seashell sediments, said to ease muscle pain and arthritis. Wellness centres bury guests up to the neck in sand heated to 40C. Christopher Columbus lived there for several years, and his stone house still stands near the main harbour.
Praslin, in the Seychelles, comes third. It holds the Vallée de Mai forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where rare Coco de Mer palms tower over the trails. It is also the only place on earth to see the Seychelles black parrot in the wild.
Fourth is Syros, in Greece. Wild fennel runs through the cooking: fennel pie, fennel-stuffed pork sausages, ouzo in the capital, Ermoupolis, a colourful town Time Out compared to nineteenth-century Italian opera houses. The writer’s verdict was that it offers culture without Mykonos prices. The island has also advertised free stays for cat lovers willing to clean, feed and socialise young rescues.
The rest of the list
Places five through ten are the Lofoten Islands in Norway, Palawan in the Philippines, Culebra in Puerto Rico, Sanibel Island in Florida, Phu Quoc in Vietnam and Fiji.
The spread runs from Norway to the South Pacific. Time Out’s pitch for all of them was the same: book now, before the secret is out.
