Louisiana’s last inhabited barrier island, Grand Isle begs an unsettling question: Does a place appear more hauntingly beautiful when you know it’s disappearing? A longtime sport and commercial fishing hub two hours south of New Orleans, this pancake-flat wisp of land seven miles long and on average a half-mile wide faces one of the world’s highest rates of relative sea level rise, and uncertain survival. Now is the time to go, while the Gulf of Mexico still washes the sands of Grand Isle State Park under blue skies dotted with cotton-puff clouds, and roseate spoonbills still take flight in a flash of pink plumage in hushed bayous and marshes best experienced by kayak. Wind-twisted trees populate the unique live oak forests known as cheniers, and in the spring — especially around April’s migratory bird festival — masses of songbirds from Central and South America as well as Mexico can drop almost literally from the sky, exhausted after their epic gulf crossing. Bottlenose dolphins often frolic alongside the boat tours offered by Calmwater Charters, which highlight the isle’s human and natural history and include a cruise-by of a vital pelican rookery, Queen Bess Island, where major habitat restoration wraps up in February 2020.
—CHRISTOPHER HALL
Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/travel/places-to-visit.html
New York Times’ 2020 List of Places to Go.
1. Washington
2. British Virgin Islands
3. Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
4. Greenland
5. Kimberley Region, Australia
6. Paso Robles, Calif.
7. Sicily
8. Salzburg, Austria
9. Tokyo
10. Caesarea, Israel
11. National Parks, China
12. Lesotho
13. Colorado Springs
14. Krakow, Poland
15. Jodhpur, India
16. Western Sweden
17. Egypt
18. La Paz, Mexico
19. Grand Isle, La.
20. Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
21. Jevnaker, Norway
22. The Bahamas
23. Kampot, Cambodia
24. Christchurch, New Zealand
25. Asturias, Spain
26. Haida Gwaii, British Columbia
27. Austin, Texas
28. Sabah, Malaysia
29. Churchill, Manitoba
30. Uganda
31. Paris
32. Lake District, England
33. Tajikistan
34. Antakya, Turkey
35. Leipzig, Germany
36. Lima, Peru3
7. Molise, Italy
38. Copenhagen
39. Richmond, Va.
40. Mount Kenya
41. Minorca, Spain
42. Oberammergau, Germany
43. Plymouth, England
44. Atlantic Forest, Brazil
45. Belle-Île, France
46. Val d’Aran, Spain
47. Mongolia
48. Juliana Trail, Slovenia
49. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
50. Transylvanian Alps, Romania
51. Urbino, Italy
52. Glacier National Park and Whitefish, Mont.