You can get one or 22 for your diary. Time Out, an influential guide has named 22 of the most exciting things you should do around the globe in 2022. Maison Gainsbourg (Paris), a museum that focuses on the life and times of actor Serge Gainsbourg and is followed by House of Hungarian Music Budapest and Melbourne’s Gabrielle Chanel: The Fashion Manifesto.
The list was carefully compiled by Time Out’s global network of ‘over 100 expert editors and independent local writers’, and is made up of the most ‘fun, original and simply unmissable’ experiences, events and new openings on the horizon.
Caroline McGinn, Time Out’s Global Editor-in-Chief, says: ‘Time Out’s list of the best new things to do in 2022 is our essential guide to the most exciting things happening around the world this year. This list includes new landmarks and attractions, long-awaited returnes to much-loved festivals and blockbuster theatre productions. Scroll down for the list in full…
1. Maison Gainsbourg – Paris
Serge Gainsbourg’s Parisian townhouse is opening as a new museum in Paris – Maison Gainsbourg, pictured
Maison Gainsbourg takes the No.1 ranking, and fans will have the opportunity to tour the home of Serge Gainsbourg (musician and cultural icon).
Time Out says: ‘Closed off to the public since Gainsbourg’s death in 1991, early next year the interior of feted (and controversial) French singer Serge Gainsbourg’s Parisian townhouse will finally open as a museum dedicated to his life and work.’
The guide says that Charlotte Gainsbourg (his daughter and actor) has assumed the leadership of the project. It adds: ‘The main attraction will surely be Serge’s famously eccentric living area, with its piano, Art Deco bar and huge collection of sculptures.’
2. House of Hungarian Music – Budapest, Hungary
The House of Hungarian Music (pictured above) has been designed with a perforated roof and ‘magnificent spiral staircases’, according to Time Out
The House of Hungarian Music is expected to open early in 2022.
The guide says: ‘Sou Fujimoto’s House of Hungarian Music in City Park features a roof perforated with 100 or so cavities that allow natural light, trees and sound to infiltrate the two performance venues, exhibition spaces and library.’
Travel experts point out that the structure features “magnificent spiral staircases” and an exterior of complete glass.
3. Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto exhibition – Melbourne
Gabrielle Chanel’s Fashion Manifesto will be held at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, until April 25, (pictured).
Time Out reports that this exhibition is the first to focus solely on Gabrielle Chanel (AKA Coco), a 20th century French designer.
The display will run until April 25 at the National Gallery of Victoria, in collaboration with Paris’ leading fashion museum, the Palais Galliera.
The guide says: ‘It sees Melbourne become the first city outside of France to host this epic touring show, featuring more than 100 Chanel garments, exploring Coco’s enduring influence on fashion, perfume, jewellery and accessory design – all with a multimedia twist that’s unique to the Aussie museum.’
4. Floriade Expo 2222 – Almere (Netherlands)
Time Out says that the Floriade Expo 2022 (rendered above) will revolve around a theme of ‘Growing Green Cities’
According to Time Out, the Floriade Expo 2022 will be a ‘once-in-a decade gardening event’. The guide reveals that the event, which starts on April 14 and revolves around a theme of ‘Growing Green Cities’, is ‘so huge it only happens once every ten years’.
It says: ‘Known as the world’s ultimate flower show, the new, custom-built waterside site will feature countless pavilions, an arboretum, a magnificent greenhouse complex and a rich arts and culture programme.’
5. Black Cinema 1898 – 1971 Exhibition at Academy Museum Los Angeles
Here’s a preview of the work to be shown at Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 at Los Angeles Academy Museum
‘Set to debut in the second half of 2022, the Academy Museum’s next exhibition will focus on nearly an entire century of often-overlooked cinema,’ Time Out says.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Academy Museum and Washington DC’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The new exhibit is fascinating. What should visitors expect? According to the guide, “Regeneration” takes visitors on a journey through the work of black filmmakers starting at the beginning of the motion-pic industry and ending with Civil Rights.
6. National Museum of Norway Oslo, Norway
Pictured is the new National Museum of Norway, which is set to become the largest museum in the Nordics next summer
You want to see the largest museum of the Nordics, but you don’t have the time? Time Out reports that the new National Museum of Norway is going to claim this title starting June 2022.
The museum will house a collection of 100,000 objects, with ‘highlights including Munch’s The Scream’ the Norwegian Baldishol tapestry from 1150, and an array of Golden Age Flemish landscapes’.
The guide notes: ‘As well as the art, the building itself will take visitors’ breaths away, with its 2,400-square-metre “Light Hall” made of shimmering marble glass.’
7. Museum of Broadway New York
New York’s Museum of Broadway depicted in its final form. The museum will be exploring the history of New York’s theatre scene.
The brand-new Museum of Broadway is the ‘first institution dedicated to the history of the “Great White Way”, aka Broadway’.
Time Out claims that this new attraction is a great tourist attraction and will attract both theatre-lovers as well tourists to New York City to see a show.
Guide says that there will be three areas in the museum. One room shows the history of theatres across London, while another section demonstrates the growth of Broadway arts through artifacts. The final area is a look at professionals who create the show.
8. Detour Discotheque Westfjords Iceland
Detour Discotheque is to be held in Thingeyri in Iceland, in the Westfjords.
Dubbed ‘the world’s most remote club night’ by Time Out, Detour Discotheque will take place in the remote fishing village of Thingeyri, in the Westfjords of Iceland, for two nights only.
Guide says that DJs from Iceland (USA), the UK and Canada will play to 160 guests on April 29-30. They draw inspiration from New York’s 1970s discos.
The party at the edge will be the first of a series to take place in remote parts of the globe. It promises to be an unforgettable night.
9. Taipei Performing Arts Center – Taipei, Taiwan
According to Time Out, the Taipei Performing Arts Center (pictured above) ‘looks like an industrial cake’
‘Seven years late to the date, the NT$5.4billion (£147million), 59,000-square-metre Taipei Performing Arts Center will no doubt wow visitors when it finally opens in summer 2022.’
Time Out Taipei has declared Taipei’s new cultural attraction ‘arresting’. It ‘looks almost like an industrial cake, with an enormous silver sphere bulging toward a nearby metro station, and contains an 800-seat theatre, a grand theatre seating 1,500 and an 800-seat theatre multipurpose’.
According to the guide, “The best thing about this unusual venue? All three auditoriums are connected by a looped walkway that leads to secret spaces and windows. This walkway is open to all members of the public.
10. Track the Silk Road via train from Tashkent to Khiva (Uzbekistan)
Travellers can take to the Silk Road by high-speed rail next year, thanks to the extension of Uzbekistan’s railways
Next year, the extension of Uzbekistan’s railways means that travellers will be able to ‘retrace the fabled route’ of Venetian merchant Marco Polo by high-speed rail, Time Out reveals.
It adds that the route will take passengers ‘through Uzbekistan, from the capital Tashkent all the way to western Khiva – whose 94 mosques and 63 madrasas make it a Unesco World Heritage Site’.
11. Hans Christian Andersen Museum opening – Odense, Denmark
The new Hans Christian Andersen Hus, pictured, invites visitors to ‘escape into the fairytale worlds’ of the Danish author
Time Out reports that the brand new Hans Christian Andersen Hus can be reached in just 90 minutes via train from Copenhagen. It is located in Odense, a ‘charming city’.
The museum’s guide is based upon the works of the famed Danish author. It says visitors can “escape into the fairytale universes of The Snow Queen,” The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid” as they roam through the museum.
‘Interactive and inventive biographical exhibits’ and ‘theatrical imaginings of Andersen’s memoirs’ feature among the displays.
12. Barcelona: An 11-day Primavera Sound festival
The 2022 Primavera Sound festival will take place across two weekends for the first time. The 2017 edition was attended by a large crowd.
Music fans are in luck: The Primavera Sound Festival will return to Barcelona next year and Time Out claims it will be “bigger than ever.”
Guide says the festival that ‘turns Barcelona into an enormous, beachside party’ will occur over two weekends.
It notes: ‘There will be additional concerts scheduled in between and an extra DJ event at the end, making it an 11-day sun-kissed celebration of music’s hottest names, including the Strokes, Dua Lipa, Jamie XX and more.’
13. ‘The Burnt City’ – London
A promotional picture for The Burnt City, which will take place across two former military arsenal buildings
The Burnt City, the UK’s top-ranked experience on this list is no surprise. The show runs from March 22 through August 28. It celebrates the “return to Punchdrunk theater” – British ‘immersive theatrical gods”.
Punchdrunk’s last London-based event was The Drowned Man, which took place eight years ago.
Time Out describes the company’s latest play as “Outdoing themselves in sheer scale and ambition, not one, but two, former military buildings and will be (sort of?) an adaptation of two Greek tragedies, set during the Trojan War.”
14. Color Factory visits Chicago – Chicago
Time Out reports that the Color Factory, an interactive museum that roves around Chicago, will be arriving in Chicago in 2022 with kaleidoscopic displays.
It will be Color Factory’s biggest-ever event, and it is located in the Willis Tower Skyscraper.
Time Out adds that you can expect a vibrant mix of Colour Factory’s classics as well as new rooms themed around Chicago.
15. Ghibliland: The Studio Ghibli park in Nagoya (Japan)
The world’s first Studio Ghibli theme park is set to open in 2022 near the Japanese city of Nagoya (pictured)
Next year will see the opening of the world’s first Studio Ghibli theme park, Time Out reveals.
Based on the Japanese animation studio’s work, the amusement park will be situated near Nagoya. It is approximately three hours train ride from Tokyo.
According to the guide, visitors can visit five locations with shops, exhibits, rides and gardens that are themed on hit anime such as My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke.
16. Phantom of the Opera at Sydney Harbour – Sydney
The Phantom of the Opera’s new production will be performed on the Sydney Harbour Open Water (pictured below) in the coming year.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lauded The Phantom of the Opera is being staged on the open water of Sydney Harbour next year.
Time Out has revealed that this brand-new production will be presented in March and will run for one whole month.
‘The bespoke reimagining is the brainchild of director Simon Phillips and set designer Gabriela Tylesova, two of Australia’s most respected theatre-makers,’ the travel experts add.
17. New Regiojet Sleeper Trains across Europe: Prague, Czech Republic to Brussels, Belgium
Regiojet Network will launch a new series of European sleeper trains next year. A Regiojet train from Strba in Slovakia, 2020
Next year a new batch of sleeper trains run by the Regiojet network will take travellers across Europe between Prague and Brussels via Dresden, Berlin and Amsterdam, expanding Europe’s night-train network.
Time Out says: ‘Doze off in magnificent Prague, then wake up 800 kilometres away in EU capital and waffle-and-beer-paradise Brussels.
‘Spurred on by the climate emergency, it’s part of a huge continent-wide drive to revive the good old-fashioned sleeper.’
18. Game of Thrones Studio Tour – Belfast (North Ireland)
One of the props featured on the Game of Thrones Studio Tour is Daenerys’ Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), the coat she wore in Game of Thrones.
Opening of the Game of Thrones Studio Tour is February 4. Linen Mill Studios in Belfast, near Belfast.
Time Out describes the experience, which is based on the hit HBO fantasy series, as ‘Westeros’s answer to London’s Harry Potter studio tour’.
It adds that the tour will feature props, costumes and sets, including the ‘entirety of Winterfell’s Great Hall’.
19. Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza (Egypt) – Opening
Time Out reports that the Grand Egypt Museum will open in 2022. It will be the largest museum dedicated to one civilisation in the world, according to Time Out.
Guide says the Giza Museum has views of the Great Pyramids and is only 40 minutes from Cairo.
It adds: ‘The museum’s rotating display will comprise 50,000 artefacts, with that number again in storage. Most importantly, this will be the first time that all 5,000 pieces of King Tutankhamun’s funerary treasure will be displayed in the same place – death mask included.’
20. Novi Sad: European Culture Capital 2022 – Novi Sad, Serbia
Novi Sad has a reputation for ‘gorgeous architecture and unique history’, according to Time Out. Pictured is the city’s Svetozar Miletic Square
Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, will ‘wear the crown’ of the European Capital of Culture next year.
Time Out reports that the city planned over 1,500 events to honor the title. This included an exhibit in an old pasta factory called The Mlin Cultural Station.
‘Many have been making the pilgrimage to Exit Festival for years, but 2022 will see Novi Sad’s gorgeous architecture and unique history put it on the map as a major destination-in-waiting,’ the guide notes.
21. Istanbul Modern – Istanbul, Turkey
The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, pictured, will host more ‘cutting-edge exhibitions’ in the future, according to Time Out
Time Out forecasts that the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art’s return, after its temporary closure has the potential to ‘enliven’ Karakoy’s waterfront.
According to the guide, “The expanded Istanbul Modern will be able to host more cutting edge exhibitions and contain a library and cinema as well as various event spaces.”
Galataport recently opened, which is a multipurpose building with a long pedestrian promenade that runs along the Bosphorus. There are also a number of restaurants and shops.
22. Porto, Portugal – Time Out Market Porto
Time Out Market plans to open another location in Portugal, Porto, by 2022.
This market will span 22,000 sq.ft. (2.044 sq.m.) and be located in Sao Bento’s historic, iconic train station. There, visitors will get the chance to wander through 15 restaurants, four bars, four shops, one café and an art gallery.
‘Time Out Market Porto will bring the city’s best chefs, restaurateurs and cultural experiences together under one roof,’ Time Out promises.
You can find the complete list here timeout.com/best-things-to-do-in-the-world.