PRIMAL GREAT PLACES : THE WORLD

 

International Space Station : Out Of This World.

The most rarefied bed and breakfast ever built is located not very far from you - just 250 miles away.

The trick is, It's 250 miles straight up. The not-so-little inn, is the International Space Station, which over the course of its 24-year life has hosted a handful of tourists paying upward of $20 million per seat to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On April 8, 2022, the U.S. got in on the game as Houston-based Axiom Space launched its first crew of three paying tourists and a mission commander [ an Axiom employee ] for a 15-day ISS stay.

The three tourists paid $55 million each for their fortnight - plus in space. Axioms plans more such space tourists flights in the future. The price is steep, but for the deep-pocketed adventurers, the incomparable view, not to mention the thrill of weightlessness, makes it worth it. [Jeffrey Kluger]

Copenhagen : Riding Into The Future

Having hosted the start of this year's Tour de France, Copenhagen further expanded its cycling-capital bona fides : the Danish Ministry of Transportation dubbed 2022 the Year of the Bicycle, investing $64 million in additional bike lanes around the country this year alone.

Copenhagen is also on track to achieve the goal of 50% of all work and school commutes on bicycles by 2025.

Travelers can take a biking break at Ark for a gourmet plant-based dining experience, or its new sister vegan restaurant, Souls. Then cycle over to the newly renovated  Design Museum Denmark, where a ''Matters - rethinking materials'' exhibit will showcase five cuttingedge Nordic designers in the Museum Plaza this fall.

Plenty of impressive hotels can serve as home base. Now that international tourists have finally returned to Denmark, they can be among the first non-Danes to stay at the gorgeous Villa Copenhagen, housed in the historic Central Post & Telegraph head office.

The rooftop bar at the new Scandic Spectrum, also opened this year and is the Nordic hotel chain's  largest property in northern Europe.

And the new five-star NH Hotel Copenhagen opened late last year in a former shipyard headquarters, with views of the harbor. [ Vanessa Wilkins ]