Israel’s Galilee region ranks in fifth place on the Condé Nast Traveler list of 23 best places to go in 2023.

Editor Debra Kamin recommends the northern area for its “charming boutique hotels, vineyards and improved connectivity.”

“For decades, food and wine aficionados from Tel Aviv have been making the windy drive north to Israel’s Galilee region, where the landscape unfolds into lush green hills and valleys. For locals, this fertile corner filled with fruit farms, organic dairies, and family-run wineries, has long been revered as Israel’s own Tuscany,” she writes.

“And now, international tourists are discovering the region’s bounty as well: A flurry of new boutique hotels have opened over the past year.”

Among the outstanding places to stay that she cites are the Galei Kinneret hotel on the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, “reborn with a kitchen led by celebrity chef Assaf Granit,” and The Farmhouse, which opened in 2021 on the grounds of Bat Shlomo Vineyards northeast of Zichron Ya’akov.

At The Farmhouse, she writes, “Guests sleep among vineyards, and after Watsu pool therapy and jeep tours, are invited to pair local wines with artisanal cheeses and local produce.”

Click here for ISRAEL21c’s list of 14 best hotels on the Sea of Galilee.

Condé Nast Traveler’s 23 for 2023 list is topped by Auckland, New Zealand and British Columbia, Canada.