CNN —
This year, the focus was on making up for lost time. After the pandemic, tourists flocked to Europe’s biggest cities and America’s national parks in a form of “revenge travel,” visiting or revisiting some of the destinations that were inaccessible during the pandemic.
But the world has changed a lot since the pandemic began: Many businesses have closed as people shifted to remote work, and not all tourist attractions have made it through this period unscathed.
Here’s a list of places you won’t be able to visit in 2024, whether they’re closed permanently or temporarily.
The Centre Pompidou, the Paris museum that still looks surprisingly modern on the inside as it does from the outside, is actually turning 60 years old. After the Summer Olympics in the French capital this summer, the Centre Pompidou will close for a 260 million euro ($282 million) modernization project.
The Virgin Mary of the Pipe will remain closed until 2030. Meanwhile, a sister museum at the Pompidou museum in Brussels is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2025.
Plan B: The biggest problem art lovers have in Paris is narrowing down their options. The Palais de Tokyo also has a great collection of contemporary art, while the Musée du Quai Branly, opened in 2006, houses art and artifacts from history from around the world.
Splash Mountain, Orlando, Florida and Anaheim, California
Splash Mountain, one of Disney’s most famous attractions, will close for the final time in 2023. The log slide was originally inspired by the film “Song of the South” and has long been criticized for what the NAACP once called a “dangerously glamorized depiction of slavery.”
Splash Mountain at Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida will reopen as “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure,” inspired by the film “The Princess and the Frog.”
Plan B: Asia’s reopening will be the ideal time for Disney aficionados to visit the company’s parks in Japan and China. Hong Kong Disneyland, the smallest park, unveiled its first-ever “World of Frozen” in fall 2023.
Thibaut Savary/AFP/Getty Images
Rene Redzepi’s restaurant Noma has been awarded three Michelin stars.
The world’s best restaurant has officially put down its crown.
Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that popularized New Nordic cuisine, is set to close for the last time in 2024. But it’s not going away completely.
Noma plans to reopen in 2025 as a “pioneering test kitchen dedicated to food innovation and new flavor development,” according to a statement on its website.
Plan B: The best restaurant in the world right now is Central in foodie hotspot Lima, but if you can’t get a seat there’s plenty of great places in the Peruvian capital that use local ingredients like quinoa, potatoes, herbs, fish and chillies.
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Lovers of The Phantom of the Opera are known as “fans.”
After 35 years and nearly 14,000 performances, the iconic musical The Phantom of the Opera will close its doors for the final time on the New York stage in 2023.
The show closed with honor as the longest-running musical in Broadway history, beating out other popular musicals such as Cats, Les Miserables and A Chorus Line.
Plan B: Though the Phantom may have vanished into the night, Broadway remains a fun place for theatergoers. But these days, it’s easier to grab tickets to Spamalot or Kimberly Akimbo on the TodayTix app than it is to wait in the famous TKTS lines. Once you’ve booked your seats, head over to Times Square early to check out the surprisingly cool places even the snobbiest New York locals frequent.
The Pergamon Museum, home to the world-famous Ishtar Gate, is part of Berlin’s UNESCO-listed Museum Island.
The museum will be closed until 2027 as part of an ambitious renovation project which will also create a new central pedestrian zone and expand the exhibition halls.
Plan B: Travelers who want to get a feel for the Pergamonmuseum can visit the nearby Das Panorama, which will display some of the museum’s exhibits during renovation. Other attractions on Museum Island, such as the New Museum (home to an extensive collection of Egyptian art and artifacts), will also remain open.
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Before and after look at Elephant’s Trunk Lock.
This popular photo spot in Taiwan actually resembled an elephant’s trunk, but it collapsed into the sea on December 15, 2023.
The site, on the island’s northeast coast, has long been at risk of erosion and has been closed to the public since 2010.
Plan B: Travelers looking to experience Taiwan’s beauty have plenty of options. The world’s first certified “silent road,” the Cuifeng Lake Circumference Trail, debuted last year, while the Southern Cross-Island Highway, which weaves through some of Taiwan’s most beautiful countryside, is another great option for those taking the road.
Opened in 1994, Park Hyatt is widely known as the first Western-style luxury hotel in the Japanese capital and has enjoyed a storied history.
However, the hotel will close in May 2024, just before its 30th anniversary, to undergo what Hyatt calls a “full-scale renovation.”
The rooftop New York Bar, familiar to movie fans from the movie “Lost in Translation,” will close early as renovations begin in January and it’s scheduled to reopen in 2025.
Plan B: Consider leaving Tokyo for some time to explore other parts of the country and some of the country’s top accommodations. Two notable rural getaways are the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Inn, also the world’s oldest hotel, and Treeful, a series of handcrafted treehouses deep in the forests of Okinawa.
Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
Notre Dame is scheduled to reopen to the public at the end of 2024.
When fire ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019, the world was horrified and donations flooded in to restore the beloved icon.
French President Emmanuel Macron initially supported a more modern rebuild of the famous church, but traditionalists won out and the 850-year-old landmark will be restored to its original form.
Notre Dame is scheduled to reopen in December 2024.
Plan B: When it comes to churches, France boasts an abundance of them. Outside the capital, highlights include Marseille’s imposing Notre-Dame de la Garde, the pink-hued Strasbourg Cathedral, or more contemporary designs like Le Corbusier’s Notre-Dame du Haut in the town of Ronchamp.
The original building bearing the Smithsonian name has been closed for some time for renovation.
The main building of the museum complex, also known as the Smithsonian Castle, is scheduled to close in February 2023 for “approximately five years” to complete restoration and renovation of the building, which opened in 1855. In the meantime, it will host digital tours, lectures, and other events.
Plan B: While the Castle is currently off-limits, two major museums in Washington DC, the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, are reopening after renovations.
After being a tourist destination for half a century, a billionaire buyer has put the former site of Leonardo da Vinci’s Italian vineyard into private ownership.
French billionaire Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, bought the Milan property in December 2022 and has not said when or if tourists will be able to visit again.
Plan B: While Da Vinci’s former home is not open to the public, many of his most famous works are: several paintings, including a self-portrait, are on display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, “The Last Supper” is in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, and “Vitruvian Man” is in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice.
Allen J. Schaven/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Stormtroopers walk through the crowds at Star Wars: Galactic Cruiser.
Despite a splashy announcement and a connection to one of the world’s most famous intellectual properties, Walt Disney World’s Star Wars-themed Galactic Cruiser will close in 2023.
The immersive experience was not only a full-service hotel, but also offered lightsaber training, encounters with droids and characters from the film, and drinks at Oga’s Cantina. Disney called the closure of Galactic Cruiser a “business decision.”
Plan B: Actual Star Wars filming locations make great holiday destinations: Hotel Sidi Driss in Tunisia was used as the Skywalker family home on Tatooine, while the black sand beach of Reynisfjara in Iceland was used as the planet of Yidu in Rogue One.
