Whitehorse has placed number 48 on The New York Times’ annual list of 50 places worth travelling to.

“This year, our list offers inspiration around sustainable travel, international and cultural events, nature and art,” the newspaper said this week.

The Yukon capital’s placing “highlights the city’s warm welcome from the wilds in flourishing small businesses and clear skies for northern lights viewers,” the paper added.

“In the current 11-year solar cycle, magnetic activity in space will peak between January and October, expected to prompt more frequent and active northern lights,” pens travel writer Elaine Glusac, who visited Whitehorse for two days in October 2023.

“In the clear skies around Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory in northwest Canada, aurora-viewing tours have become a draw, taking place via canoe, snowshoe and fat-tire bike.

“Surrounded by mountains and boreal forests, Whitehorse offers a warm welcome from the wilds in flourishing small businesses, including Yukon Brewing, offering ‘beer worth freezin’ for,’ Gather Café & Taphouse, which shares space with a glassblowing studio, and Woodcutter’s Blanket, serving craft cocktails and microbrews in a 1930s log cabin,” Glusac adds.

“Nature is never far from the city, where you can stay in a cabin built to blend into the landscape at Black Spruce resort, or soak under starry skies at Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs.”

The Path of Totality in the U.S. tops the Times’ list, with Paris number 2.

Choquequirao, Peru is number 49, while Dresden, Germany is number 50.