Israel

Israel packs an almost absurd amount of history, innovation, and intensity into a country roughly the size of New Jersey. This is where three of the world's major religions trace their roots, where the Dead Sea sits at the lowest point on Earth, and where a startup ecosystem rivals Silicon Valley on a per-capita basis. More than 4,000 years of history live alongside cutting-edge technology in a country where ancient Jerusalem and ultramodern Tel Aviv are just an hour apart.

The contrasts are staggering. Tel Aviv is a secular, Mediterranean party city with world-class restaurants, Bauhaus architecture, and a tech scene that produces more startups per capita than almost anywhere on Earth. Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in continuous existence, is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam simultaneously. The Negev Desert blooms with agricultural innovation. The Dead Sea lets you float without trying. And the food - a dizzying fusion of Middle Eastern, North African, and European traditions - is having a global moment. Israel is a place where nothing is simple, everything is debated, and the energy never stops.