As Mick Jagger famously sang, you can’t always get what you want. That applies to travel too — no matter how meticulously planned a trip, you can’t avoid bad weather, natural disasters, worker strikes and other external factors.

Sure, there are plenty of lists recommending places you should visit — including on CNN Travel — but here’s a roundup of the museums, spiritual sites and theme park rides that will be off limits in 2026 and maybe even forever.

Museum of Collecting and Design

Founded in Las Vegas, the museum was an ode to Jessica Oreck’s love of all things tiny. Travelers could come in and admire the collection or make a flatlay of itsy-bitsy erasers or one-inch figurines.

After the strip mall that housed it was designated for demolition, Oreck took the show on the road, driving the collection around the United States. The physical museum is no more, and it’s unclear if it will find another permanent home.

Plan B: Omega Mart

Las Vegas likes to celebrate quirkiness. OmegaMart is an art experience disguised as a supermarket. It’s run by Meow Wolf, the collective backed by author George R.R. Martin.

Centre Pompidou

Paris’ Centre Pompidou, which opened in the 1970s with a revolutionary inside-as-outside design, is taking a break to renovate its spaces, improve accessibility and remove asbestos. The museum will reopen in 2030.

Plan B: KANAL

Good news, art lovers: the long-planned Pompidou outpost in Brussels will open its doors in November 2026. KANAL, located in a former car factory, will follow in the footsteps of the Centre Pompidou by focusing on modern and contemporary art and architecture.

Gounsa Temple

The Gounsa Temple burned down in March 2025.

The 1,300-year-old Gounsa Temple in South Korea’s Uiseong County, a major Buddhist landmark, was burned to the ground by a wildfire that swept through the area in March 2025. The temple, along with three others nearby, is undergoing restoration, but there’s currently no firm timeline in place for reopening.

Plan B: Bongjeongsa Temple

This 1,300-year-old site is home to Geungnakjeon, the oldest wooden building in the country, and was visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. The Bongjeongsa complex is located about 22 miles from Gounsa Temple, in the city of Andong. Don’t miss the finely detailed, well-preserved Buddhist murals in the original building.

One of Paris’ most popular attractions is closing for 5 years. It’s about to be ‘reinvented’

Bayeux Tapestry

The "Bayeux tapestry" is one of the best-preserved forms of visual history.

The 11th-century series of cloths depicting the English Conquest is one of the world’s oldest and best-preserved forms of visual history. As such, it deserves a good home.

Bayeux, the town in northern France that gave the tapestry its name, is in the midst of an ambitious project to update and expand the museum that houses it. The museum shut in August 2025 and aims to reopen in 2027, the centennial of William the Conqueror’s birth.

Plan B: Bonnat-Helleu Museum

Arts and culture lovers who want to expand their horizons beyond Paris can plan a visit to Bayonne, in the French Basque Country. There, the Bonnat-Helleu Museum, nicknamed the “Little Louvre” for its deep bench of Old Masters paintings, has reopened after a 15-year closure with a café, gift shop and twice as much exhibition space.

But if it’s the Bayeux or nothing for you, good news: it’ll be on display at the British Museum next fall in a landmark exchange.

Rivers of America at Walt Disney World

Disney is always changing and updating its parks. The latest area due for transition is Rivers of America, which includes Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat.

Fans said goodbye to the area in August. It will be turned into a themed land based on the “Cars” franchise that Disney has said is “part of the largest expansion in the history of Magic Kingdom.”

Plan B: Rivers of America, west

Fans of Tom and Huck — the Mark Twain characters who inspired the attraction — can still visit Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland and at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan.

This pioneering downtown New York City bookstore just couldn’t survive gentrification. The feminist, worker-owned shop, which opened its doors in 1999, announced the closure of the business in September.

“The care we’re taking to sunset this space, as best we know how, is because of your support over these 26+ years,” the cooperative’s owners wrote in a farewell message.

Plan B: Big Apple bookstores

New York has had a spate of independent bookstore openings in the last few years. Other spots worth checking out are Yu & Me, which focuses on writers of Asian heritage; the Ripped Bodice, a celebration of all things romance; and The Lit Bar, the only bookshop in the borough of the Bronx.

Paris Catacombs

Skulls adorn the walls of the Paris Catacombs.

One of Paris’ most spooky attractions, the bones of millions of former Parisians are on view in this nearly one-mile-long tunnel. A former limestone mine, it sits underneath the fashionable Montparnasse neighbourhood. The catacombs are under repair and due to open sometime in 2026, but as it’s such a beloved attraction and the reopening date isn’t firm, we’ve included it here just to be safe.

Plan B: Sedlec Ossuary

Osteophiles can get their fix of all things skeletal at the Czech Republic’s Sedlec Ossuary, often referred to as the bone church. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s located in the town of Kutna Hora about 46 miles outside of Prague. If your itinerary keeps you in Paris, consider visiting some of the above-ground memorials to the dead, like nearby Montparnasse Cemetery.

The Met Museum rooftop

The Met roof has hosted cocktail parties and is a great place to watch the sunset.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art isn’t closing — but its rooftop is. The roof, which has long been a spot for site-specific works, is one of the areas the museum is upgrading and expanding over the next five years.

When it reopens in 2030, it will increase from 7,500 to 10,000 square feet — all the better for those group photos.

Plan B: Socrates Sculpture Park

Across the East River, the neighbourhood of Long Island City, Queens, is one of New York’s most underrated art scenes. Visit Socrates Sculpture Park, which regularly rotates daring and fun outdoor artwork, plus performances and installations. The view of the Manhattan skyline isn’t too bad either.

CAM

CAM was located in downtown Raleigh and opened in 2011.

Raleigh, North Carolina’s contemporary art museum announced an indefinite pause this summer. In an announcement, the museum said it was “taking a collective breath — not to step back, but to look forward. We’re exploring bold new ways to engage our audiences, fund our mission, and serve our community with greater impact.”

Plan B: North Carolina Museum of Art

Just a few miles away, the North Carolina Museum of Art is a stalwart in the Tarheel state. In addition to its indoor museum, NCMA is home to 4.7 miles of trails with outdoor sculptures, installations and an Instagram-beloved sunflower garden. (CNN)

• An AI-assisted light show was one of the goodbye celebrations for Paris' Centre Pompidou as it closed ahead of a five-year renovation.

Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images

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