Travel trends have rapidly evolved over the past five years, from armchair travel to road trips and the rise of revenge travel. People have explored destinations in large groups and solo, venturing to both remote corners of the world and bustling cities.
According to cntraveler.com, everyone has been obsessed with wellness. To help us get a handle on the new reasons and ways to travel in 2025, we tapped our extensive network of specialists. From the rise of nocturnal travel to the meaning of “JOMO,” here’s what they think you should know.
Hotels are hitting the high seas
In the coming years expect more resort brands to take their five-star service out on the water. “This is perfect for luxury travelers who might be cruise curious,” says Craig Mungary of Elite Global Journeys.
The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection launched the trend in 2022 with the 149-suite Evrima; this year the company will add its third luxury ship, Luminara. Next year Four Seasons will unveil a 95-suite ship in the Caribbean; Orient Express’s 54-cabin Corinthian will sail the Adriatic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean; and Aman will introduce a 50-suite vessel in 2027.
READ: Tourism: Emerging Destinations Reshape Africa’s Tourism and Travel Landscape
Multi-gen travel isn’t just about getting together—now it’s also about splitting up
Large family reunions with attendees ranging in ages from one to 100 have become hugely popular in recent years, despite all the jigsaw-puzzle logistics that come with them.
Now there’s a shift back to more intimate journeys, says Catherine Heald of Remote Lands: “When fewer people are involved, these types of trips are easier to coordinate and can focus on interests in common, whether it’s hiking or scuba diving or artistic pursuits.” Suddenly it’s okay if not everyone does the same thing: A water-loving mother and son might go surfing in Oahu for spring break, while a foodie dad-and-daughter duo heads to Rome to learn to make pasta over summer vacation. Siobhan Byrne of Adams & Butler is seeing the comeback of skip-gen travel too.
“I’ve done trips for grandparents who take their grandchildren traveling to give the parents a break and bond with the kids at the same time,” she says. “We designed an Irish heritage trip, connecting with family roots in Dublin, for a nine-year-old and her grandmother. They absolutely loved it.”
Safaris are offering more
Though traditional look-and-linger game drives remain the bread and butter of safari, Deborah Calmeyer of Roar Africa says travelers want to add more ways to engage with the land: “We’re organizing activities for clients like horseback riding across the Okavango Delta in Botswana, seeing the Sossusvlei salt pan in Namibia from a hot-air balloon, and going on exploratory heli-flights to secluded and otherwise unreachable places, like the Aberdare Range or Lake Turkana in Kenya.”
Wine travel is traversing less familiar terroir
“Travelers are going to under-visited wine regions, like Tasmania in Australia and Valle de Guadalupe in Mexico. These places don’t export many bottles, so we have all the more reason to travel and try them,” says Gail Sherman from Wine Lovers Travel
Why choose? Rail-and-sail trips are taking off
Each month seems to bring another train or ship launch in one of the world’s most exciting places. AndBeyond is now in the Pacific with Galápagos Explorer; this spring La Dolce Vita Orient Express will start rolling through Italy. Increasingly, travelers are looking to combine these experiences. Jimmy Carroll of Pelorus has been designing itineraries that pair ultra-luxury train journeys with island-hopping adventures on liveaboards: “Travelers want to visit multiple destinations on once-in-a-lifetime trips that immerse them in several locations and change their perspective.” Call a travel specialist to manage the logistics on your behalf. Tisha Neufville of Neufville Travel says, “One client had a two-week cruise through Asia, and called me to tack on a solo trip on Belmond’s Eastern & Oriental Express. I also helped her with all the hotels, tours, and flights before, between, and after both the cruise and train.” These multivessel round-the-world trips feel like another example of our eternal nostalgia for the romantic, swashbuckling spirit of travel’s golden age. Perhaps that golden age is back again.
The dawn of nocturnal tourism
“Going out at night means cooler temps and fewer crowds,” says Matt Shock of Scott Dunn. It also offers unique ways to see a destination: In Zambia after-dark safaris let you spy pangolins, while twilight dives on the Great Barrier Reef reveal fish that hide within coral during daytime. Recently Shock’s team of local guides arranged visits to evening prayers at a Bhutanese monastery and tours of the lights in Hanoi on a motor scooter for blissfully crowd-free experiences.
“Cowboy-core” is all the rage
“Domestically, my clients want to visit working ranches, try cattle drives, and go on pack trips throughout the Western United States. They’re looking for simplicity and a sense of self-reliance,” says Sam Highley of All Roads North.
New infrastructure is making remote parts of the world more accessible
Hospitality openings and aviation firsts are rendering far corners of the world easier to visit—perfect for intrepid but crowd-weary travelers ready to explore farther afield. The countries bordering Thailand are catching up to their popular neighbor: Posh hotels like the Shangri-La Phnom Penh are opening in the Cambodian capital, while in Laos, luxury river cruises are sailing the less explored upper Mekong. New direct flights on United Airlines to the just-opened Nuuk International Airport in Greenland are ideal for those who’ve done Iceland. Stylish safari stays, like the rebuilt Gorilla Forest Lodge, an A&K Sanctuary, and Wildplaces Africa’s new River Station, are making Uganda more accessible and comfortable. “Among travelers right now there’s an openness to places where they or their friends haven’t been before,” says Sanjay Saxena of Nomadic Expeditions, who takes clients to lesser visited Indian states including Assam for wildlife and Arunachal Pradesh for mountain vistas. “We work with not just hard-core adventurers but also the soft adventurer.”
Grown-up gap years
More and more travel advisers are arranging weeks- or months-long sabbaticals for clients making career transitions or celebrating milestone birthdays, with or without families in tow. Many center on passion projects (manga drawing classes in Japan) or taking meditative journeys (starlit camping trips in Yellowstone). “It’s cranial decluttering,” says George Morgan-Grenville of Red Savannah, who took his own sabbatical trip through Southeast Asia. “I feel more positive and energized than I have for at least 20 years.”
It’s time to make travel fun again
So much travel recently has focused on self-improvement—optimizing your sleep cycle at a European medi-spa, participating in citizen science projects on an expedition ship to Antarctica—but what about simply kicking back and having a good time? Sometimes you just need to flop on a beach and drink a margarita at 10 a.m. “We’re seeing a trend where clients, particularly couples, are requesting more self-contained resorts and cruises, so there’s less pressure to make too many dinner reservations or activity plans,” says Kara Bebell of the Travel Siblings. “It used to be that honeymooners had the need to plan every minute of their trip, cramming it with archaeological digs and trekking for gorillas. But they were forgetting to just relax or be spontaneous.” All-inclusive hotels like The Brando in French Polynesia and Bawah Reserve in Indonesia are becoming more popular with clients who want to combine easygoing vibes with a sense of adventure, Bebell says, but classic trips to indulgent Las Vegas, for example, still hold timeless appeal, especially when savvy travel specialists can score VIP meet-and-greets with pop stars on the Strip or backstage passes at the Sphere. See you at the slot machines.
Entertainment travel is exploding
Following Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour, cities worldwide are prepping to welcome fans of acts like Oasis, Olivia Rodrigo, and Blackpink. The third season of The White Lotus is already sending set-jetters to Koh Samui; the Thailand Tourism Authority expects foreign arrivals to grow by 20%. John Clifford of International Travel Management says the trend is more far-reaching than you might expect: “I’ve seen moms and grandmas lead the charge, even entire multi-gen families who travel for the love of a pop star or a TV show.”
Wellness travel is keeping it young—as in, involving more kids
“Wellness destinations are welcoming more families. At Palace Merano in Italy, I saw kids watching their parents take care of themselves, whether through diet or fitness, and learning healthy habits just by being there,” shares Nina Patel of Vacations That Matter.
Guides are getting political—in a helpful way
“To give visitors a deeper understanding of a place, younger tour leaders are now more open about the political issues their communities are facing, like why, for example, Catalonia wants to secede from Spain,” says Judith Wolf of Frosch.
Letting their emotions lead the way, travelers are chasing “JOMO”
That’s the joy of missing out, a vibe that both travelers and advisers are embracing in the hyper-connected age of social media, when endless recommendations and checklists for “must-sees” can overwhelm even the savviest globe-trotters. “It’s the antidote to overscheduled, overprogrammed itineraries,” says Luis Vargas of Modern Adventure. “It’s about leaning into what feels good, not what looks good on Instagram.” The pull toward emotion-driven journeys is exactly what inspired Tom Marchant of Black Tomato to launch the company’s latest feelings-themed itineraries: To Feel Freedom consists of six languid days among the vast landscapes and the open skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert; To Feel Contentment is 14 days of serenity on the Greek islands. If the more familiar “slow travel” is about the pace of seeing a place, then JOMO travel is more like “soft travel.” It’s about doing less, feeling more, and being freer than ever to sink into experiences, whatever they may be. As Marchant says, “It’s all about prioritizing presence and finding beauty in stillness.”
Sea-faris are all the rage
“More people are extending their safaris into the ocean. We had a family explore the Kenyan coast by private yacht with a marine biologist who taught them about conservation while they went diving and fishing,” says Justin Huxter of Cartology Travel.
