Want to take a sneak peek at travel in 2025?
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Let’s take a look behind the curtain with the newly released ‘Unpack ’25: The Trends in Travel from Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo’.
The annual report digs through a minefield of data collected throughout the year, which is used to lay out next year’s biggest travel trends.
Building on a well-rounded combination of data from major flight, hotel, and rental platforms, the report predicts things like JOMO (aka the ‘joy of missing out’), one-click trips, and detour destinations will take off.
I’m particularly intrigued by the latter. Detour trips take travelers off the well-trodden path and into new territory. Cheaper territory. Cooler territory.
According to the report, 63% of consumers say they’re likely to head to a detour destination next year. Here’s what you need to know about detour trips in 2025.
What are detour trips and detour destinations?
A detour destination is near a major tourist hotspot—but far enough away that visitors won’t run into crowds and pay exorbitant hospitality prices.
Detour destinations are also known as detour trips. Detour trips let travelers plan a day trip to the big city without spending all their time, energy, and money there. Plus, it lets travelers seek out lesser-known experiences, from delicious eats to off-the-beaten-track landmarks.
Why are they appealing?
Detour destinations and trips are appealing because travelers (like me) are fed up with overcrowded cities and pricey hotels and tours that offer a low-value experience.
In other words, as overtourism becomes a more endemic problem in popular destinations around the world, many travelers are looking to avoid them altogether. Detour trips let them pop in and out at their leisure, as mentioned above.
That being said, detour trips usually include at least one foray into a popular destination. For example, Girona is a popular detour destination for Americans who want to visit Barcelona—but don’t want to spend their whole trip in the Catalan capital.
That’s the key here. Detour trips give travelers the best of both worlds, and they’re usually accessible by a short journey by train, plane, or car.
Expedia predicts these 10 detour destinations will be huge in 2025
Want to skip out on the massive crowds and hefty price tags at some of the world’s hottest tourist destinations? Keep these options on your radar for next year.
- Girona instead of Barcelona
- Reims instead of Paris
- Brescia instead of Milan
- Cozumel instead of Cancun
- Waikato instead of Auckland
- Santa Barbara instead of Los Angeles
- Fukuoka instead of Tokyo
- Abu Dhabi instead of Dubai
- Krabi instead of Phuket
- Canmore instead of Calgary
