2026’s Most Surprising Travel Hotspots (and None Are Where You Think)

If you’d asked astir travellers a fewer years agone wherever they dreamed of going next, nan answers would person sounded familiar: Paris, Bali, Tokyo, Rome – nan accustomed postcard cities, nan ones pinch nan fridge magnets and Instagram queues.

But thing has started to change. Slowly astatine first, and now each astatine once.

According to Expedia Group’s recently released Unpack ’26 report, travellers are progressively searching for holidays that consciousness much personal. Less crowded. Less astir rushing to ‘see everything’. More astir simply being location – properly.

And nan destinations gaining attraction bespeak precisely that shift.

Instead of nan accustomed capitals and bucket-list giants, nan places rising fastest are nan ones galore of america mightiness person struggled to pinpoint connected a representation a fewer years ago: skiing valleys successful Montana, windswept coasts successful Canada, ancient farming landscapes successful France, and nan quiet rolling countryside of nan Cotswolds  successful nan UK.

It’s arsenic if group are looking for nan world again – but without nan crowds.

Where travellers are looking – And Why It Feels Different

Search liking for Big Sky, a mini upland destination successful nan U.S., is up by a singular 92 per cent. Not because it’s flashy, aliases because it’s nan latest Instagram inclination – but precisely because it isn’t. Okinawa, successful Japan, has seen a 71 per cent rise, drafting travellers who want culture, sea, and abstraction alternatively than souvenir-shop overload.

Meanwhile, Savoie, tucked softly into nan French Alps, is gaining momentum for its valleys, food farms, and stepping trails – nan benignant of spot wherever nan large arena of nan time mightiness beryllium a picnic beside a glacier reservoir alternatively than elbowing done a depository corridor.

Then there’s Ucluelet, a sportfishing municipality connected Canada’s rugged Pacific coastline. Search liking is up by 44 per cent, not because of agleam advertisements aliases bargain flights, but because travellers look to crave places that consciousness live and unpolished – wherever weather, waves, and forests group nan pace.

Even nan Cotswolds are seeing renewed attraction from world visitors. The attraction isn’t new; nan villages person ever been there, honey-coloured and impossibly charming. But thing astir nan infinitesimal we’re surviving successful is making “slow countryside days” consciousness for illustration nan eventual luxury.

Travel pinch a Conscience (But Not successful a Preachy Way)

One of nan astir absorbing things astir this year’s study is simply a caller measurement called nan Smart Travel Health Check, developed pinch nan World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). It’s fundamentally a measurement of recognising destinations that tin invited visitors without losing themselves successful nan process – places shaping tourism that supports section communities alternatively of pushing them out.

Six of nan rising destinations earned this recognition, including nan Cotswolds, Okinawa, Ucluelet and Savoie.

But what feels astir telling is nan reside of nan moment: travellers aren’t conscionable going location because it’s trendy. They’re choosing places that consciousness for illustration they person room – physically and emotionally.

More room to breathe.
More room to think.
More room to… conscionable be.

And that displacement seems to beryllium happening everywhere.

Holidays With Stories, Not Checklists

Expedia’s study besides highlights immoderate emerging habits that overgarment a image of really recreation is evolving.

People are seeking retired converted places – aged schools turned into inns, family barns turned into guesthouses, disused lighthouses lit backmost to life. They’re called ‘salvaged stays’, but really, they’re holidays pinch memories built in.

There’s besides a emergence successful book-inspired recreation – mini groups taking trips based connected what they’ve been reference together, whether that’s Greek islands aft a mythology caller aliases Scottish highlands acknowledgment to a humanities romance. It’s little tourism and much shared imagination brought to life.

And past location are nan workplace stays, not glossy vineyard hotels but existent moving fields, wherever mornings commencement pinch milking buckets clinking and afternoons extremity pinch breadstuff still lukewarm from nan kitchen. These aren’t ‘luxury escapes’ – yet travellers picture them arsenic restorative successful a measurement spa resorts sometimes can’t touch.

The thread connecting each these trends is simple:

People don’t conscionable want to go somewhere.
They want to consciousness thing while they’re there.

So What Does This Mean For Travel successful 2026?

If nan past decade of recreation was astir collecting places, nan adjacent 1 seems to beryllium astir collecting moments.

The position wherever you extremity talking.
The alien who becomes a friend complete coffee.
The soundlessness of a wood way conscionable earlier snowfall begins.

As holidays go much costly and much precious, travellers look to beryllium choosing not nan biggest acquisition – but nan deepest.

And maybe, conscionable maybe, that’s a bully motion for everyone.