Why 2025's Hottest Travel Trend Is Simply Sitting Down With a Good Book

Ever stared longingly at that stack of unread books on your nightstand, wishing for just a few uninterrupted days to dive in? You're not alone. A fascinating new travel trend is emerging in 2025 that might be the perfect solution for book lovers everywhere: reading retreats.

Imagine yourself sipping wine on a veranda overlooking mountains or ocean, completely absorbed in a novel without a single interruption. No chores calling your name, no meetings to attend, just you and your books in a beautiful setting. These literary escapes are selling out within hours of being announced, particularly from companies like "Ladies who Lit" that have tapped into our collective desire for meaningful, quiet getaways.

The appeal goes beyond just finding time to read. These retreats create a unique social atmosphere where you're surrounded by fellow book lovers who respect your space while sharing your passion. Breakfast conversations might lead to unexpected book recommendations or discussions about favorite authors—socialization entirely on your terms. It's particularly ideal for solo travelers seeking both independence and connection. Since 2020, Americans have increased their spending on recreational books by nearly 23%, and reading retreats represent the logical evolution of this renewed literary interest. They offer not just an escape but a form of self-care that allows us to return home refreshed and inspired, often motivating participants to create their own reading nooks at home to continue the experience. Ready to book your literary getaway? Take our survey linked in the show notes to share what kind of retreat experience would speak to you!

SURVEY on RETREATS: click link below to respond

https://forms.gle/YuoYiQwfevccTkV78

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Reading Retreats
• 1:49 Benefits of Literary Getaways
• 3:25 Perfect for Solo Travelers
• 4:44 The Growing Reading Retreat Trend
• 6:37 Retreat Options and Listener Survey
• 8:52 Final Thoughts on Self-Renewal

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you love reading books? Do you crave time away to a distant retreat escape? Well, did you know you could combine these two ideas? In today's episode, I'm going to share how. Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures.

Speaker 1: 0:15

I'm Cheryl Esch, your travel coach and avid reader, so this whole idea of reading and a retreat combined really piqued my interest. So if you're an avid reader but never seem to find the time to read for long stretches, maybe you even have a stack of books waiting on your nightstand, like I do. Often I am reading two to three books at a time and just often get too busy sometimes to get to the end, or sometimes I got to go back because I have forgotten what I've read. But how would it feel to go to a beautiful place and just read to your heart's content? Well, I just discovered that there is a new travel trend out there and it is called reading retreats. Now, I've been on silent retreats, I've been on women's retreats, I've been on church retreats and I even organized my own birthday retreat when I turned 50. But I had never been on a reading retreat. Now this is a trend that is just happening this year, in 2025. Now, in episode 114, I also talk about 2025 travel trends, and I did mention they had talked about sort of these quiet retreats, almost like a digital detox retreat, where people just kind of go away and almost just do nothing, and so this kind of reminds me a little bit along those lines. As you know, in life everything gets very, very stressful and time away is important to us. It kind of gives us a new perspective, it renews us, it rejuvenates us. So a reading retreat might sound counterintuitive, but imagine yourself sipping wine, overlooking a beautiful scenic, maybe an ocean or the mountains or countryside, whatever you enjoy environmentally and then just reading at your heart's content, at your heart's content, uninterrupted, I might add.

Speaker 1: 2:29

I think when we're at home and we try to read, we get distracted and we get pulled in different directions because we have responsibilities while we're at home. So why a reading retreat when you could simply read at home and you could simply read at home? Well, I think it does. It pulls us out of that everyday responsibility. It's also a guilt-free reading time. It's an escape from the humdrum of our daily life, a release from responsibilities, at least for those few days that you're away. Responsibilities, at least for those few days that you're away, and I would consider it a form of self-care. It's also about being around others, so it's not antisocial if you think it might be. It puts you in an environment where you're surrounded by others that have the same joy of reading and they understand and respect your space. So it's socialization on your terms.

Speaker 1: 3:29

When you go to these reading retreats, you share that same love. You're there to escape, but also maybe to enjoy the scenery, and it's something you can maybe even strike up a conversation and discover you have some common interests with others over breakfast and you are just around like-minded people, which is so refreshing, and maybe you even find some books that you want to read because someone else suggested it during that time. These types of retreats really cater well to solo travelers. So if you're a reader and you need some time away, you need some self-care, you need some uninterrupted, but also want to go somewhere where it's beautiful and just away from maybe. You live in a city and so you're pulling yourself out of that environment and you're changing your perspective at the same time.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Well, since 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has noticed that Americans spent nearly 23% more on recreational books than prior to 2020. Well, I think we know what happened then and I believe many people rediscovered maybe this art of reading, this love of reading. At that moment we all had time to read. Yes, we couldn't go anywhere, we were stuck at home. But that trend has continued. They have found and more people are joining book clubs and you will see lots of those around, even popular actors, or even you know Oprah has always had her book club, but there's others that have started and even local book clubs have sprouted up everywhere and even online book clubs have sprouted up and they find that people that attend these reading retreats often go home and either start a book club or they create a little reading nook for themselves, almost like their little escape within their own home, where they kind of designated that place for some reading and just to get away and create almost like their internal or their home reading retreat area. Now it is booming.

Speaker 1: 5:59

There are tons of reading retreats. The one that is most popular is called Ladies who Lit and their retreats have been selling out within hours of posting an event. Now there are others out there as well and you can just Google. The UK has a big reading retreat sort of following. There's opportunities there. There's some within the US that I discovered.

Speaker 1: 6:24

So, depending on where you want to go and how far you want to travel, a reading retreat can be just what you need, and there are, of course, other types of retreats. As I mentioned, there's also wellness retreats, there's the silent retreats, which I also talked about, and many others. Uh, just maybe a women's active retreat as well, and I'd be curious to know is a retreat something that is something you're interested in? Would you want to go on a retreat and, if so, what type of retreat would you be willing to go on? I know I would love a reading retreat. I have a stack of books that I think I would like to tackle and get done. I do read about 50 books a year, though, but sometimes some months get really busy and I don't have that time that I really would love to just commit to read a book all the way through, right, maybe even in one sitting, but that's not possible with everyday life.

Speaker 1: 7:29

But retreats in general offer you that sort of escape from your daily life and it could really offer. No matter what type of retreat you choose, it definitely provides sort of that restoration, that renewal, that re-energizing that happens when we get away for that kind of thing where we do some self-care. We spend that time as we need to kind of refill our cups there so that we can move, go on and serve others when we come back home. Otherwise, we are coming from an empty and depleted cup, and retreats offer a way to refill that in us us women especially. So I'm curious to know what kind of retreat you would want to go on if you had the opportunity.

Speaker 1: 8:24

I'm going to include a link in the show notes. It's a Google link. Just a survey I'd like to take if you're interested in sharing. What type of retreat would you go on? And there's a couple other questions like when would you want to go when? Just to get an idea of what are people wanting out there. What are you, as my listeners would want in a retreat? I would love to offer one. So I'm just taking a survey to see where, what's the interest out there and sister travelers, and I hope that you find your place, whether it's a home retreat or you actually do take some time to get away and refresh yourself.