Travel Trends For 2026

Prices are climbing, timelines are tight, and yet the urge to wander hasn’t gone anywhere. We’re leaning into a smarter kind of escape—one built around intention, calm, and real connection. In this conversation, we map the standout travel shifts taking shape for 2026 and show how to turn them into rewarding, realistic plans you can actually look forward to.

We start with wellness redefined: digital detox retreats, silent stays, and remote escapes that restore attention instead of draining it. From there, we dig into why-cations—the practice of choosing destinations and days around a personal purpose. Mountain getaways enter the spotlight, offering quiet trails, fresh air, and cozy cabins in every season. If crowds drain you, we explain how off-peak adventuring unlocks value and authenticity in places like winter Denmark, autumn Japan, and summertime safaris without the chaos.

For travelers craving depth, slow travel is the move: longer stays of three to four weeks that swap checklists for rhythm. Soon-to-be retirees use this model to test-drive future homes, while curious travelers use it to sink into daily life. We also spotlight the revival of rail, from South Africa’s Blue Train to the Orient Express and India’s Deccan Odyssey—rolling hotels that remove friction and add romance. Solo travel keeps rising, especially among women who “bookend” group or work trips with a few independent days to build confidence and savor me-time. And for families, generational travel is having a moment, bringing grandparents, adult children, and kids together to make new memories in nostalgic places.

You’ll leave with practical ways to align your budget with your why, choose the right season for the experience you want, and experiment with solo days or luxury rail without overcomplicating logistics. If these ideas spark your next plan, follow along, share this with a friend who needs a travel nudge, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. Your next great trip starts with a clear purpose—where will yours take you?

Want to do a Wellness Cruise? Come sail away on Amawaterways Europeon River Cruise on the Danube River in August 2026

email me for details and to place your $400 deposit hello@cherylbeckesch.com

Sign up for the FREE Virtual Travel Summit:

https://thetravelcoachnetwork.mykajabi.com/travel-coach-virtual-summit-2025

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For 2026
• 1:52 Wellness And Why-Cations
• 3:42 Mountain Getaways Rise
• 4:51 Slow Travel And Long Stays
• 6:20 Off-Peak Adventuring Explained
• 7:16 The Revival Of Luxury Rail
• 8:30 Solo Travel And Bookending
• 9:35 Generational Travel And Nostalgia
• 11:20 Resources, Summit, And River Cruise

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Well, can you believe it's already November? The year is almost over. And I've just been reflecting on all my travels this year and what's to come for next year already. And a lot of people have already started planning their trips, but maybe you haven't. And so I wanted to share today a little bit of what they're seeing through some research, through whether it's a travel blog or travel organization or even hotels and travel industry are predicting certain trends. And I was looking at what last years were, and they have changed this year. They're predicting a couple different things for 2026. As we look at, you know, one thing for sure is although 28% they say of leisure travelers will take fewer trips in 2026 due to rising cost, or many may just be trimming back on how much they spend on travel, or just being more selective. And even though the overall budgets are shrinking for travel, people are still wanting to travel. So don't be discouraged. You listen to that stat, and I know I'm not worried. I will definitely be traveling actually more in 2026 than I did in 2025. Are you one of those people that plans to travel more or less this coming year? Well, let me share with you some of these travel trends that are happening, that there is seeing more people uh gravitating toward this type or style of travel. So not necessarily specific destinations, and I may share some of that a little later in the year, but I wanted to share what's pulling people to travel a certain way. So I think the one thing that is still sort of carrying over from this year, and I'm gonna kind of give it a broader uh title, is that um wellness and purpose, but I'm saying wellness beyond the spa type wellness, not that kind of wellness, but maybe just well-being type of travel um experiences like a digital detox. We're hearing a lot of people wanting, uh even Hilton said they people are gravitating towards this silence, and that was actually one of the trends this past year, these silent travel or silent retreats. Um, again, places where they could break from distractions, maybe even a multi-day nature hike or somewhere very remote that they could just unplug. And so I like to just say that's kind of more the unplugging type of travel that is beneficial to your well-being. And along with that, um, Hilton's 2026 trends report notices a shift to the focus along with that wellness, that it is being more intentional in your travel. So having a why to your travels, they call them why cations. So I like that. I, of course, I encourage that because as a travel coach, I do want your travels to be intentional. I want you to have a why behind them. And so if you're feeling a little burned out, you're so much distraction is happening and your mind just won't settle. Maybe you can consider sort of this uh wellness purposeful type of travel where you do maybe a digital detox, maybe you're in a remote location. Number two, uh speaking of remote locations, they have found that 80% of travelers are considering doing a mountain getaway in 2026. So, again, this is driven by sort of that quiet and peacefulness that people are looking for. There's a remoteness to it, there is this clean air, there's no noise, likely the, you know, so noise pollution is gone. And just the whole idea of a mountain getaway, it's kind of cozy feeling for me, like a log cabin feel. Maybe you build a fire, and I just picture, you know, snow. It doesn't have to be snow, you could go in the summertime. But I don't know about you, but that just kind of feels good. It's just comforting, and it also kind of reminds me of a Hallmark movie, maybe. And I love Hallmark movies. So mountain getaways are on the rise, and I think that's fulfilling a little more of that again, that wanting to be um unplugged kind of feel, or just that coziness. I love that idea. Um, number three, we're seeing slower travels. So, what does that mean? Slow travels, not necessarily nomads, that is a whole other category, but slower travels meaning uh they are staying for three to four weeks, longer stays in one place. Now they're finding that this is common among these soon-to-be retirees, and they're taking little micro doses of these sort of retirement trips, but also some of them are doing this as well to kind of investigate where they may want to actually retire. So they're spending a little extra time, weeks at a time, at these places, and it's slower travel, so they can get a feel for that place, really uh step into the culture. So, in general, they're seeing more of that. The other thing they're seeing is uh is off-peak adventuring. So I'm a big advocate of um, I usually try to travel during the shoulder season. So let me explain. We have high season, of course, and in most cases that's gonna be summertime, uh, where it's or high season is when it's popular to go to that place. Then you have what's called shoulder season, which is right before or right after the high season. There's a little bit less crowds, the weather maybe is still you know, temperate weather, and it's a little less expensive than high season. But what they're saying is they're seeing a lot more people traveling in what they call off-peak. So this would be like, for example, maybe going to Denmark or Finland in the wintertime or autumn in Japan. A lot of people like to go to Japan in the spring for the cherry blossoms and or in the summer, right? Or off-peak for a safari would actually be in the summertime. So people are doing that. A, it's less crowded, as you know, and it's less expensive. So off-peak adventuring, that sounds exciting. Um, so number five is actually rail travel has is being revived. And I'm talking, uh, I just I have to say this, although Amtrak has sort of um up the ante, so to speak, in you know, updating some of their trains and the services that they provide during some of their services. It's honestly, I've done an Amtrak, you know, several day trip. Love the idea of train travel, I really do. But unfortunately, American train travel really um cannot even put a finger and just even come close to what you might find in other countries, for particularly Europe, right? But we're looking also at more luxury uh rail travel, is what I'm seeing a lot. So, you know, the blue train is pretty popular. These are all luxury type of trips, they would be several days and beautiful accommodations inside the train and food. So the blue train goes, um, it's in South Africa and it goes from Pretoria to Cape Town. Um, there's also, of course, the Orient Express, um, also very decadent type of train. Um, there's the Deccan Odyssey in India. So these are all very um expensive, but truly worth it. You don't have to really lift a finger except book your train ride, and maybe if you need to book your flight to get there. So, rail train, I like it because it's uh no nonsense kind of uh planning in that aspect. And then um we're seeing, of course, this is not new, this has been going on for a while, and it's maintained popularity is more solo travel. And of course, it's mostly us women that are doing these solo travels, but they're seeing uh women who maybe aren't uh necessarily, you know, do solo travel a lot, um, expanding trips they already have planned, maybe with other people. So they're bookending their trips with some solo days, so whether it's before or after, or they're bookending, maybe they have a work trip, so they're going a few days before or after, and it you know, exploring with as a solo traveler, or maybe they're meeting family, so they're going a little bit before and meeting up with them later, or a group tour, same idea. So getting a little touch of that solo travel, but not for the whole time. So that's that's a great idea if you are maybe on the fence about solo travel yourself and you know, experimenting with that. And then finally, uh they are saying this is this is new, and I'm very excited about this idea of they're calling it generational travel. And so this is where, of course, families would be traveling together, and they are, you know, I'm not just talking like immediate family, but it might be more extended family. Um, the grandparents, uh, maybe in-laws are joining in the fun, and they're all coming together in one place to enjoy a vacation some time together. And, you know, maybe just renting a big house, getting an Airbnb so they all could be together. And noticing too that sometimes these um generational travel where the families come together, they could be like adult children joining their parents again with maybe their kids, right? So more of that sort of extended family, and maybe returning to a place that they all went maybe as kids, kind of being a little nostalgic about maybe where they go, and you know, returning to those memories and creating new ones with now maybe their family or their extended family. So these are just what some trends they're seeing here that are going to be coming about in 2026. I love some of these ideas, and I'm wondering what motivates you to travel and what gets you out there to adventure. Well, sisters, again, I just love doing these episodes where we kind of talk about those trends, giving you ideas or inspiration to do your thing. It doesn't have to fit into any of this. But what what motivates you to travel? Last week's episode, we I talked about the why, why do you travel, asking those questions? You're sitting down and asking and investigating. So I gave you a couple exercises that you could do if you want to go back and listen to last week's episode to help you determine, you know, why do you want to go to a certain place or why do you want to travel, which may help you determine where to go. Well, this weekend there is a virtual travel summit. You can still get signed up. And I will leave the information in the show notes of this podcast. Please get signed up. I am one of the speakers, and I would love to have you listen, not just to me, but to uh the 19 other uh wonderful travel coach experts that will be on the summit, and that is happening November 15th. Get signed up, and I hope to see you there. Also, speaking of one of those trends, that wellness idea, this is the last opportunity pitch where you can get a discount on that wellness river cruise in Europe next year, and that is happening the end of August, and it is flying out of going out of um Budapest and pretty much ending up uh going up the Danube River. So if you need more information on that, uh you can reach out to me at hello at Cherylbeckesh.com and I will get you the information on how you can sign up. So right now, till the end of November, you can still get a$400 deposit will hold your spot, and then you don't need to pay for the rest of it until I believe it's 90 days before you actually sail. So get on that trend of that whole wellness idea of traveling to better your physical, mental, and maybe emotional self, and join this lovely European river cruise. And we hope to see you there.