10 alternative travel trends 2025

There’s still a bit of summer left, and if you’re looking for a getaway that isn’t your typical beach trip or camping, you might want to consider a ‘detour destination’ or a ‘mystery vacation.’

More and more, travelers are opting for alternative ways of exploring new places and locales that are off the beaten path or sometimes just slightly off. Some even consider these unlikely adventures to be the only way to travel these days.

“I see travelers requesting to go to places that are more authentic and less touristy. They are tired of the crowded tourist spots and prefer a more authentic connection,” Chirag Panchal, founder of luxury travel agency Ensuite Collection and American Society of Travel Advisors member, tells CNBC Make It.

Here are 10 travel trends that have really taken off in recent years.

Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku in Japanese, is the practice of immersing oneself in nature.

“It’s slowing down. It’s connecting to nature with all your senses. It’s just being in a natural setting and being present,” says Mark Ellison, a certified forest therapy guide and trail consultant, and founder of Pinnacle Forest Therapy.

“The key things are to find a place where you can spend some time uninterrupted, and then notice the things that are around you.”

Forest bathing can be done alone or with a guide, such as Ellison. He helped found the first certified forest therapy trail in North Carolina at Pinnacle Park. The trails Ellison leads usually last about an hour and a half and involve minimal talking to prioritize periods of reflection and meditation.

Nocturnal tourism, also known as night tourism, is a travel trend that focuses on experiences that take place at night.

Booking.com had noctourism in its 2025 forecast and noted 54% of travelers surveyed planned their nighttime activities to avoid daytime temperatures. Some of the most well-known noctourism activities include starbathing, constellation tracking, and once-in-a-lifetime cosmic events.

Some of the experiences travelers are increasingly looking to take part in include nighttime safaris. Luxury tour operator Wayfairer Travel reports a 35% rise in demand for night safaris in Africa last year compared to 2023, according to National Geographic.

Wayfairer CEO Jason Stevens said that another popular noctourism opportunity is after-dark city and architecture tours. For example, the luxury tour operator noted that 67% of visitors to Tokyo in 2024 were interested in booking nighttime experiences.

“Instagram has been a huge driver of this in my opinion, because users see images of neon signs in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho or tiny izakayas [bars] in Omoide Yokocho and want to experience it,” Stevens told National Geographic.

As the name suggests, sleep tourism is a trend where getting a good night’s sleep is the top priority. More than 50 million people in the U.S. have a sleep disorder and more than 100 million Americans report not getting an adequate amount of sleep, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Sleep tourism first started making headlines in 2023, and a 2025 Hilton Travel Trends report stated that two-thirds of American guests indicated they sleep better in hotels than at home. Because of the rising trend, more and more hotels are offering sleep-specific packages with special mattresses, bedding, temperature and lighting.

Equinox Hotel offers The Sleep Lap, a one-night minimum stay that starts at $1,700 a night. The experience offers guests the opportunity to stay in a Premier King room with a skyline view, featuring an adaptive mattress, steam and ice shower, and a special in-room dining menu tailored to circadian needs. The package also offers a morning and evening ritual designed to promote sleep.

Instead of traveling to a big metropolitan city, townsizing is all about the small-town vibes in chill locations.

“The idea here is to get away from the hustle and bustle of big cities and vacation somewhere that is more charming and authentic,” Panchal says.

According to Priceline’s 2025 Travel Trends Report, “travelers are choosing cozier destinations and the laid-back vibes of small towns packed with comforting nostalgia and leisurely pace.”

Priceline also notes that the townsizing trend is being fully embraced by younger generations in an effort to recreate scenes from iconic movies. The report states 67% of young travelers “are more likely to see a vacation as an opportunity to live out their small-town fantasies.”

In 2025, travelers are looking to tack on side trips after arriving in major cities, according to Expedia’s Unpack 2025 travel trends report. 63% of Expedia consumers say they are likely to visit detour destinations on their next trip.

Melanie Fish, Vice President of Global Public Relations at Expedia, tells CNBC Make It that their data shows people are still seeking to travel to major destinations but are also exploring other nearby places.

“A detour destination is not people going off the beaten path. It’s more like people veering slightly off the beaten path,” she says. “For example, there are going to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, but adding on a side trip to go somewhere to get a different vibe and experience a less crowded destination.”

Detour destinations are less well-known and less crowded than tourist hotspots. In Expedia’s report, some popular destinations include detouring from Brescia, Italy, to Milan, and from Santa Barbara, California, to Los Angeles.

Similar to forest bathing, land snorkeling is about taking a walk and focusing on what you see and not where you’re going, just like you would if you were snorkeling over a reef. The term and movement were founded by Montana-based artists Clyde Aspevig and Carol Guzman.

Aspevig states that land snorkeling is “taking the time to savor aspects of nature we ordinarily don’t see or pay attention to. Land snorkelers wander [through] nature with no intention of hiking to a destination.” The trend is all about reconnecting with our landscape through our senses.

Most people are familiar with “FOMO” or the fear of missing out, but have you heard of the joy of missing out?

Panchal says he’s seen a lot of solo travelers wanting to take part in these trips to unplug and escape reality.

“They are ok with missing out on things that their friends and family might be doing in order to actually do something that they want to do,” he says. “Prioritizing oneself instead of just doing what others are doing.”

Data from Vrbo shows that travelers believe “JOMO” travel can help improve their mental health and overall well-being. 62% of travelers say JOMO travel reduces stress and anxiety, and nearly half say JOMO travel allows them to better reconnect with loved ones.

The report states that the leading types of vacation rentals for JOMO travel include beach houses, lakeside lodges, and mountain chalets.

“JOMO travelers are also in search of vacation rentals with swimming pools, tranquil gardens, a hot tub or spa and porches with a view to help them relax and disconnect,” the report says.

Coined by the travel news site Skift, “live tourism” refers to the number of people booking trips around live events, like concerts, natural phenomena, and sporting events.

A perfect example of live tourism was Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Headlines were made when fans planned entire trips around attending one of her concerts in a different state or country. Skirt reports that concert-goers spent an average of $1,300 per show on incidentals, in addition to the cost of tickets.

As the name implies, mystery vacation is all about letting someone else, usually a travel agent or agency, plan your own trip and surprise you with the itinerary once it’s time to head there.

In 2024, Booking.com reported that 52% of travelers would be interested in reserving a trip where the destinations remained a mystery until arrival.

The same year, Scandinavian Airlines introduced a flight experience called “Destination Unknown,” which allowed members of its EuroBonus loyalty program to use their miles to book a trip to a surprise location.

Last year, several other airlines started offering the same experience, including Lufthansa and Wizz Air.

Travelers are going to great lengths to witness natural phenomena. Expedia’s Unpack 2025 travel trends report revealed that 61% of travelers want to experience seeing the Northern Lights, followed by 30% looking to see geological phenomena like volcanoes, geysers, and hot springs.

“The solar eclipse in 2024 really ignited people’s passion for these natural phenomena. We saw vacation homes sold out in the path of totality,” Fish says.

In addition to experiencing a natural phenomenon, 80% of travelers say it’s important they also stay in a place that offers a prime viewing spot for these events.

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