25 New ways to travel in 2025
1. Discover another side of Japan
‘Japan has never been so popular,’ says James Mundy from Inside Japan. ‘There were 38% more UK visitors in 2024 compared with 2023.’ To escape the crowds, look beyond Tokyo and Kyoto to lesser-known regions, such as the rural prefecture of Toyama, on the west coast of Honshu; the Hida Mountains for hot springs and skiing; and Naoshima, which sits on the Seto Inland Sea. And Osaka, Japan’s foodie capital, will open six new museums and galleries in 2025 as well as hosting the World Expo, showcasing Japanese innovation. For more information, visit japan.travel/en/uk.
2. Be a gap year gatecrasher
As the original backpacking generation find themselves parents to student-aged kids, they’re increasingly choosing to join them on sabbaticals (whether their children like it or not!) Original Travel says it’s seen a marked rise in the number of parents tagging along for at least part of their children’s gap years in places such as India and Thailand, keen to relive their youth and share memories while making new ones. At least the accommodation is better second time around…
3. Say happy birthday to NYC
New York City, originally founded by the Dutch as New Amsterdam, marks its 400thanniversary with a series of cinema, comedy, fashion, theatre, dance and sport events across 2025. Combine the celebrations with a stay in one of the Big Apple’s stylish new hotels – try The Manner (rooms from £558 a night), a boutique hotel in SoHo; or the luxurious Art Deco Waldorf Astoria in Midtown, which reopens its doors this spring after an eight-year renovation.
4. Celebrate the Sound of Music
In 2024, Taylor Swift inspired thousands of fans to travel around Europe on a pop-filled musical journey. In 2025, classical composer Johann Strauss II and the von Trapp family will be leading the way. Both ‘the Waltz King’ and The Sound Of Music celebrate special anniversaries in the coming year, making Austria a must-book musical destination. Strauss was born in October 1825 and everyone’s favourite musical was released in March 1965. Combine Vienna, where Strauss was born, with Salzburg, where much of the classic film was shot, on a cruise down the Danube with Good Housekeeping Holidays (from £1,359pp) and see the hills come alive.
5. Go ‘me-mooning’
Travelling solo is set to be one of 2025’s biggest trends; Google searches for ‘solo travel’ have doubled, while #solotravel TikTok posts have increased tenfold*. A holiday that’s all about you is the ultimate indulgence, so it’s no surprise that Skyscanner says 62% of travellers plan to go on between two and five trips alone in the next year. Try Explore Worldwide, Riviera Travel, One Traveller and Solos Holidays.
Your 2025 Travel Glossary:
6. Nostalgication:
Going on a holiday with your family that you went on as a child.
7. Spontanitrip:
Embracing the thrill of the unknown and escaping with no specific plans.
8. Flexiscape:
When you mix and match holiday types (such as relaxation with adventure) to create the perfect all-in-one getaway.
9. Detour destinations:
Trips combining a tourist hotspot with somewhere lesser-known nearby – think Paris and Reims, Milan and Brescia, or Barcelona and Girona.
10. Phenomena-Lists:
Look beyond your bucket list and pledge to see a natural phenomenon, such as the northern lights, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs.
11. Lace up your hiking boots
The King Charles III England Coast Path is due to open in its entirety in 2025 (all 2,674 miles of it!), making it the world’s longest managed coastal walking route. And once The Salt Path, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor and Moth Winn, is released in April, we’ll see even more boots tramping along the South West Coast Path, where it’s set. Follow in their footsteps (quite literally) on a seven-night self-guided walking adventure from Padstow to St Ives with Macs Adventure (from £940pp including B&B accommodation, baggage transfers and maps)
12. Have Georgia on your mind
No, not the American state but the small Eastern European country on the Black Sea bordered by Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. In 2025 it’s set to get two new direct flight routes from the UK, making it easier to explore its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as well as Kakheti and Kartli, two of the world’s oldest wine regions. British Airways launches flights from London Heathrow to Tbilisi on 30 March (from £139pp one-way four times a week), while easyJet will fly there from Luton from 1 April (from £113.99pp one-way, twice a week). Stay in Tbilisi’s only glass skyscraper at the luxurious Biltmore Hotel (from £147 a night).
13. Get set for Austen Mania
Hold on to your bonnets because 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen, and anywhere with a connection to the celebrated author is planning to mark it in some way. Jane Austen Regency Week will be held in Alton (where she lived) and Selborne, Hampshire, this June, while No. 8 College Street in Winchester (where she died) will open to the public for the first time. There’s also the Jane Austen Heritage Trail in Southampton and a series of special events at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton. Discover Jane Austen’s Bath with historian Lucy Worsley on a four-day Good Housekeeping Holiday (from £1,295pp, from 15 June).
14. Become a Traitor
If you love The Traitors as much as you covet Claudia’s fringe, why not recreate the game yourself? The reality show, returning to our screens on 1 January, is filmed at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands. While you can only book the actual location for big events, there are plenty of other castles for hire (see celticcastles.com). Marrington Escapes offers ‘Traitors’ breaks at four of its largest properties in Shropshire. Set in 600-acre estate grounds, they sleep between 10 and 14 and cost around £43pp a night if you fill them. Remote and with plenty of room for challenges, each one comes with a Traitors board game and the essential black hooded cloak.
15. Holiday with the Royals
This summer, all eyes will be on Alentejo, a beautiful coastal region in the south of Portugal. Why? Prince Harry and wife Meghan are rumoured to have bought a property at the 722-acre CostaTerra Golf & Ocean Club, a luxury development around 80 miles south of Lisbon. Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, already have a property at the resort, which offers horse-riding and sunbathing on the Costa Azul. Dubbed ‘The Hamptons of Portugal’, the area has attracted other A-listers including Gisele Bündchen, George Clooney and Sharon Stone. Stay nearby at the AlmaLusa Comporta (rooms from £92 a night) and keep your eyes peeled.
16. Join the rail revolution
Minimise your carbon footprint and embrace slow travel. No longer just for students, Interrail is now in its 50s, and a flexible global pass (from £177pp for four days) allows you to explore more than 30,000 stations across 33 European countries. New sleeper services include Brussels to Venice via the Austrian Alps; London to Berlin or Prague, changing
at Paris; Paris to Berlin; and Brussels to Berlin or Prague. Good Housekeeping Holidays also has a five-day rail break on the new luxury La Dolce Vita Orient Express from £4,479pp.
17. Shhh…Greece is the word
Or, more specifically, the Cycladic island of Paros, which sits in the Aegean between Santorini and Mykonos. The new international airport opens later this year after a £34m renovation, and while the exact date is still TBC, there are already a handful of stylish boutique hotels opening in anticipation. Check out Parocks Luxury Hotel & Spa (rooms from £384 a night), Cosme (rooms from £439 a night) and The Five Collection. Other great places to visit include the historic port of Parikia, home to a striking Byzantine-era stone church; the elegant fishing harbour of Naoussa; and the pretty hillside town of Lefkés.
18. Take the family away with Dora The Explorer
The Nickelodeon Land theme park and Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts Antalya open this January on the southwest coast of Turkey. Featuring characters from Dora The Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and Paw Patrol, the family-friendly rides, themed rooms and character-filled restaurants are bound to put a smile on little ones’ faces. Tui offers seven nights full-board at The Land of Legends Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts Antalya from £1,697pp, including theme-park access and flights in May.
19. Sunbathe on a Caribbean Queen
Trinidad and Tobago are on Lonely Planet’s 2025 Best in Travel list and it’s easy to see why. There’s an eclectic food scene, dozens of hiking trails and golden sandy beaches. See visittrinidad.tt for more information and Kuoni for tailor-made holidays.
20. Become a zzz tourist
Losing sleep? 71% of UK adults don’t get the recommended seven to nine hours of shut-eye a night, which means ‘sleep retreats’ are booming. Hilton has one at Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, on Maui, Hawaii; there’s The Good Sleep Retreat at Ockenden Manor in Cuckfield, West Sussex (from £999pp); and Six Senses Ibiza (three nights from £692pp) even has a resident sleep doctor.
21. Escape the heat on a ‘coolcation’
There’s no denying the impact of climate change; in Europe, countries such as Greece, France and Spain have all suffered devastating heatwaves and wildfires in the past few years. As a result, Google Trends data shows a 300% increase in searches for ‘cooler holidays’, especially for July and August. Head to places with balmier summers such as Sandhammaren in Sweden, or Søndervig, on Denmark’s west coast of Jutland.
22. Travel more responsibly
It’s never been more important to think about the impact we have on the world, particularly when it comes to travelling. Overtourism affects natural resources, wildlife and the environment, as well as local populations. No one wants to battle through crowds, damage the planet or be made to feel unwelcome, so what can we do about it? One solution is to swap somewhere traditionally busy and overcrowded for somewhere similar but quieter – known as a ‘destination dupe’. Visit Tarragona instead of Barcelona, Pattaya instead of Bangkok or Perth instead of Sydney. You can also practise regenerative travel, which focuses on giving back and improving the places we visit; try wildlife conservation, restoring animal habitats or even just litter-picking or buying local products. For more information, visit responsibletravel.com.
23. Race across the world
While you might not want to follow in the exact footsteps of contestants on the hit BBC series (who wants to travel without their phone?), it has inspired trips to many of the destinations featured, says Travelbag, which has created Race Across The World itineraries in places such as Japan and Cambodia. Season five is due to air this spring, as well as a second celebrity challenge (to where, we don’t know, but our money’s on India). There’s still time to apply if you want to take part yourself at bbc.co.uk (enter as a team of two by 6 April).
24. Dream of Madagascar
This stunning, wildlife-rich island, the fourth largest in the world, is finally more accessible thanks to a new Emirates flight route between Dubai and the capital, Antananarivo. There are eco lodges and boutique hotels popping up across the island, including Tsara Komba by Time + Tide (lodges from £265 a night), the Mandrare River Camp (luxury tents from £457 a night) in the wild and remote southeast, and Masoala Forest Lodge (rooms from £383 a night) on a rainforest-covered peninsula off the northeast coast.
25. Go shopping on a ‘goods getaway’
Welcome to the ‘souven-era’! One of Expedia’s top trends for 2025 is a ‘goods getaway’, which involves choosing your destination based on the unique, locally sourced items you can buy there. Head to…
Jaipur, India for handprinted cotton fabrics, affordable jewellery and traditional blue-and-white pottery.
Seoul, South Korea for innovative beauty and skincare products.
Marrakech, Morocco for carpets, spices, dried flowers, sandals and ceramics.
Oaxaca, Mexico for bright textiles, beaded handbags, tequila and mezcal.
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