Travel Trends for 2023

A new year has arrived and with it comes a new year of family travel. This year, expect to see a lot of purposeful travel, in which families and individuals forego the usual hot spots packed with tourists and gimmicky experiences, opting instead for trips with deeper meaning.

Once-in-a-lifetime trips will be big for 2023. After several years of COVID-19 travel limitations, many of us are ready to schedule those bucket list trips we’ve always dreamed of. Trips like African safaris, Antarctic adventures and hiking the Camino de Santiago trail from Portugal to Spain will be big as travelers look to maximize their vacation time with experiences they will never forget.

Even smaller trips will see a switch from travelers frequenting tourist attractions, instead choosing more unique adventures such as taking helicopter tours of popular destinations like the Hawai’ian Islands.

Travelers are also making the switch to seeing destinations through a different lens by spending more time with locals and their families. This provides a unique perspective of a destination. One way to achieve this is with companies like Traveling Spoon, which arranges for travelers to meet with local home cooks in their own homes for a meal or cooking class designed to teach local recipes and customs behind the destination’s local culture.

Another popular trend for 2023 will be trips focusing on transformation, self-care and personal growth. As many learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must focus on ourselves and care for ourselves in order to be our best selves, and travel is a great way to do that. This trend allows us to not only take trips to places we want to see, but also allows those trips to make us better individuals.

Transformative travel includes voluntourism trips, allowing travelers to give back while instilling a sense of purpose, great for families. Other options include taking wellness trips or planning a stay at a working ranch or farm, where guests can learn about other lifestyles while enjoying a break from their own everyday lives.

Whether you choose to follow the travel trends for 2023 or create your own trends, the important thing is to plan trips the family can enjoy together, so everyone can see the world and grow closer in the experience.