The Rough Guide to 10 unmissable 2023 travel trends

Landscapes as green and lovely as everyone says. Literary giants in Dublin; Titanic history in Belfast. A pint and good craic in a traditional pub. The lure of Celtic legends.

TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) recently released its 2018 Travel Trends Report, naming the most popular travel experiences, tours, and activities booked by its users last year. The data points to a shift toward non-traditional and experiential activities as travelers look to expand their options.

There’s never been a better summer for travel. This year’s summer travel trends favor a personalized approach to vacation and bring once-in-a-lifetime moments into sharp focus. Here are the top summer travel trends to look out for in 2019.

AirHelp, the online service that files complaints against airlines on behalf of passengers entitled to compensation for air delays or cancellations, knows a thing or two about air travel. Because it’s hard for the average person to understand air passenger rights and pursue a legal claim when they’ve been wronged, AirHelp is always going toe-to-toe with airlines and airports—and reveals once a year which ones that treat their passengers for the better (or worse).

For the sixth year in a row, Finland has claimed the top spot in the World Happiness Report. The annual report, compiled by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, surveys residents in over 150 countries to determine which nations are the happiest.

In Willemstad, the capital city on the island of Curaçao, the waterfront is dotted with buildings the color of tropical fruit: mango orange, banana yellow, kiwi green. Paired with the bright blue water in nearby bays, it’s almost a full kaleidoscope of color. Originally, the structures were limestone white, but an 1817 law forbade white facades on buildings to protect islanders’ eyesight from the bright reflections of the Caribbean sun – but locals joke that it was a money-making bid on behalf of the island’s only paint supplier.

With its long, sunny days, and kids out of school, summer is typically a busy season for travel. But jam-packed planes and sky-high airfares mean that many Americans aren’t able to plan for as much travel as they’d like this year.

Colourful Australian slang, or strine, has its origins in the archaic cockney and Irish of the colony’s early convicts as well as the adoption of words from the many Aboriginal languages. And for such a vast country, the accent barely varies to the untutored ear; from Tasmania (“Tassie”) to the northwest you’ll find little variation in the national drawl, with a curious, interrogative ending to sentences fairly common – although Queenslanders are noted for their slow delivery.

Hushed voices, the scratch of a bamboo whisk, then a bow, a nod and a bowl of steaming matcha is handed around. Any delicate sounds in the room are amplified by the formality of the occasion – so quiet you can hear people holding their breath – which heightens the sense that something very important is going on. This is a tea ceremony in full swing: the ultimate in Japanese hospitality.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s most incredible natural wonders – it’s the largest structure ever built by living things and is visible even from space. For millennia, this glorious underwater world has blazed with colour, sheltering some of the earth’s most spellbinding ocean-dwelling creatures. But the unnaturally rapid increase in the earth’s temperature is putting this vast ecosystem under increasing threat.

Always wanted to be a travel writer? Well you’re in luck. Last year we ran our travel writing competition and the winner, Steph Dyson, has become one of our regular contributors. This year, we’re opening it up again to seek out the best untapped travel writing talent.

With the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Europe in the final years of WWII in 2019–2020, Rough Guides is releasing a new, comprehensive and inspirational guidebook: Travel the Liberation Route Europe. Rough Guides editor Helen Fanthorpe introduces the book and explains what it’s all about.