For your next trip, have you considered townsizing? What about choosing a detour destination? And instead of forest-bathing, maybe it’s time to give land snorkelling a try.
If the terms sound odd, you might need a travel translator. Agencies, online platforms and sometimes travellers themselves have been flexing their creative language skills by labeling trends in travel — some new, some tried-and-true (like bleisure, a trip that combines business with leisure time).
The following guide will help you keep up with the lexicon of travel.
DETOUR DESTINATIONS
Last year’s destination dupes became this year’s detours in Expedia’s 2025 trend report.
Detour destinations are “less well-known and less crowded than tourist hot spots,” according to the report. They can be destinations on their own or side trips from a bigger target. Examples include pairing Reims with Paris, in France, and Santa Barbara, California, with Los Angeles.
This practical two-for-one trip concept bundles an appealing neighbour with the closest major airport destination.
TOWNSIZING
If there were awards for Wordsmith of the Year, consider Priceline for its addition of townsizing. Your next vacation is townsized if instead of big-city buzz you opt for small-town vibes in easy-going destinations.
Popular townsizing destinations at the online agency include Stowe, Vermont; Mackinac Island, Michigan; and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
LAND SNORKELLING
Think of forest bathing — slow, mindful walks in the woods — and remove the forest and you have something like land snorkelling. Coined by the Montana-based artists Clyde Aspevig and Carol Guzman, land snorkelling in the context of a walk (which could even be in a city) is paying attention to where you are, not necessarily where you’re going. It encourages a focus on minute details, the way you might hover over a reef when snorkelling to view the comings and goings of tropical fish and the current’s effect on sea fans.
“When you snorkel, you don’t go with a destination in mind but go with the water and let the visuals take over,” said Guzman.
“You wander and you wonder,” Aspevig added.
Aspevig and Guzman have both volunteered with American Prairie, a nonprofit conservation group that is building a preserve in central Montana, where land snorkelling might focus on the movement of prairie grasses.
JOMO TRAVEL
How to fight FOMO, or fear of missing out? Change your point of view with JOMO — joy of missing out — by embracing a vacation that prioritises relaxing and ditching your phone.
The vacation rental company Vrbo proposed this mindset switch, citing 85 per cent of respondents to a company survey who declared an interest in taking a vacation to unplug. Pitchup.com and Campspot, two platforms that offer camping bookings, also celebrated JOMO as a digital detox method.
