Less than two months until 2020 – we can’t believe it either. That means it’s time to get moving on your holiday planning for the coming year. To give you a bit of an overview of what’s happening in travel we have compiled a list of the best travel trends in 2020
1.Remote working
The digital-era is making it possible. Not only do we have portable devices which allow us to take our work with us wherever we go, most major cities across the globe have fairly good and reliable WiFi. We’ve seen this trend growing over the last couple of years amongst freelancers but have also heard stories of travellers who take a “working holiday” more recently. That means travellers work selected days whilst on tour or work for a week or two before continuing their adventure. Sipping on a cold cocktail on the beach whilst answering your emails? Yes, please!
Pack your phone and laptop and make that travel trend your own in 2020. Our tours are modular so you can easily do one part of a tour, take a break and then continue your journey.
2. Veganism
Going vegan has been a trend for years but it has now hit the travel industry with full force. More and more people choose to go meatless on their travels. Whilst bigger cities are more accommodating than ever, vegans do face challenges abroad due to language barriers and cultural differences. Locals sometimes simply do not understand the concept of dietary requirements, whether that’s being vegan, allergic to nuts or lactose-intolerant.
The good news is that most countries offer a variety of vegetarian and vegan meals, you just need to know how to ask and sometimes where to find them. To make things easier for all our vegan travellers, we have created an interactive map with vegan-friendly destinations and included some of our favourite vegan restaurants for you.
If you want to travel somewhere that’s not on the map, we recommend using “HappyCow” to find vegan restaurants. Do your research on vegan alternatives before you take off and most importantly, take a cheat sheet with you so you can ask for animal-free products in the local language.
3. Off-peak and shoulder season travel
We often get this question, when is the best time to travel to…? Of course people usually refer to the weather but the truth is you cannot predict the weather, especially in more tropical destinations. You can travel in the dry season and be plagued by showers or visit somewhere in wet season and explore under clear blue skies. During wet season in tropical destinations you’ll often experience heavy showers for 1-2 hours a day before it clears up to blue skies. So why make your decision based on the weather?
A lot of people are starting to realise that travelling in shoulder and off-peak season has a lot of advantages. Off-peak brings many perks such as fewer crowds, especially if you’re travelling to tourist-heavy destinations. With fewer crowds you’ll also find that there is no competition on who gets that hotel room first, in fact many hotels reduce their prices during shoulder and off-peak season. The same goes for airlines, travelling in peak season often sees a 50-100% increase in flight prices.
So next time you plan a holiday, don’t go for peak season. Opt for shoulder season, save your bank account from a nervous breakdown and experience your chosen destination in all its natural beauty. It’s a win-win travel trend if you ask us.
Below are some of our favourite tours for shoulder season and off-peak travel.
4. Adventure travel
Adventure travel has been quite a niche choice amongst travellers in the past but an increasing amount of people are starting to see the value in going “off the beaten path”, opting for authentic experiences and active trips over lazy-hanging-by-the-pool-resort-holidays. Having been in adventure travel since 1982 we can only give the thumbs up to this trend.
If you’ve travelled with us before you probably can’t wait to plan your next adventure holiday. If you’re reading this and you’re still on the fence about it, experience it for yourself. These are our favourite tours for first timers.
5. Cooking classes
We all know the feeling, you’re on holiday and loving the local food. Upon your return that’s all you can think about but you can’t find a restaurant that does it the same way or a cooking class that teaches the country’s cuisine properly.
Fear not, one of 2020’s most delicious travel trends is here to save the day: taking cooking classes of the local cuisine whilst on holiday. It’s a mouth-watering experience, you’ll be able to re-live the holiday every time you cook your favourite dish from the trip at home and it’s connecting you to the local culture.
Why not learn how to cook authentic Thai, Vietnamese, Indian or Jordanian on one of our tours?
Bangkok to Singapore – Book an optional excursion and learn how to cook Thai in Bangkok.
Rajasthan Explorer – Book an optional excursion and learn how to cook Indian in Jodhpur or Udaipur.
Journey to Jordan – Book an optional excursion and learn how to cook Jordanian in Madaba.
Vietnam Highlights – Book an optional excursion and learn how to cook Vietnamese in Hoi An.
6. Eating local
You’ll find big global food chains no matter where you go (unless you go completely off-grid like the Uyuni Salt Flats where you won’t even be able to connect to WiFi) and it can be tempting for many people to “stick with what you know”. Eating local and trying local (sometimes weird) specialities is one of the top travel trends for 2020 and we can definitely agree that we’ve seen travellers being more adventurous with food on tours.
Feeling adventurous? Check out some of our top tours for trying exotic food.
7. Eco-friendly
It’s definitely one of the best and most important travel trends in 2020. Travellers are becoming more and more aware of the impact they’re having on the environment and local communities.
We fully support this trend in everything we do and continuously work hard to minimise the impact we’re having on the environment. We choose public transport where possible, use locally-owned hotels over chains and have introduced a local payment for all tours in 2018 which not only saves our travellers roughly 10% on the total tour price but also benefits the local communities greatly.
Find out more about how we implement Responsible Travel.
Anna is on the marketing team at Tucan Travel. From a young age Anna has travelled solo and on group tours through Europe, Northern Africa, the Americas and Asia.
Great tips, Anna! Thank you.
I just gave a presentation on Central Asia / Mongolia for my company EastguidesWest….and knowing about HappyCow is a REALLY useful tip, particularly in that region:) Thanks again – great article.
Very well said. Thanks for sharing such a amazing article. Really helpful and interesting.