Looking ahead to 2025, travel trends such as destination dupes and rail travel look like they’re here to stay, but according to Expedia, more and more travellers are also keen to make their trips work a little harder.
Sixty-three percent of travellers are keen to visit a lesser-known destination on their next getaway, and one way to do that is adding a little side-trip into your journey. Enter: detour destinations.
The online travel agency has compiled a list of the 11 most exciting destinations which are worth detouring for. The first of these is Cozumel, which is a short hop down the coast from Cancun in Quintana Roo, Mexico.
While it’s overshadowed by bigger, louder resorts like Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Cozumel is a much more appropriate spot for nature lovers: there’s a brilliant chance to go scuba-diving in the Mesoamerican Reef from Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, where you could see anything from green sea turtles to whale sharks, plus more than 500 species of fish.
Elsewhere on the list is Waikato, a stunning but lesser-known region in New Zealand, which Expedia describes as an escape full of ‘black-sand beaches, world-class surf breaks, river-rafting escapades, and rolling pastures’.
There are plenty more unexpected destinations on the list – read on for the full roundup.
These are the ‘detour destinations’ you need to know about for 2025, according to Expedia
- Cozumel, Mexico
- Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Palm Springs, USA
- Reims, France
- Brescia, Italy
- Santa Barbara
- Waikato, New Zealand
- Fukuoka, Japan
- Krabi, Thailand
- Canmore, Canada
- Girona, Spain
You can read about all these marvellous destinations on Expedia’s page here.
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