It's officially 2025- and with the New Year bringing about a blank slate of travel plans, we're all grappling with Skyscanner and Booking.com to spark some brand-new travel inspiration. So, to help you narrow down the endless options and make 2025 your best travel year yet, I've rounded up a mix of hot destinations that are on the rise, plus a few not-so-hot places that are better left off the itinerary this year.
Hot
Places with cool airports
In 2025, the airport will no longer be just a place you go through to get from A to B, it will be an integral part of the holiday experience. After all, if you’re going to get there 2.5 hours beforehand, (and who knows whether it will be delayed) it might as well be as good as it can be. Goodbye tiny grey sheds with one measly shop, hello great big shining shopping malls filled with gigantic chocolates and massages chairs and anything else you could ever need. I’m thinking Amsterdam Schipol or Heathrow for London. You’ll forget you’re even in an airport amongst the luscious trees of Singapore airport. And the airport at the Scottish Ilse of Barra has a tidal beach as its runway – could anything be cooler?
Hilly places with good viewpoints
One of the most rewarding things in life is an exhausting climb with a good viewpoint at the top. Who cares if your legs are dying when the view is to die for? Bonus points if you get there at sunset. The idea is great because it’s so versatile; a mountain view is just as good as a city skyline view. For the former, the Lake District will be in demand this year, for the latter, Budapest. Edinburgh even combines the two.
Running-friendly destinations
Running is a wonderful sport – and finally, social media has realised it. Jokes about half-marathons in the quarter-life crisis and running clubs as dating apps are abound. So what’s to stop of from becoming part of holidays in 2025? Running is a great way to see a new city, because you can go far and have to pay attention. But for this, some cities are more equal than others: you want green space, even paths, and most importantly, few cars. For this, places like Vienna and Stockholm are ideal. Of course, it’s even possible to devote your entire holiday to running, in a place like the stunning Gower Peninsula, for example.
Not
Places with tourism protests
Mass tourism is becoming a mass problem. Image your home streets constantly choked with walking tours and selfie-takers, being unable to buy or rent because holiday let's have ravaged the housing market, staying in every evening for fear of drunken British stag parties in penis costumes. This is the reality for the residents of many Spanish cities, such as Barcelona and Malaga. Venice is suffering heavily too. It’s not fair, we all know it, so this year we won’t do it.
Disneyland
2025 will be the year people finally realise the truth about Disneyland: it’s so not worth it. Extortionate prices and screaming hoards of children can never be fun, all the more so when you spend 90% of the trip queuing. Everything also has a creepy air of fakeness – because it is all fake, I suppose. If you’ve travelled all the way to Paris or Florida, wouldn’t it be better to actually see the real Paris or Florida? Immediately crossed off the holiday list.