The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Seven new ways to explore the world in 2024
From epic sabbaticals to ancestry-themed escapes, Jenny Southan reveals the types of trip we will be booking in the year ahead
How many trips have you booked (or are currently planning) for 2024? The start of a new year provides a great opportunity to curate experiences for your future self – but when it comes to travel, it can be helpful to think about what your underlying motivation is for going away.
In many cases, journeys are used as a way to mark certain milestones in our lives such as a birthday, an anniversary or entering retirement, but they could equally be triggered by a divorce, a change of career or even a bereavement. Travel can help us feel anew and forge memories that mark the passing of time.
And how will we be travelling in 2024? “Family holidays, particularly those with teenagers and sometimes one-on-one with a solo parent – educational, life-enhancing trips designed to enlighten and inspire the next generation – are an exciting development this year,” says Christopher Wilmot-Sitwell, co-owner and director of holiday company cazenove+loyd.
“There is also a rising appetite for more intrepid trips for clients in their 60s and 70s, from expedition cruises and hiking or trekking, to exploring hands-on hobbies.”
Other travel trends for the coming year look set to include trips around the themes of new beginnings, building bonds and personal liberation – as well as legacy creation, which is tied to longevity, ancestry, the building of families and personal betterment. Whether you are a grandparent who wants to nurture your relationship with your grandchildren or someone who yearns to explore their heritage, these kinds of trips are designed to provide long-term value.
With remote working now the norm, there has also been an uptick in longer-term travel, with people spending long periods of time in destinations they have dreamed of living in.
What are the most popular developments for 2024? If you are looking to get ahead of the curve, we reveal the most popular trends to spark inspiration for your next getaway. We’ve also included some ideas on how to do them – from epic rail journeys that cross 13 countries in 80 days aboard seven of the world’s finest trains to ethical anthropological encounters in Papua New Guinea and sensational family stays to rival the rich and famous.
Radical sabbaticals
Traditionally, a sabbatical is a prolonged break from work, typically lasting from a few months to a year. Radical sabbaticals, on the other hand, are more focused, concentrated breaks from the norm that can be achieved in just a few weeks. They are also taken with a certain intention in mind (such as deep rest or accelerated change), and function well as a marker for a career or life break – whatever your age.
For a real challenge, throw yourself into the unfamiliar with a trip somewhere completely unexpected – such as backpacking through Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. If your pace is a little slower, sign up for a structured retreat or course away from home. This is a common approach to maximising your time, and many luxury resorts are now developing programming to cater to growing demand.
How to do it
Intrepid Travel (0808 274
5111; intrepidtravel.com) offers a 17-day Central Asia Explorer group tour costing from £2,444 per person. The price includes accommodation, selected meals, activities and transport. Excludes flights.
Alternatively, The Radiant Bliss Programme at Kamalaya Koh Samui (00 66 7742 9800; kamalaya.com) costs from £2,850 per person for eight nights. This includes all treatments and three meals per day. Accommodation is booked separately and costs from £150 per night.
Budget-busting celebrations
Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of celebratory holidays we are taking; to mark milestone birthdays and wedding anniversaries, for example. While this isn’t a new trend in itself, the way it is manifesting – with ever-more ambitious villa and private island takeovers – is raising the bar among middle and high earners who want to blow the budget on a truly hedonistic extravaganza.
Social media and popular television shows such as Succession and The White Lotus are also opening people’s eye’s to the lifestyles of the rich and famous, driving aspiration. As a consequence, rising numbers of people are clubbing together to charter yachts and buy-out mansions.
How to do it
In February 2024, Soneva Secret (00960 660 4300; soneva.com) will open as a standalone resort of 14 villas in the Maldives, each with its own private chef and ample space for friends and family. Villas sleep up to four and cost from £4,039 per night for two adults and two children.
If you have pockets as deep as the Roy family’s, the 12-room Le Grand Jardin, Cannes (lgj-cannes.com) is on an island off the south of France. Stays are a minimum of one week long and you will need a generous budget for extras such as staff, food and champagne (this isn’t a self-catering kind of place). A one-week buy-out costs from £266,000 – making this very much one per cent territory.
DNA pilgrimages
If you are one of the many people who receive a DNA kit for Christmas (the global home genetic testing kit market remains on an upward trajectory and is expected to surpass £7 billion by 2028), then you won’t be alone. But once you find out your hidden heritage, you are sure to be curious about the places where your ancestors originated.
By combining innovative science with expert historic research, DNA pilgrimages offer people the chance to bring their legacy to life and learn more about who they are and the people and
places they have come from. While this trend isn’t new, the pandemic saw many people hit pause on this dream – but it is definitely on the rise again this year.
How to do it
You can’t plan a journey following in the footsteps of your ancestors until you know where they are from. DNA Home testing kits with Ancestry DNA (ancestry.co.uk) cost from £59.
After putting a few drops of saliva in a tube and sending it off to a lab, you will be told about your heritage and can either organise a trip to the destination yourself or consult your favourite operator to pull a trip together for you.
Indigenous immersions
Community engagement is one of the best examples of tourism as a force for good in the world – when done responsibly – because it directs money straight into the hands of the people who need it most. But in the coming years, special attention needs to be made to indigenous people because, although they make up only six per cent of the Earth’s population, they protect 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity. Indigenous immersions provide a unique opportunity to spend an extended period with a tribe, village or family that is very different from your own.
How to do it
Original Travel (020 3958 6120; originaltravel.co.uk) has a specially curated indigenous tourism collection. A 14-day trip to British Columbia, where the Haida First Nations Community operate a lodge and cultural programmes on the north coast, costs from £8,000 per person. The price includes flights, transfers, B&B accommodation and guided activities.
Over on the other side of the world, a 12-night trip to Papua New Guinea in 2024 with cazenove+loyd (020 7384 2332; cazloyd.com) costs from £32,600 per person. Ethical anthropological encounters include time with the Huli Wigmen, the Kasua people and scarified Crocodile Men.
Transitory exploration
If you have watched Race Across the World and like the idea of embarking on a long cross-continental journey (albeit not by taxi and coach), then you are in good company. From sailing yachts to sleeper trains, more and more travellers are realising the joy of multi-modal forays that take them through – rather than over – a destination.
Central to cutting-edge transitory exploration of tomorrow will be incredible transport. Things to look forward to next year include the launch of Coquelicot, a Belmond Boat, in April 2024. The high-end barge will traverse the Champagne region, taking passengers down the scenic canals of France.
Another exciting launch is the new Orient Express La Dolce Vita luxury sleeper train (part of Accor hotel group), which will begin services throughout Italy in 2024. Yet, unlike in previous years, it seems that fewer people want to take these cross-country journeys alone. Trailfinders has revealed that it has recently “seen a huge demand for group touring holidays”, with this set to continue into 2024.
How to do it
Trailfinders (020 7368 1317; trailfinders. com) offers a 16-night Essential Vietnam & Cambodia tour that includes one night aboard a junk boat, one night on a sleeper train, a boat ride along the Mekong Delta and a Phnom Penh cyclo tour – plus plenty of sightseeing along the way. It costs from £2,199 per person including flights, a tour leader, selected activities and 20 meals.
If you have plenty of time on your hands and want to fully immerse yourself in an epic journey, Railbookers (020 3780 2222; railbookers.co.uk) has launched a new 80-day Around the
World by Luxury Train itinerary that will traverse four continents and 13 countries aboard seven of the world’s finest trains in 2024; departs August. From £90,099 per person.
Paradise camps
The wise among us know that school is fine but real learning takes place out in the world. For parents of Gen Z teenagers and younger Generation Alpha children (aged up to 13 in 2023), travel is increasingly being used as a way of expanding the minds of their offspring by providing them with educational opportunities they wouldn’t get in the classroom. Another huge benefit is that it is a great way to build bonds.
So much so that some parents are now undertaking more intrepid holidays with their kids, and likewise grandparents with their grandchildren. This means that multi-generational holidays are no longer just about a villa and a few excursions.
How to do it
In 2024, the Noma Collective (00 501 631 1237; noma-collective.com) is hosting a three-week co-working trip to Belize in August, bringing together multiple families for childhood experiences and meaningful career development with workshops, excursions and a “kids’ club”. From £4,497per person; excludes flights.
Offering something a little different to the usual kids’ club, the Brando (00 689 40 86 63 00; thebrando.com) in French Polynesia has a Lagoon School led by Tetiaroa Society guides. Here, children can take part in snorkelling classes and go on forest walks – learning about the natural environment. They can also enjoy a little pampering at the Tamarii spa, which offers treatments designed specifically for eight- to 12-year-olds. Rooms from £3,301 per night.
Pioneering safaris
Rather than offering a passive, well-trodden experience, the new generation of safari camps are giving explorers the opportunity to observe animals in remote habitats, as well as to participate in regenerative zoology initiatives.
One to keep an eye on this year is visionary hotel designer and environmentalist Bill Bensley, who is opening his next property in the Republic of Congo, where guests can spend time studying gorillas and elephants. The multimillion-dollar Kozala Zamba Congo retreat will take the form of a series of tented camps and lodges on stilts and is slated to open this month.
In the meantime, there are plenty of initiatives across Africa which are offering the small-camp experience in various countries, from popular Tanzania to off-the-beaten-track Gabon.
How to do it
At Usangu Expedition Camp (0027 21 418 0468; asiliaafrica.com), in Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park, guests can set out on foot to place camera traps for capturing the movements of lions – working directly with wildlife rangers to document findings at the nearby Douglas Bell Eco Research Station. From £590 per night.
If you are looking for something a little more out of the ordinary, Gabon Wildlife Camps and Safaris (00 241 74416569; gabonwildlifecamps.com) can accommodate small groups of eight to 12 people on all Lopé, Ivindo, Loango and Pongara National Park safaris in Gabon. All-inclusive packages include overnight accommodation in Libreville, hotel transfers, guided safaris with experienced trackers, park permits and meals. A 12-day Green Season package costs from £6,814 per person.
Jenny Southan is the founder of travel trend forecasting agency Globetrender (globetrender.com) and recently co-authored Travelling with Purpose: Milestone Motivations & Luxury Travel Trends.