It’s really never too early to start planning a trip. While there is a Goldilocks window for booking flights, you can take care of the rest of the logistics as early as you desire. With 2025 right around the corner—seriously, 2024 has flown by—narrowing down where you want to go and planning how to get there can save you hundreds of dollars and improve the quality of your trip tenfold. Luckily, we don’t need a crystal ball or random social media posts to determine what locations should be on your radar for next year.
Skyscanner just released its comprehensive 2025 travel trends report, which includes insights on everything from which kind of trips will be most popular to why you might need to consider dusting off your cowboy boots this year. But the most valuable information for trip planners and vacation manifesters is the data around which vacation destinations will be the most popular and budget-friendly in 2025.
For those of you looking to be at the places everyone else will be talking about in two years before the crowds become crazy and everyone has geo-tagged themselves there on Instagram, Skyscanner revealed the top 10 trending destinations. Let’s get into that list:
1. Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos
2. Quepos, Costa Rica
3. Tromsø, Norway
4. Tucumán Province, Argentina
5. Krabi, Thailand
6. Luang, Prabang
7. Antwerp, Belgium
8. Suva, Fiji
9. Rotterdam,Netherlands
10. Pago Pago, American Samoa
Each of these destinations had an increase in search volume between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2024, compared to the same period in 2024. “It’s clear that smaller, alternative destinations are growing in popularity with US travelers, who are looking to explore beyond the mainstream in the Americas and farther afield,” the report detailed. Just look at the top spot; Grand Turk Island has grown in popularity in recent years due to famous visitors like the Kardashians plus some TikTok popular brand trips to the island. But it also has plenty to offer to almost every type of traveler.
Not looking for the top trending location? Want to focus on getting somewhere amazing but also friendly to your wallet? I feel you. My bank account cringes every time I go to search for flight prices. But Skyscanner’s data has also gathered the most affordable destinations for 2025, based on how much flights to these destinations have dropped between 2023 and 2024. Here’s where you can find comparably cheap flights in the coming year, according to Skyscanner:
1. Nice, France
2. Castries, St. Lucia
3. Bridgetown, Barbados
4. Rabat, Morocco
5. Fargo, North Dakota
6. San Jose, California
7. Charlotte, North Carolina
8. Salt Lake City, Utah
9. Amsterdam, Netherlands
10. Barranquilla, Colombia
These destinations offering lower-priced flights mean that you can focus more of your budget on accommodations, activities, or just keeping some money in the bank. With a great mix of international and domestic destinations, there are plenty of options no matter what kind of trip you are seeking.
