Trending Detour Destinations for 2025

Traveling in 2025 is about making our trips work a little harder, by lingering a little longer and adding a smart side-trip within easy reach of our gateway city. We’ve all got big-hitter destinations like Cancun, Barcelona or Paris on our wish lists, but a well-chosen detour from your original destination enriches any classic itinerary.

Cozumel: Mexico’s scuba paradise

30-minute flight from Cancun

Cancun and Playa del Carmen are much-loved mainland Yucatàn Peninsula resort towns, but this serene and spectacularly gorgeous island set in the Caribbean is a dream for nature lovers who want to get under the water and meet the marine life. At Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, there’s wonderful scuba diving and snorkeling in the Mesoamerican Reef, and submerged sculptures at Chankanaab adventure park. 

Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s art and adventure epicenter

90-minute drive from Dubai

Quieter than its neighbor Dubai, Abu Dhabi focuses on U.A.E. heritage and big-hitter cultural institutions. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (shown in video above) is the size of nearly four football fields and adorned with gilded spires, chandeliers, and jewel-encrusted columns. The island museum Louvre Abu Dhabi houses 700 works, while the highly anticipated, museum-packed Saadiyat Cultural District is set to open sometime in 2025. For close encounters with nature, wander the Corniche waterfront esplanade and take a desert safari to see the soaring dunes of Rub‘ al Khali (the “Empty Quarter”). 

Palm Springs: California’s desert oasis for culture lovers

3 hours from Los Angeles by train, or 1 hour 45-minute drive

Once the playground of Hollywood stars, Palm Springs has evolved into a thrilling cultural and culinary oasis. Hike the canyons and Mount San Jacinto’s trails, immerse yourself in modern art and architecture (don’t miss Palm Springs Art Museum), and explore Greater Palm Springs’ buzzy restaurant scene—all before luxuriating in the natural mineral pools of spa hotels in Palm Desert and Desert Springs. Mark your calendar for April’s Coachella Festival and Palm Springs Modernism Week in February, celebrating its legendary mid-century architecture, design and art. 

Reims: France’s unofficial champagne capital

45 minutes from Paris by TGV (high-speed train)

After the velocity of Paris, Reims makes a refined, relaxed and refreshingly walkable base for wider vineyard explorations. Reims was the original French capital, and it has the champagne houses, Gothic cathedral and Gallic grandeur to prove it. UNESCO-designated Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims is the city’s crowning glory, where 28 French kings were coronated over the past millennium; the Marc Chagall stained-glass windows are a highlight. 

Brescia: Italy’s historic mountain hideaway

40 minutes from Milan by train

History-rich and geographically blessed Brescia sits in the Alpine foothills between Lake Garda and Lake Iseo in Lombardy. Brescia boasts the most significant Roman ruins in all of northern Italy, a hilltop medieval castle, the beautiful 15th-century Chiesa del Santissimo Corpo di Cristo, and galleries that have been primped up since the city secured Italian Capital of Culture status in 2023 alongside nearby Bergamo. Aside from art and architecture, days are spent hiking, lake-cruising or vineyard-visiting before cocktails in a Renaissance piazza and dining out on the area’s famed, hearty Alpine fare.

Santa Barbara: California’s sophisticated surf town

2-hour drive from Los Angeles

With an iconic Spanish Mission church, a fabulous farm-to-table culinary scene, and countless barrel rooms and microbreweries all set against the dramatic backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains, this surf town is a cherished getaway for city-worn Angelenos—and the perfect add-on for LA visitors. Don’t miss the Funk Zone, where converted warehouses decorated with street art house independent galleries, shops and urban wineries.

Waikato: New Zealand’s lesser-known natural beauty

1 hour 40-minute drive from Auckland

The wildly varied Waikato region and Coromandel Peninsula are where adventurous Aucklanders escape to in search of black-sand beaches, world-class surf breaks, river-rafting escapades, and rolling pastures. Other must-do adventures include an underground caving excursion, particularly in the amazing glowworm-populated Waitomo Caves, while Raglan, a world-famous surf spot, is about an hour away.

Fukuoka: Japan’s friendliest city

5 hours from Tokyo by bullet train

Known as Japan’s smiley city, Fukuoka is famed for gorgeous spring cherry blossoms, fantastic seafood, ancient temples, legendary Hakata ramen, colorful cultural festivals, and, of course, beautiful beaches and nearby mountains. It’s perched on the northern shore of Kyushu Island and formed of two distinct towns: the castle town of Fukuoka on the west bank of the Naka-gawa, and the commercial town of Hakata on the east bank. If you go, be sure to wander the ornamental gardens, dip into tea houses, visit art museums, and take a breather after the intensity of Tokyo or Osaka.

Krabi: Thailand’s treasure island

1–2 hours from Phuket by speedboat

Popular Phuket has plenty of draw, but for adventurous holidaymakers, it’s Krabi that secures their love of the Andaman coastline. Adorned by rugged, tower-like karst formations just begging to be kayaked and snorkeled, world-class rock climbing at Railay, and an abundance of island-hopping opportunities between Ko Lanta and Ko Phi-Phi, this is coastal Thailand at its most seductive.

Canmore: Canada’s under-the-radar rural gateway

75-minute drive from Calgary

This charming community in the heart of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains sits west of Calgary, 15 miles southeast of the eternally popular resort town of Banff. The under-the-radar mountain town offers outdoorsy visitors a more relaxed base for exploring waterfalls and blue lakes, fishing and boating, reaching the summits of Three Sisters Village and Ha Ling Peak, and cross-country skiing and mountain biking. Come August, the Canmore Folk Music Festival takes center stage.

Girona: Spain’s unsung architectural hero

40 minutes from Barcelona by Avlo train

Northern Catalonia’s largest city, Girona has an intoxicating mishmash of architectural styles, including the walled medieval Barri Vell (old quarter), the Roman Força Vella fortress ruins, and spectacular Modernista (Catalan art nouveau) villas. From the Eiffel-designed Pont de les Peixateries Velles, you’ll get the best views of the colorful buildings flanking the river Onyar. Cinephiles mustn’t miss Museu del Cinema, a tiny charmer of a specialist museum dedicated to cult movies.

Third-party research was conducted by market research firm OnePoll on behalf of Expedia Group from August 5–September 2 2024, counting 25,000 respondents across 19 countries among adults who have traveled for leisure or plan to in the next three years.