With 2025 on the horizon, specialist travel company Discover the World reveals the trends that they see shaping travel experiences over the next year and how they are catering for their own adventurers and explorers.
From the lure of the night skies, solar surges and eclipses to unplugged family adventures in its newest destination, Costa Rica, and the meteoric rise of rail travel, these trends reflect the world of travel’s evolving preferences and the specialist’s insights into where to go, how to travel and the trips to book for the year ahead, which include many exciting new opportunities.
1. Reaching for the Sky
The rise of Astro-Tourism in a dark sky era
Stargazing specialists
The lure of travel centred around stargazing and celestial events has surged in popularity largely due to a combination of technological and environmental factors. Advances in portable telescopes, mobile stargazing apps have all added to the interest as well as a global increased effort to combat light pollution and preserve the dark skies headed up by the International Dark Sky Association.
Hotel Ranga’s Ultimate Star Bath
Discover the World has seen a massive interest in destinations which allow visitors to experience stargazing with specialists as they do at Hotel Ranga in Iceland, which has its own observatory and inhouse astronomer, Sævar Helgi Bragason, ready to share knowledge and experiences. New for this winter is the hotel’s ‘Ultimate Star Bath’ experience which includes a private astronomy lesson, riverside viewing with cozy blankets, an astro cocktail and a personalised star map of the constellations seen during your stay.
Aurora – and catching 2025 solar surge
Northern Lights holidays have never been more popular with Discover the World reporting an increase in 10% for winter 2024/5 bookings as we are now at the peak of the Solar Cycle 25 with forward bookings for 2025/6 being very strong.
What’s more, there are a plethora of new direct flights from the UK as a response of this interest in snowy aurora trips including British Airways into Ivalo, as well as a choice of new flights into Tromso, Norway, with Easyjet from Bristol, Manchester and Gatwick, and SAS and British Airways from Heathrow, just to mention a few.
Whether you go in search of the lights on horseback, snowmobile or by enjoying a feast on a frozen lake or simply from the comfort of a glass domed aurora hut, Alaska, Canada and the Nordics all offer great opportunities.
However, for the Ultimate Aurora Hunt, why not combine three trips into one by visiting Swedish Lapland’s Abisko National Park (statistically one of the best places for aurora viewings) and then on to the iconic Icehotel, before heading up to Northern Norway for a stay at the remote Malangen resort, before finishing your trip in Iceland exploring the Golden Circle and staying at Hotel Ranga to spend nights searching the skies from the comfort of the hotel’s own observatory with their resident astronomer.
Also, Discover the World is launching yet another new NEW aurora trip for 2025, this time tapping into the skills around aurora photography with this expert led Iceland Landscapes and Aurora Photography Tour.
Eclipse Chasers book ahead for 2026
Discover the World is also looking forward to 12 August 2026 for the next total eclipse, which will be visible in East Greenland and the west of Iceland.
One incredible way to witness the event is to join a small-ship expedition voyage to East Greenland on a special departure carefully planned to coincide with the eclipse with guest lecturer, astrophysicist Paul Sutter.
2. Unplugged Family Adventures
New family trips to Australia, Costa Rica and Norway
As parents search for more ways to achieve screen free family time, Discover the World has seen a huge increase in demand for that big family adventure, the ultimate way reconnect, replacing beach and pool time with thrilling experiences sure to distract.
As the debate on smart phone free childhoods continues, Discover the World’s expertise in educational travel, organising 100s of schools overseas trips each year, stands them in good shape to keep kids so engaged with real-world fun on their family holiday itineraries that they will forget screens exist, with new trips to Australia and Costa Rica as well as Senja in Norway being introduced for 2025, adding to their family portfolio which also includes Iceland, Finland and Canada.
The NEW Family Adventure Downunder offers the chance to visit the world’s largest sand island, K’gari, search for wildlife including kangaroos and koalas, take a turtle discovery tour on Hamilton Island and venture into the Daintree Rainforest as part of the new 17 day east coast adventure from Brisbane to Port Douglas
Or, choose the NEW 13 night Costa Rica Family Adventure where kids will be thrilled by chocolate making experiences, flying over the rainforest on a zip-line and spotting monkeys and iguanas on a river float safari on the Sarapiqui River.
And finally, the NEW 5 night Family Adventure at Hamn i Senja, a wild adventure to Senja Island located south west Tromsø, the second largest island in Norway with a new 5 night family adventure ‘under the midnight sun’ with hiking, kayaking and cycling all included.
3. Summering in cooler climes
Searching for the Midnight Sun and Scandi Lifestyle
Discover the World has seen a surge in interest for summer Scandinavia trips, known for their cooler climates and the perfect way to avoid the recent scorching temperatures in the southern Med. Bookings this year alone have doubled.
This trend looks set to continue with the region delivering on so many fronts including outdoors adventure, wellbeing, nature and sustainability. Many are drawn to the area to chase the ‘Nordic light’, the allure of living and holidaying like a Scandinavian and enjoying the Midnight Sun as well as messing about on the water, swimming, kayaking and fishing all being very popular pastimes.
2025 sees a whole host of new trips to meet this demand being introduced to both Finland and Northern Norway making the most of the long days unique in this region, all exploring the lesser known areas of these countries. For example:
Around Vesterålen,is a NEW 7 night road trip exploring the archipelago of Norway’s Vesterålen region taking in extraordinary scenery, whale abundant waters and picturesque remote fishing villages such as the hidden gem of Nyksund and a much quieter alternative to the Lofoten Islands.
4. Nordic H2O highs
The appetite for geothermal bathing, cold water dips and generally messing about in or on water has never been higher with Discover the World constantly incorporating more and more ‘watery’ elements to itineraries in the Nordics and further afield.
Floating sauna experiences are now available to book in many locations including the Norwegian fjords including Flam, for those searching for more authentic ways to sauna and until recently the Finnish Lakelands have been very much left to the locals.
The Best of Finnish Lakeland, is one of two NEW Finland self-drive itineraries for 2025, both delivering that truly Finnish summer experience. Holiday like a true Finn by taking refreshing dips in pristine lakes along the way and hiking in striking national parks. From rowing and kayaking to fishing, these new holidays take the slow road and enable you to enjoy these enchanting lakes as well as sauna and foraging.
5. Greenland gaining ground
Better access, glacier walking and book ahead for 2026 Solar Eclipse
It’s hard to imagine that despite Greenland being the largest island in the world, its capital Nuuk has only just got its own international airport (opened 28 November). However, this step is the start of much more to come making the country more accessible for visitors, despite only having 56 miles of paved roads, and a top choice for 2025 travel, with a further two new airports planned to open in IIulissat in the west and Qaqortoq in the south by the end of 2026.
Discover the World offers an extensive Greenland programme with a total of 11 different trips offering land based, small expedition voyages and a hiking trip offered with departures throughout the summer to join a small group on the Hiking in South Greenland trip on an invigorating walking holiday, which includes extraordinary day hikes to the Flower Valley trail and a glacier walk, as well as the chance to explore Viking ruins of Eric the Red’s farm at Brattahlid.
6. Small is more for polar
Svalbard toughens up to protect and the growth of micro cruising
January 2025 sees the introduction of stricter rules in Svalbard for expedition vessels, making smaller ship voyages already favoured by Discover the World an even more key choice to explore this area from a sustainability point of view, as well as enhancing the experience and most importantly more time on the ice during landings.
The Norwegian government regulations will impact cruising activities, particularly polar bear viewing which will be prohibited at less than 300 – 500 metres distance and will prohibit vessels carrying more than 200 passengers from accessing the national parks and nature reserves, making it virtually impossible for larger ships to cruise there.
For example, choose Poseidon’s ‘tiny but mighty’ Sea Spirit which carries just 114 passengers on board on the West Spitsbergen Explorer expedition, meaning less landing rotations required compared to the larger ships and more time exploring this incredible region.
Discover the World will be looking to add even more options over the coming year to include micro expedition cruises of 12 passengers maximum, allowing for more personalised itineraries, closer connections to the natural world and access to lesser visited destinations. Watch this space for more.
7. Take the slow road or tracks
new road and rail trips announced
The appetite to slow down and fully explore the lesser visited areas of a country continues to be one of the strongest trends for the specialist tour operator offering in-depth self-drive itineraries to specific regions across Canada, Alaska, the Nordics, Costa Rica, Australia and New Zealand, all exploring well beyond the ‘greatest hits’.
For example the 13 night summer self-drive Newfoundland Discovery is solely dedicated to exploring Canada’s most eastern province in depth and news of enhanced transatlantic services between UK (London and Edinburgh ) and Halifax and St John’s makes this trip even more accessible for Brits.
Also on the theme of taking it slow, Discover the World’s expanding rail journeys collection taps into this appetite allowing every inch of the journey to be savoured with two NEW journeys exploring Switzerland being launched for 2025.
The week long Switzerland’s Magnificent Lakes and Mountains trip will be introduced as well as a longer 12 night Classic Highlights of Switzerland offering the perfect blend of elegant cities and stunning alpine resorts including the iconic Glacier Express and the scenic Golden Pass Panorama Express all in one trip.
Also, watch this space as Discover the World gets set for the highly anticipated reintroduction of the Newcastle to Bergen passenger and car ferry, rumoured to start operation in 2026.
8. Offbeat sleeps
On ice, underwater, in the trees – you can almost sleep anywhere
There’s no doubt that the appetite for quirky places to stay, or ‘offbeat sleeps’, is gaining momentum with the hospitality industry at large becoming increasingly creative in finding new ways to stand out, such as incorporating unusual architectural elements, quirky locations and unique experiences central to the accommodation offering.
Sleep on ice – Icehotel celebrates 35th hotel for 2025
An early adaptor of this trend was certainly one of Discover the World’s most popular places to stay, the Icehotel in Swedish Lapland, where you can choose to sleep at -5C on ice. There is currently a team of 27 artists from around the world constructing the 35th hotel (the first Icehotel opened 35 years ago ) made entirely of ice which is set to open its doors on 15 December. British design duo Lisa Lindqvist & Kate Munro are creating this year’s ceremony hall, Gaia’s bloom, a floral splendour.
Antarctica Bivvy Bag
Still on an icy theme, it doesn’t get more extreme than the experience being offered in Antarctica where passengers on selected polar expedition voyages can choose to sleep a ‘night on the ice’ under the midnight sun, skygazing from a simple but cosy bivvy bag.
Underwater
Reef Suites were Australia’s first underwater hotel suites that opened five years ago offering guests the incredible chance to sleep surrounded by marine life off Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
With the bears
And most recently we have seen the opening of an incredible new camp in 2023, the Alaska Bear Camp within the Lake Clark National Park offering one of the world’s most immersive bear watching experiences. The very fact that this camp exists is crucial to the future of the bears, which continue to face potential threats from mining, oil and gas development in the area.
New in Costa Rica
Discover the World’s newest destination, Costa Rica, also offers some incredible places to sleep in remote and unique locations, such as the newly opened Tocu Tent Camp which is part of the NEW Authentic Costa Rica trip launched for 2025 where guests spend two nights at the camp at the heart of the Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve sleeping in safari tents surrounding a bio pool.
For more information on Discover the World, please
see www.discover-the-world.com or call 01737 428 307025 adventures and tips on trips to book
