There’s a particular kind of traveler who lands in a new city, checks off the major landmarks in a single afternoon, and leaves feeling like they’ve seen the place without ever really touching it. Then there’s the traveler who wanders into a neighborhood grocery store just to see what’s on the shelves, or lingers over a bowl of noodles at a plastic stool on the sidewalk. The difference between those two trips rarely comes down to budget or time. It comes down to approach.
In 2026, more travelers seem to be figuring that out. Surveys from major travel brands keep pointing to the same shift: people are spending less on quantity and more on depth, choosing fewer trips but richer ones. What follows are the approaches that seem to actually deliver on that promise, backed by current research rather than travel-brochure wishful thinking.
Eat where the locals actually eat
Food has quietly become one of the biggest reasons people choose a destination at all, not just a pleasant side note to sightseeing. Nearly 80% of travellers say cuisine is either important or very important when choosing a destination, placing it on par with cost, location, and reviews. That’s a meaningful shift from the days when a trip’s itinerary revolved purely around monuments and museums.
What’s interesting is where that appetite is actually pointing people. Sixty-six percent of travellers say they’re most excited by street food, and sixty-four percent prefer unique, local experiences over fine dining or Michelin-starred restaurants. A market stall run by the same family for thirty years often tells you more about a place than a tasting menu ever could, and the data suggests plenty of travelers have caught on to that.
Book a hands-on workshop instead of a guided walk-through
Watching something happen and doing it yourself are two very different kinds of memory. Travel brands have noticed the appetite for the latter growing sharply. Whether it’s a tortilla-making class in Mexico City or a fragrance workshop in Paris, 79% of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed say that they’re likely to seek out local workshops or activities specific to the destination they’re visiting.
The booking numbers back up the sentiment. Bookings for local shopping and craft experiences are up sharply, with vintage discovery tours jumping 60%, hands-on local workshops up 52%, and craft classes up 75% year-over-year. A pottery class or a cooking lesson leaves you with something a photo can’t: a skill, or at least a story about how badly you botched the first attempt.
Get lost in a local market
Markets have a way of compressing an entire culture into one loud, colorful space, food, textiles, gossip, and daily life all happening within arm’s reach. It’s no surprise that visits to heritage markets are surging as travelers look for something more textured than a typical shopping district. The Trendcast report highlights surging bookings for food experiences, with heritage markets seeing dramatic growth, like a 466% spike for Seoul’s Gwangjang Market.
That kind of jump doesn’t happen because a market suddenly got better. It happens because travelers started paying attention to something that was always there. A morning spent wandering stalls, sampling as you go, tends to reveal more about how a city actually functions than an hour in a museum gift shop.
Leave room in the itinerary for the unplanned
Over-scheduling a trip is one of the surest ways to miss it entirely. Plenty of travelers seem to be learning that lesson, deliberately building slack into their plans rather than filling every hour. 87% of global respondents like to leave room in their itinerary for unexpected local discoveries.
That openness extends beyond just free time on a calendar. 76% of global respondents say they’re likely to do something adventurous or outside their comfort zone while traveling, with Millennials and Gen Z surveyed even more likely to do so. The best stories from a trip rarely come from the thing that was booked six months in advance. They tend to come from the detour.
Sleep somewhere with a personality
Where you rest your head shapes the trip more than most people admit. A generic hotel room could technically be anywhere, which is exactly the problem for travelers trying to actually connect with a place. Unconventional and character-driven stays have moved from niche interest to mainstream expectation surprisingly fast.
91% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents would be interested in experiencing an unconventional accommodation on their next trip, with luxury rail travel and converted historical spaces among the most popular. A restored monastery, a train cabin, or a family-run guesthouse tends to fold the destination into the stay itself, rather than treating lodging as a neutral pit stop between activities.
Chase something that pushes you slightly outside your comfort zone
There’s a specific kind of memory that only comes from doing something a little frightening, and travelers are increasingly seeking that out on purpose. Adventure activities that once felt reserved for hardened outdoors types are becoming far more accessible and, apparently, far more popular. Tripadvisor’s data shows glacier tours up 29%, lava field excursions up 79%, and heli-hiking up 56% year-over-year as travelers chase those big moments.
What makes this shift notable is how approachable these experiences have become. Guided glacier walks in Iceland or structured tours through underground catacombs let people test their limits without needing mountaineering credentials. The appeal isn’t recklessness, it’s the sense of having actually done something rather than just watched it from a bus window.
Shop and eat where residents actually shop and eat
Skip the souvenir shop lined with keychains and head to the supermarket instead. It sounds almost too simple to matter, but plenty of travelers now treat a grocery store aisle as a genuine cultural stop rather than a chore. Sampling local food is the best way to understand culture according to 68% of respondents, and grocery shopping makes 54% of travelers feel like a local rather than a tourist.
This isn’t just about picking up snacks, though plenty of travelers do exactly that. Wandering the same aisles a local family would shop from, reading labels you don’t recognize, noticing what’s on sale that week, all of it offers a small but honest window into daily life. It costs nothing extra and requires no reservation, which makes it one of the more underrated ways to experience a place.
Time the trip around the shoulder season
When you go can matter just as much as where you go. Traveling during quieter stretches of the year tends to mean thinner crowds, more relaxed locals, and often a more authentic version of daily life in a destination, since peak season tends to reshape a place around visitors rather than residents. Climate patterns are pushing more travelers toward this kind of timing as well.
Seventy-six percent of travelers altering plans due to climate change are traveling during shoulder season or off-peak times when weather is typically better. A city in its quieter months often shows a different face entirely, one where restaurants aren’t fully booked and museum lines don’t stretch around the block.
Travel with others and turn the trip into a shared occasion
A destination hits differently when it’s tied to a milestone or shared with the right people. Plenty of travelers are treating trips less like simple vacations and more like events worth building an entire itinerary around. Two-thirds of global respondents plan to take a trip to celebrate a milestone for other people.
That impulse tends to extend the trip itself, not just its meaning. More than seven in ten global respondents plan to extend their stay by at least three to four days when traveling for a milestone occasion. A celebration built into the travel plan gives people a reason to slow down, linger a bit longer, and actually absorb the place instead of rushing through it.
Bringing it all together
None of these approaches require unlimited time or money. A grocery store visit costs nothing, a market wander costs an hour, and even a hands-on workshop is usually cheaper than a fancy dinner. What they share is a willingness to slow down and let a place reveal itself on its own terms rather than checking boxes off a list.
The destinations themselves rarely change much from year to year. What shifts is how people choose to move through them, and that shift is where the real difference between a forgettable trip and a memorable one tends to live.