The trend reports are in, and 2027 is shaping up to be the year of the underdog. Across predictions from Expedia, Booking.com, Lonely Planet, Skyscanner, National Geographic and more, a clear pattern emerges: skip the overtouristed classics and head to smaller cities, quieter islands and overlooked coastlines.
Search data from Expedia and Skyscanner points to surging interest in Perugia (up 35%), Chichester (up 30%), Malmö, Trapani in Sicily, and Kittilä in Finnish Lapland – a gateway to Northern Lights territory and Levi, Finland's largest ski resort. Booking.com's trending trio includes Reims, an easy 45-minute high-speed train hop from Paris with cathedral spires and champagne cellars beneath the streets, plus Pescara on Italy's Adriatic and Bratislava, the compact Slovak capital wedged between Vienna and Budapest on the Danube.
Lonely Planet's 2027 Best in Travel list goes wider: the Veneto beyond Venice (think Dolomites, Lake Garda, Verona and Padua), Croatia's festival-filled Šibenik, medieval León in northern Spain, Sweden's cool 'Swedish Riviera' at Skanör-Falsterbo, and Bauhaus-stronghold Dessau in Germany. National Geographic adds six more European picks: Norway's fjord-laced Vestland, Poland's Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot), Leipzig with its expanded 7.2km Music Trail, Normandy celebrating 1,000 years since William the Conqueror's birth with 1,000-plus events, Santander with two major new art museums, and Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, getting a dark sky observatory next summer.
Intrepid Travel's 'Not Hot List' champions places where your money actually matters: Alonnisos in Greece's Northern Sporades, home to Europe's largest marine protected area and an underwater museum at the Peristera shipwreck; Liepāja in Latvia, a 2027 European Capital of Culture with 500-plus events and an eight-kilometre beach; and Sweden's lake-dense Dalsland, newly reachable via a Malmö–Oslo rail link.
Booking numbers back the buzz. Fora Travel reports big growth for Malta (+129%), Slovenia (+152%) and Finland (+138%), while Advantage Travel Partnership flags Albania as the value beach destination to watch – with Spain still the British short-haul favourite. Virtuoso, meanwhile, crowns Greece the world's top honeymoon destination for 2027, with wealthier couples trading Rome and Paris for Ischia, Puglia, Burgundy and the Dolomites. And don't forget the eclipse: Cádiz, Málaga and Marbella are expected to draw crowds for August's total solar eclipse.
If you're planning a 2027 trip, the smart play is booking one of these rising names before everyone else does – especially event-driven spots like Liepāja and Normandy, and eclipse-zone Andalusia, where accommodation will sell out early.
