Booking.com's annual predictions report is out, and its headline trend for 2027 is the 'plot twist trip' — a holiday chosen specifically to do something wildly unlike you. Drawing on surveys of more than 28,000 travellers worldwide, the platform found that 77% are interested in picking a destination purely to break their usual script. Think wellness devotees signing up for a combat sports camp, or clubbers booking a silent monastery retreat. The bragging rights matter too: 36% want to surprise friends and family with their choice, and the platform cheerfully calls the resulting reactions the best souvenir of all.
There's a social-media edge to this as well. Nearly a third of respondents (29%) admit they've deleted or simply never posted holiday photos because the trip felt too predictable to share. The plot twist trip is, in part, a response to feed fatigue — the idea being that if nobody can predict where you're going, the content writes itself.
The report goes well beyond that one trend. Its 'all-exclusive' concept flips the all-inclusive model on its head: 66% of travellers want packages that let them strip out services they'll never use, paying only for what they actually want. Meanwhile, 'vibe check(in)' finds 81% would now choose a destination based on how they want to feel rather than where it is — booking calm, adventure or romance first, geography second.
Money is reshaping guest lists, too. Half of travellers have reconsidered who to invite on a trip because of spending differences, and 38% have cut someone from a travel group altogether. Parents aren't exempt: 61% say they'd rather travel child-free so they can splurge on themselves. Other trends lean into the unusual — 65% are curious about paranormal experiences, with nearly half hoping to make contact with someone on 'the other side'. In the workplace, 64% would happily let AI handle their jobs while they're away, and 89% would take a long-haul flight if guaranteed to land rested, reflecting the push for wellness at 30,000 feet. Even romance gets reworked: 47% would take a trip specifically to resolve conflict with a partner, favouring long walks and hikes over candlelit dinners.
Alongside the trends, Booking.com named its 10 trending destinations for 2027: Reims (France), Monterey (California), Sendai (Japan), Rosario (Argentina), Puri (India), Christchurch (New Zealand), Bratislava (Slovakia), Goiânia (Brazil), Pescara (Italy) and Asunción (Paraguay). Three of the ten are in Europe, and several are genuinely under-the-radar picks rather than the usual headline cities.
Who should care? Anyone bored of their own holidays. If your last three trips blurred together, the report's core message is that 2027 is the year to book the thing you'd never normally book — and that hotels and operators will increasingly sell you the option to customise, unplug or shock your group chat. It's also a useful signal of where prices and crowds might grow: trending lists have a habit of becoming self-fulfilling, so the curious may want to move early on Pescara or Sendai before everyone else does.
