Like anywhere else in life, there are trends for travel destinations. How and especially where to travel very often depends on what’s up to date at the moment. Regularly we read about cities, regions or countries, getting the feeling that almost everyone was already there. Having the information, you might feel like you already know the place without having been there.
Rresponsible’ for this are travel guides and magazines like Lonely Planet or Condé Nast Traveller. With their lists and recommendations, they make sure that there are new trend destinations every year. We’re guilty as charged. We love reading them and being inspired to travel to certain places.
Dream places and trend destinations
The reason why some places develop to a dream destination is, they fulfil there our longings.
Back in the old days, Italy was a longing place for the bourgeoisie, later Goa in India became the Mecca for Hippies. Thailand was the dream destination for backpackers while Australia and New Zealand attract young Germans after their A-levels.
We all have pictures in our minds when it comes to those places, long before we even were there. Our expectations are formed before we leave our houses.
Current Trends
In this post, we talk about specific trend destinations of the past years we also visited. Some places almost have a magic attraction. We’re arrogant now and try to make reviews for a few places.
On the one hand, there’s Cuba, which has opened up for tourism and experiences some kind of Gold Rush for some years now. On the other hand, there’s Iceland which has always been a dream destination for wild nature lovers and becomes even more popular in winter now. And there’s Dubrovnik, which was always popular but now totally freaks out because of Game of Thrones.
Curse or blessing?
For people working in tourism, it’s definitely a blessing when their country is chosen to be a trend destination. They earn more money and it’s not only a few people becoming rich. Visitors profit as well as infrastructure is becoming better. For example, there are more transport possibilities and hotels.
But just like in any other case in life, it’s a question of the right doses. If there’s too much, everything will turn negative. Locals complain about mass tourism, tourists complain about overcrowded places. Everything becomes more expensive, locals have to leave the area, the place loses its authenticity and no one’s happy in the end. The dream destination loses its magic.
Furthermore: We don’t want to be insulting, but at a certain point this kind of tourism attracts the mob. When talking about the mob, we mean people, that don’t respect nature, sights and cultural habits. They throw their garbage everywhere and locals start to hate foreigners. That’s the moment everything went way too far.
Cuba
We’ve been to Cuba in 2013. Back then, people were already saying: ‘You have to hurry up. It’s still a secret place to visit and soon it will be overrun by Americans.’ Well, this turned out to be nonsense. Back then, there were already a lot of travellers in Cuba.
But: Compared to what we hear, see and read today, it seemed to be really modest back then. It’s said to be really overcrowded now and it seems like most of the travellers have already been there. We think, you can still travel there to experience the real Cuba-Clichés and have an awesome time there.
Tip: In low season (from March/April to September/October) it’s less crowded and if you’re lucky, you can experience the real Cuba with perfect weather.
Iceland
Iceland had already been a dream destination for a long time. But travels concentrated on summer months in July and August due to the weather (it’s rarely really warm here, but at least kind of pleasant in summer) and almost 24 hours of sunlight.
What’s new is that people also start coming in spring and autumn: Endless snow landscapes and northern lights attract people from all over the world. Good flight dals outside the main season are another reason for this trend. We were here in March 2016 and the Golden Circle, where you can find some of the main attractions of Iceland was actually quite busy.
Despite of that, it was calm. The south and the west of the island were almost tourist free. So for now, spring and autumn are still some kind of an Iceland secret. We hope, you’ll be lucky like us and enjoy the fabulous winter sun in Iceland.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Croatia’s most southern city had already been popular in the times of former Yugoslavia. After the war, they restored the city and the popularity increased even more. A lot of people making holiday at the surrounding beaches make day trips to the medieval town.
The popularity exploded after some scenes of Game of Thrones were shot within the walls of Dubrovnik. We saw a lot of posters and merchandise stores and people were asking us to make a GoT-Tour, which we didn’t (though we love the TV series).
We really loved the Old Town. But we’ve been there in June before main season started and it was already way too crowded. We really don’t want to know what it’s like in July and August.
Advice: In the late afternoon, when day trippers are gone, the city becomes totally relaxed and you can enjoy an amazing atmosphere. You should definitely book an overnight stay here. Dubrovnik in the evening is awesome.
What are your experiences with trend destinations? Which can you recommend to visit?