Uncover these two journey developments anticipated to take over 2026 and how you can take part

Imagine spending 2026 studying how you can make recent pasta within the Tuscany countryside or biking alongside the Rhine River. For right this moment’s vacationers, holidays are now not about checking landmarks off a listing. They’re about connection, discovery, and tales price bringing dwelling.

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

From immersive cultural experiences to adrenaline-fueled adventures, journey developments are shifting towards journeys that really feel private, purposeful, and unforgettable. Travel advertising and marketing product supervisor David Pehle tends to place these kinds of journey into two buckets: experiential journey and journey journey.

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Experiential journey is all about cultural immersion. It goes past hitting the highest vacationer sights and really experiencing a vacation spot like an area or solely in ways in which locals understand how.

“People who want to travel to Italy, for example, are not going only to see the Colosseum or try all the food; they want authentic experiences like going to the Tuscany countryside and learning how to make fresh pasta in someone’s home,” Pehle says.

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

While there’ll at all times be these trying to loosen up, Pehle says journey journey can be seeing an enormous enhance. While rooted in the identical need for extra of an expertise, journey journey takes that one step additional.

“People don’t want to sit on a bus. They want to bike along the Rhine River, hike the Inca trail, and so on,” he says. “That type of travel saw a huge uptick in 2025, and we’re projecting for 2026 that is the type of traveling that will be most popular.”

Whichever type of journey you might be planning, a AAA membership is your option to get entry to unique member advantages and facilities provided by its most popular journey companions.

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

AAA Travel Partners price exploring

• Viking Cruises: Looking for an enriching tour that provides an opportunity to deeply join along with your locations? This cruise line specializing in river, ocean and expedition cruises is understood for its elegant ships, immersive cultural experiences, and destination-focused itineraries. Guests can even get pleasure from award-winning service and inclusive pricing.
• Royal Caribbean: For these looking for world-class leisure, locations, and facilities, this main international cruise line is the appropriate match. Take a experience aboard considered one of Royal Caribbean’s revolutionary ships to expertise unforgettable experiences tailor-made for households, {couples}, and solo vacationers alike.
• G Adventures: With this small-group journey journey firm, friends can expertise extra off-the-beaten path locations. Trips deal with genuine but sustainable experiences that join vacationers with native cultures and communities like by no means earlier than with distinctive itineraries and knowledgeable guides.
• Trafalgar: This guided trip firm is designed to make journey as stress-free as potential. Led by knowledgeable native guides, Trafalgar presents curated itineraries throughout the globe full of hassle-free planning, insider entry to distinctive locations, and the prospect to attach deeply with native traditions and communities.

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Courtesy of AAA Missouri

Visit the Winter Travel Marketplace

Are you prepared to start out your 2026 journey? AAA Travel’s annual Winter Travel Marketplace returns January 24, 2026, on the Holiday Inn St. Louis SW–Route 66. Guests can register online or by calling 866-222-7587. From 9 a.m.–1 p.m., friends can take part in informative displays from AAA most popular journey companions and have entry to AAA journey advisors to start trip planning. Guests can even obtain limited-time presents, unique member advantages, and a free passport photograph voucher. While you’re there, you should definitely decide up a free copy of AAA’s detailed Route 66 map to have fun the Mother Road’s one hundredth anniversary, or go to AAA.com/route66.

Unable to make the present? Call or go to your native AAA department between January 23 and February 7 to make the most of these presents throughout the AAA Travel Sale.

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This put up was created by SLM Partner Studio on behalf of AAA Missouri. For extra info, go to one of many AAA Missouri workplaces within the St. Louis metro space, or contact a AAA Travel Advisor at aaa.com/travel.