LONDON, 13 October 2026 – Voyageurs du Monde, the award-winning tailor-made travel company, has revealed the trends set to shape travel in 2027. Underpinning them all is a fundamental human instinct: curiosity, and the happiness we derive from discovering something, or somewhere, new. Psychologist Todd Kashdan of George Mason University identifies ‘Joyous Exploration’ – the pleasure we take in encountering the unfamiliar – as a key dimension of curiosity associated with greater wellbeing. And in an increasingly uncertain world, the opportunity to explore, connect and be pleasantly surprised has arguably never been more valuable. 

Move to the Music 

Music is more than a soundtrack to travel. It has an extraordinary ability to connect us to a place – its people, history, culture and mood – and some destinations simply sound better than others. Follow the blues from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago, reggae in Kingston, samba in Rio, K-pop in Seoul or classical music in Salzburg and Vienna. The point isn’t necessarily to travel for a concert, but to travel through music: visiting the studios, clubs and neighbourhoods where genres were born, meeting musicians, learning the dances and hearing the soundtrack of a destination where it actually belongs. Voyageurs du Monde has seen a 67% year-on-year increase in trips booked around musically significant places and the icons behind them, and 2027 brings another reason to turn up the volume, from the reopening of Detroit’s expanded Motown Museum to Vienna marking 200 years since Beethoven’s death. 

For more inspiration, check out these: The Soundtrack of Travel | Voyageurs du Monde  

Instant Insider 

No-one wants to feel like a tourist, shepherded round the same five sights and handed the English menu before you've even sat down. What people want is to feel like they actually live somewhere, even if only for a week. That's the pitch behind Instant Insider. Stay in one of Voyageurs du Monde's carefully curated Home from Homes properties to enjoy the privacy of a private home, often with the amenities of a hotel. Let their clued-up local Concierges sort the stuff only a local would know: a booking at the good local trattoria, or a yoga class down the road. Their consultant-generated Dossiers point you toward the places tourists don't know about, and if you want the human version of that, the Voyageurs' Like a Local guides – not guides in the clipboard sense, more like well-connected friends who happen to live there – will show you round themselves. Which leads on to… 

Sample itinerary: A Wild Family Adventure Across Argentina - Live like a gaucho on a 6,000-acre working cattle ranch and horse breeding farm in central Argentina. Immerse yourself in everyday estancia life; head out on horseback to herd cattle, learn gaucho skills like lassoing and take guided walks through the rolling farmland to learn about the local tradition and culture. From £5,500pp based on two sharing and including international and internal flights, car hire and 10 nights B&B accommodation.  

People Not Places 

As social media and AI become ever more ubiquitous, the desire for genuine human connection is only deepening. No meaningful journey is complete without meaningful encounters, and increasingly the person you meet can be as memorable as the place you visit. With this in mind, Voyageurs du Monde has partnered with CHNGMKR, a collective that works with a portfolio of remarkable individuals around the world, to offer travellers exclusive meetings tailored to their interests and aspirations. Artists, thinkers, researchers and inspiring figures committed to their communities – people whose paths you would rarely cross by chance. CHNGMKR’s curators match travellers with them according to their interests, creating encounters that bring greater depth, sensitivity and meaning to a journey. That might mean walking through Nairobi’s Karura Forest with Wanjira Mathai, daughter of the first female African Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and one of Africa’s leading environmentalists, discussing climate funding and African-led conservation; meeting former European Space Agency astrophysicist Daria Robinson in Geneva to talk science and emerging technology; visiting an argan oil cooperative in Morocco with chemist Zoubida Charrouf; or spending a morning with Madhu Vaishnav and the artisans of Saheli Women in Rajasthan. 

Tom Barber, Chief Brand Officer of Voyageurs du Monde in the UK, says, “A chance to meet someone fascinating, hear their story and see a place from a completely different perspective can stay with you far longer than a famous sight. We’ve always believed that travel is about curiosity and connection, and these encounters take that idea a step further. They give our travellers a reason to look beyond the obvious and come home with a much richer sense of a place.” 

Birdwatching 

First, it was film photography. Then it was crochet. Now we’re heading into the birdwatching era. An increasingly inescapable digital society is driving a return to vintage and analogue hobbies, and 2027 is set to be the year of birdwatching. Almost 750,000 Gen Zers in Britain regularly enjoy watching birds, representing a 1,088% increase since 2018. But it’s not just Gen Z picking up the binoculars. Regular birdwatching has been embraced by all generations over the past eight years, with a 47% increase overall, a 216% increase among millennials and a 66% increase in Gen X birders**. As luck would have it, the Voyageurs team of wildlife-loving destination experts includes several passionate birders who have curated six new itineraries to our birdwatching collection. They are here to tailor-make any holiday to help you spot that yellow-fronted barbet in Sri Lanka or the white-tailed eagle in Norway. 

For more inspiration, have a sticky beak at these itineraries Birdwatching Holidays - Tailor-Made Luxury – Voyageurs du Monde 

Teen-led Trips 

Both parents and the industry now agree: no one knows what makes a family holiday work better than the children themselves. As a result, family holidays are becoming increasingly child-led, but while the industry has the needs of babies and youngsters down pat, the truculent teen is often forgotten. But it’s time to catch up; Voyageurs du Monde have seen a 193% rise in website traffic to their Travelling with Teenagers collection*** and responded with nine new itineraries for every type of teen, from K-Pop obsessives (with a trip to Seoul where we can organise a private dance class) to adrenaline-seekers (with a 13-day adventure from the Amazon to the Andes).  

Tom Barber, father of four teenagers and Chief Brand Officer of Voyageurs du Monde in the UK, says, “There’s a simple rule to family travel that we’ve learnt both professionally and, in my case, through years of experience at home: if the children are happy, everyone is happy. But teenagers are a different proposition. They’re old enough to have strong opinions, specific interests and, increasingly, the ability to tell you exactly what they do and don’t want to do – usually without much diplomatic subtlety. Rather than fighting that, the best family holidays put teenagers in the driving seat. That doesn’t mean letting them choose the hotel and spending two weeks glued to a phone; it means building a trip around the things that genuinely excite them. Get that bit right and you’ll be amazed at how enjoyable a holiday with your teen can be.” 

[ENDS] 

For interview requests or more information, contact Voyageurs du Monde (formerly Original Travel) on 020 3582 4990 or at pr@originaltravel.co.uk. www.voyageursdumonde.co.uk (please bear with us while we rebrand). 

Notes to Editors 

* Based on internal booking data from 1st January 2025 to 30th September 2025 and 1st January 2026 to 30th September 2026 

** according to research by Fifty5Blue published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 2026. Gen Z is defined as 16 to 29-year-olds. Accessed via: Barkham, 2026, ' Gen Z flocks to BirdTok as birding takes flight: ‘It’s a craving for something real', The Guardian, accessed 14 August 2026, < https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/01/birdwatching-boom-britain-nature-gen-z-rspb-environment>.  

***Based on internal website traffic data from the first six months of this year (1st January 2026 to 30 June 2026) vs. the last six months of 2025 (1st July 2025 to 31st December 2025).   

About Voyageurs du Monde 

• Voyageurs du Monde curates tailor-made itineraries, crafted by destination experts to 80+ countries worldwide from Anguilla to Zimbabwe. 

• Voyageurs du Monde also has its own specialist dive division.  

• 16 of our consultants are recognised as Condé Nast Traveler’s 2026 Travel Specialists with areas of expertise ranging from family travel and sabbaticals to destinations including Colombia, Egypt, India, Cambodia, Oman, the USA, Kenya, Greece, Norway, Italy, Japan and South Korea. 

• In October 2026, we were listed among the top ten Tour Operators in the country, as voted for by the readers themselves in the prestigious Condé Nast Traveller Reader’s Choice Awards.  

• Voyageurs du Monde clients enjoy a wealth of additional services they would not find with any other UK tour operator, including:  

• Access to a network of 70-plus Concierges who live locally, know their destinations inside and out and are extremely well-connected. They lend fantastic ground support, offering insider recommendations, facilitating any last-minute changes and troubleshooting.  

• A brace of additional services designed to make departure easier than ever. Every Voyageurs du Monde client, regardless of whether they’re off on a city break, or a multi-destination sabbatical, is checked in on all flights – outbound, domestic and inbound - with boarding passes uploaded to our dedicated app; will have UK airport meet and greet, fast track UK check-in, fast track UK security*, lounge access and pre-booked flight seats. Thoughtful details include WiFi routers or e-sims, destination specific book and music lists and children’s activity packs. There are also upgrade options to include: a luggage transfer service from your home to the airport; fast track check-in and security and lounge access on your flight home; fast track through immigration on your return to the UK.  

• The knowledge that not only will Voyageurs du Monde absorb the carbon footprint of their international flights, but also - in an industry-first - car-hire and transfers, and other flights (even if booked independently).  Clients can also be advised on which flight options have the lowest levels of emissions, thanks to an industry-leading and world-first carbon calculator which can compare the levels of emissions generated by each flight, using data compiled from flight plans, aircraft type, the cabin class, direct versus indirect flights and the target occupancy rate. 

• The knowledge that they are contributing to Our Foundation, which supports nearly 100 humanitarian projects in 30 developing countries. To date, nearly £1.5 million has been invested to support five key areas: child protection, vocational training, economic development assistance, preservation of cultural and natural heritage and safeguarding the lifestyles of indigenous peoples.