From “second cities” and the Alps, to artificial intelligence trip planners and friend getaways, the landscape of tourist trips is changing rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many years the Christmas travel routine was the same, get to a big European capital, do battle in a famous Christmas market, and then go home. But a new look at travel in 2026 reveals an adventurous, digital, and ready to break with tradition kind of tourist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the trends defining Christmas travel this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The travellers to the Christmas markets are more and more turning their backs on the most popular and crowded towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the European Travel Commission, 44% of Europeans now prefer the less popular sites, an increase of 4% since last year; and even a further 10% prefer the most isolated and off-the-beaten-track sites. It is clear that authenticity beats iconicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traveler ratings reflect this trend. In 2026, Romania’s Christmas market in Craiova took first place in Europe, ahead of old-fashioned cities. Riga in Latvia and Debrecen in Hungary also made it into the top five, showing that there is a growing appetite for a merry time in countries that are not yet so heavily visited and that are a bit cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other respects, however, the classics are still popular. A survey of Tripadvisor and Kayak data from 2025 showed London, Amsterdam, Nuremberg, Zagreb, and Strasbourg at the top of the world’s list \u2013 though even there Zagreb’s “magical” December ambience, at more affordable prices, was positioned as a “hidden gem.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A growing number of travelers are choosing to take their chances in the cold rather than seek out the winter sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tripadvisor’s search data for winter 2026 shows a marked preference for winter-holiday getaways, with a desire to exchange their sunbeds for ski boots. The most popular destinations are dominated by Christmas market towns and Alpine locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if Strasbourg, Ghent and Troms\u00f8 topped the list of trending winter destinations, snowy towns like Saariselka in Finland and Chamonix in France vied with them for tourist interest. It was partly for the scenery\u2014snow-covered towns with lights twinkling on the surface\u2014and partly for activities such as aurora-chasing, dog-sledding and skiing, which are now competing with the more prosaic pleasures of shopping at Christmas markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The way people plan their Christmas holidays is changing rapidly, especially among the young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the European Travel Commission (ETC), forty percent of the Europeans who intend to travel in the coming year use some form of artificial intelligence, either for inspiration, research or booking. This proportion rises to fifty-six percent for travelers aged 18 to 34. From itinerary planning to price comparison and translation, artificial intelligence has discreetly become the co-pilot of the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, old-fashioned tools have not disappeared. Online search engines (59%) and travel websites (57%) remain the most widely used digital resources. This shows that the AI tools are not replacing the classic toolbox, but complementing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only where, but why, and how people go about celebrating their festivals, are changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many travelers, especially the younger generations, prefer to celebrate “Friendmas” and travel on Christmas Day itself, rather than follow family obligations. For families, a destination holiday offers the convenience of “neutral ground” and a predictable budget, while removing the burden of cooking and cleaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The common thread is that Christmas is less regarded as a fixed rite and more as an experience to be planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The operational side of holiday travel is shifting too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preliminary figures for the 2025\/26 Christmas holiday season showed a rise in the number of air passengers of 7 per cent, compared to the previous year, exceeding the average annual growth rate, but the final decision to go on a trip was still being made: by the end of 2026, about 55 per cent of prospective European travellers had not yet booked, suggesting that the final decisions were still highly sensitive to prices and special offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2026, Christmas travel is characterized by contrasts: travelers want the magic of a snow-covered Christmas market – but without crowds of tourists; they let AI handle the logistics – and still trust search engines and travel portals; and they are willing to travel over the holidays, but on their own terms, whether it’s a Friendmas in Riga or a trip to chase the northern lights in Troms\u00f8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conclusion for tourist destinations is clear. It is not the most famous Christmas cities that may be the best, but the most genuine, the most authentic, the most accessible, and the places that are most worth braving the cold for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ELENA MAKREE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n FOR MORE SEE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n From “second cities” and the Alps, to artificial intelligence trip planners and friend getaways, the landscape of tourist trips is changing rapidly. For many years the Christmas travel routine was the same, get to a big European capital, do battle in a famous Christmas market, and then go home. But a new look at travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[3351,3353,3348,3350,3349,3347,3356,3354,3357,3355,3346,2390,3352],"class_list":["post-53458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-solo-travel","tag-ai-travel-planning","tag-alternative-christmas-destinations","tag-best-christmas-cities-2026","tag-christmas-market-destinations","tag-christmas-travel-destinations","tag-christmas-travel-trends-2026","tag-cold-weather-escapes","tag-european-christmas-markets","tag-festive-travel-ideas","tag-friendmas-travel","tag-holiday-travel-trends","tag-hoptraveler","tag-winter-travel-trends-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53460,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53458\/revisions\/53460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoptraveler.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
https:\/\/etc-corporate.org\/news\/europeans-seek-city-breaks-and-culture-heritage-trips-as-three-in-four-plan-to-travel-this-autumn-and-winter\/<\/a>
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https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2026\/10\/29\/whats-trending-for-winter-travel-tripadvisor-reveals-its-top-european-destinations-and-exp<\/a>
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https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2026\/10\/11\/europes-best-christmas-markets-to-visit-in-2026-according-to-travellers<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"